Is it wise to feed cereal to a baby from a bottle?

Question

I'm a new mom. Just wanted to know what you thought about this? Or can I just start feeding her cereal when she can sit up? Every doctor has a diffrent opinion. I'm learning you can't really listen to them. You gotta go with your mommy gut. Cause all doctors are not mothers & they just go by a book instead of life. It annoys me especially when my baby is sick. Like the fact she is wheezing but since she didn't do it while at the doctor they assume nothing is wrong. BUt that is just me venting. Sorry to get off the subject.

Answer 1

Cereal is a highly processed solid food. If you put it in a bottle you are force-feeding the baby. WIC will tell you to give cereal at 4 mos (way too early for most babies, but they want you to give less of the expensive formula they are giving you) but most babies are still tongue thrusting and cannot get food to their own mouths yet. There is also a huge choking risk for bottle-fed cereal. A friend of mine teaches infant CPR and she says 90% of choking deaths involve cereal in a bottle. Don't do it. You are right to listen to your mommy gut. Ideally, babies receive nothing but breastmilk (or formula) until they can get themselves in a sitting position and grab food and put it in their own mouth. Studies show babies who are spoon fed (mother controls how much and how often food is taken in) have eating disorders as adults; those who are allowed to make a mess getting food into their own mouths don't get eating disorders. The texture and hand-eye coordination skills while self-feeding aid learning abilities too (they'll be better readers and athletes later). Also, because it is grains and highly processed, cereal is not a good first food. It increases the risk of the baby developing allergies when introduced before the first year is up. (if your baby is already wheezing I would suspect a high risk for allergies--do they run in your family? Skin rashes are an early sign too). Better first foods are those with one ingredient as close as possible to its natural state, ie, a banana, an avocado, a steamed carrot, a steamed potato (no salt or butter or sugar added). Introduce small amounts, one thing at a time. That way if something causes a reaction you will know right away what it is. If at all possible, breastfeed (if your baby will nurse the milk will come back, no matter what age they are) because exclusively breastfed babies do not get sick, or get only mild illnesses. Contact La Leche League for more info. Breastfeeding also protects mom against breast cancer and osteoporosis. Your question is important and I hope my answer was helpful.

Answer 2

American Pediatric suggest against that practice and cereal shouldn't be given until 5 months. Now with that said does your baby have acid reflux? Or did the doctor give you a reason to add the cereal? If he is fine with no reflux, I'd wait a few more months. My son is five months and has had cereal in bottle since he was 4 months. He also started spoon feeding cereal at 3 months. (All by doctor's orders for reflux). My son had no reactions and was a little uncomfortable at first, because his body was not use to digestion the cereal. Rice cereal is very rarely an allergy so I started with that. It is also the easiest to digest. After he was adjusted to the rice in his bottle I started spoon feeding him oatmeal, but have not progressed to barley yet.

Answer 3

I fed my son cereal in a bottle when he showed signs that a bottle wasn't enough for him. You will have to get nipples that have a bigger hole though. You could just try feeding her cereal from a bowl too. It has been a while for me, but I think my kids were about 4-5 months old before I started feeding them cereal. Good luck!

Answer 4

I have heard before that adding cereal in the bottle can help a baby sleep at night.. who knows?

Now I hear that it's NOT good to put cereal in a bottle. Babies shouldn't have cereal until they are about 5-6 months old and can sit up on their own.

Answer 5

i have to put cereal in my daughters bottle she has really bad reflux and wasn't gaining any weight so i had to start putting it in her bottle to thicken the formula and now she eats much better and it stays down. 1 tsp per 2 oz of formula. and when the baby starts to sit up you can feed it thru a spoon.

Answer 6

I would not feed from a bottle, just make the cereal really watery and try to spoon feed, it will reduce bacteria in the baby's mouth. Good luck, I know what you are going through.

Answer 7

Actually, there is a lot more at stake than choking concerns when giving babies cereal in a bottle.

Giving cereal at all before 4 months of age increases risk of food allergies. It can also cause anemia. A babies intestines are not fully formed at birth and are still slightly porous until around 4-6 months...cereal can invade these pores and cause a multitude of problems. It is also one of the reasons that Mother's milk is best .

It is also a complete myth that cereal helps babies sleep. The truth is that about the time a new mother gets fed up enough to try cereal in the bottle, the baby is actually developmentally ready to sleep longer.

Answer 8

Cereal should never be fed in a bottle unless it is recommended by a doc for a baby with reflux.

The point of starting solids is to get baby used to different tastes and textures. They should always be given on a spoon (or finger foods for older babies). Solids in the first year are really mostly for fun and practice. Breastmilk or formula should remain the main source of nutrition.

Solids shouldn't be offered until closer to 6 mos of age, per the AAP. Baby's tummy isn't ready to digest it until around then. Also, starting too early can increase baby's chances of allergies, diabetes and obesity.

Answer 9

Feeding cereal in a bottle is dangerous -- they can choke on it.
make it watery and use a tiny spoon, a teeny bit at a time.

Answer 10

In my opinion, from all other opinions plus mine that i've gathered I really dont think its a great idea. I didn't give cereal in the bottle to either of my kids and they are gorwing just fine.

When my son was 5 months old and he could sit up on his own, and 8 ounce bottles werent filling him up enough at night, then i started spoon feeding him cereal once a day around dinner time. By 6 months he was eating two meals a day along with bottle feeding inbetween.

My daughter is almost 6 months and I havent yet put her on any solids. Shes not even drinking 8 ounce bottles yet and is sleeping through the night, so I dont see the need. Shes not missing out on anything because the formula gives her everything she needs.

I do know someone, a friend of mine, who started putting cereal in her daughters bottle from 6 weeks of age and now that baby is very large in size. Our daughters are just 1 a couple months apart and her daughter is much much MUCH larger and chubbier than mine. So...thats just a thought.

Hope that helps. Good luck.

Answer 11

I started feeding all 3 of my boys cereal out of cereal bottle (nipple has bigger hole and the bottom suctions up as they suck the cereal out) when they were just about three weeks old.
Only at bedtime and they all slept all through the night from then on. I usually done everything a lot earlier than doctors recommended with all 3 boys. They are all very healthy, very intelligent, young men.