rice cereal - is it really necessary?

brooksfam4

My LO just turned 3 months old and we are definitely waiting until 5-6 months to start, but I'm trying to learn more about introducing solids to him. It seems like most people start off with rice cereal for their babies, but I've read that it's just fluff and not nutritional. Has anyone skipped the cereal and went straight to real food (veggies/fruit)? Thoughts?

BGGP9196

We did not with DD1 and won't be for DD2.  We did baby led and would give her softer foods to start, avocados and bananas, steamed veggies (carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, cucumber), cooked whole grain pasta noodles.   Since we have no food allergies we also did scrambled eggs-yolk only. 

baloneydisc

We skipped cereal all together. We did do the jarred foods and started with veggies. Even our ped said to skip it, she said if I wanted to do cereal oatmeal would be a better option, but DD hated it.

bumpuser10054788

We started with purees at 4mo per pedi recommendation. They said from 4mo on, with a few restrictions, we could do any cereals (except wheat), veggies, fruits, meats, or eggs. We just started and so far have skipped over cereals, doing sweet potatoes and bananas so far. (She loved both ) We're planning to try avocado next. We'll probably do tiny bit of rice cereal a little later just so she gets used to the taste/texture, but not for any extended period.

juliking100

We weren't using cereal initially, just fruit and veggie purees, but at our next well visit the doctor told us that we really should, at least once a day, because of the iron in it, that the baby wouldn't get enough of if just eating purees.

radiohd18

i wasn't planning on introducing rice cereal first, but my pedi said that it's rich in Iron. From what I understand Iron stores start to deplete at 6 mths for breastfed babies (I don't know anything about FF). If I don't start with rice/cereal/oatmeal what other foods can I give early that are rich in Iron?