If you’re a mom of an infant, you probably feed that infant rice cereal at least once a day if not three times a day (like a lot of moms do when their babies start solid foods). Well according to studies that were reported this morning on the today show, there are “WORRISOME” levels of arsenic in rice foods. That includes foods for adults too. However I don’t think it’s as alarming for adults because we don’t eat rice once a day (at least I don’t know anyone that eats rice that much) much less three times a day….but our babies do!!!
I plan to talk to my pediatrician about it to get his thoughts, but in the meantime, I will not feed Carter the Gerber Single Grain Rice Cereal. Lately we’ve been feeding him the Gerber Oatmeal and I looked at the ingredients this morning and didn’t see any rice flour as an ingredient. But if someone knows anything else about the oatmeal, definitely let me know. Arsenic has always been found in foods and water but there are FDA regulations for the amount that can be in foods and water for it to be on the market. There are NO regulations for rice, however. I copied the video from the today show segment and put it below. Watch for yourselves and do what you want for your household. I just wanted to make sure to spread the word and ensure that people are aware of the issue!
Special thanks to my sister, Lindsey, for the heads up on this topic!
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8 comments:
Interesting... thanks for sharing. We are mainly doing Baby Led Weaning so Alidia only eats rice cereal once or twice a week. Dominicans on the other hand do eat rice at least once a day!! :/ I don't though but still a few times a week because it is so common here.
You can make your own oatmeal cereal by just grinding old fashioned oats in your food processor. That's a good way to know exactly what Carter is getting. That is a scary report!
Annie - this was kind of an eye opener for me and made me realize that I probably should have been making Carter's food from the beginning, but I'm looking into getting the baby bullet and starting to make his food from now on. I ordered a baby puree cook book to see what all recipes I can make for him. My only concern so far is the storage...appears the baby bullet storage containers are only for 2 oz. of food and Carter is on stage 2 foods which is 3 1/2 oz. so I'm trying to figure out how I can store it.
A super easy way to store baby food is to freeze it in ice cube trays. Once they are frozen, pop them out and keep them in a freezer ziplock. Then you can get as much or as little as you want. It's nice because you can spend an afternoon making a ton, and then you just grab what you need and either set it out in the morning to defrost, or just pop it in the microwave for a few seconds.
I just give Hayes organic Bob's Red Mill oatmeal. I just cook it a little runny. He has been eating that for about 4 months now. It is much cheaper than any of the powered baby food cereal. I think this also helped him get used to texture easier.
I do the oatmeal, but I've considered making my own "porridge" as described in the Super Baby Food book. I never gave it to Leland 3 times a day, because it made him constipated (all the iron), so I just did once a day, sometimes twice. But it's still good to know that info.
Also, I make Leland's food. I bought a cheap baby food processor from Target (it was like $30). I make all of his food on the weekends and freeze it in ice cube trays, then store in freezer bags. I take it out the night before I plan to feed it to him. He usually has 2 cubes of fruit with his oatmeal (so he's really not eating much oatmeal). Then he has 2 cubes of veg and 2 cubes of fruit for lunch. And for dinner and snacks, we're practicing with finger foods (toast, diced fruit, etc.).
@Annie and Renee - so glad y'all told me that. I was wondering how the baby bullet would work since the trays are only 2oz and Carter eats 3 1/2 oz when he eats solid foods. I'll try the freezer bag trick :)
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