How to cook for a baby. Porridge for a child: do we cook it ourselves or buy ready-made? Rice porridge with pumpkin

The nutrition of babies up to a year is based on the principle of gradual acquaintance of the child with products. Due to the physiological characteristics of the formation of the digestive system, the child first drinks milk, then switches to mashed vegetables and fruits. By about 8 months, the baby is ready to introduce a new dish into the diet - soup. The first course stimulates the production of gastric juice, thereby helping the digestion of second courses, which are heavier due to their consistency.

Soups are an important source of dietary fiber, vitamins and protein. To preserve all the nutrients, it is better to cook the soup at one time, whether it is vegetable or meat.

Rules for making soup for a baby

The stomach of an 8-month-old baby is still weak enough to digest broths. Therefore, the first soups need to be boiled in water. By the end of cooking, the water should remain clear. To achieve this result, it is necessary to drain the first vegetable broth, obtained after 25-30 minutes of cooking, then continue cooking the soup with a new portion of water.

1. Vegetable soup prepared for an 8-12 month old baby should not contain salt. Vegetables and meat already contain enough of it, the baby does not need more.
2. Vegetable soup needs to be boiled, frying vegetables in oil is unacceptable. The carcinogens formed during the frying process will not benefit the baby of 8-12 months.

A little later, from 9-10 months, you can introduce meat soup. You can cook it only on the second broth. The same rule applies to soups with meatballs - separately boil the meat part of the soup, drain the first broth, fill it with clean water and continue to cook, adding vegetables.

Vegetable soup should be the first in the child's diet. You can cook it from 2-3 vegetables - any, except for white cabbage. Cauliflower or broccoli can be a great substitute. For the first soup, potatoes, carrots and onions are perfect.

Puree soups do not need to be made too thick, because this is not a replacement for the second, but a full-fledged first course. You can add cereals and noodles to the soup - purchased or homemade. Babies 9-12 months old will love this delicious and nutritious lunch.

6 basic baby soup recipes

Soup recipes for a baby from 9 to 12 months include the simplest ingredients and are prepared very quickly. Vegetable, meat, dairy - soups for every taste!

Soup with meatballs

This recipe calls for ground beef, but chicken will work too. In it you need to add the onion, previously chopped in a blender. Crumble here the crumb of bread, soaked in boiling water for about 5-7 minutes. Mix thoroughly. Having formed the meatballs, you need to carefully lower them one by one into a pot of boiled water. Then the first water must be drained, after removing the meatballs, pour new water, bring to a boil. While the water is boiling, you need to prepare the vegetables.

We cut carrots and potatoes into small cubes or sticks, put them in water together with meatballs, cook for 15 minutes. The kid will lick his fingers!

Soup puree with rice

For this recipe, cabbage and potatoes need to be washed well and cut. Put the vegetables in a saucepan with boiling water, wait 5-6 minutes, then pour the washed rice into the saucepan. Cook for another 10-12 minutes, remove from the stove. When the soup has cooled slightly, mash it with a fork or chop it with a blender.

This soup is considered one of the most nutritious.

Soup puree with carrots and pumpkin

In the water brought to a boil, you need to put the diced pumpkin and carrots. Cook for 15-20 minutes, let cool slightly, grind with a blender. Add butter to the finished dish. This recipe can be called the most useful. Sweet pumpkin will be to the taste of the baby.

Milk soup with vermicelli

Put vermicelli into boiling water, cook for 5-7 minutes over low heat, add milk, keep on fire for another 5 minutes, stirring constantly. At the end of cooking, add a small piece of butter.

Many kids like this soup more than vegetable soup. Dads will not refuse him either. After all, this is a recipe from childhood.

Potato cream soup with zucchini

Another vegetable recipe. Potatoes and zucchini, peeled, chop. Bring the water to a boil, put the potatoes in the pan first, after 7 minutes add the zucchini there, cook for another 15-17 minutes. After removing from heat, the cooked vegetables need to be cooled and chopped with a blender, add cream to the resulting dish, mix everything gently. Easy and fast recipe!

meat soup

This recipe describes the most delicious soup. To prepare such a dish, you need to cook meat, veal or beef will be the best option, drain the first broth, pour water over the meat again, wait until it is fully cooked, remove from the stove, wait until it cools down. Use a blender to grind meat. Now you need to add vegetables cut into small cubes or cubes - carrots, potatoes, zucchini, Brussels sprouts and leave to cook until tender. Great recipe. No one has ever refused such a delicious treat!

