Rice as a first food for babies
By Christina Hills, Paediatric Dietitian, and Starting Solids Expert.
Can babies eat rice?
With all the packets of baby rice lining the super market shelves in the baby food section of the supermarket, you’d think that babies couldn’t have normal rice
However, this is not the case
Babies can and do eat rice, from around 6 months of age
There is also a lot of misinformation online and on social media around babies not being able to digest starches. Babies can digest starch, the enzymes required to digest starch begin to work in the mouth via the action of salivary amylase!
Digestive enzymes begin to increase in numbers and variety around the time babies start solids in order to support the expanding diet - moving from one of just breastmilk or formula to one of solid food…
So, how should I offer rice to my baby?
If you are spoon feeding - you can mix a little sauce or some yoghurt through some cooked rice.
Try making a rice pudding with cooked rice and coconut yoghurt or Greek Yoghurt stirred through, with some mashed banana and a little smooth nut butter
Another idea is cooking a meal for the whole family like a mild curry with rice - then blending the curry until smooth and stirring through some rice and offering this to baby
What about baby-led weaning?
It can be a bit tricky for babies to handle the texture of rice they’re just starting out. Those tiny grains are a challenging texture for little fingers to pick up and hold. As the pincer grasp develops closer to 9 months of age or so you’ll find your baby much more able to manage whole rice on its own.
You can also try over-cooking rice a little and clumping the rice together with your hands and making little patties for little hands to grab
When you’re ready to introduce rice to your baby, try these tips:
⚡️Rice can be mixed with yoghurt, or a jazzy sauce like curry or a tomato sauce, or stirred through a veggie puree
⚡️Cooked rice can be shaped into rice balls or patties and roasted/fried, or try baby arancini balls!
What type of rice is best?
⚡️Basmati is a good texture for self-feeding as it sticks together when slightly overcooked
⚡️Sticky white rice like jasmine or sushi rice may also be good to try earlier on when babies are self-feeding
⚡️Brown rice is firmer in texture and probably not as easy to manage initially, however it’s more nutritious as it hasn’t had the nutritious bran and germ layers removed! Brown rice contains more fibre, healthy fats, magnesium and B vitamins, it also contains more iron and zinc than standard white rice