Veggies & fruits instead of cereals for first foods???

[natividad]

Since we started DS on solids he has been constipated. I know that it is quite normal for rice cereal to do that and for babies to have less bowel movements than when they were newborns. Before we started solids two weeks ago, DS used to have between 1 and 3 bowel movements a day (he is excluvisely breastfed).

Then we started cereal and mind you, I have only given it to him about 4 times in a two week period, then boom, he is constipated. We tried a glycerin suppository and it did not work until like 8 hours later.

I have stopped the rice cereal and am giving whole grain oatmeal instead, but his has made no difference. This is a shame because he really seems to enjoy both kinds of cereal. BTW, my ped's office recommendation is to give prune juice everyday, which I am kind of hesitant about because afterall it is still jiuce and I don't want to get him used to it.

I am now thinking of just doing veggies and fruits to see what happens. I am thinking of sweet potatoes, bananas, squash, etc. I was wondering what else I should/could give him at 5 1/2 months?

TIA,
Naty

[COElizabeth]

Avocado is another good one to try early on and is a nice change from the sweeter fruits and veggies. FWIW, applesauce helps a lot when James is constipated.

Elizabeth
Mom to James
9-20-02

[C99]

Well, bananas are supposed to be "binding," but both times I've given them to Nate, he's pooped at his regular time. For cereals, you might try oatmeal, which usually has the opposite effect of rice cereal, if you know what I mean.

[Rachels]

Grains of any kind are harder to digest than fruits and veggies. He might not be quite ready for them, intestinally speaking. I'd skip the cereals for now and try other stuff. For my next child, I won't bother with rice cereal at all, and will probably hold off on grains altogether until at least nine months.

-Rachel
Mom to Abigail Rose
5/18/02

[smkinc]

My son has always been a reluctant pooper--sometimes only going once/week before solids, but the Dr. said as long as his pooh was the right consistency (peanut butter or less firm), then there was nothing to worry about.

Once we started solids, he poohs more frequently, but now I can tell when he's constipated because he will put forth the effort and no pooh. I found some pureed prunes (Gerber 1st foods brand) at a Walmart and tried those and that more than solved the problem.


Mary

[luvbeinmama]

If he's constipated (a problem I've never had with my kids) I would try the 1st stage prunes. Or peaches as they seem to have a similar effect. I started DD with veggies and fruits and she's doing just fine. I've only given her oatmeal in the cereal category. I think the cereal gets pushed for the iron content (as well as being relatively innoccuous on the allergy front), but there is enough iron in formula and bm IMO. I don't think it's necessary to get it in cereal.

[rplum]

The only food that has made my ds constipated was sweet potatoes. I found that green beans and peas were the least constipating, then carrots and squash. Supposedly bananas are constipating, but it seems to be helping my ds poop. I usually mix some mushed up bananas with baby oatmeal. I also noticed once I switched from rice to oatmeal cereal, my ds didn't strain as much to poop. Gerber 1st food prunes have also helped, but my ds doesn't seem to like the taste.

Hope this helps,

Rhoda
Mom to R.J. 2/27/03

[Marisa6826]

Hi Naty!

We completely bypassed the cereals and went right to fruits and veggies.

Sophie has always been an "occasional" pooper - usually every few days or so. I try and give her very diluted apple juice (25% juice,75% water) and it usually works. It would probably also work with the prune juice.

We have succeeded with sweet potatoes, carrots, bananas, pears, apple sauce, etc.

If you can get him to eat that stuff, then maybe mix in a little cereal? I just figured that if she's already onto the "good" stuff, the cereal isn't that big a deal. My ped basically said that Sophie can have anything and everything with the exception of the regular no-nos (peanut butter, egg whites, etc.) I know that Beth said that we should still go with really thick cereal, but I just haven't done it yet :o

Good luck!

-m

[peanut4us]

Would you start the next one on any solids then before 6 months? The whole reason we even bothered startign her was that she hadn't gained any weight in over a month from 3-4 month age, so when she had her 4 month check up, the ped said to try solids.

We've only had her eat cereal so far, and I don't think she is actually swallowing much yet. But she sure enjoys opening her mouth for the spoon, gumming it, then gumming the cereal texture, then back out it comes. All this with a big grin and a look like... another bite please!

I don't know that it's even worth it at this point, so I'm hesitant to give her other solids too.

[Rachels]

I'd hold off as long as humanly possible next time. Solids don't provide nearly the nutrition of breastmilk and aren't really going to help with weight gain. (A few spoonfuls of rice will fill a baby up so that she doesn't nurse as much, but what's in rice? Nothing much. Better to nurse.) Also, I think next time, I'd be more responsive to the cues of the baby's body. Abigail got constipated, too, and I tried to fix it with other foods. Now when I look back on that, I think that it was pretty obvious that her little belly was just not ready for what I was asking it to do. Why push? She'll be eating solids for the rest of her life, and waiting a few months on this end won't cost her a thing.

-Rachel
Mom to Abigail Rose
5/18/02

[natividad]

Thank you all for your feedback! Well, DS is still constipated even though I stopped all cereals last week. Since then, I have not given him any solids, just BM, but still no poop.

He will not take any prune juice or any other juices for that matter. I baked him a sweet potatoe today and will try it for lunch.

Rachel, I am wondering if his body is really telling me he is not quite ready for solids? I am very confused. He is ready in the sense that he takes in food with no problems (I mean all the physical characteristics of readiness are there), but his whole "pooping" schedule drastically changed once we gave him cereal. It wasn't like he was even an occassional pooper before. He just went from having 1-3 poops a day to 0 after we introduced the cereal. I have also noticed him passing a lot of smelly gas and he sometimes makes the effort to poop, but is unsuccessful.

Should I stop all solids until he is 6 months? I have been considering this. It is not like he is not gaining any weight on solely BM. He has been consistently gaining - at his 4th month appt. he weighed in at 14 lb. 7 oz and yesterday at the ped's office he was 16 lb. 1 oz. He will be 5 1/2 months this Saturday.

Thanks again for all the feedback - really appreciate it.

Naty

[dogmom]

Rachael might have some more insight into this, but I went through the same thing with my DS. I started food in the fourth month because he was trying to steal ours. I switched him off cereal quickly because of the same problems. It is not actually constipation until they pass hard stool, really hard, instead of soft. Yes, you could stop all solids and it might go back to what was previously normal, or it may not. I tried that for a week and all it did was make him a little cranky. You can play around with the food, I did, but I never really found a formula that worked consistently to induce movement down there. I just think the gut needs to get populated with the right amount of the correct bacteria, which is normal flora for the intestines, before things work just fine. I only fed him once a day until very recently, and that was after I got a breast milk supply problem figured out.

He is 6 months now and goes every night. Why night? I got no clue. My doctor said as long as he wasn't in pain and didn't pass hard stools not to worry about it. Sure, babies survive fine on breast milk for the first year. Sure, they don't need solids, but I think it is fine to acknowledge the social impact of feeding your baby food. I friend of mine says there is a reason why people always try to shove food into a babies mouth. I think we are programed to do so.