when did you start baby on rice cereal?

Question

I know its recommended to not feed your baby anything but milk until 4-6 months but did any of you start earlier feeding rice cereal from a spoon? I have also heard some pediatricians giving the ok starting the baby earlier then 4-6 if they eat too much for there little tummies to handle. when did u start and how did things turn out? thanks

Answer 1

Only if a baby has acid reflux should cereal be started earlier, because the benefits for those babies outweigh the risks. It's recommended to give the baby only breastmilk and/or formula for the first 6 month because that's the only thing a baby needs for nutrition. It's fun to start feeding a baby by spoon, but it's better for them to wait.

Answer 2

My daughter was a very, very large baby and "milk only" was just not enough for her. I started giving her a couple of spoonfuls of rice cereal when she was 4 months old. Her disposition was much better because she wasn't hungry all the time. I started with rice because it is easier to digest. She started sleeping mostly through the night after I gave her the cereal. Hooray!

Answer 3

I never introduced cereal. It is heavily processed, stripped of its nutrients, and then fortified with synthetic iron and vitamins, which can cause problems with the way the body naturally absorbs them from food. I exclusively breastfed for 6 months. At 6 months I tried introducing avocado, but he was completely uninterested. He did not take interest in solids until about 8-9 months. Now at 10 months he mostly nurses and eats some solids, but not much. He will eat avocado, zucchini, cheese tortellini, pears, mangoes, peas, and yogurt.

Answer 4

I started my son on rice cereal at 4 months and stage one baby food at 6 months. It depends on your child, talk to your baby's doctor, he can give you some insight.

Answer 5

I did as ordered- waited until 4 months to even introduce it, and she was eating it by 5-6.

Answer 6

I started at 4 months. She hated cereal moistened with formula... so I had to mix in apple sauce or another Stage 1 food that was sweet. By 5 months - she loved it

Answer 7

when it comes down to it .. it is YOUR baby and when you think he/she needs to be feed cereal then YOU feed it to them.

If the formula or breastmilk is not fulling them up you should feel comfortable starting them on cereal.

My daughter started feeding her son cereal when he was 4 weeks olds..

Answer 8

I never fed my son rice cereal, that stuff is seriously gross have you read what's in it? I wouldn't even feed it to my dog, its junk food full of oils and sugars and chemicals to improve "mouth feel".

I also never spoon fed my son. When babies are old enough to eat non-breastmilk foods, they can feed themselves. Mother nature designed a nice system that way, babies stomaches and their ability to feed themselves develop together.

http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/first-foods.html
Cereal is not at all necessary, particularly the baby cereals. Regular (whole grain) oatmeal is more nutritious for your baby.

http://www.askdrsears.com/faq/ci2.asp
The truth is, there is nothing special about these foods that makes them better to start out with. Babies don't actually even need rice cereal.

http://www.llli.org/FAQ/solids.html
Babies who are ready for solids can usually feed themselves. Mothers often report that they knew their babies were ready when they picked up food from a plate, chewed it, swallowed it, and wanted more.


Guidelines for implementing a baby-led approach to the introduction of solid food
http://www.borstvoeding.com/voedselintroductie/vast_voedsel/rapley_guidelines.html
Many parents worry about babies choking. However, there is good reason to believe that babies are at less risk of choking if they are in control of what goes into their mouth than if they are spoon fed. This is because babies are not capable of intentionally moving food to the back of their throats until after they have learnt to chew. And they do not develop the ability to chew until after they have developed the ability to reach out and grab things. Thus, a very young baby cannot easily put himself at risk because he cannot get the food into his mouth in the first place. On the other hand, the action used to suck food off a spoon tends to take the food straight to the back of the mouth, causing the baby to gag. This means that spoon feeding has its own potential to lead to choking – and makes one wonder about the safety of giving lumpy foods off a spoon.

It appears that a baby's general development keeps pace with the development of his ability to manage food in his mouth, and to digest it. A baby who is struggling to get food into his mouth is probably not quite ready to eat it. It is important to resist the temptation to 'help' the baby in these circumstances since his own developmental abilities are what ensure that weaning takes place at the right pace for him. This process is also what helps to keep him safe from choking on small pieces of food, since, if he is not yet able to pick up small objects using his finger and thumb, he will not be able to get, for example, a pea or a raisin into his mouth. Once he is able to do this, he will almost certainly have developed the necessary oral skills to deal with it. Putting foods into a baby's mouth for him overrides this natural protection and may increase the risk of choking.

Answer 9

rice is easier for the child's stomach to digest.