In order for the baby to eat a new dish to the last spoon, it is necessary to make it not only tasty, but also beautiful. Carrots can be cut into thin circles and arranged in the form of suns, cut potatoes and zucchini into small cubes. In the summer you can add greens. With the beauty of the dish will come a great appetite!

When it comes time to introduce porridge into the child’s diet, many mothers ask themselves the question “how to cook porridge for a child?” Because traditional cooking methods are probably not suitable for a child’s body. We will try to find answers to this question.
How and when to introduce porridge to a child?
Porridge is a very useful and necessary product in the baby's diet. This is due to the fact that children's porridge consists of milk and cereals, and, as you know, milk is a source of vitamins, calcium and protein, and cereals are an indispensable source of slow carbohydrates that replenish the baby's energy supply.
Porridge is introduced into the baby's menu, as a rule, as the second product, after vegetable puree at the age of 6-7 months, however, if the child is not gaining weight well and has allergic reactions, then porridge can be introduced earlier.
You need to start introducing porridge, like any new product, with one teaspoon and monitor the reaction. If no reaction followed, then the amount can be increased to 100-150 gr.
Porridge should become a complete breakfast, after which the child should not be supplemented with breast milk or formula.

What kind of porridge to cook for a child?

When choosing what kind of porridge to cook for a child, you need to take into account what effect this or that cereal has on the body.

So, for example, rice envelops the mucous membrane and fixes the stool, while buckwheat and oatmeal, which contain a lot of fiber, on the contrary, weaken. Corn does not have a pronounced effect on intestinal motility. And modern pediatricians do not recommend offering traditional semolina porridge to babies before a year. Semolina binds calcium and also contains too much gluten.
How to cook porridge for a child?
It is very important for the baby to cook porridge correctly. Before cooking, cereals must be sifted and washed. Porridges are crumbly, viscous and liquid. They are cooked in milk, milk mixed with water, and if the child has lactase deficiency, then they are boiled in water for porridge. There are a huge number of porridge recipes, you can add fruits, honey, candied fruits to it.
Also, the cooked porridge is ground with a blender until a homogeneous mass.
How to cook rice porridge for a child
Rinse rice thoroughly, pour into boiling water and cook for 5-8 minutes, then put in a colander or sieve. As soon as the water drains from the rice, transfer it to a saucepan with salted hot milk and, stirring, cook over low heat for about 15 minutes, add sugar, stir, close the lid and put in a water bath for 10-15 minutes.
When serving, put butter on the table.
How to cook buckwheat porridge for a child
It is necessary to take one part of the cereal and pour it with two parts of water or milk. The lid of the pot must be tightly closed during cooking. Until the buckwheat boils, it is boiled over high heat, and then the fire is reduced to a minimum. When cooking buckwheat porridge for children, it is important not to lift the lid of the pan so that steam does not escape. After all, this cereal is cooked with steam, not water. It is advisable to leave the finished porridge under the lid for another five minutes to complete the taste.
How to cook oatmeal for kids
Pour the flakes with cold water, add salt and boil until viscous, constantly removing the foam. Or a more convenient option - do not put on fire, but simply leave it to swell for several hours. Then bring to a boil, add milk. Cook over low heat for 10 minutes, then add sugar and leave covered for 5 minutes.

Soups are the main national feature of Russian cuisine. As a rule, soup is introduced into the baby's diet from the age of 6 months, after the child has tried vegetable purees, compotes and cereals. However, it should be remembered that the soup for a child at one year old is significantly different from the soup that mom and dad are used to eating for lunch.

The first and most important rule for preparing the first soup for children under one year old: the use of meat and fish broths is excluded, the soup must be cooked in water. Secondly, the soup prepared for today's dinner should not be used tomorrow, that is, each time mom will have to cook one serving of soup.

Soup for a six-month-old baby will be similar to the already familiar vegetable puree, only a little more liquid. Potatoes, zucchini, carrots or cauliflower should first be boiled in water until cooked, and then chopped in a blender or mashed well with a fork. Dilute the resulting vegetable puree to a homogeneous mass with vegetable broth (approximately to the consistency of kefir). The first soups for babies should consist of one component.

