One of the things that first-time parents tend to ask the most is “when can they feed their baby solid food?” Breastfed milk is one of the most important food that your baby should consume, but that has to stop at some point. Cereals tend to have the best nutritional values for a child. In the next parts, we will talk about the best oatmeal cereal for a baby.
What Here
Features And Benefits
What are the benefits of oatmeal cereal?
Is There A Reason Why You Shouldn’t Introduce Food That The Family Eats?
How We Selected Some Of The Best Oatmeal Cereal Products
Best Oatmeal Cereal For Baby We Recommend
Gerber Organic Single-Grain Oatmeal
Happy Baby Organic Probiotic Baby Cereal
Happy Baby Organic Superfood Puffs
Plum Organics Baby Hello Morning
Earth’s Best Organic Whole Grain Oatmeal
Conclusion
Features And Benefits
Before you check out some of the best oatmeal cereal products, we will first find out what their benefits are. Besides the oatmeal itself, companies tend to also place some useful ingredients which you might want to know beforehand.
Since you’re going to introduce solid food for the first time, you will also want to know why you should select oatmeal cereal. There is a major reason why you should choose organic oatmeal products. We will find out more about them in the section below.
What are the benefits of oatmeal cereal?
It is hard to determine which kind of solid food would bring the most benefit to your baby. If you’re a first-time parent, it is even harder because you rely on other people’s advice. But you don’t need to have a degree in nutrition to know that oatmeal cereal can be the best choice when transferring to solid food.
For the first few months of a baby, feeding is the easiest thing you can do. Breastmilk will bring all the basic nutrients needed for the first 6 months. As time goes on, your baby will demand more nutrients which can’t be found in breastmilk. But exactly when should you start adding solid food? If the following is true, he or she can start eating solid food.
- Weight since birth has doubled
- Can sit without anyone’s support
- Starts showing chewing-like motions
- Gets hungrier throughout the day
- Can control his/her head in an upright position with no problems
There is no exact date when a baby should start eating solid food, but the signs above can help you determine it. Your baby will, of course, continue to consume breast milk for a far longer time. But it will need more nutrition and vitamins from other food sources. For an age group above 6 months , the best oatmeal cereal for a baby will do the job.
Another huge benefit of oatmeal cereal is that its number of ingredients and flavors is very limited. This can be helpful because various other flavors and ingredients should be introduced very slowly.
Is There A Reason Why You Shouldn’t Introduce Food That The Family Eats?
Although it seems more logical to introduce food that the rest of the family eats, there is a reason why you shouldn’t do that. The food that you currently eat for dinner time may seem more delicious than oatmeal cereal. Because of several things, we really don’t recommend you to do that.
If your baby starts eating solid food for the first time, you should start with something simple. The best way to do that is to introduce your baby to something that has limited ingredients and flavors. Sure, something like baked potatoes could be eaten by a baby, but even for that, there will be too many flavors. He or she will experience the following in just one meal:
- Salt
- Black pepper
- Butter
This may not seem like a lot, but for eating solid food time for the first time, it is. If you introduce a mix of entirely different flavors, your child may not be able to differentiate other flavors later. It will be hard for the baby to see a difference between something that is sweet, bitter or sour. Because of these reasons, a baby should try different flavors and textures one at a time.
How We Selected Some Of The Best Oatmeal Cereal Products
In the past sections, we already noted how important it is for a baby to eat oatmeal for his/her first solid food. But how did we select the best oatmeal cereal for a baby? We selected and reviewed 5 of the best and most popular oatmeal cereal products. When selecting them, our first mission was to select products with exclusively organic ingredients.
Organic foods are a lot safer and better for people, especially for something in early development. These types of food will assure you that the food your baby ingests is free of any chemicals or harmful substances. Because organic foods are popular at the moment, most companies tend to mislabel their food as organic.
