Milk cereals for children up to a year: types, recipes and cooking tips

By the age of one, the baby should have time to get acquainted with many dishes of the adult table, including cereals. Their child is recommended to cook for breakfast in order to charge the crumbs with energy for the whole day. When drawing up the diet of a baby who is already 1 year old, preference should be given to milk porridges from various cereals: buckwheat, rice, corn, oat, millet, wheat, semolina. When cooking, they need to be alternated among themselves, giving the crumbs a new dish every day. Recipes of milk porridge for children up to a year are offered in our article. Below we will figure out which one is the most useful and how to cook them correctly.

When to start complementary foods?

Acquaintance of a child with an adult table is a rather lengthy and responsible process. Complementary feeding for infants usually begins at the age of six months, and for artificers, at 4.5 months. First of all, the baby is introduced to mashed potatoes, and if the child has a lack of weight - from cereals. The main signs of readiness for feeding are:

• the child sits confidently in the highchair;
• the first teeth erupted in the crumbs;
• the baby is not full of breast milk or a mixture;
• interest in adult food has appeared;
• he is able to lick liquid food from a spoon and swallow.

It is believed that the best cereals for the first feeding are gluten-free (buckwheat, rice, corn). They are well absorbed by the body and do not cause allergic reactions in the crumbs. The baby can cook milk and dairy-free cereals. The second option is preferable for children suffering from lactase deficiency or infectious diseases of the intestine. Along with this, healthy babies are more likely to eat milk porridge. Over time, they can be served with a variety of fruit or vegetable additives.

Milk porridge rating for children under one year

Each cereal has a unique composition and in its own way is useful for a growing organism. But when introducing a baby into the diet, one should adhere to the recommendations of experts on baby food. It is important to consider everything: in what order to give cereal, in what volume and other nuances.

The sequence of introducing cereal dishes into the diet is as follows:

1. Buckwheat porridge. It has a balanced composition, including vitamins and minerals. Porridge is rich in complex carbohydrates and proteins necessary for gaining muscle mass. Buckwheat does not contain gluten, and a large amount of fiber helps to increase intestinal motility.
2. Rice porrige. This product is ideal for children with unstable stools. The starch-mucous texture of porridge contributes to enveloping the walls of the intestine and activating the enzymes of the gastrointestinal tract. It contains not only vitamins and minerals, but also amino acids.
3. Corn. Like buckwheat and rice, corn milk porridge is ideal for children up to a year old. This product can be introduced into the diet of babies from 7 months.
4. Oatmeal. It contains gluten, which is contraindicated in children who are allergic to this protein. Oatmeal is rich in iodine, iron, and B vitamins. The substances contained in it contribute to the strengthening of the musculoskeletal system. But you can enter this product in the crumbs menu no earlier than 8 months.
5. Wheat porridge. This product helps to strengthen the immunity of the child due to the high content of vitamins and other beneficial substances. Because of gluten, it is introduced into the diet closer to the year.
6. Semolina. This dish comes from childhood today is no longer considered useful. The semolina contains a large amount of gluten. Along with this, this porridge is very popular with children, because it has a pleasant taste and delicate texture.

What is better to cook on your own or buy?

According to the recommendations of the World Health Organization, a special instant porridge is ideal for the first feeding. Baby food manufacturers usually offer a whole range of such products. The main advantage of instant porridge is that it does not need to be cooked for a long time. In addition, it has a uniform consistency, is easily swallowed and completely absorbed by the growing organism.

At the same time, according to reviews, milk porridges for children up to a year from manufacturers of baby food have one big drawback. It consists in the fact that after them the kids are reluctant to switch to cereals for an adult table, because they are used to eating homogenized food.

It is for this reason that most mothers prefer to cook porridge at home. At the same time, they can be sure of the naturalness of the product and that there will be no further problems with the transition to an adult diet.

Recommendations for making porridge for a child

The following tips will help you make the perfect first meal:

1. Measure out the required amount of grits and grind in a coffee grinder. This will make the dish homogeneous and without lumps that young children will definitely not approve of.
2. Porridge for the first feeding is cooked from 5 g of cereal and 100 ml of water. Over time, the consistency of the dish becomes thicker (10 g of cereal per 100 ml of water).
3. Lure should begin with 1 teaspoon of porridge. Gradually, the portion increases to 150 g per day. It is this volume that a six-month-old child should eat. A serving of a one-year-old baby is 200 g.
4. Complementary feeding begins with gluten-free cereals: rice or buckwheat. After the first acquaintance with a new food, the baby is offered breast milk or a mixture.

