Homemade Baby Cereal With Only 2 Ingredients
Make Your Own Baby Cereal.
Well… it’s happening. Though I keep telling him not to, my baby is growing. The time has come for him to begin eating baby cereal. I went to the store, as I did with my other two when they were babies, picked up a pack of the $5 baby cereal and groaned.
I knew the cereal would last only 1 week. A $5 box of baby cereal would add a minimum of $20 a month to my grocery bill!
I make my own fruits and veggies – but what is it about baby cereal that makes it so expensive? Is there any way I could do it myself and save money? A bit of research confirmed that yes, yes I can make homemade baby cereal!
I found the original recipe for homemade baby cereal on Momtastic. The only issue with that recipe is that it requires about 10 minutes every single time you make it.
Through my own experimenting, I found you can make a large batch of this baby cereal and freeze it in ice cube trays – a big time saver!
If you’re like me, you won’t believe how simple this baby food is to make (and it’s inexpensive, too!).
Ingredients
- Whole Grain Oats (Any kind – rolled or steel cut)
- Water
Instructions
Put your oats in a food processor, blender or magic bullet and blend into an “oat powder” – this powder can be kept in the fridge for 6 months.
Bring 2 cups of water to a boil in a small saucepan.
Whisk in 1/2 cup of the oat powder.
Whisk constantly for 10 minutes
Pour mixture into ice cube trays and freeze.
Once frozen, these can be stored in a zip-top bag in the freezer.
To use your homemade oatmeal, thaw in the fridge overnight (or in the microwave ). It thaws a bit pasty/glue-ish, but just add breast milk or formula and whisk until smooth.
Note: You can do this with any grain – long grain brown rice, barley, etc.
One package of rolled oats can cost $5 or less and will last you months. This recipe is also very pure and simple, as baby food should be!
Note: Homemade baby cereal is not iron fortified, and most doctors recommend adding iron to a baby’s diet by 6 months of age. You may wish to speak with your doctor about adding iron drops to your cereal.
Do you make homemade baby cereal?
Comments
you need to be carfule one of the main reasons we start to feed babies infant cereal and solids is that they are needing more iron and other supplements that are in the cereal they they can get from just a bottle or moms milk!
Yes, thank you. This information is at the bottom of the post. Adding iron drops to the homemade cereal is certainly an option.
I agree. And formula or breast milk exclusively up to age 6 months, according to the World Health Organization
http://www.who.int/features/qa/21/en/
You don’t need to cook the cereal if you soak it for long enough. Just put the oat “flour” and milk in a sealable container overnight and you’ll have it ready the next day.
How long is this good for in the freezer?
What measurement of oats do you use for 2 cups of water?
can the rice cereal be added to bottles for babies about 21/2 months old? My daughter just went back to work and is having trouble keeping up her supply. Was thinking of adding a teaspoon to the bottle so he stays full longer and she can try to catch up on her supply.
Jennifer-
Babies that age are not ready for cereal. Their bodies are not ready for anything other than breast milk or formula.
See if your daughter can sneak in an extra pump session either while at work or during the night, just one extra session could increase her supply. There are supplements she could take that could also help her out. And a lot of the time you feel like your supply is low when you’ve really just balanced out. I remember feeling like that when both of my babies were around 3 months.
How long can you keep the cooked oatmeal in the fridge?
I started all 3 of my kids on a very thin cereal when they were 2 months. Generally this was right before bedtime and they did just fine it also help them sleep through most of the night. As time went on I just made the cereal thicker until they ate it off a spoon. And my kids have done this with their own kids.