Older children (from 8 months) can no longer grind vegetables to a puree consistency, but cut them into small pieces, so your child will learn to chew. Unlike the first soups, these dishes can consist of several components (vegetables), and also include meat cooked separately and then chopped in a blender (veal, turkey, chicken).

Meat broth soups can be included in the baby's diet from 10 to 11 months in very small portions (about 30 ml), since meat broth for babies is still too heavy food. Also, closer to the year, you can add a little pasta to soups.

How to cook soup for a child?

1. Soup broth is best to "simmer" over low heat under the lid.
2. Vegetables should be placed in boiling water, taking into account the cooking time of each of the components. So in boiled vegetables more vitamins will remain.
3. You need to salt the soup at the end of cooking.
4. In the preparation of soup for a one-year-old child, you can not use bouillon cubes, hot seasonings and spices, garlic and bay leaves.
5. Freshly prepared soup is best eaten immediately. When reheated, the nutrients in the soup become less.
6. Meat broth for "children's" soup should not be too concentrated. During the cooking process, the water must be drained several times. Also, you should not cook bone soup, it is better to take lean meats (chicken, turkey, veal).

Puree Soup Recipes for Kids:

From zucchini and cauliflower

Zucchini - 50 g, cauliflower - 50 g, water - 200 ml, butter - 5 g

Zucchini and cauliflower cut into small pieces, pour boiling water and cook until tender. Then pour the vegetable broth into a separate container, and chop the vegetables in a blender or rub through a sieve. Dilute the resulting puree with broth. Salt a little to taste and add butter.

From chicken

Chicken meat - 70 g, water - 400 ml, milk - 50 ml, onion - 5 g, flour - 5 g, butter - 5 g

Cook chicken broth with onions from chicken. Mix butter with flour. Grind the meat in a blender or pass through a meat grinder twice. Add butter with flour to the meat, dilute with broth and milk. Bring back to a boil and season with a little salt.

From potatoes

Potatoes - 100 g, water - 200 ml, milk - 100 ml, butter - 5 g

Peel potatoes, finely chop, add water and boil until tender. Then drain the potato broth into a separate bowl. Mash potatoes with a fork or chop in a blender. In the puree, add milk, a little salt and, if necessary, to make the soup more liquid, a little broth. Bring soup to a boil and add butter.

Vegetable soup with meatballs

Minced lean veal - 100 g, potatoes - 1 pc., carrots - ½ pcs., onions - ¼ pcs., raw egg yolk - 1 pc.

Finely chop vegetables and boil in water. Then drain the vegetable broth, and mash the vegetables a little with a fork. Pour the broth over the mashed vegetables.

Add the yolk to the minced meat and make small meatballs. Dip the meatballs into the soup and cook until tender. Season the finished soup with a little salt.

Soup in meat broth with pasta

Low-fat veal, potatoes - 1 pc., Carrots - ½ pcs., Onions - ¼ pcs., Small pasta (asterisks, letters and numbers, cobwebs) - 1 tbsp. a spoon.

Boil the meat broth, pull out the meat, chop in a blender or pass through a meat grinder. In the same broth, cook finely chopped vegetables. When the vegetables are ready, transfer them to a separate bowl and lightly mash with a fork. Pour vegetables and meat with broth, bring to a boil, add pasta 3-5 minutes before readiness. Salt the soup a little.

Bon appetit to your baby!

Vegetable and fruit puree is often the first meal of the baby after breast milk or formula, so many mothers prefer to cook it on their own. Although modern manufacturers convince us that baby food is devoid of preservatives and harmful additives, fresh vegetables and fruits are much healthier, especially when it comes to infant nutrition. Yes, and cooking baby puree at home is not so difficult.

Vegetables or fruits?

Let's try to cook for our beloved baby. Despite the fact that pediatricians of the last century recommended starting complementary foods with fruits, it is better to first introduce the child to vegetables - modern doctors and nutritionists have come to this conclusion. Boiled vegetables do not irritate the gastrointestinal tract, are better absorbed, satisfy hunger, do not cause allergies and increased gas formation. In addition, vegetables do not contain fructose, which irritates the pancreas. And one more weighty argument in favor of the fact that it is better to start with vegetables - fruits are tastier, and if the baby tries them first, he will refuse vegetables, because they will seem to him more insipid.

