when did you start giving your baby rice cereal and how much did you give?

Question

i know they say to wait till at least 4 months, but people keep telling me to supplement my 11 week old with cereal since he is really large. who on here gave their baby cereal before 4 months?

um, to sarah: i do look up facts. i just wanted to ask advice, which is what this site is for. jeez...

Answer 1

The earliest I have ever given my kids rice cereal was 3 1/2 months. Don't listen to the people telling you to give it to your baby, even if he is large. My kids were 9lb 14oz, 9lb 8oz, and 10lb 3oz at birth. My youngest (who is 4 months old now) is just now starting cereal. He weighed 16 1/2 pounds at his 2 month check up, and all that he has had until now is breast milk.
When he gets closer to 4 months old just put a little in a baby bowl and mix with formula or breast milk...The instructions say to mix 1 tablespoon of cereal with 4 tablespoons of liquid, but I would make more than that!

Answer 2

I'm not a mum...but I do care for my nieces which are now 5 years and 3 months old. My mum reccommended my sister in law to give my twin 3 month old nieces foods...rice and baby food when they came home from the hospital. Now one of the twin girls wont take the formula. All she wants is fruit. I think they introduced foods too early. The only way I can get her to take milk at all is by mixing cereal and fruit with it. I don't like doing that all the time but she wont even take the formula when she's really hungry...I feel bad like I'm starving her.

Don't listen to them.

Answer 3

It's actually suggested that you wait until 6 months now, since the only thing a baby needs for the first 6 months is breastmilk/formula. The very earliest it should even be given, except in cases of acid reflux, is 4 months, but even then it's not needed. It should be given by a spoon, never never in a bottle. The fact that your baby is large means he's getting adequate nutrition from his milk. Everyone in my field agrees with this, including doctors and the cereal manufactures. Anyone who gives it earlier is doing it against medical advice.

Answer 4

I believe that you need to wait until your baby is showing signs of wanting to eat food. Babies that are interested in food will stare at you eating and like their lips or try to get hold of it.
I have 2 toddlers and they both started solids at around 4 months. My older one would scream every time an adult ate food in front him (I went against the health nurses wishes to feed him before 6 months), whereas, the younger one was started on solids because he had reflux and wouldn't keep anything down (This was the health nurses wishes and later I regretted it - because his reflux didn't go away until he was 10 months old).
I would keep the baby on just milk until at least 4 months - the general advice given these days it to wait until the baby is 6 months (but some babies just won't wait). Most babies wont have the reflexes to swallow food until they are about 4-5 months.

Answer 5

Never, baby cereal is full of fats, sugar, and disgusting chemicals to improve "mouth feel"

I gave my son solids when he was developmentally ready for them, which is to say when he could pick them up, gum them, use his tongue to move the food back in his mouth and swallow it. For my son that was 6 months, almost all babies are developmentally ready between 6-9 months, though some with allergies will refuse solids until age 1 or later.

Giving babies REAL food, that they must chew and has texture and flavour prevents you from having to reteach them later on. None of the moms I know that did baby-led introduction to solids have picky eaters at all. My 14 month old will eat anything and always has. People never believe me when we are out at a party and they ask what they can give him, and I say anything on the table. He loves garlic and spice (and sadly lately loves cookies).

Spoon feeding increases the risks of choking, and may increase the risks of allergies and obesity.

More on baby-led introduction to solids (AKA the way it was done before baby books and the baby food industry AKA the lazy way):
http://www.borstvoeding.com/voedselintroductie/vast_voedsel/rapley_guidelines.html

Answer 6

I did. I started at about 3 months, cause he always seemed hungry. I put a lil amount in his formula in his bottle. I can only imagine what people are gonna say about that, but oh well. My mother did it with me and my brother and she suggested it and I did it. It really helped him to not be so fussy from being hungry all the time. It helped him sleep longer too. I put so little in his milk that it was still like liquid. I did have to make the hole in his bottle nipple a little bit larger but just a tiny bit! It worked for my baby.

Answer 7

My children were breast fed and started on rice cereal once a day at 5 months.

Answer 8

Our pediatrician recommended rice cereal at 5 1/2 months, so we could report how it went at baby's 6-month checkup. Before that breast milk was all he needed and all he got. (When you do start 1-2 T dry rice cereal mixed with breast milk or formula - runny at first, thicker with time.)

Answer 9

whilst they are able to establish assisted (you protecting them around the tummy) and carry they head up they are able to have rice, that's around 3.5 - 4 months. And infants have a reflex to push to push issues out of their mouths with their tongue and in the event that they do no longer try this they are each and every so often waiting for rice. yet continually ask the traditional practitioner first.

Answer 10

6 months!

and aside from cereals you can also grind bananas, boiled potatoes, boiled egg. Grind it on a plate using spoon.

this is the best snack in the morning around 9am-11am after taking a bath.