Breakfast in our house is the one meal that remains pretty consistent. For lunch and dinner we generally mix up with different flavours and textures but breakfast is usually always oats with some sort of pureed fruit.
When we first started solids, we began with rice cereal and then progressed into mixing it with small amounts of fruit. As my title suggests, my boy is a hungry baby and very solid happy! He's loved solids since he had his first taste and reduced his milk feeds quite early on. As a first time mum I found this quite stressful as for the last 6 months all of his nutrients had come from milk alone and that was really all I knew.
The small amount of rice cereal and fruit didn't seam to cut it for my little one so we made the switch over to oats.
I use rolled oats which I mix with boiled water and cook up on the stove (I am anti microwaves but I'm sure microwaving the oats would work too). We do 4 tbs and cook it up until the oats are soft and the water has been absorbed. I then turn the heat off and add in 3.5* fruit cubes, roughly 65g (refer to my first blog for how I prepare and store puree' fruit and veg). We started off with the basic flavours of apple and pear but have slowly progressed into a wider variety of flavours including mango, peach, banana and blueberry. NB: once you know what flavours your little one likes you can freeze in flavour combos. We currently have blueberry and banana, and mango and banana frozen in combo cubes.
*The half cube is always prune just to help keep things regular (it would be roughly 10g which can be increased if required)
I find oats such a quick and easy meal and the fruit cubes make it much easier and also help to cool the oats to a perfect temperature once they're cooked. I have prepared with fresh fruit before but the cubes just allow me to knock out a step and get the oats to that perfect temperature so their is less waiting and less hungry whinging and more time to enjoy my coffee ;)
The quantities I use are usually perfect for my boy (at 8 months). Sometimes he won't finish it all but I prefer to add an extra spoonful just in case! You can obviously adjust to your babies needs and play around with flavours.
Oats can also be cooked with your choice of milk or formula (My son is CMPI so is still on dairy restrictions and breastfed so I find it easier to use water over expressing. If you are worried about their milk intake though, this is a great way to add extra into their diet)
Hint: Banana taste sweeter once frozen. If you are using a banana cube you may only need half the amount :)
For younger babies who are still on smooth puree, you can blitz the oats first to form more of a powder.
We have also used the pre-packaged baby porridge which you just mix with milk or boiled water however, the fruit cubes take longer to defrost so try take them out of the freezer the night before or use fresh fruit puree'. I do keep a container of this porridge in my baby bag for emergencies when out and about. NB: Baby porridge is much more pricey than buying a bag of oats. The oats I buy are less than $2 for 750g and are grown in Australia whereas the porridge is almost $4 for 125g (also made in Australia but not from 100% Australian grown ingredients).
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