Help! How Do I Pick A Pasta?
Pasta! A beloved family favourite in many households. Once you start serving it to your little one it often opens up the door for more family style meals that you can all enjoy together.
But…what pasta should you use? How do you cook or serve it? Does it cause constipation?
Who would have thought that pasta could ever be a confusing or controversial food….but there are so many types out there and also lots of misinformation around wheat and intolerances when it comes to starting solids. The low carb “keto” movement has also really had a go at poor old pasta too, painting this easy to cook and delicious food as a bit of a villain.
So, should you be giving your bub pasta?
When it comes to feeding your little one, there are very few times we use the word SHOULD here. There are a few hard rules around safety when it comes to feeding babies but in general, we are 100% behind any approach that makes feeding kids less work for you and that best aligns with the way you already feed your family. So, if pasta is something that you already eat regularly then you definitely SHOULD feel like you can offer and include it as part of your bubs diet.
Pasta- is it an allergen?
Traditionally, pasta is made from a wheat flour, which is a top 9 allergen. Pasta can be a simple and easy way to introduce your bub to wheat though, by offering a small amount and monitoring for a reaction. Check out our blog on introducing allergens if you want to know more about how to do this.
It is also important to read the label before serving up pasta because some brands can also contain egg, milk or soy. If you haven’t already introduced these foods, you might also be exposing your bub to another top 9 allergen without knowing. However, if you have already introduced these foods to your bub without issue then there is no need to avoid pasta with these ingredients.
If you have a wheat free bub, thankfully there are so many options available for you now- we will go through some of these in a minute.
How about intolerance and constipation?
A lot of parents worry that grains are the cause of constipation for their little one. Bread and pasta often get a bad rap as causing major digestive issues and parents worry their bub is intolerant and quickly rush to cut out wheat containing foods. Often constipation isn’t that simple though and it could be a number of other things.
Check out our constipation guide (this is an excellent starting spot) but if your bub is still really struggling then book in for a 1:1 consult so we can work out what is going on. In most cases you will be happily surprised to hear that you little one doesn’t need to avoid wheat altogether.
The benefits of pasta- let’s chat nutrition:
Pasta is an excellent source of carbohydrates, which are the main fuel source for the body. On its own it doesn’t offer a complete meal, but it sure does offer an energy boost and make an excellent addition to your bubs plate. Add in our iron rich pesto or a lentil and beef Bolognese and you are on your way to building a beautifully balanced meal for your bub. Serve a couple of veggies on the side and what a perfect little meal!
There are so many great pasta options on the market now that boost the nutritional value of the humble pasta dish even more. You can purchase pulse, quinoa, buckwheat and rice pasta these days so let’s do a little run down of how they differ when it comes to nutrition!
The following table is there as a quick guide and comparison per 100g of different types of pasta. We have used specific brand here to compare nutrition labels, but you will find that each brand is representative of the types of pasta i.e most red lentil or white pastas will be similar.
For wheat free bubs, look for pulse (lentil/legume), rice or corn pasta.
| Pasta type | Energy | Protein | Fibre | Sodium |
| Vetta Smart Fibre Kids Dino Pasta | 1479kJ | 12.5g | 6.4g | 7mg |
| KIC red lentil | 1541kJ | 26g | 10g | 15mg |
| San Reno Chickpea pasta | 1480kJ | 18g | 9g | 12mg |
| Coles white pasta | 1490kJ | 12g | 4g | 35mg |
| Orgran gluten free veggie penne (corn, rice, sweet potato, kale) | 1520kJ | 7.7g | 2.9g | 14mg |
| Brown rice pasta San Remo | 1520kJ | 8g | 2.5g | 12mg |
| Wholemeal pasta San Remo | 1510kJ | 15g | 9g | 30mg |
The breakdown:
The take home:
Specialty pastas are expensive and not necessary to include but can also be a great way to offer more variety as well as protein, fibre and even texture into your bubs diet.
Some suggestions to help you serve it
6 months/when starting solids:
Choose large pasta shapes that are easy to grab in bub’s fist, for example fettucine cut into strips, large shells or spirals
We love spirals because they hold onto the sauce
Pasta can be very slippery for bub to grab, so coating it in a thicker sauce like our iron rich pesto can help with this or adding in some flax meal to thicken your sauce so it sticks to pasta a little easier
Over cook the pasta so that is it nice and soft (think an extra few mins). Check by attempting to fork mash or squish the pasta in your fingers to check it isn’t still firm inside
If you don’t feel confident offering whole pieces of pasta BLW style, you can fork mash the pasta or start with something like a risoni
Risoni is a great little pasta (it looks like rice) that soaks up all the flavour of the sauce when you cook it. It also sticks well to the spoon, so is perfect for preloading and supporting independent spoon feeding by babies
If you go for a cylinder shape like rigatoni or penne, these shapes can be trickier for bubs new to solids. You may need to really cook the pasta and even cut the cylinder open or chop it up. If your bub struggles with this style of pasta come back to it in a few weeks.
7-9 months:
As bub is more confident with pasta and is getting used to chewing food you can look at cooking the pasta a little less (so it isn’t falling apart) and offering different/smaller types of pasta
Pincer grip is starting to develop around the 9-month mark. With the pincer grip developing you can use pasta as an opportunity to practice by offering smaller pasta styles like macaroni
9-12+ months:
Moving towards offering pasta as you would for your family
One meal at the same time is the way to go when you can
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