Rice Cereal - Solids

[yhtking]

DS is 5.5 mos. old. We've started giving him cereal and applesauce to experiement. I bought the Earth's Best cereal and mix it with 1:5 formula ratio. The end product seems kind of flakey still. Is the consistency suppose to be smooth and gluey? His buddy's Mom left some cereal at our house today and it seems very smooth. Am I doing something wrong here? The babysitter today gave him some first peas. It totally freaked me out because I want to experiment fruits with him first. We tried cereal for a week and applesauce for three days. Now today she gave him peas, ugh! Anyway, hopefully there aren't any permanent "damages". DS still gives me the face every time I try to feed him. Should I continue giving him different fruits to experiement? He is getting about 30+ oz of formula a day, so the fruits will just be a added "experiment" for him.

thanks.

[C99]

The rice cereal should be smooth and almost liquid at this stage. I would say that it should be like soup. You can thicken it up as he gets used to it. If I were you, I wouldn't experiment too much -- he doesn't *need* a lot of variety at this stage. Does he open his mouth like a baby bird when you feed him? If he likes the rice cereal, keep offering it to him every day. If he doesn't, offer it to him every couple of days -- he may not yet be developmentally ready to eat solid foods, or he may just not like rice cereal. You can try offering him applesauce, too, but the babysitter offering him peas should not have an adverse effect on him.

[heidi_timms]

We started with cereal, then veggies and then fruits. The ped recommended veggies first, otherwise, they expect everything they eat to be sweet like fruit. Either way, I'm sure it's fine. I think that the most important thing is to wait 4 days in between foods to check for allergies.

~Heidi
Mom to Kailey Ashlin
4/27/03

[JenaW]

I have found that if I put the liquid (water, EBM, etc) into the bowl first, warm it, and then slowly add the ceral while stirring, it is the smoothest.

HTH

Jera
Mom to Carter ~ 05.13.03