How to make baby vegetable puree

What can you make baby puree from? The ideal puree for the first feeding is from cauliflower or zucchini. A little later, you can introduce pumpkin, broccoli, carrots, potatoes and green peas. Before cooking, vegetables are washed well, peeled, cut into pieces and cooked - steamed, in the oven or in the usual way, in water. The first two methods are preferable because baking and steaming preserves the vitamins, minerals, nutrients, and natural color in the vegetables. And most importantly - such vegetables are much tastier. Some nutritionists recommend boiling vegetables with their skins on before peeling them, so choose your own cooking method.

If you still had to cook vegetables in a saucepan, use enamelware, add less water and lower the vegetables into boiling water. Boil until soft, but do not overcook vegetables and fruits, otherwise they will become tasteless and lose a lot of vitamins. Ready vegetables are chopped with a blender until smooth and slightly diluted with water, vegetable broth, breast milk or mixture to a gruel state, since the child does not yet know how to digest thick food. Small pieces of vegetables in puree sometimes cause the baby to refuse to eat, so the knives in the blender should be well sharpened, and if there is no technique, you can grind the vegetables through a sieve. Salt and spices are usually not added to baby vegetable puree, and if the baby is more than 6 months old, you can put a little butter in the puree.

A few rules for making baby puree at home

• Use only fresh vegetables and fruits.
• Water for cooking vegetables should be filtered or bottled.
• If you are using frozen foods, choose only whole fruits and vegetables as they retain the most nutrients.
• All utensils for preparing baby food should be perfectly clean, so if the knife falls on the floor, you should wash it well. Also, the presence of pets in the kitchen during the cooking process is not allowed.
• Do not use vegetables and fruits with a high content of nitrates in the diet of infants - spinach, lettuce, beets, melons and watermelons.
• Store-bought vegetables are recommended to be soaked in water to remove nitrates: this takes 1-2 hours, for potatoes - up to 24 hours.
• Fruits and berries with a sour taste mix with sweet fruits - for example, blackcurrant goes well with a banana or pear. Sour puree is unlikely to please the baby.
• Give your child only fresh food, and it is better to eat yesterday's mashed potatoes from the refrigerator yourself.

Handmade fruit puree for children

Children are more likely to eat fruit puree because fruits are tastier and sweeter. Fruits contain a large amount of vitamins, minerals, trace elements, fiber and antioxidants, so they are very useful for a growing organism. However, fruits are strong allergens, especially berries, bananas, pomegranates and apricots, so they should be given with caution, watching the child's reaction. The most low-allergenic fruits are apples and pears, so it is better to start complementary foods with them, and then introduce all other fruits. First, the baby is fed with a one-component puree made from only one product, and then you can mix different vegetables and fruits, and not only among themselves. Very tasty combinations of fruits and vegetables, such as apples and zucchini, pumpkins and pears.

Fruits must be of high quality, without damage, ripe and juicy, and the rules for preparing fruits do not differ from the rules for cooking vegetables. Naturally, fruit puree is not sweetened with honey and sugar - the later the child learns the taste of sugar, the stronger his health will be.

Aromatic pumpkin puree

Kids are happy to eat because of its pleasant sweetish taste, besides, pumpkin is very healthy. It contains a whole storehouse of various vitamins, including vitamin T, which normalizes the metabolism in the body. For pumpkin puree, small pumpkins are suitable, since large fruits are not as tasty and difficult to peel.

Cut the pumpkin in half, and then into small slices, one or two of which (depending on the appetite of the crumbs) chop into cubes. Boil the pumpkin in a double boiler or in water for 20 minutes, while warm, beat with a blender to a smooth puree and dilute if necessary with water or a mixture. Add oil and salt depending on the age of the child.

Soft broccoli puree

One of the most favorite homemade baby puree recipes is broccoli. This cabbage is extremely useful because it contains potassium, iron, calcium and other valuable substances. It has much more vitamin C than lemon, and the reasons for its nutritional value are its high protein content.

