Baby very first oat porridge - Organic whole grain cereal porridge

What is Holle Baby's Very First Oat Porridge?

This is an organic whole grain oat baby cereal porridge labeled from 6 months. The recipe is 100% whole grain oats plus the small amount of vitamin B1 baby cereals are required to carry — and nothing else. No dairy, no added sugar, no salt, no spices and no artificial flavors. The box holds 250 g.

The reason to buy a cereal like this is what is missing from it. There is nothing to decode on the label, nothing to look up, and no second ingredient competing with the oat. If you are the kind of parent who turns the box over before putting it in the cart, this is the shortest list you will find on a cereal shelf.

Being plain also makes it the most useful box in the cupboard rather than the most exciting one. A whole grain oat porridge with no milk in it is a base: mix it with your baby's usual milk for a breakfast, or with water and a spoonful of fruit or vegetable puree for a dairy-free meal. The flavor you serve is the flavor you choose that morning, which is why a plain cereal tends to still be in use long after a flavored one has been abandoned.

The oats are whole grain, which is what gives the porridge its rich, hearty texture and keeps the nutrients from the outer layers of the grain in the bowl rather than milling them away. Any sweetness in it is the grain's own — no sugar is added to this recipe at any point.

One honest caveat, because it decides whether this box is right for you: oats are a gluten-bearing cereal. This porridge contains gluten and may contain traces of wheat, so it is a step for a baby who has already met the gluten-free grains, not a first spoonful for one who has not. It is a European baby cereal from Holle, made for parents who want clean, minimalistic ingredients in their baby's diet.

Who is this porridge for?

It is for a baby from 6 months who is established on solids and has already met the earlier, gluten-free grains. It is called a very first oat porridge because it is a baby's first oat — a plain, unmixed introduction to the grain, not a first food in general.

The sensible way to introduce any new grain is on its own, a few days apart from anything else new, so that if something disagrees with your baby you know what it was. A single-grain cereal with a two-item label is the cleanest possible version of that test: there is no second grain, no fruit and no milk powder in the bowl to confuse the result.

Once oats are established it stops being a test and becomes the workhorse. This is the box you stir a vegetable puree into at lunch and your baby's milk into at breakfast, and it is the one that lets you make a dairy-free meal on a day when that matters.

How do you prepare this oat porridge?

What can you make with a plain oat cereal?

A plain cereal is three meals rather than one, because the liquid and anything you stir through it are yours to choose. This is the whole argument for buying an unflavored box.

Use the cereal-to-liquid quantities printed on your own box for each of these, and introduce anything you stir through it separately first.

What is in Baby's Very First Oat Porridge?

• 100% whole grain oats
• No dairy in the box
• No added sugar
• No salt or spices
• No artificial flavors
• Vitamin B1, as required

The vitamin B1 is there because European rules require baby cereals to carry it: milling grain reduces the thiamine naturally present, and B1 is what the body uses to release energy from carbohydrate and to keep the nervous system working normally. The only other thing in the bowl is oat. Keeping it to whole grain rather than refined flour is what gives this porridge its hearty texture and keeps the fiber and nutrients of the outer grain layers in the meal. Any sweetness you taste is the grain's own, because no sugar is added.

The box holds 250 g. The weight printed on your own pack is the one that governs.

How far one box goes

The box holds 250 g. A count of portions needs one more figure than that, and it is not published for this pack, so the number of portions is not stated here rather than estimated.

It is also worth saying what has not been done. We also list a Holle wholegrain oat porridge labeled from 5 months, and that pack does publish liquid volumes. Those numbers belong to that pack and have deliberately not been copied onto this one, because the two are separate products with separate declarations even though the grain is the same.

The 250 g net weight is taken from the product itself. No portion size and no number of portions is claimed for this pack, because neither is published for it. Store the box in a cool, dry place with the inner bag closed, and follow the quantities and the opened-storage note printed on your own pack.

Product highlights

• Organic whole grain oat cereal
• Suitable from 6 months
• 250 g box
• 100% whole grain oats
• Two-ingredient label
• No dairy in the box
• No added sugar or salt
• No spices or artificial flavors
• Mix with milk, formula or water
• A base for fruit and vegetables
• Hearty whole grain texture
• Contains gluten, traces of wheat
• Spoon-feed, never bottle-feed

Baby's Very First Oat Porridge: frequently asked questions

Related Holle cereals and porridges

• Holle Organic Oats Baby PorridgeThe same grain in our 5-month listing, with Demeter oats.
• Holle Wholegrain Rice PorridgeA gluten-free single grain, for before oats.
• Holle Organic Millet CerealAnother plain single-grain step in the Holle range.
• Holle Wholegrain SemolinaThe plain Demeter wheat porridge, also mixed by you.
• Holle Paca Pumpkin PouchA ready-made oat pouch for days with no time to mix.
• All Holle porridges & cerealsBrowse the whole Holle cereal range by grain and age.