Using baby rice to get formula into baby - how runny is best?

[aamia]

Packet says 1tsp rice to 1tsp milk. We've just tried it with 1tsp rice to 3tsp milk and added a little veg puree. He thought it was yummy (as did DH lol) and to be honest it does take away the horrible powdery taste that formula tends to have. So... we have a vehicle to get more liquid into the baby while I'm at work - how runny works well?

[Fairylea]

I'm confused - will he not drink milk on its own?

[formallyknownasloveydarling]

How old is your baby? You know baby rice is not often recommended anymore as it is of zero nutritional value. If your baby is over 6 months, what about some watery carrot juice or fennel tea instead? Or offering some calcium rich food?
Someone will be along in a sec to tell you how much milk your child needs.

[Fairylea]

That's what I was getting at formally. Bit of a brain fail on my part!

[Alibabaandthe40nappies]

How old is your baby?

[aamia]

5 months. Bf happily but we have issues with liquid intake when I am at work. He makes up for it all night long so does get the right number of feeds, but with a big gap during the day when he'll eat puree but only take small amounts of liquid (water - spits out formula and I struggle to express so not much ebm to give). I remembered reading somewhere on here that someone's nursery had used very milky baby rice to get milk into their baby so thought it was worth a try.

[TheNewStatesman]

I did a bit of this (EBM mixed with fortified cereal, either rice or oatmeal) as little monster would not take a bottle, but I was only away from her for short periods. If your baby is at nursery etc. for many hours a day I'd be concerned that his diet might become unbalanced overall if he is having loads of cereal.

Have you tried a few different brands of formula? You mention that the formula has a powdery taste... you could give the ready to feed liquid types a try. They are pricy, but from the sound of it it seems likes he wouldn't consume huge amounts of formula anyway.

If you go down the cereal route, I would do the minimum amount of cereal necessary to get him to take it (do some experimenting), then try to gradually reduce over time until he's happy to take plain formula as well. When you're giving cereal-formula-mix, make sure he is upright when feeding. I would try using a cup instead of a bottle for this. And offer a little water each time he has the cereal-formula-mix (just a couple of spoons of water is fine), so that he is getting the right balance of fluids overall.

Don't panic--somehow you and the baby will find out some way to get some calories into him during the day.

[aamia]

Thanks TheNewStatesman I have tried lots of brands of formula, and the least hated is the Hipp carton stuff. Still tastes powdery though. We will experiment with how much rice it takes to make the milk acceptable, and I have just thought about mixing the milk with a little fruit puree perhaps to change the flavour. Lots of trial and error to come!

[aamia]

Hmm, taste testing tonight, I think the verdict is one spoon of rice to 5 spoons of formula. It says 1:1 on the packet... Needs flavouring up then though with puree. Hopefully we could then eventually move to just milk + puree flavour.