when starting my breastfed baby on solids, do i have to start with rice cereal or can i start with vegies?

Question

I tried rice cereal at first, but it seems to make my baby constipated... my baby is five and a half months and has been breastfed only. I was going to wait till six months to start solids but he has shown a real interest in our food and when I fed him some rice cereal to see how he does, he loved it. He wanted more and more but I only gave him a teaspoon full because that's what I have read you should start them with. After only two night-time feedings of one teaspoon full rice cereal followed by breastmilk, my baby stopped pooing for a week!!! I stopped the rice cereal after the two feedings because he didn't go and I thought that was strange. We had to give him a glycerine suppository which worked. He went the day we gave it him and the next day and now it's been five days again since he has had a bowel movement and I am becoming concerned again. I really would like to be able to start the solids because my breastmilk is very low at night and he still seems very hungry.

Answer 1

There is NO need for rice cereal for any baby, not to mention have you read what is in it? If you *really* want to introduce rice as a first food you can make your own rice cereal from whole grain rice and it would be more nutritious and less constipating because it won't contain synthetic iron. However grains as a first food, particularly for the breastfed baby is a dubious idea as grains are poorly digested. Grains are also poor source of protein, fat, and zinc which babies need to properly grow and for proper brain development.

In my opinion the best way to start solids is with baby-led introduction to solids. This allows a baby to feed themselves and therefore take advangtage of the babies in-built protection against eating before they are ready, over eating, etc. Baby-led is also more fun and less stressful for most babies and among the moms I know (admittedly not a huge number) it seems to prevent picky eaters:
http://www.borstvoeding.com/voedselintroductie/vast_voedsel/rapley_guidelines.html

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
Why do health care professionals choose these starting foods when they know they will make most babies constipated? Good question. Even my own Baby Book lists these as starting foods.

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/firstfoods.html
Commercial, iron-fortified cereals are often the first foods served to babies who are not breastfeeding because they need the extra iron, but breastfed babies are rarely anemic as the iron in human milk is well-utilized. If there is concern about the baby's iron levels, a simple test can be done in the doctor's office.

Whole grain cereals, breads and crackers are the most nutritious. Wait until later in the year before offering wheat products. If you use cereals, make sure that they only have one ingredient and use either water or your own milk for mixing. Many mothers prefer to let their older babies chew on a hard bagel or an end of bread instead of sugary teething biscuits.

http://www.westonaprice.org/children/nourish-baby.html
Finally, respect the tiny, still-developing digestive system of your infant. Babies have limited enzyme production, which is necessary for the digestion of foods. In fact, it takes up to 28 months, just around the time when molar teeth are fully developed, for the big-gun carbohydrate enzymes (namely amylase) to fully kick into gear. Foods like cereals, grains and breads are very challenging for little ones to digest. Thus, these foods should be some of the last to be introduced. (One carbohydrate enzyme a baby's small intestine does produce is lactase, for the digestion of lactose in milk.1)

[...]

Babies do produce functional enzymes (pepsin and proteolytic enzymes) and digestive juices (hydrochloric acid in the stomach) that work on proteins and fats.12 This makes perfect sense since the milk from a healthy mother has 50-60 percent of its energy as fat, which is critical for growth, energy and development.13 In addition, the cholesterol in human milk supplies an infant with close to six times the amount most adults consume from food.13 In some cultures, a new mother is encouraged to eat six to ten eggs a day and almost ten ounces of chicken and pork for at least a month after birth. This fat-rich diet ensures her breast milk will contain adequate healthy fats.14

http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/delay-solids.html
Protein digestion is incomplete in infancy. Gastric acid and pepsin are secreted at birth and increase toward adult values over the following 3 to 4 months. The pancreatic enzyme amylase does not reach adequate levels for digestion of starches until around 6 months, and carbohydrate enzymes such as maltase, isomaltase, and sucrase do not reach adult levels until around 7 months. Young infants also have low levels of lipase and bile salts, so fat digestion does not reach adult levels until 6-9 months.


