From the time your baby is six months old, it is a good idea to start offering porridge. For many parents, porridge quickly becomes a favorite. Porridge is filling and a convenient way to ensure that your baby gets enough iron and other important nutrients. But what should you consider when choosing between store-bought and homemade porridge? What is the difference and which variant provides the best nutrition for healthy development?
Purchased baby porridge
In Sweden, baby porridge is usually enriched with iron, vitamin D and other important vitamins and minerals that the child needs. Today, there are slightly different varieties of enriched porridge on the baby food shelf, and the different varieties can differ both in content and from what age they are recommended. Unna's porridge & porridge is organic and contains more nutrition than homemade porridge, precisely because it has added vitamins and minerals such as vitamin D, iron, iodine, zinc, calcium and phosphorus that are needed for the child's growth. Since fat intake is also an important part of a child's diet, Unna's porridge & porridge is enriched with a careful composition of saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat to meet young children's needs for fatty acids.
Young children have a high iron requirement, and offering fortified porridge can be a good complement to regular food to ensure that the child's iron requirement is met. One portion of Unna's porridge & porridge contains approximately one third of a child's daily iron requirement. Unna's porridge from 6 months contains approximately 2.7 mg of iron per portion, and from 12 months contains approximately 3.5 mg of iron per portion.
Homemade porridge
Even though store-bought enriched baby porridge is nutritionally complete, it can be a good idea to also offer homemade porridge to young children. Homemade porridge often has a coarser texture and consistency than powdered porridge, and challenges the child's eating development in a different way. It is a good idea to also enrich the homemade porridge with, for example, whole wheat bread to increase the iron content. A portion of porridge made with 0.5 dl of oatmeal and ½ slice of crumbled iron-rich whole wheat bread contains approximately 2.3 mg of iron, where the iron in the meal comes from both the oatmeal and whole wheat bread. However, it is important to remember that ready-made powdered porridge is also enriched with fat and more vitamins and minerals than just iron. To increase the nutritional content of homemade porridge, it can therefore be a good idea to add a teaspoon of rapeseed oil to the porridge and serve it with, for example, cooked berries or a fruit puree.
Porridge squeezer
Giving your child a porridge scoop on the go can be convenient when your child needs something quick to eat. It is important to remember that most porridge scoops are not fortified with vitamins and minerals. Although some are labeled as fortified, they do not contain the same amount of nutrients as fortified powdered porridge. It is of course fine to give your child a porridge scoop every now and then, but over time, scoops should not replace fortified powdered porridge or fortified homemade porridge.
Which porridge should I choose?
Generally speaking, it can be said that store-bought enriched baby porridge is more nutritionally complete than homemade porridge because it is already adapted for the child. With the right homemade enrichment, homemade porridge is also good, and can have the advantage of offering more texture and being practical if more than one person in the family wants to eat the same porridge. Porridge sticks have the practical advantage of providing energy when you are on the go, but from a nutritional perspective are not as good as fortified store-bought porridge or correctly fortified homemade porridge. Choose the porridge that suits you and your child, or vary between the different varieties.
Sources:
Swedish National Food Administration. (February 20, 2025). Iron.
https://www.livsmedelsverket.se/livsmedel-och-innehall/naringsamne/salt-och-mineraler1/jarn
Swedish National Food Administration. (20 February 2025). Food database.
https://www.livsmedelsverket.se/livsmedel-och-innehall/naringsamne/livsmedelsdatabasen
Swedish National Food Administration. (February 20, 2025). Infants
https://www.livsmedelsverket.se/matvanor-halsa--miljo/kostrad/barn-och-ungdomar/spadbarn
National Handbook for Child Health Care. (February 20, 2025). Food introduction.
https://www.rikshandboken-bhv.se/amning-och-nutrition/mat-och-dryck---oversikt/matintroduktion
