The best way to limit exposure to arsenic in rice is to rinse all rice well, avoid rice syrup sweeteners and more importantly, don’t offer babies rice cereal as a staple in their diets. Commercial rice cereals tested high across all brands; the arsenic levels were 10 times higher than the limit allowed in drinking water. For more than a century now, rice cereal or some form of creamy rice, has been recommended as the ideal first food for a baby. Two of the reasons that this recommendation endures is because rice is at the bottom of the allergy list and it is relatively easy for a baby to digest. Another reason for the time honored recommendation is that commercial rice cereal is fortified with vitamins and minerals such as iron.
For several years now, there has been a movement away from “baby rice” (that bland wallpaper paste) as baby’s first food experience. Dr. Alan Greene, renowned pediatrician and author even started a movement called “White Out Now“. His campaign is beautiful in its simplicity; ditch the pasty boxed stuff and offer babies only whole grains. How wonderful to know that within baby’s first food” movement there is an army of pediatricians advocating skipping the boxed white rice cereal and instead choosing whole grains and even other more nutrient dense foods.
As noted by Dr. Frank Greer, a member of the [AAP] American Academy of Pediatrics’s Committee on Nutrition, in an AAP paper published in November of 2009, “There is no good reason not to introduce meats, vegetables, and fruits as the first complementary foods.” According to Dr. Greer, “Rice cereal is a less than perfect choice for the first complementary food given to infants. Rice cereal is low in protein and high in carbohydrates.”
Make your baby homemade cereals using whole grains and seeds. You can try quinoa, oatmeal, barley, millet, kamut, buckwheat and pasta (pastina for babies is a great cereal alternative to rice). Find out more about grains that are good for baby by going to Wholesome Baby Food and clicking on GRAINS in the top navigation.
And reminder, rice cereal does not have to be baby’s first solid food. With your pediatrician’s ok, your baby should be able to enjoy avocado, banana, sweet potato or even butternut squash as a delicious first food alternative.
