should i feed my baby cereal and juice?

Question

my baby is four months old and i was wondering when should i start feeding her solids like cereal or diluted juice. I've been exclusivley breast feeding. any ideas or thoughts?

Answer 1

cereal (rice only) can be started at 4 months if your baby is ready for it. Don't force it if they aren't ready. Juice...no not yet. Wait a while to introduce fruits that have not been in its diet yet. introduce them one at a time and a week apart. Juice is totally unnecessary if u ask me. I gave my daughter water when she was thirsty between feediings. Juice is bad for teeth. Everyone is in a big rush to put "real food" in a babies diet. Stick with breat mil as long as you can. When your baby is truly hungry for more, then experiment with cereal, move to veggies, then fruits, then meats. Good luck!!!

Answer 2

At this age, breast milk or an iron fortified infant formula is the only food that your infant needs and he should be nursing or drinking 5-6 ounces 4-6 times each day (24-32 ounces), but you can start to familiarize your infant with the feel of a spoon and introduce solid baby foods.

Cereal is the first solid you should give your infant and you can mix it with breast milk, formula or water and feed it to your him with a spoon (not in a bottle). Start by feeding one tablespoon of an iron-fortified Rice cereal at one feeding and then slowly increase the amount to 3-4 tablespoons one or two times each day. This is a very important source of iron for your growing infant (especially if you are breastfeeding). You can then begin vegetables at about six months of age.


Your infant will probably have given up middle of the night feedings by this age (although some breastfed infants continue to have a feeding in the middle of the night).

If not, slowly reduce how much you are putting in the bottle each night and gradually stop this feeding all together.
Feeding practices to avoid are putting the bottle in bed or propping the bottle while feeding, putting cereal in the bottle, feeding honey, using a low-iron formula or heating bottles in the microwave.

Answer 3

Ok people are gonna be on me about this one but I dont care. Now I'm not telling to feed your child anything that you dont want to but this is what I do: My son is 3 months old and he has been having cereal since he was 6 weeks, YES the ped told me to start him. At about 9 weeks I started him on baby food (yet again ped gave me the ok). So my day goes pretty much: Wake up about 8 and gets a cereal bottle, MAYBE a little 4 oz bottle, around noon half a jar of baby food followed by a 2 hour nap, probably two 6 oz bottles though the day, 630 the rest of the baby food jar, MAYBE another 4 oz bottle, then about 9-930 cereal bottle. He sleeps though the night for me and has been for over a month. I have a healty and happy baby boy. Just talk to your ped and ask him/her what their suggestion is.

Answer 4

My son's Dr. told me that I could start giving him solids when I went in for his four month check up (this was just last month). She said that I could give him rice cereal mixed with 100 percent apple juice (vit. c helps to absorb iron) like juicy juice or the baby juice and that I could start giving him first stage baby food (single ingredients) take your time though, give the baby three days with each food before adding another to make sure there are no allergies. Another thing is that if your baby is having trouble learning how to use a spoon, put the food only on the tip of the spoon and then just put the spoon to their lips rather then in the mouth then they can suck it off of the spoon, it will help them to learn how to swallow the thicker substances. As far as giving your baby juice to drink I would wait on that. And above all else if you have any concerns about weather or not it is the right thing to do for your child, contact your doctor with your questions, they are there to help you and to keep your child healthy.

Answer 5

I started giving my babies cereal at 4 months also,I never had any problems with them,they seemed to be more satisfied especially at night. I didn't give juice until later on probably like 6 months. People are always going to say something you do is wrong but you can't let other people raise your children. Just do for your child what you think is right.

Answer 6

NO please. You would not give a baby puppy a steak.

Babies need their formula or breast milk; only

Babies do not need juice and they sure do not need any solid food until they are at least 6 months. Start with one type of cereal and when you introduce a food only feed that food for some days to be sure the baby is not allergic or having digestive problems

I had all kind of problems with my son because my parents insisted on giving him food when he was 2 months old. He got allergies and digestive problems and it was a mess and lots of doctors visits and bills

Answer 7

I'm not sure about the juice, but my daughter's doctor told me to start her on rice cereal at 4 months because breastmilk is deficient in iron. Rice cereal is fortified with iron. She'll probably push it back out at you with her tongue (using her tounge thrusting reflex) for the first few times you try to feed it to her, but she'll get the hang of it soon. Good luck. Best wishes for you and you're little punkin.

Edited to Add: P.S. Don't worry about allergies with rice cereal...I asked my doctor and did some online research and there are no known allergies to rice...so no worries.

Answer 8

when i had my babies i went to WIC. that stands for Women, Infants & Children. there I learned to feed cereal, rice cereal first, between 6 and 9 months of age. feed wheat cereal at 10 months of age. check with your doctor as to what to feed as far as juices go.

Answer 9

If allergies are a concern, wait as long as possible. If not, 4-6 months is fine. Usually if your child is breastfed vs. formula its best to wait till 6 months because your baby is getting everything she needs from you. Formula feeders need to start earlier because it doesn't contain everything that breastmilk does. It's very close but not the same.

Answer 10

dont give juice unless its apple. orange is too acidic. juice we buy is also loaded with large amounts of sugar, another no no for infants. juice your own apples.

if you are going to give cereals, ensure that they are ground into a dust, so that it is runny. at 4 months old a lump could be still too difficult to swallow.

just try giving your child cooled boiled apple pulp, and see how they go.