Published: Thursday, April 8, 2021 A baby eating rice cereal. Photo credit: Phong Duong/Unsplash Rice cereal is often one of the first foods introduced to babies. What many parents don't know is that the Food and Drug Administration allows 10 times as much arsenic in rice cereal as in other products. Phong Duong/Unsplash This story was updated at 2:55 p.m. EDT. When parents first serve solid foods to their babies, they often turn to infant rice cereal. The iron-fortified mix is nutritious and relatively easy to feed babies unaccustomed to spoons or strong flavors. But the Food and Drug Administration allows 10 times as much arsenic in this favored first food as it does in other products, like bottled water and apple juice — despite the fact that, as a neurotoxin, arsenic can have an outsize impact on babies, whose brains are still developing.