After your baby has stopped breastfeeding, you need to look for the best solid food for your child. Since ages parents gave their children white baby rice cereals because they digest faster, they are rich in iron, and also it has some flavor. But, nowadays, pediatricians and dieticians are advising parents to stop using rice cereal and give their children meat, tofu and beans instead. The moment your baby starts eating solids, they have to eat iron-rich food since the iron they are born with starts to end by the time they are six months. Your baby needs eleven milligrams of iron to help their brain health and red blood cell production. 

Parents should avoid rice cereal because it has arsenic, which is a chemical that rice gets from the soil it’s growing from. Too much rice can cause health issues for your baby. There are alternatives to rice cereals which are more nutritious, and they are ;

  1. Red meat 

When preparing meat for your child, you should make sure it is soft enough to chew, since babies don’t have teeth. You could also opt for ground beef because it is already in tiny pieces that your child could easily digest. You could also add a bit of breastmilk to the meat so that your child could digest the meat easily. Once they start growing teeth, you could give them strips of meat instead. 

  1. Dark poultry 

The parts that have more iron in them are drumsticks and breasts. You could cut these parts into tiny cubes and cook them, then leave them for your child to pick up and eat. If your child finds it hard to chew, you could decide to make soup out of these parts. 

  1. Egg yolks 

First things first, you should know what your child likes; some like scrambled eggs and some like boiled yolks; if they don’t, you could add breastmilk and mash the yolk and give it to your baby. The egg is great because it has non-heme iron, and you also serve the egg with vegetables for more vitamins and more colorful dish. 

  1. Oats 

Oats have 3.4 mg of iron per cup, and they are easy to cook. You could add milk to smoothen it out. When your baby is a toddler, rolled out gluten-free organic oats are the best because they take some time to digest. You could also mix the oats with fruits for added flavor. When you add fruits, your child will find the oats more tasty, and they will love them even more. 

Conclusion 

When you have a child, you need to make sure they get the right nutrients to grow up looking healthy and strong. In case you are a new mum or dad, you could ask your doctor on the best food your baby can eat for them to become healthy. Avoid rice cereal and start adding the above food in your child’s diet to avoid them from getting sicknesses.