Milk-cereal porridge for your baby

After you have introduced the vegetable-potato-meat-porridge to your baby and it has gotten used to it, it is time for the second porridge of complementary food between the 6th and 8th month. The Research Institute for Child Nutrition in Dortmund (FKE) recommends a milk-cereal porridge for this. This not only provides your baby with protein and calcium, which are important for bone growth, but should also help to replenish the depleted iron stores.

If you would like to prepare the milk-cereal porridge for your baby yourself, we have put together some delicious recipes for you here. As a rule, you can easily replace both the grain and the fruit component with other variants.

Recipes for milk porridge with cereals

• Millet porridge with breast milk and peach
• Semolina porridge with pear
• Wheat semolina with honeydew melon
• Milk oat porridge with apple
• Banana Peanut Mash
• Milk millet porridge with dates
• Spelled semolina porridge
• Sweet quinoa porridge
• Oatmeal corn vegetable porridge with milk

What is the composition of the milk-cereal porridge?

Regardless of whether you buy the milk-cereal porridge ready-made, in a jar or powder, or prepare it yourself, you should make sure that it consists of no more than three ingredients:

• Milk: Milk should be the main ingredient of the milk-cereal porridge. If you prepare the porridge yourself, you can decide whether you prepare the porridge with cow’s milk, breast milk or baby milk. At the beginning, it is certainly advisable to prepare it with breast or baby milk, as this way your baby’s immune system will continue to be supported when it comes into contact with cereals for the first time. If you decide to prepare it with cow’s milk, make sure you only use whole milk (3.5% fat), as semi-skimmed or skimmed milk does not provide enough energy and calories. It is also very important when using cow’s milk to first test whether your child tolerates it and only then add the next ingredient.
• Grain: The grain in the milk-cereal porridge is the ingredient that thickens the porridge. Grain is also a good source of iron. Many parents choose oatmeal when preparing their first porridge because it is available almost everywhere and is also inexpensive. But wheat semolina or cereal flakes made from rice, corn, spelled or millet are also suitable. With all products, make sure that you choose the whole grain variant, as this has the highest nutrient quality. In principle, the use of one type of grain is sufficient to provide your baby with important nutrients, but multi-grain porridges are of course also conceivable. In this case, however, it is very important that you have introduced all the varieties used individually in advance and that your baby has not shown any noticeable reactions.
• Fruit: The third ingredient for the milk-cereal porridge is fruit. In which form you add this depends primarily on the taste of your child. Some babies like fruit in puree form, while others prefer to stir some fruit juice into the porridge. In addition to supplying vital vitamins, the vitamin C contained in many types of fruit also facilitates the absorption and utilization of the iron contained in grain. The same applies here: only introduce the new ingredient when your baby has become accustomed to the previous one.

Since the simultaneous intake of milk makes it more difficult to utilize iron from plant-based foods, the milk -free cereal-fruit porridge is introduced from around the 8th month to optimize the supply of iron.

Avoid additional dairy products

You should refrain from feeding your child other dairy products in addition to milk meals and cereal-milk porridge in the first year of life. Because the protein content in yoghurt, quark and co. is usually much higher than in milk itself. However, too much protein can put a strain on your baby’s kidneys.

Particular attention should be paid to ready-made milk-cereal porridge

If you buy milk-cereal porridge in a jar or as a ready-made powder that only needs to be mixed with water, you should pay particular attention to the list of ingredients. Many milk porridges contain flavorings or types of sugar. However, these are completely superfluous as they have no added nutritional value for your child. However, they will get your child used to the sweet taste at an early age, which often leads to problems later on in the diet. Therefore, study the ingredients specified on the package very carefully and, if possible, avoid products that have other ingredients in addition to the basic ingredients.

Tip: The higher up an ingredient is on the list of ingredients, the more of it is included.

Addition of iodine to milk-cereal porridge recommended

The FKE recommends a daily intake of 80 micrograms of iodine for babies between the ages of four and twelve months, as this nutrient cannot be adequately covered through normal nutrition. If you do not want to give your baby the iodine in tablet form, you can also add the nutrient to the milk-cereal porridge. Many finished products already contain potassium iodide or potassium iodate. When buying jars or ready-made powders, it is therefore worth paying attention to this additive.