When is it ok to feed my baby cereal? I?

Question

Is that what I should start with or is it ok to start with fruit and vegs? I've read that I should wait until 4months. She is 3months 3 weeks and is consuming about 51/2 ounces every 4 hrs. About 25-27 ounces daily. In the morning she is still hungry after her bottle or iis ready for more about 1-2 hrs later. I've read plenty and am still unsure since all children are different

Answer 1

I can only tell you what i did... I started with gerber rice cereal, it's supposed to be the easiest to digest. Every baby is different and every doctor has a different opinion. If your baby still is acting hungry soon after a feeding see if giving her more formula will help. If that doesn't work then I am a firm believer in trusting your baby. Try a tablespoon of rice cereal in a 6oz bottle, you might need to go up in the nipple size to accommodate the increased thickness. your baby probably to small to take the cereal from a spoon still. Just go in small amounts to start off with. If you add to much cereal to soon your baby might have problems with constipation. Trust your baby he or she knows if they are still hungry. my oldest son started taking cereal in his bottle at 8wks old because he was hungry all the time. He is now 21 and 6'3'', he has never been heavy which is what the doctors say will happen. Trust your instincts..

Answer 2

25-27 oz daily is not too much formula/breastmilk, try upping her bottles from 5 1/2 oz to 8 oz, and see how she does. Whatever you do, do NOT put rice cereal (or any other kind of cereal or baby food) in your baby's bottle, this can cause your baby to choke. Yes, our parents did a lot of crazy things to us when we were children, but that doesn't mean that we should ignore studies that have been done since then to prove what our parents did was wrong. My mother was never in a carseat as a baby, she grew up just fine, but does that mean that she didn't put me in a carseat? No, because that's ridiculous.

The longer you hold off on starting solids, the better your chances of avoiding serious food allergies later. I would wait until your child is at least 6 months old, that's what I did with my now 2 year old. At the very least, wait until your baby is 4 months old and you've been given the go ahead by your doctor to start solids. Your baby might still have the tongue thrust reflex (where if you put something other than a nipple or bottle in their mouth they push it out with their tongue) so trying to feed the baby food is really useless until they stop doing that.

When starting solids, start with something simple, like rice cereal (which you can make on your own by the way, very easily!) Give each new food 4 days before introducing another new food, this will help you make sure there aren't any allergic reactions to the foods. Certain foods should be approached with care, such as prunes and pears because a little causes BIG poops!

If you're at all interested in making your own baby food, try the book "Super Baby Food" by Ruth Yaron. It's a fantastic resource on how to make, store, and serve your own baby food. You really don't want to do the meal plan because it's far too much food for a toddler, let alone a baby, but there is a lot of practical advice in there that doesn't apply to only babies.

Answer 3

All baby's are different.
If you feed her a bottle and she is still hungry; then you should try to fix that problem.
So, you can do a couple of things -
1 ) start with rice cereal, don't add fruits or flavors yet.
The goal right now is to "Put a little weight" into her feedings" so that she feels fuller and more satisfied.
2) Then you can either - mix a little cereal in her milk and weight her milk down OR mix it separate and feed it to her by spoon.

My 2nd daughter had horrible reflux on day three - she couldn't keep the milk down - she would eat and eat and never get full but too much milk would explode out of her. So I mixed a little rice cereal in to help her feel fuller so I could reduce the milk intake. She immediately got better, felt better, and I was able to better maintain a feeding schedule for her.

I hope my experience helps,
Good luck.

Answer 4

I am absolutely astounded that people on the internet give such bad advice!!

The World Health Organisation recommends to not give babies any additional food until 6 months of age.

Why? Because it reduces the risk of allergies & a young babies digestive system is not fully developed until that age.

First food should be an extremely watery & basic rice cereal (diluted with boiled water/breast milk/formula).
Plain stewed/pureed fruit should be added much later on mixed with the rice cereal.

DONOT under any circumstances give any products containing honey - babies have died due to a bacteria found in honey products.

If you have any questions regarding your baby ask you local childcare nurse or maternal community nurse or your paediatrician (if you have one). An internet forum is not a reliable souce of information.

Allergies have risen sharply in the past 2 decades, hence why recommendations have now changed. It really is not fun for a child (or a parent for that matter) to have the extra burden of suffering from allergies.

Answer 5

give her some rice cereal from gerber. It will fill her up plus help her sleep. I put about a 1/4 inch in my grand daughters 8 ounce bottle. Make sure u shake it up good and it can come through the nipple. If it doesn't then dump some out and add more formula. also if she keeps crying for no reason and u think she has a stomach ache then put part of a candycane in warm h20 or full strenght peppermint oil from the bakery isle.

Answer 6

Usually the advice is to wait till 4 mos, then to start with rice cereal, because that is the least allergenic food. If your baby is still hungry, or is getting hungry too quickly, I don't think one week is going to make any difference. When my kids were babies the pediatrician told me that the tongue-thrust reflex did not go away till about 4 months.

Answer 7

You can introduce cereal now...When we were kids our parents fed us cereal at 2-3 weeks old and we survived. Just offer a little at a time. And pick one....rice is the easiest on the belly. I have my daughter rice from 2 days old. She had it mixed in her bottles. At 3-4 months I made it and fed it with a spoon. She's a healthy 16 months now.
Didn't start the fruits & veggies till 4 months.
Watch for constipation if you do too much cereal w/out fruits & veggies.

Answer 8

4-6 months. 1 teaspoon/tablespoon (oops not sure on that). You can put it in the bottle...but that means modifying the nipple or just go ahead and give it to them in the bowl. It is just an introductory food at this point. But something my mom said...because my babe has the fat thighs!:) Is that once we start feeding our babies..they wont stop. So take it slow. Talk to your pediatrician. I would try to push it to 6 months.
Also my girl will have 5 ounce and then a couple more a couple hours later... they call this feeding style "the grazer".

So give her the "extra" or are you using the right nipple size? Sometimes they may be trying to hard to get the food to they get pooped and stop. Or...lol...teething?

Answer 9

The reccomendation is to wait until 6 months. At 27 oz shes taking in way less than alot of babies her age... feed her when she gets hungery!

Answer 10

If she is drinking that much milk then it is time for cereal because the formula is not filling her up.

I know so many people that started their babies on cereal when they were 4 weeks old and baby food at 2 months.
It will not hurt anything to give a baby that age cereal in their bottle or just a bit of baby food.
http://www.gerber.com