HiPP Organic Millet Sticks

HiPP Organic Millet Sticks, 30 g, from the 8th month

HiPP Organic Millet Sticks are a gluten-free organic baby snack for babies from the 8th month, in a 30 g pack. They are long, round sticks of puffed organic millet, organic corn and organic rice with added vitamin B1, and nothing else. There is no added sugar and no added salt and no added flavoring. A portion is 3 to 5 sticks from the 8th month and 5 to 10 from the 10th.

This is about as short an ingredient list as a baby snack gets: three cereals and one vitamin. HiPP states the sticks are made from 100 percent puffed organic millet, organic corn and organic rice, and the declaration bears that out, with organic whole millet flour at 34 percent leading it. There is no fruit concentrate, no sweetener and no salt, so the taste is the grain's own, which HiPP describes as naturally mild and cereal-like.

The shape is doing a specific job. A stick is the easiest form for a baby to hold, because it can be grasped in the middle with a whole fist and still have ends sticking out to reach the mouth. A round cake has to be aimed; a stick does not. HiPP makes the point plainly: the oblong-round shape is one little ones can hold themselves, and that is what lets a baby learn to eat independently.

The texture is the other half of it. HiPP describes the structure as particularly baby-friendly, light and airy, so the sticks dissolve quickly in a child's mouth. That matters at 8 months, when a baby has few teeth and is still learning to move food around, and it is the characteristic that separates a puffed cereal snack from a hard biscuit.

Being gluten-free is a genuine distinction in this part of the range. Millet, corn and rice carry no gluten, and HiPP states the sticks are gluten-free, with the only allergen note being that they may contain traces of mustard. Most HiPP cereal snacks at this age carry wheat or oats, so this is the pack to reach for in a household avoiding gluten.

As an organic baby snack it is a between-meals food, and HiPP presents it as suiting babies and the whole family. It is a European baby food made to the EU organic standard.

Where a stick snack fits in a baby's day

By the 8th month a baby is grabbing at things and getting them to the mouth with growing accuracy, and a snack that can be held is suddenly far more interesting than one that has to be spooned. HiPP sets the portion as part of a snack rather than as a meal, which is the right slot: between the milk feeds and cooked meals rather than in place of either.

HiPP gives two portions, which is unusual and useful. From the 8th month it is 3 to 5 sticks; from the 10th month it is 5 to 10. That tells you the pack is meant to follow a baby for a couple of months rather than being outgrown, and it gives you a number to hold to instead of handing over an open pack.

It also travels well. A 30 g pack of sticks is light, it needs no spoon or bowl, and there is nothing to prepare, so it tends to live in the bag rather than the cupboard. HiPP describes it as a nibbling snack for in between and on the way, which is exactly how most families use it.

How to serve them

Is this the right snack for your baby?

A stick snack is about readiness more than age, and this one has the additional distinction of being gluten-free. These are the checks worth making.

Ages on this page are the ages carried by this product. HiPP's portions are 3 to 5 sticks from the 8th month and 5 to 10 from the 10th. Raise any family history of food allergy with your pediatrician before introducing a new food.

What is in it

Read plainly, there is nothing here to object to and nothing hidden: three puffed cereals and a vitamin. No sugar, no salt, no flavoring, no fruit concentrate and no preservative is added, which is why the taste is cereal rather than sweet.

• 100% puffed millet, corn, rice
• 34% organic whole millet flour
• Gluten-free
• No added sugar
• No added salt
• No added flavorings
• With added vitamin B1
• Dissolves quickly in the mouth
• A shape babies can hold

How far a 30 g pack goes

HiPP gives the portion in sticks rather than in grams, and the pack is sold by weight, so the two figures do not meet. Without the weight of one stick there is no honest way to turn 30 g into a number of portions.

So we have not printed one. Count the sticks in your pack and divide by the portion for your baby's age and you will have the answer for the pack in front of you, which is better than an average of ours.

A dry snack has no fluid yield at all, so there is no ounce figure for this pack. Sticks, and the two age portions above, are the only measures that mean anything here.

We have also not been able to source a verified nutrition table per 100 g for this pack, so none is printed on this page. If you would like the panel added, send us a photograph of your pack and we will transcribe it rather than estimate it.

Product highlights

• Gluten-free organic baby snack
• From the 8th month
• 30 g pack
• Millet, corn and rice only
• 34% organic whole millet
• No added sugar or salt
• No added flavorings
• With added vitamin B1
• Light, airy, quick to dissolve
• Stick shape for small hands
• EU organic certified
• Suits the whole family

Frequently asked questions

Other HiPP baby snacks and what goes with these

• HiPP Organic Blueberry Rice Cakes, 30 gThe same 8 month stage and 30 g pack, round rather than stick-shaped.
• HiPP Favourite Stars, 30 gA grain snack in star shapes, which HiPP places from 12 months.
• HiPP Organic Apple Biscuit Baby CerealAn apple-led milk cereal from the same 8 month stage.
• HiPP Organic Milk Cereal with Corn and FruitsA gluten-free milk cereal built on corn flour, from the 6th month.
• HiPP Organic Fruits + Iron Juice, 500 mlA juice drink HiPP places from the 8th month.
• HiPP HiPPiS Wild Berries in Apple and Peach PureeAn all-fruit squeeze pouch, for a snack that needs no hands free.