Because of this, we selected trustworthy companies that have a reputation. We also checked the reviews of most consumers in order to determine how effective and unharmful the oatmeal cereal brands were. Some of the most popular companies that feature organic food are:
- Happy Baby
- Gerber
- Earth’s Best
- Plum Organics
Best Oatmeal Cereal For Baby We Recommend
Now that we have discovered all the benefits of oatmeal cereal, it is time to discover which products are the best. We have found some of the best organic oatmeal and reviewed both their positive and negative sides.
Gerber Organic Single-Grain Oatmeal
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Gerber Organic is one of the most popular brands in the world when it comes to organic food. They always provide you something unique and they did this with their single-grain oatmeal product. This product is made out of a variety of different oats grown in California.
Vitamin B is very important for your child development and it is commonly found in oats. You can find it in this product, but there are also other vitamins available. Beside vitamin B, you have vitamin A, C, and E. They help with your baby’s immune system, cell health, visual development and tissue health.
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Happy Baby Organic Probiotic Baby Cereal
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Next up we have a product from Happy Baby, which is also a reputable company with a good record. Their product is both organic and probiotic and comes in a 7oz. container. For solid food, this can be a great choice for first-timers. It has iron which helps with brain development and various other vitamins.
Its probiotic formula will also help your baby have a balanced and digestive diet. There is so much nutritional value in this oatmeal, that it makes up 20% of the daily value for calcium. It is certified by USDA Organic and Kosher. There are no unneeded flavors or sugars added.
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Happy Baby Organic Superfood Puffs
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This is another organic oatmeal product from Happy Baby, but this time it has more ingredients. It comes in various packaging options as well as flavor options. Options are available for Apple & Broccoli flavors, Banana & Pumpkin and various other combinations. It contains various ingredients and nutrients like Chlorine, which helps in the development of the brain.
It has various vitamins and it makes up 15% out of the daily value of Vitamin E. It also makes up 20% of the daily value for vitamin B12. This organic oatmeal is certified by USDA Organic and it is gluten free. It also contains no artificial flavors and does not contain corn syrup.
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Plum Organics Baby Hello Morning
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Although Plum Organics isn’t a popular choice as other major brands, it is still a healthy choice. When it comes to organic food for babies, Plum Organics has a good track record. The Hello Morning oatmeal product is a GMO-free and high-quality mix of baby oats. It even contains puffed quinoa and chia for that extra flavor.
It is officially certified as an organic product and it contains no GMO ingredients. For an even better taste, you can combine this oatmeal with fruits and yogurt. You can find it in multiple packaging options with different flavors, such as blueberry, cinnamon, apple, and others.
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Earth’s Best Organic Whole Grain Oatmeal
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This oatmeal cereal product from Earth’s Best comes in multiple flavors. You can find it both with and without fruit and it makes up a major part of the daily values of several nutrients. It makes up from 35% to 45% of the daily intake of Iron and contains several minerals, vitamins, and fiber.
The cereal in this product is organically grown and does not contain any artificial flavors, sugar or preservatives. You can try a lot of different flavors and textures as there are multiple options available for this product. If you want to introduce a multi-grain meal to your baby, this may be the best product out there for that.
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Conclusion
If your baby is old enough and prepared to finally transition onto solid food, then oatmeal cereal is a great option. We reviewed some of the best oatmeal cereal for a baby and we found really good products. All of them were completely organic and contained No – GMO ingredients.
This is important as you should minimize the number of bad ingredients and flavors as soon as possible. Limiting the number of flavors is also important. If your baby eats food that the rest of the family eats, then later it may not differentiate other flavors. But out of the reviewed products, which brand made the best oatmeal cereal?
When we take all the positive and negative aspects into consideration, we think that the Gerber Organic Single-Grain Oatmeal was the best product. It comes from a reputable company and this time they made an oatmeal cereal with completely organic ingredients. Its strongest points are that it has a lot of vitamins and a good amount of iron.