Separate the broccoli into florets, wash them thoroughly and steam them for 20 minutes. Cabbage cooks faster in water - fresh broccoli will take 7 minutes, and frozen - about 15 minutes. Broccoli puree does not need much water, it should lightly coat the vegetables. After the cabbage becomes soft, chop it in a blender or pass through a sieve. If you are making puree for children older than a year, be sure to add butter - the kids will gobble up broccoli on both cheeks!

How to make baby pear puree at home

Pear is a very delicate, tasty and healthy fruit, which rarely causes intolerance. In addition to the high vitamin value, the pear has other beneficial properties - it facilitates digestion and removes toxins from the body.

For baby food, choose green pears to reduce the risk of allergies, which, although rare, are found among babies. Peel the fruits from the peel and core with seeds, and then stew the pear in a bowl with a thick bottom in a small amount of water for 15 minutes. Let the pear cool slightly and puree it in a blender with a little of the remaining pear broth. For large kids, fruits can not be boiled, but add half a teaspoon of natural honey to the puree.

Zucchini and apple puree

This delicious puree will appeal to little gourmets, besides, zucchini are considered the most hypoallergenic vegetables, which, due to their high potassium content, have a beneficial effect on the heart. Apples contain iodine, iron and phosphorus, and due to the high concentration of vitamin C, apples help in the prevention of colds and viral infections.

Wash the zucchini and apples well, de-seed them, cut into pieces and cook in a saucepan for about 20 minutes, considering that zucchini cooks 5 minutes faster. By the way, apples are steamed for 15 minutes, zucchini - 10 minutes. Next, vegetables and fruits are chopped in a blender, mixed and brought to a boil. For allergic children, this is the best side dish!

exotic mango

Sometimes you can pamper your baby with exotic fruits - for example, make mango puree. This is a very delicate fruit with an original taste, containing 12 amino acids and improving sleep.

Choose only ripe fruits - soft and with a red-yellow color. Peel the mango from a thick skin and a large bone, put the pulp in a blender, add 2 tbsp. l. water and mash it, and then heat it in a saucepan for several minutes. For a baby up to a year old, it is better to give mashed potatoes with heat treatment to facilitate digestion, and older children can be fed raw mangoes.

Carrot and potato puree

Make regular mashed potatoes without oil. Peel the carrots, grate them and stew them with butter and vegetable broth - about 1 tsp is required for 200 g of carrots. butter and 150 g of broth. When the carrot becomes very soft, wipe it through a sieve, and then put it on a plate, put mashed potatoes on the second half. Let the child choose whether to mix two types of puree for him or eat separately!

Pumpkin and apple puree

This sugar-free sweet pumpkin-apple puree, cooked in a double boiler, is suitable for children who are already accustomed to "adult" food and are able to perceive a new unusual dish. It is better to take a pumpkin with a gray or green skin and with bright pulp - such fruits contain more vitamins and other useful substances. Apples are green because they have fewer allergens.

Cut into pieces the pulp of pumpkin and apples without peel and seeds, put in a double boiler and cook for 20 minutes. Grind pumpkin, apples and raisins in a blender or by hand with a pusher if the child has already learned to chew. They say that this puree is very good for skin and hair, and you can check the truth of this statement yourself if you start feeding your baby with this dish.

In autumn, you can take care of harvesting vegetables for baby purees. Some vegetables, such as pumpkin, carrots and apples, are stored fresh, and zucchini, broccoli, berries are frozen in small portions, because due to frequent freezing and thawing, vegetables lose vitamins and become tasteless. You can roll up fruit and vegetable puree in jars, but this snack should not be given to babies. Remember that the taste of vegetables determines whether the baby will love them in the future, so try to prepare an appetizing and tender puree - for health and good mood!

Do you know that buckwheat is poured with cold water, semolina is boiled for 3 minutes, barley - 6 hours? And if you still combine porridge with fruits, nuts, candied fruits, then you can’t drag your child by the ears from the plate

Alas, few modern mothers cook porridge for their children - it is much faster to make a sandwich with sausage, warm up sausages or pour a “dry breakfast”. But it is oatmeal, buckwheat or semolina (at any time of the day, but especially in the morning) that a child needs for full development - they are easily digested, do not spoil the stomach, do not supply the young body with harmful fats and at the same time provide B and E vitamins, trace elements ( potassium, phosphorus, iron) and vegetable protein. If porridge is cooked with the addition of milk, it also strengthens the growing body with calcium and milk proteins. That's just to cook it according to the age of the child. For a 4-6 month old baby, the porridge should be a smooth liquid mixture that should not be chewed. A baby from one to three years old can be offered a thicker consistency, but consisting mainly of flakes. And only then the child is allowed to eat "adult" porridge from whole grains.