Buckwheat milk porridge for a child in 1 year

At the stage of acquaintance with a new product, cereals must be preliminarily ground in a coffee grinder. Buckwheat is used only for a high degree of purification, light and high-quality. A teaspoon of ground cereals is poured into a stewpan and filled with 100 ml of hot water. The porridge brought to a boil is cooked on low heat for 15 minutes with constant stirring. If desired, you can add a mixture or breast milk to the finished dish. So porridge is cooked for the first feeding. It must be gluten-free and dairy-free.

As soon as the child is a little older, after 1-2 months he can be offered milk porridge. For children up to a year, it should be prepared from ground cereals. So it is easily absorbed and swallowed.

The one-year-old crumb can be offered porridge from non-ground cereals, but only if he already has enough teeth to chew:

1. Sort half a glass of buckwheat, rinse, pour into a pot with thick walls and pour water (1-1.5 tbsp.).
2. Bring to a boil and drain the liquid, which will get rid of the bitter taste.
3. Pour the cereal again, but with milk in the same ratio, let it boil and simmer for 25 minutes under the lid.
4. Add a piece of butter to the milk porridge. Cool the dish to a temperature of 40 ° and offer it crumbs.

Rice Milk Porridge Recipe

For children with normal stools, the following dish is not recommended to be consumed more than once a week. This is explained by the fact that rice porridge can cause constipation in the baby. Otherwise, such a dish with proper preparation will bring exceptional benefits to the body.

Cook rice milk porridge for a child of 1 year as follows:

1. Pour 200 ml of milk into the pan and bring it to a boil.
2. Rice (1 tbsp.) Rinse thoroughly and add to the pan with milk. A child who has not yet turned 1 year old must first grind the cereals.
3. Boil the porridge over medium heat until cooked for 25 minutes. It is worth noting that rice does not need constant stirring.
4. Add ½ teaspoon of sugar, 5 g butter and pieces of fruit or jam, if desired, to the finished porridge. Cool and feed the baby.

Corn porridge for children

The following dish is ideal for babies who are allergic to gluten. A baby at 1 year old should certainly like corn porridge because it has a pleasant, sweet taste. The only drawback of the dish is the long cooking. Step by step milk porridge is prepared in the following sequence:

1. Grind the grits in a coffee bean mill to a flour condition. In this form, it will boil faster. In total, you need 3 tablespoons of cornmeal. For children over 1 year old, this cooking step can be skipped.
2. Boil 200 ml of water in a saucepan and pour in the cereal. Cook porridge for 20 minutes over low heat.
3. Add 100 ml of milk and put the pan with porridge on the fire again. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover the dishes and continue cooking for another 5 minutes.
4. Remove the dish from the heat, let it brew for 15 minutes, then add the butter.

Oatmeal Recipe for Milk

For a 1-year-old baby, milk porridge is made from non-ground cereal. They boil well enough in any form, as a result of which the dish acquires a pleasant consistency. To make porridge you need:

1. Pour 200 ml of milk into the stewpan and bring it to a boil.
2. Add oatmeal (2 tbsp. L.) While reducing heat.
3. Cook porridge for 7 minutes, not forgetting to stir.
4. Remove the stewpan from the heat, cover it with a lid and leave it on the table for 10 minutes. Before serving, you can add oil and other additives to taste.

Semolina porridge for the first feeding

So that the child likes the next dish, it needs to be cooked without lumps. To do this, you can recommend using the recipe below:

1. Pour cold milk (¾ st.) And water (¼ st.) Into a stewpan with a thick bottom.
2. Top with semolina (3 tsp) and leave to swell for 10 minutes.
3. Stir and put on a slow fire.
4. Add sugar to taste (no more than ¾ tsp.).
5. Constantly stirring to let the porridge boil, then cook it for another 3 minutes.
6. Remove from heat and put oil to taste.

It is not recommended to give semolina milk porridge to children up to a year. But for older kids, it will be very useful.

How is wheat porridge prepared?

Cooking a serving of porridge for a child will be easy:

1. A glass of milk needs to be boiled on a stove.
2. Add a tablespoon of cereal to it, while reducing the heat to a minimum.
3. Cover the pan.
4. Stew porridge over low heat for 40 minutes. At the end of cooking, remove the pan from the stove, and let the dish brew for another 10 minutes.

It should be recalled that milk porridge for children up to a year should be given about a month after meeting with a dairy-free product. At 6 months, a child can try rice and buckwheat, at 7 months - corn, at 8 months - oat, and then you can enter into the diet and all other cereals.