Breastfeeding,Water,Juice,Cereal....?

Question

I have a 2 month old daughter who I have been solely breastfeeding. I plan on continuing also! I just want to know from other breastfeeding mothers...do you ever give your babies juice or water or add cereal or anything like that? I know I can ask my doctor this but I just want to know from other mothers. If so at what age did you start?

Answer 1

You should not give your baby anything to eat or drink other than breastmilk/formula for the first 6 months. It is all they need!
When you do introduce more to drink, don't give so much that they don't want the breastmilk/formula. If you give juice, you should dilute it with water, and baby should not ave more than 4oz of juice per day.

Answer 2

it is best to wait to give your baby solids till later on. do not put baby cereal in their bottle, eating is a learned habit sucking(drinking) is natural so it isnt good to mix the two. if the baby is getting the food by drinking it it will be harder to teach them how to eat solids (thats why when they first eat solids most of it ends on them not in their mouth because there natural response is to push it out with their tongue.) also dont start baby food until at least four months. doctors believe newborns are born with an "open gut" which means allergens from the food passes through their stomach into their system which makes the baby more likely to develop food allergies. Water is unnessasarry because they get all their water from your milk. if a baby has too much water it can surround their brain which could be fatal. i am three months pregnant and plan on solely breastfeeding till four months but my sister has a five month old and he has been on cereal in a bottle since two weeks, drinking water since he came home from the hospital, and on baby foods since 2 months old! he seems fine but really cranky and he spits up ALOT, more than any baby should! i have a six month cousin and her mom followed the guidelines i plan on doing and the baby rarley spits up and is always happy. it might just be a coincidence that they were raised differently and are complete opposites because of it but im sure mason would be a happier baby if he wasnt stuffed to the brim with all the things he is eating!

Answer 3

I started cereal with my first at 6 months.

I have not and will not give my 8 month old baby cereal, it's processed cereal flake-food from a box, if he needs rice he'll get RICE. He started solids when he reached out and took some sweet potatoes from my plate a couple weeks ago.

My first got diluted juice at 12 months.
My 8 month old will not get any additional liquids until he's over 12 months as well.

Your breastmilk is perfect, your baby doesn't need sugar water or processed flakes.

Answer 4

i was told that my daughter didn't need water or any other supplement, that breastmilk provides everything she needs. I started giving her water around 5-6 months...but more so that she could experiment drinking from a sippy cup. (she never got a bottle--since i stayed home) As far as rice cereal goes, i started her on it exactly at 6 months--which she loved! Then, as she went down the line of different solids, she ended up constipated, which is why i finally gave her juice for the first time. (Yahoo Answers told me to give her a bit of apple juice diluted with water to help with her constipation.
hope this helped!

Answer 5

I was advised not to give juice before my daughter turns one, unless she is constipated...then, juice diluted with lots of water. It can cause tooth decay and obesity. I didn't start giving my daughter water until she started eating solids at 4 months...and then, it was just a tiny bit. At about 6 months...she was drinking water from her sippy cup - and has mastered that now at 8 months. She is still breastfed.

Answer 6

No, not at 2 months. I strictly breastfed for the first 4 or 5 months until they needed more and started with rice and oatmeal cereal mixed with breastmilk..always fed by spoon and never mixed in a bottle...I didn't introduce juice or fruit until after introducing veggies (at about 6 months) so they didn't get used to the sweet taste and become adverse to veggies.

Answer 7

No, they say that babies have no need for juice at a young age, a little water just to wet the mouth sure, but most babies don't start until about 4 months on light baby cereal, it depends on babies some take longer to adjust to solids. My son was good eater and I would thicken his formula with baby cereal at 4 months which also helped him sleep all night...

Answer 8

my breast baby is almost 6 months

at 4 months she became very grabby for water....so i would let her lap out of my cup of water but i don't give it to her in a bottle

just this week i offered her first real solids other than just licks off my finger

i put her in her high chair and gave her half of a banana....she grabbed onto it went to town!.....she made a mess....but she really enjoyed feeding herself and sucking and biting on the banana......then i offered her a slice of avocado

today i gave her a piece of my pancake

do some research on baby led weaning that totally skips over the cereal crap and spoon feeding

when they are developmentally ready for solids they can hold the food and put it in their mouths all by themselves and sit up with little support

hope that helps!

Answer 9

Yay for breastfeeding! Anyways I gave my daughter apple juice (water down) at about two months old she had problems with her poo, and it was okayed by the ped. Now she is almost seven months old and still gets a little juice everyday. She never has liked the cereal.

Answer 10

Don`t give your kids juice. However `natural`, all fruit juices (and fruit) have loads of sugars in them and will rot away at the teeth. My brother was allowed to have apple juice when he was a baby, and had to get a lot of dental work done because much of his tooth enamel was worn away.