Bloom Multigrain Cereal, 8 Months Plus

Details

The step after single-grain rice, for a baby who has already met each of these foods on its own. Rice, wheat, ragi, oats and moong dal, milled to a coarser grade so there is something to chew against. Heavy metals are tested the same way as the rice cereal, by ICP-MS on every lot at an FSSAI-notified laboratory. Rice is only 30 percent of this blend, so the inorganic arsenic figure is lower: 0.02 mg per kg against the same 0.10 mg per kg limit. Lead, cadmium and mercury are on the same report. The reason we test a mixed cereal at all is that the rice fraction is still the rice fraction, and a lower share is not the same thing as a tested one. Total sugars, again, and not added sugars: 1.4 g per 100 g, which is what these five foods carry between them. There is no amylase step here either. A hydrolysed cereal is thinner, sweeter and easier to feed, and it is sweeter because somebody made it sweet without adding anything. Protein is 11 g per 100 g, measured as Kjeldahl nitrogen times 6.25, and the moong dal is why. The amino-spiking trick, where free amino acids are added to inflate a nitrogen reading, belongs to protein powders and has nothing to inflate here: this is five ground foods, and the protein is theirs. Ragi is in it for calcium, which comes to 85 mg per 100 g, most of it from the millet. Millet and dal also carry phytate, which binds iron and zinc and reduces how much of either is absorbed. Dehusking and roasting the dal cut it down, and serving a little fruit alongside helps further. That is the honest position on a fortified whole-grain cereal, and the alternative is to not mention it.

• Inorganic arsenic 0.02 mg per kg tested, held to 0.10, ICP-MS, every lot
• Lead 0.008, cadmium under 0.005, mercury under 0.005 mg per kg
• Total sugars 1.4 g per 100 g. No enzyme hydrolysis, no jaggery, no honey, no fruit concentrate
• No added salt. Sodium under 15 mg per 100 g
• Iron 12 mg per 100 g, of which about 3 mg comes from the grains and the dal and about 9 mg is added as ferrous fumarate
• Calcium 85 mg and protein 11 g per 100 g
• Contains wheat, which is gluten. Introduce wheat on its own first, and do not delay gluten past 12 months on our account, because delaying it is not the current advice
• Oats are naturally gluten-free and are almost always milled on shared lines, so we do not call them gluten-free. That is the honest version of a claim we could otherwise print
• Milled to pass 350 micron, coarser than the rice cereal on purpose
• Honest trade-off: coarser means it can catch a baby who is not yet confident with texture. If the first bowl comes back out, go back to the rice cereal for a fortnight
• Mother's milk is best for your baby. This is a complementary food and not a breast-milk substitute, under the Infant Milk Substitutes, Feeding Bottles and Infant Foods Act 1992