A complete list of nutritious rice recipes for children

The core principle of nutritious rice suitable for children aged 1-12 years is "3 points for matching and 7 points for adaptation" - the proportion of coarse grains should be 15%-30%, and the proportion of grains, vegetables, meat and eggs should not be less than 1:1. In terms of seasoning, there is no salt or additives for children under 1 year old, less sugar and sodium for children under 3 years old. The softness, hardness and shape fully match the child's current chewing and digestion ability. There is no need to pursue fancy. The hard standard is that the child is willing to eat and digests it well.

I have been a child nutritionist for almost 6 years, and my own child has just turned 4 years old. I have seen too many parents who are obsessed with Internet celebrity recipes, making them into cartoon shapes and adding a lot of "children's seasonings". In the end, the child doesn't like to eat and ends up eating too much. Last time, my best friend made Internet-famous cartoon rice balls for her 2-year-old son. She added two tablespoons of salad dressing to make the shape stick. After eating, the child had a bad appetite for two days. She came over and asked me if the ingredients were wrong. In fact, she was too obsessed with "looking good" and forgot about the most basic digestive adaptation issues.

If you don’t have time to do anything late after get off work, it’s easiest to just cook it in one pot. What I usually make at home is Beibei Pumpkin and Beef Stewed Rice: Chop the glutinous Beibei Pumpkin into small cubes, cut the beef tenderloin into thin strips, use a little corn starch to tenderize it for 10 minutes, and throw it into the rice cooker together with the washed rice. Mix 1/5 of the millet into the rice, add half a bowl more water than usual when cooking adult rice, simmer for 5 minutes before opening the lid. When stirring, sprinkle some chopped Shanghai greens. No additional salt is needed. The sweet fragrance of the pumpkin soaks into the rice grains, mixed with the freshness of the beef. My child can eat a full bowl every time. By the way, regarding the proportion of whole grains, there are actually two different opinions in the academic community: one is that it is recommended that the proportion of whole grains for children under 3 years old should not exceed 20% to avoid excessive dietary fiber and aggravate the gastrointestinal burden; the other is that as long as the child does not suffer from long-term constipation or indigestion, it can be relaxed to 30%, which can better exercise chewing ability and supplement B vitamins. You can adjust it according to your child's digestion situation, and there is no need to stick to the standard.

If I take my kids on an outing on the weekend, I prefer making hand-held rice balls, which are healthier than bringing a bunch of puffed snacks to fill them up. Cook some rice mixed with three-color quinoa in advance, let it cool to the point where it is not hot to the touch, and stuff it into a ball with a small piece of unsalted grilled salmon or fried white sesame seeds in the middle. Wrap a circle of unsalted seaweed flakes on the outside and put it in a plastic bag to take out. The baby holds it in his hand and gnaws it. It has the toughness of quinoa and the oily aroma of salmon. He won't feel hungry after playing all afternoon. Some parents asked before if they could use glutinous rice to make rice balls? One thing to mention here is that pediatric nutrition departments generally recommend that children under 6 years old eat less glutinous rice. Glutinous rice has a high amylopectin content and is very sticky. Not only is it easy to get stuck in the throat, but the digestion speed is much slower than ordinary rice. Eating too much may lead to acid reflux and bloating. If the baby really likes the glutinous texture, eat it once every half a month at most, and the amount should not exceed half a bowl each time.

Many mothers around me worry that their babies don’t like to eat vegetables. In fact, you can try cooking rice with vegetable juice. Blanch spinach to remove oxalic acid and then juice it. Filter out the coarse vegetable residue and use it to cook rice. The cooked rice will be light green with a faint fragrance. Last time I made it for my neighbor’s 5-year-old who refused to touch a bite of vegetables. I told him this was "Ultraman's Energy Green Rice" and he ate two bowls in one go and said it was delicious. However, I have to talk about a controversial point here: Many nutrition bloggers say that juicing vegetables will lose a lot of dietary fiber, so it is better to eat vegetables directly. This is true, but if the baby himself refuses to touch a bite of vegetables, cooking with vegetable juice can absorb some vitamins and minerals, which is worse than not eating at all. Feeding is inherently flexible, so there is no need to blame yourself for the "nutritional loss". It is already great if you can achieve 80 points.

Let me tell you about a pitfall I have stepped into before. In the past two years, in order to let my children eat more, I followed the trend and bought a lot of so-called "children's seaweed shreds" and "children's meat floss". Later, after comparing the nutritional content table, I found that the sodium content of many products is higher than that of meat floss for adults. Children under 1 year old have kidneys. The kidneys are not fully developed yet, and excessive sodium intake will increase the burden on the kidneys. The daily sodium intake of children under 3 years old should not exceed 900mg, which is about half the amount of salt in a beer. Therefore, when cooking, you can skip adding additional seasonings. The umami flavor of the ingredients itself is enough.

In fact, there is no standardized "encyclopedia" of nutritious rice for children. You don't need to weigh the ingredients accurately in the recipe. If your child likes pumpkin, add more pumpkin, and if your child likes corn, add more corn. As long as it is soft and hard for the child to chew, has less salt and sugar, and has as many ingredients as possible, it is a qualified nutritional rice. After all, the child is willing to eat and grows strong, which is more important than anything else, right?