Why baby rice?
World Health Organisation guidelines suggest that babies should be exclusively breastfed until 6 months of age and then be gradually introduced to solid foods, but the reality is that many parents in this country choose to wean a little earlier than 6 months. In that case it is even more important that the first food you choose is safe and healthy for your baby and that makes an organic baby rice an obvious choice.
Rice is one of the safest foods there is allergy-wise (a total restriction diet will often take you right back to pears, rice and lamb as being the three foods least likely to cause an allergic reaction) and by opting for organic you can be sure that your precious little one is not exposed to unnecessary chemicals at this particularly vulnerable stage in his or her life.

Why Organix?
Lizzie Vann created Organix (then Baby Organix) with its No Junk Promise in order to provide good quality food for babies. Over time their range has expanded to include food for toddlers, children and now mums as well, hence the dropping of the Baby from the name. Throughout this time their promise has been to use safe, pure, natural and nutritious ingredients and to campaign for safer food for children - their current campaign calls for a Government investigation into why pesticide residue levels on fruits are so high.
In addition to their ethics, I like the fact that Organix products are pure, with no cheap fillers, and are very clearly labelled with age recommendations and allergy information. My only reservation here is that Organix Baby Rice is still labelled as being suitable from 4-6 months when WHO advice is not to give babies solids before 6 months, but I guess they are going along with the convention in this country of starting babies off slightly younger - when all the other products on the market are labelled as from 4 months they would be at a significant disadvantage not to have anything suitable for babies younger than 6 months.

Organix Baby Rice is made from organically produced wholegrain rice, fortified with Vitamin B1(thiamin) and nothing else. There are no fillers or flavourings, so you can add your baby's usual milk to give it a familiar flavour at first, or use water and juice for a change, or add it to other purees or foods you have prepared to thicken them a little before serving. Using wholegrain rice, according to the information on the Organix website (which is, incidentally, very helpful and informative on all sorts of infant and child feeding issues) is better because "wholegrains contain more minerals, vitamins and fibre than processed grains, and take longer to digest, leaving you more satisfied."

Our experience:
We found Organix Baby Rice an ideal first food because it could be mixed with baby's usual milk - in our case expressed breast milk - and made runny at first, so that our son could get a first experience of foods which were not totally liquid, then slightly thicker as using a spoon became easier, then much thicker when he wanted to handle the spoon himself. One thing to watch out for though, if you do use breast milk, is that the enzymes in breast milk start to digest the rice even as you are mixing it up, so it cannot be made in advance because even the thickest mixture will turn to liquid again very quickly!
All of our children have loved their first experience of food, I think especially because the taste was familiar, so they had time to concentrate on the new experience of texture without being hit by too many new things at once. My husband and I loved the fact that it was very easy to clear up after, especially since any unused baby rice just dissolved into the milk and could be poured away!
The baby rice was very easy to use: just scoop a few teaspoonfuls into a cup and mix to a paste of whatever consistency you want by adding liquid. It was easy to get a smooth paste and very easy to adjust the consistency.
The packet is of cardboard, with a foil bag inside which has to be cut open (can be a bit of a pain if you don't have scissors or a sharp knife handy) and resealed to keep the rice fresh (we found a clip fastener, twist tie or even elastic band worked well) - or you could empty the contents into a Tupperware container if you are more organised than we are!

Anything else?
Like the rest of the Organix range, Organix baby rice is available in Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose, but not all supermarkets. It costs a little more than some other baby rices, but Organix products seem to be on special offer fairly regularly, so we tend to stock up then. If you wait until 6 months and your baby takes to solids quickly then you may well find you only need one or two boxes anyway, so a few pennies extra is a small price to pay for the peace of mind of using a brand you can trust.
I guess that brings me to my last point, which is that some people would ask if baby rice is necessary at all? Lots of parents now practise baby led weaning, where the puree stage is pretty much skipped and babies are encouraged to eat when they are ready to feed themselves, using things they can pick up and chew easily. We have done this to a certain extent, but I think I would say that my children have all liked things like baby rice alongside finger foods - and from my point of view it's a good way for them to practise spoon control without making too much mess!

n.b. This review has previously appeared under my name on ciao.co.uk