Baby Food: Grits

I was hoping to talk about starting April on vegetables in this post, but that will have to wait until next weekend.  It is about 12:15 am on Saturday morning and I am tired.  For now, I will share with you our last baby cereal.  Please forgive any mistakes as I am trying to get this done quickly so I can get to bed.

After our great success with rice, oatmeal, and wheat cereal, we moved on to grits.  Grits is a cereal made from white or yellow corn.  Depending on where you are, it may be called polenta.  While grits and polenta start out the same, they are prepared differently.  But that will have to be a future post.  For now I want to talk about grits as baby food.

Grits can be found in your grocery store, very near the oatmeal.  WinCo also carries it in the bulk bins.

The boxed grits are made with white corn.  WinCo's bulk bin
grits are made from yellow corn.

I prepare it according to the package directions.  This produces a cereal that is too thick for April to eat, but is perfect for the rest of us.  I then thin down smaller portions with water or breast milk for April.

The individual granules are milled small enough for them to fit through the opening in the Boon spoon so it is not necessary to purée the cereal before feeding it to baby.  However, if your baby rejects grits this way, try puréeing them.  April would not eat them the first time I made them so I started running them through the food processor.  After about a week of eating puréed grits, she was more than happy to eat them unpuréed.

Just as with Cream of Wheat, it is imperative to end up with smooth grits if you will be putting them in a Boon spoon.  Be sure to whisk as you slowly add the grits to the boiling water and whisk occasionally as they are cooking.

Grits for Baby

4 c. water

1 c. grits

Breast milk, formula, or water for thinning

Bring water to a boil.  Slowly add grits while whisking.  Return to boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer 5 to 6 minutes.  Thin to desired consistency with water, breast milk, or formula.

My breakfast on the left.  I eat mine with a little butter, salt,
and pepper.  On the right, April takes hers with a grits ice cube to cool it down.

I usually have a cute picture of April eating her food, but I don't have one of her eating grits.  Instead, I'll share this adorable one Kimiko took at Christmas.