time of the day for first cereal feeding

[mominmarch]

The time has come to start our first rice cereal feeding and I am seeking input as to start at breakfast or at dinner. My ped said to pick one or the other, and do just plain cereal then for 10 days-2 weeks. Then for the next couple of weeks, add the other meal. So at the end of a month, she will be getting rice cereal at breakfast and dinner. Then for the next month, we will add fruit, then veggies, then meat. He suggested that my husband or I give her the cereal rather than having the nanny or daycare provider give it.

So this weekend we will start. Our daughter is eating formula 5-6 times a day, 5 ounces at a time. Her "breakfast" is often at 5:30 am, but sometimes she will sleep until 7. And her dinner bottle usually around 4-5 pm, with a bedtime bottle at 8 or so (and then one middle of the night feeding).

I was thinking of starting the cereal tomorrow morning, about an hour after her breakfast bottle. But part of me wondered if I should instead start it in the evening, b/t the "dinner" bottle and the bedtime bottle. Any thoughts on either?

[juliasmom05]

Although we didn't start with cereal, anytime we introduced a new food, we did it in the morning. That way, if there was a reaction, it was during the day and not in the middle of the night.

Marci

[LarsMal]

I agree with Marci- start new foods in the morning in case of a reaction.

About an hour after her breakfast bottle sounds good- that's similar to what I did with DS (and am trying to do with DD). You don't want her to be starving, but not too full either.

Also, FWIW (and I know different peds say different things), I have always heard to give veggies first- green, then yellow, then fruits, and finally meats. The reason being that many babies will enjoy the sweet taste of the fruit and then not want to eat veggies. Just wanted to throw that out there!

Good luck!

[mominmarch]

This is helpful! I am also searching this topic and seeing that so many babies get constipated on rice cereal and started with oatmeal instead. I am hopeful that this isn't our case, as our pediatrician was pretty adament to start with rice cereal. The allergic reactions that I am looking for are rashes, vomiting, stuff like that right?

[brady_haydens_mom]

My twin boys hated rice, but loved oatmeal. I wish I would have known to try oatmeal sooner. Our pediatrician recommended rice first, but said that oatmeal (or any single grain) cereal is fine to start with. My husband and I work full-time and the kids are in daycare. Since we wanted to be the ones to feed our boys, we started solids at dinner time between the late afternoon and bedtime bottles. It worked great! Neither my husband or I have allergies, so we didn't think there was a large risk of allergic reaction.

Our feeding schedule is shown below (hopefully this will help). We began with just one solid per day, then increased to morning and evening, and finally to 3x per day. It took several weeks to get up to 3x per day, but once they were eating well for us, we had daycare start giving them a solid in the morning.

Schedule:
7:30am Bottle/Breast Milk; 9:30-10:00am Cereal, Bottle/Breast Milk; Nap; 12:30-1:00pm Solid/Bottle; 4:00 Bottle; 6:30pm Solid (water in sippy cup); 8:00pm Bedtime Bottle/Breast Milk


Good luck!

[amandabea]

oh, this is exactly what I came looking for. Very helpful! We just had our very first meal of rice cereal this morning. I'm not sure how much DD actually swallowed versus pushing out onto her bib, but she seemed to really enjoy it.

I was just wondering how much did you start with and how much do you feed now? I only made about a tablespoon of the cereal and mixed it with warmed breast milk. Any advice is appreciated.

thanks,
Amanda

[Nooknookmom]

How old is your DD? Wndering when to st cereal...

[LarsMal]

What I've been told...

Start with it pretty liquidy, then gradually increase the amount of rice/oatmeal to a thicker consistency. Can't remember the ratio, but you want about two tablespoons per feeding.

Also, FWIW, I did rice first (for about a week or so) then introduced oatmeal. I would give DS oatmeal for breakfast and rice for dinner (seemed natural!). Once I started introducing a new food I would give that for both meals for 3 or 4 days. I believe that is the amount of time you're supposed to allow to make sure there isn't an allergic reaction. Once I finished introducing fruits and veggies I would give a fruit with oatmeal in the morning and a veggie with rice at dinner time. Around 9 months I started the third meal (but all kids are different!). I also offered a sippy cup with some water for practice. That helped A LOT as far as weaning off the bottle.

Don't forget...Don't put a spoon into the jar unless you plan on using the whole thing. You're not supposed to store baby food that has saliva in it. Just a tip!!!

[mominmarch]

All of this is such good advice.

Our DD is 4.5 months. While she is on the younger side of starting, she is really hungry all the time and at her capacity with 32 ounces of formula (the books and my ped says 24-32 ounces of formula, and they can't handle more than 32 safely regularly). She only makes it about 3 hours from bottle to bottle and isn't sleeping through the night. I know this early attempt at cereal is for the experience and not for the nutrition.

The first day she took about 6 spoonfuls before she started to fuss. Then yesterday, she took about 20 before fussing. This morning, only 4-5 before fussing. I am not sure that the fussing is not liking the cereal or not liking being strapped into the highchair (though the infant seat this morning wasn't much better). She also had her first tooth break through this morning so has been cranky generally.

So I am tempted to give her a break on the cereal and try again in another week. But I don't want to keep giving her 32-26 ounces of formula if that stresses her kidneys in any way. So maybe we should just keep trying it every morning. I take about 1t of cereal and mix it with 1/2 ounce of formula... it is really runny. This morning I made it a little thicker and that might have been the problem. Oh well, tomorrow is another day. I am so tempted to switch to oatmeal... I might call the pediatrician and ask him if I can do that. She has a milk protein allergy so I think he wanted us to do rice to make sure she wasn't allergic to that, but I can't make her eat it if she doesn't like it and I would hate for her to not like any solids b/c of a battle like this. I thought that kids can't taste at this age... boy was I wrong!

[amandabea]

great, thanks. My DD will be 6 months next week and I wanted to get about one week of feeding in prior to her 6 month doctor's visit so I'll have better information for any feeding questions I want to ask the doctor.

Today was day 3 and while I think it is still early for her to begin eating -- she doesn't have good tongue technique yet -- I'm hoping this is good practice. She can't seem to get enough of the stuff, so while she barely swallows anything she still seems to like the "idea" of eating the cereal. And it's hard to deny her this simple pleasure given how loudly she complains about not getting anything when DH and I eat in front of her.

How long did it take your DC to learn to not push the food out with their tongues?

thanks for all the great info!

Amanda

[LarsMal]

FWIW- My DS has a milk protein allergy, and he wasn't allergic to rice or oatmeal!

[LarsMal]

>How long did it take your DC to learn to not push the food out
>with their tongues?

I started DD a week before her 6 month appt. as well. She is 6 1/2 months now and she still hasn't quite gotten the hang of it! It only took DS about a week or so to figure out the tongue thing. DD just isn't quite ready so I'm not pushing it with her. I figure she'll catch on when she's ready. For now I just try rice or oatmeal every couple days. She always has a big smile on her face so it's not a battle, but after a bite or two she just thrusts her tongue so I stop.