Gluten and milk free

If your child has a tendency to allergies, problems can arise even because of porridge - both cereals and milk can provoke it. For example, in oatmeal, semolina, millet, pearl barley and barley there is gluten - a mixture of vegetable proteins that is poorly digested in the body of infants. Therefore, up to two years old, it is better to feed a child with gluten-free cereals - rice, buckwheat or corn. However, over time, this problem usually goes away and another appears - from 3 to 10 years, the activity of lactase, an enzyme for processing milk sugar, decreases. As a result, approximately every third Russian schoolchild has an intolerance to the cow product - from the porridge cooked on it, the children's stomach swells and hurts, and the stool worsens. If your child has similar disorders, cook a dish with water, vegetable broth (this was usually recommended by Soviet pediatricians) or add lactase-free milk - it is now on sale, however, it costs more than usual (about 100 rubles per 1 liter).

Sugar at the beginning, honey at the end

Having decided to cook porridge, first wash the cereal (except for buckwheat, oatmeal and semolina). Rice, millet and pearl barley are first washed with warm (up to 40º C), and then with hot water. The first removes starch and dirt from the surface of the grain, the second - the fat that appears during storage, and steams the cereal. Then all kinds of cereals (except buckwheat) are placed in boiling water. If you want to cook a dish with milk, it is better to bring it to half-cooked, drain the liquid and add the same amount of cow product. For the last 5 minutes, the porridge is boiled over low heat (except for semolina, which takes only 1-3 minutes), so that it has time to swell. Put sugar at the very beginning, but do not abuse it and in general it is better to replace it with a spoonful of honey, which you put in the final cooking. And do not be lazy to experiment with additives (if the child is not allergic to them). To make porridge more interesting, boil it with raisins, sprinkle with nuts, fresh strawberries, candied fruits, seeds, serve with cherry jam. And remember: a child's taste buds are tuned much finer than yours. He will easily feel the slightest deviation in taste - if the porridge is a little burnt or undercooked, oversalted or oversweetened, he will simply refuse to eat it.

Do not mix buckwheat

Buckwheat porridge is considered the most useful for a child. It is rich in vitamins and minerals (calcium, phosphorus, magnesium and especially iron) and improves the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract. If you cook buckwheat according to the rules, it will retain all the beneficial properties and turn out to be tasty and fragrant. First, pour the cereal into cold water (in a ratio of 1 to 2) and bring it to a boil. Then reduce the heat, close the lid and cook until all the liquid has evaporated. If you do not stir the porridge during cooking and do not add water to it, you will get a crumbly dish, 100 g of which contains 163 kcal (equal to 1/2 of a bun, but how much good!). Having made buckwheat in advance, you can always pour it with hot milk in the morning (these products are ideally combined), and in the evening add salt, add fried onions, butter, meat or chicken - and you will have a healthy dinner.

Cereal oatmeal

If your child eats oatmeal, this is great, because this porridge contains a lot of minerals and vitamins. For adults it is better to cook it from whole grains, and for children it is advisable to boil the flakes - they are easier to chew and they are better digested. There are no special cooking secrets here - pour 1 cup of chopped cereals with three cups of boiling water and cook for 15 minutes. If the child does not have lactase deficiency, you can cook with milk, however, in this case, the dish will turn out to be a little more high-calorie - 105 kcal against 83 kcal. Since oatmeal is not a very bright product, be sure to add sugar and salt, butter (these are B vitamins!) and various fillers - berries, fruits, nuts to give it taste and aroma.

