How to make baby food from rice in emergencies.
I used to make baby food by myself, but I totally forgot how.
I am busy taking care of my kids. Instant foods save me a lot of time, and I don’t really know anything about making homemade baby food.
I bought a lot of baby food. There are so many varieties! Sure, I think I can make some.
After a major disaster, you will be OK if you can get relief supplies for your baby. Is that what you think? Life is not always so easy…
If your child can eat food from relief supplies, you should be fine. But if not: big trouble.
In an emergency. You never know what will happen.
It is best if you know how to make homemade baby food for emergency situations. It might be difficult during a major emergency, but if no one has baby food, then you’ll have to do it yourself. You don’t need to overthink it. Gaining the knowledge is the important thing. If you know a simple way to make your own baby food, you can take the necessary steps anytime, even under difficult circumstances.
You just need to know the mechanism!!
You don’t need special skills or expensive tools.
Rice and oatmeal are the best foods for making simple baby food, and usually they are included among relief supplies. But before your baby can eat it, you might need a little cooking (or at least soaking) to soften the texture. I will explain how to do this in this post (rice) and in my next post (oatmeal).
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Remember, we can also feed baby food to adults who have difficulty swallowing or chewing. Seniors might be sensitive to certain foods.
Food safety tips.
Check the food before you eat it
Whenever you eat your emergency food supplies, especially after a major disaster, you first need to make sure the containers are not damaged and the food is still safe to eat. This may seem obvious, but it’s so important that I don’t think it can be overstated. Even your shelf-stable products in cans, boxes, and plastic. You need to check the shape, smell, color, and package integrity, and look for any signs of damage or spoilage. Pay particular attention to perishable products and anything in a glass container.
In emergencies, you won’t know where relief supplies came from.
Maybe they came from overseas and spent a long time on a ship.
Or they might have been dropped from the sky.
No leftovers
In emergencies, you might find it difficult to keep food cold or to warm it up. You need to finish your baby’s food all in one sitting; you can keep leftovers for yourself, but not for your baby. No leftovers for your baby. Once you open your food (and maybe cooked it), feed your baby, and then either eat the leftovers yourself or dispose of them. Leftovers are too risky in an emergency, and your baby is too vulnerable. If your baby gets sick, there might not be any way for you to reach a hospital or see a doctor. It’s better to play it safe.
It is good to eat baby food with your baby.
You won’t waste any food if you eat your baby’s leftovers.
Baby food is healthy for adults too!! Super simple!!
Unfamiliar foods for kids with allergies
Stick to brands you know and trust, if possible. And don’t be shy about your child’s allergies. If you’re not vocal about your child’s food allergy, somebody might give you the wrong food, accidentally. Additionally, you might have to experiment with a new food or product in a desperate emergency situation.
Do you want to bet on an epipen or luck in an emergency?
If your baby has allergies, you really need to prepare food, in advance.
Continue breastfeeding, if possible, rather than starting baby food
If your baby has not started eating baby food yet, you don’t need to experiment during an emergency. Continuing to breastfeed is the best way. Human milk contains all the nutrients a baby needs, along with antibodies to help fight infection and disease.
Due to unavoidable circumstances, you might have to start feeding your baby solid food. If such circumstances arise, be careful, and be vigilant. Carefully and constantly monitor your baby’s condition.
Making baby food with rice
Rice is the best food to give most people. And we can change the texture for each child’s condition, growth level, and requirements.
But remember, in a blackout, you’ll at least need to be able to make a fire. If you have butane canister (see post #21) and can boil water, you will be lucky!!
It’s hard to make steamed rice in emergencies, but once you have cooked it, you will be able to share it with your whole family.
I recommend you learn how to make steamed rice and rice porridge first.
Once you get the process for these homemade baby foods,
you can use the skill for other foods, too.
★ Use rice
1. Make steamed rice with plastic bags.
If your water supply is limited in an emergency, you will need to save some water for cooking. Repeatedly using boiled water is the best way in an emergency.
Making Steamed Rice
Prepare Plastic Bags for Emergencies (4) #95
2. Eat steamed rice directly or make rice porridge, rice ball, etc.
Making Rice Balls
Plastic Wrap for Cooking in Emergencies #91
You can add breast milk or formula into rice porridge for your baby.
More nutrients!!
★ Rice porridge
These are the types of rice porridge appropriate for different stages of development.