http://www.westonaprice.org/children/nourish-baby.html
In the US, Dr. Nancy Krebs headed up a large infant growth study that found breastfed infants who received puréed or strained meat as a primary weaning food beginning at four to five months grew at a slightly faster rate. Kreb's study suggests that inadequate protein or zinc from common first foods may limit the growth of some breastfed infants during the weaning period. More importantly, both protein and zinc levels were consistently higher in the diets of the infants who received meat.16 Thus, the custom of providing large amounts of cereals and excluding meats before seven months of age may short-change the nutritional requirements of the infant.17

http://www.llli.org/llleaderweb/LV/LVDec99Jan00p130.html
If protein, zinc, or other nutrients are not provided in solid foods, the amount a baby receives from breast milk could be insufficient for optimal growth during the weaning period. Therefore, adding meat to the diet early in the weaning period may be beneficial.

Meat provides additional protein, zinc, B-vitamins, and other nutrients which may be in short supply when the decrease in breast milk occurs. A recent study from Sweden suggests that when infants are given substantial amounts of cereal, it may lead to low concentrations of zinc and reduced calcium absorption (Persson 1998). Dr. Nancy Krebs has shared preliminary results from a large infant growth study suggesting that breastfed infants who received pureed or strained meat as a primary weaning food beginning at four to five months, grow at a slightly faster rate. Dr. Krebs' premise is that inadequate protein or zinc from complementary foods may limit the growth of some breastfed infants during the weaning period. Both protein and zinc levels were consistently higher in the diets of the infants who received meat (Krebs 1998). Thus the custom of providing large amounts of cereal products and excluding meat products before seven months of age may not meet the nutritional needs of all breastfed infants.

http://www.enlink.org/pt/re/nestle/abstract.00005176-200201000-00009.htm;jsessionid=GnMLmQXlG1np2wnnlZZx2n2zJJy10ppGVhdm8w85X7jv1cscTQxw!29071008!181195628!8091!-1
Conclusions: These results confirm that meat as a complementary food for breast-fed infants can provide a rich source of dietary zinc that is well absorbed. The significant positive correlation between zinc intake and exchangeable zinc pool size suggests that increasing zinc intake positively affects metabolically available zinc.

Answer 2

Poor baby glycerine suppository!! Put a little sugar or Karo syrup in his rice cereal. It'll do the job naturally. Or give him an ounce of apple juice.

You don't have to use rice cereal, but it is very digestible. I mixed a tablespoon or two of green beans (gerber) or applesauce (gerber) or peas, just any of the easily digested types of baby food. Stay away from yams (gassy) and squash until he's a little older.

Babies think that they're still hungry with the rice cereal because it expands in their stomach once it meets other fluids.

My mother tells me she knew it would happen, but I would scream because I was hungry after 6 oz of formula + rice. So she'd give me another 2 oz which would stay down for 10 minutes and then come back up (not vomit, just like it went in) as the rice expanded and I was too full.

I'm not telling you that your son isn't still hungry. A little spoon of rice is not very much. Just take it slowly (feed him slowly) so his body can tell him he's not hungry before he reaches the overfull stage.

Don't let him go more than 3 days without a bowel movement. That IS time for glycerin suppository. I just hate them because I've had to use them on myself before.

There is a product on the market called "Miralax." I can't imagine it not being safe for babies, but check that first. You sprinkle it on your food, it becomes undetectable, but it promotes moisture in the lower digestive tract, and works like a charm with NO side effects at all. I'm chronically constipated, and I can't use Miralax every day or I get the runs.

I'd like to tell you that I am a writer by profession. My book was published privately for use as school curriculum, 31 stories. So if I seem long-winded, I come by it honestly.

Take care.

Debbie
Not an expert

Answer 3

Certainly, cut the rice cereal - also Miralax is best avoided as it's been linked with ADHD amongst other things.

Answer 4

Don't bother with the boxed startch. My kids both started on veggies. it broadens their palates far more than flavorless goo does and has far more nutritional value.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article2067856.ece

http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/solids-when.html

http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/delay-solids.html