Rice with apple

Rice porridge closes the top three most useful cereals and is a good "energy" feed for a child - an average of 80-90 kcal per 100 g of food. However, it contains few vegetable proteins, moreover, rice is relatively poor in minerals and vitamins. But because of the low fiber content, it is easily digested and well absorbed. Loose rice is usually prepared for a side dish, and viscous porridge for breakfast: when the cereal is a little boiled, drain the excess water, and instead add milk (1 glass of cereal, 2 glasses of water, of which 1 is drained, and 1 glass of milk). This dish contains about 100 kcal. Since rice is neutral in taste, it goes well with any food. By the way, children usually really like porridge with raisins and prunes. A tasty and healthy dish is also obtained with a raw apple - the fruit is grated and added to porridge immediately before eating. What is important, such combinations reduce the fixing properties of rice.

Don't get carried away with mango

Compared to other cereals, semolina (made from wheat) has much fewer nutrients. In addition, it contributes to the formation of rickets in young children, so doctors recommend introducing it into the diet only after 1 year, or even later and in limited quantities. And it is also the most high-calorie porridge - 180-200 kcal. But how delicious it can be! In order for the semolina to turn out without lumps, the cereal should be poured into boiling milk (ratio 3 to 1) in a thin stream or through a sieve and constantly stirred until the end of cooking - 2-3 minutes. Then close it with a lid, let it brew for 10-15 minutes and add butter, sugar and dried fruits to taste. In the porridge prepared in this way, vitamins and nutrients are preserved as much as possible, which are already few in this cereal. In addition, she will not have a milk film hated by children.

Boil barley for a long time

There are few vitamins in pearl barley, and only potassium, phosphorus and iron are present in limited quantities from microelements. But occasionally it is still worth doing, especially during the illness of the child - with the help of porridge, he will be able to quickly restore his strength. Since cereals do not boil well in milk, they are first soaked overnight or cooked in large amounts of water. Then the liquid is drained and milk is added instead - 1 cup of cereal for 8 cups of liquid. It is necessary to cook porridge for a very long time (ideally - 6 hours in a water bath), otherwise a real revolution will occur in your child's stomach. No wonder soldiers who regularly eat undercooked barley call it shrapnel.

Useful mix

It's good when mom mixes different cereals - in such a dish the beneficial properties of grains are combined, and a new taste is obtained. By the way, the most famous porridge-mix recipe was invented by A. V. Suvorov, when, during a difficult transition through the Alps, he was informed that the soldiers were suffering from malnutrition and freezing from the cold. He ordered to collect all the few food supplies (barley, millet, peas and a little bit of vegetables) and boil them in a common cauldron. As a result, the army received a nutritious porridge, which they called "Suvorov". Tell your child this story, perhaps he will also want to become a real warrior and start eating porridge. Or offer him more familiar combinations of cereals - for example, millet and buckwheat are excellent friends, as well as buckwheat, rice and oatmeal.

Expert opinion

Ekaterina Shevchenko, pediatrician

Recently, many mothers think that they have found a way out - quick cereals from sachets. I can disappoint them - these dishes are not suitable for baby food. They use very small flakes, which contain almost no nutrients, but are full of flavors, sweeteners and other additives that can cause allergies in children of any age. A little better than porridge with pieces of dried fruit - however, often the harm from preservatives and additives can exceed the usefulness of natural fillers.

How to get a child to eat porridge

1. Be patient. If the child categorically refuses one porridge, prepare another one for him. "Play" with the consistency and additives. But do not push the dish by force, otherwise the child will have a strong aversion to cereals.

2. Cook varied, tasty and beautiful. Spread flowers or funny faces made of fruits and nuts on porridge - this will interest the baby. For an older child, use more supplements.

3. Eat cereal yourself. When mom makes tiramisu, dad makes bacon and eggs, and the child is forced to eat porridge, he is unlikely to be satisfied.

4. Buy your child "your" dishes.

It is always more pleasant to eat from your own beautiful plate, and the food seems to be tastier.

5. Tell interesting stories about cereals. For example, the fact that the Russian princes, as a sign of reconciliation, cooked porridge, without which the peace treaty was considered invalid. That is why they say about intractable people: "You can't cook porridge with him."

Millet porridge contains few nutrients and vitamins, but for a change it can sometimes be cooked (130-140 kcal). They cook it, like pearl barley, first in water, and then in milk over low heat (1 cup of cereal for 2 cups of milk). Millet can be served with dried apricots and bananas, as well as with egg and pumpkin.