Question about solids and EBM

My friend has a question about solids and expressed breast milk. Here it
goes:
if you want to make the artificial porridge/mash for babies 6+ months old
(have to point out I don't know the exact term for it in English; we mean
the kind of you buy in shops and then mix with milk), and the box says you
should cook for a couple of minutes - can you use the expressed breast milk
for it? And if so, at which temperature, so that the EBM doesn't lose its
nutritional values?

Thanks,
Elly
Mom to Erin - Oct 12th 2003

if you want to make the artificial porridge/mash for babies 6+ months old
(have to point out I don't know the exact term for it in English; we mean
the kind of you buy in shops and then mix with milk), and the box says you
should cook for a couple of minutes

- can you use the expressed breast milk
for it? And if so, at which temperature, so that the EBM doesn't lose its
nutritional values?


Baby cereals in the U.S. do not usually need to be cooked at all. You just mix
them directly with whatever liquid you are using and serve.
If you are using a type of cereal that does require cooking, you can certainly
use EBM. The heat will destroy some of the nutrients/immunities, but since the
cereal is only a tiny part of baby's diet, I wouldn't consider this to be a
huge deal. (And the end result will still be more nutritious than if you mix it
with water or juice or some other liquid.)
The point is, if the box says to 'cook it', to me that means it would have to
be actually cooked/brought to a boil/ cooked for however long the box said.
Now, if the box just says to warm it ... well.... breastmilk is already warm
when it comes from the container, so there is no need to warm it further. (Or
if using already expressed milk, you could just warm it gently under warm water
to bring it to a tepid temperature.)

Another option, if you do indeed need to cook the stuff would be to thin it
first with water, just enough to let you cook it. THen after it has cooked
sufficiently, add enough breastmilk to thin it to serving consistancy. (Most
young babies like their cereal fairly thin anyway.)

Hope this helps.


Naomi
CAPPA Certified Lactation Educator

(either remove spamblock or change address to to e-mail
reply.)