The age ranges below are approximate. Each baby is unique, so you might need to adjust based on your baby’s specific needs.
1 part rice to 10 parts water (1:10) for an approximately 5-6 month old baby.
1 part rice to 5 parts water (1:5) for a ~7-8 month old baby.
1 part rice to 3 parts water (1:3) for a ~9-11 month old baby.
1 part rice to 1 part water (1:1) for a ~12-18 month old baby.
How to cook
1. Mix steamed rice and water and then soak.
You can use room temperature water, but it will take a bit longer. Using boiling water is more trouble, but it’s faster.
For this example, I used room temperature water and waited 30 minutes for the rice to absorb water.
If you can use hot, boiled water, rice will absorb the water more quickly.
But in emergencies, it might be hard to boil water…
2. Mash the steamed rice and control the texture by adding more or less water.
Use the spoon edge to cut the steamed rice into smaller pieces, and mash it with the back of the spoon.
If you don’t have any plates or bowls, use a plastic bag and mash by squeezing with your fingers.
If you make a big batch of rice, don’t use all of it to make baby food. You need food too.
After you feed your baby, you must eat the left over steamed rice!!
★ Use Alpha Rice or instant rice
Alpha Rice :
Recently, Alpha Rice has become very popular in Japan, for emergencies. Alpha Rice is rice that has been rapidly dried, in a way that preserves the taste and texture of freshly cooked rice. We don’t need to warm it up, and also we don’t need boiled water to eat it. (More info at Onisi Food.)
I tried to eat Alpha Rice, and what can I say? It tastes like rice.
Of course, it’s not exactly like freshly cooked rice, but it will help a lot in emergencies.
Instant Rice :
This type of instant rice must be heated up in the microwave or warmed with boiling water. One downside to this type of rice is that if you have a power outage, eating it can be tricky. Let me share a few ways you can prepare it in an emergency.
These types of instant rice are selling at Japanese stores in the U.S. In other countries, you will be able to find these or other brands. (I hope…)
1. Boil the instant rice
The instructions say to boil the unopened package for 10 minutes. This method is not really any more convenient than simply making normal rice, but it does allow you to use non-potable water to warm it up.
If you want to warm up the rice quickly, transfer the rice to a plastic bag (without adding any water), seal it, and then boil it.
2. Steam the instant rice.
Cut the top and bottom of the package so steam can go through the rice. This way is quicker than boiling, and it uses less water.
To steam the rice, you have to cut the container. So you sacrifice the plate.
I do not use this method because the container becomes useless after I poke a hole in it.
3. Use heating pads and towels.
Open the heat pads’ packages, and put the instant rice between them. And wrap it all together in a towel.
This way needs a long time to warm up.
And you have to use 2 heating pads…. So I will only use this method as a last resort.
Heat pads
How to stay warm in an emergency (1) #56.
4. Use sunlight.
If you don’t open the package, you will be able to warm the instant rice with sunlight. It’s important to keep the package completely unopened while warming it this way. Don’t poke any holes in the packaging. You can use a metal bowl, a hot car dashboard or hood, a rock or even hot sand.
▪︎ This way will work on a sunny day. There are many DIY solar cookers available on the internet. I used a metal bowl and needed 3 hours for mine to be ready to eat.
▪︎ You can put the instant rice on the dashboard of your car. You can also use your hood. As you know, these spots get very hot to the touch on a hot day.
▪︎ You will need slightly more time to warm up the instant rice on a rock, in the sun, but it does work. I used the stone floor in my home.
▪︎ On a super hot day, it’s hard to walk in the sand on the beach with bare feet, because of the incredible heat. But you can warm up your instant rice!
Remember, all cooking requires cookware.
Can you prepare everything you need for emergencies?
Remember, cooking time also depends on your circumstances.
You don’t know when you will be caught in an emergency. You don’t get to decide which season it will be. If it’s wintertime, or the rainy season, you will have a much harder time cooking your food. So you really should prepare, in advance, for emergencies.
I will continue talking about homemade baby food, and I will dive into oatmeal (as a topic, not literally) next post. Please check it out.
See you next time.
Remember, “Protect your life by yourself” （自分の命は自分で守る). You need to survive first, and then you need your emergency supply. No matter how well you prepared your emergency supplies, if you die, then all of your preparations will have been for nothing. First and foremost, keep your health up all the time. Build your stamina so that if you need to, you can evacuate as quickly as possible. Stay healthy.
