Video:Homemade Baby Food: Cereal

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Transcript:Homemade Baby Food: Cereal

Hi, I'm Rachel Edelman for About.com Food. Today I'm going to show you how to make homemade whole grain baby cereal.

When to Serve Solid Baby Food

Babies between 4 and 6 months old are ready to start integrating solid food into their diet. I'll be talking about how to prepare it and store it. Remember, always check in with your pediatrician before making any changes to your baby's diet.

Baby Food Prep

When making baby food, be sure to wash your hands and use clean equipment and tools.

Baby Food Best Bets

Brown rice, oatmeal, or barley have the least amount of allergens and can be made into cereal for babies.

Prepping your Grains

First grind up the grains you'll be using for the cereal. I'll make rice cereal today. Use short grained brown rice and grind it into a powder using a blender, food processor or even a clean coffee grinder. Follow the same steps for oatmeal or for barley.

It'll take a few minutes for all of the rice to grind down into the powder. I'm using a sieve to make sure to only the powdered grains get into the mix. If you don't have a sieve, keep using your blender until all of the grains are in powder form.

Baby Cereal Storage

Store your powdered grains in an air tight container, in a cool dry place.

Making Baby Cereal

Put 3/4 of a cup of water into a saucepan. Once the water is boiling, add one 2/4 of a cup of rice powder. Use a whisk to mix it together. Simmer for about 10 minutes and continue to whisk the entire time.

Knowing When Cereal is Ready

You'll see the rice will get thicker and thicker as you continue to whisk. Switch to a scraper when the mixture gets too thick to whisk.

Once it's cooled down, serve the cereal and discard any leftovers.

Store baby cereal in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. You can also freeze cereal in an ice cube tray. Once frozen place the cubes into a plastic bag and store them for 1 to 3 months.

When serving, you can also add formula, milk or mashed fruit to the cereal.

Thanks for watching, to learn more visit us on the Web at food.about.com.