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waiting on cereal?
DS is about to be 4 months old (in 9 days) I was going to start cereal but he doesn't seem like he needs it. BM seems to be enough. I would like to push it off because BM is so much more nutritional then cereal. My friend held off with her daughter until 6 months.
How long have other Moms waited to give cereal?
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Re: waiting on cereal?
Follow your instincts on this, you're right! It's recommended to wait to introduce solids to EBF babies until 6 months. And even once solids are introduced, BM remains the main source of fat/nutrition/calories until age 1. You are right about BM being the best nutrition for LO. Rice cereal is basically empty calories and the only good thing about it is the iron. There are other options you can chose like banana or avocado when you do introduce solids.
https://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/first-foods.html
DD1: allergic to eggs & dairy
c/p 4/1/11
DD2: milk and soy protein intolerant, allergic to eggs, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, sesame, bananas
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I started about a week before my daughter was 6 months, I offered her brown rice cereal and then after a week she got constipated! Turns out the cereal can do that so I switched to peas and then started doing baby-led-weaning with avocado, pears, cooked squash and carrots. My daughter loved feeding herself so much that she stopped allowing me to feed her at around 8 months!
If you don't think your baby is ready don't push solids! It is ok to wait 6 months or some babies wait even longer and that is perfectly fine and healthy solids are just for fun before one!
I like this site for some fun recipes and information about ages and foods:
https://wholesomebabyfood.com/readyforsolids.htm
Little Rose is 2 1/2.
our old pediatrician suggested starting at 6 mos - whether the baby is bf for formula-fed. so we did for dd#1.
we moved and the new pedi suggests waiting until 6 mos, but will tell parents they can start as early as 4 mos. again, we planned to wait 6 mos, but started at 5.5 mos - she was super excited by it and ready.
the cereal and purees do not replace bm for nutritional value. at the earliest stage of giving "food" it's about learning to eat. the entire stage 1 jar of puree is 2.5 oz and 25 calories and my kid only eats about half a jar at a time - so 12 calories isn't a lot.
also, she gets this food AFTER nursing or a bottle - the primary calories and nutrition are still coming from bm.
My pedi said anytime 4-6 months was ok to start, but I am waiting until 6 months. We had planned on starting with rice cereal, but the more I've been reading the more I think I'll start with things like avocado, yams, banana, sweet potato and then meats since the rice cereal is mostly empty carbs (and breast milk is high in carbs anyway).
Kellymom has some good info on this, and I love their site because it's research based recommendations.
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