Poll: cereal/solids

TriciaJoy

1) when did you start cereal as a solid? (not counting if you used it to thicken bottles)

2)How thick did you mix it?

3) how much did you start off feeding them how often?

4)how long til they got the hang of it?

5) how did you time it with their regular feedings? (so what sort of feeding schedule did you follow)

6) Any advice?

Aidge

1) when did you start cereal as a solid? Just last week!2)How thick? I used 1 teaspoon of rice cereal to 3 teaspoons of BM. ?Just a tad bit more thick than plain BM.3) how much did you start off feeding them how often? the amount above only once per day.4)how long til they got the hang of it? We are just introducing at this point, so he kind of just slurps it up and then spits it out. ?He loves the process, though!5) how did you time it with their regular feedings? I offer him one breast, then the cereal, and then the other breast. ?I highly recommend reading Super Baby Food to get used to the process. ?The author had her boys 10 weeks early and it is a wonderful guide!6) Any advice? See #5. ?I cannot say enough good things about this book!

jehprb

1) Six months adjusted.

2) Followed the "first time" directions on the box so it was really watery and like spoon feeding him formula with a spoon - lol 

3) I made a couple of Tbs. and did that once a day for a couple of weeks.

4)  He took to it right away but he was showing all the signs of readiness at 3 months adjusted.  It took us a couple of weeks to work up to feeding the cereal 2x per day and I forget what the amounts were but our ped. had a recommendation of how much cereal he needed to be eating every day and for how many days before making the switch to fruits and veggies. 

5) Breast milk/formula is still their primary source of nutrition and the solids are really just for practice so solids always came AFTER he'd had a bottle...usually about an hour after.

6) It's ok if solids aren't a hit - you can totally try it once and then forget about it for a month.  They don't "need" solids - heck, even during the 2nd year it's still basically just practice since they digest so little of what the eat anyway - lol.  Oh, and take pictures :-)

armo

1) 5 1/2 months adjusted (just last week)

2) followed 'first time' directions on the box too.  Liquidy enough to fall off the spoon

3) I don't know how long to do this, but so far we've done 1 Tbsp (dry) one time a day.  One DD seems to like it, the other does not have much interest - even when she is hungry.

 

Mrs Manners

TriciaJoy:

1) when did you start cereal as a solid? (not counting if you used it to thicken bottles) We tried it at 6 months and he didn't really like it. We ended up skipping cereal and moving right to veggies. Other than iron, cereal doesn't really have any nutritional value.

2)How thick did you mix it? N/A since we pretty much skipped it. I do sprinkle some on his more "runny" purees now to thicken them and things like yogurt

3) how much did you start off feeding them how often?

4)how long til they got the hang of it? DS didn't actually start eating solids well until about 7 months by 8 months he was a puree eating fool. Now he eats two puree meals (a fruit and a veggie) and a finger food meal each day.

5) how did you time it with their regular feedings? (so what sort of feeding schedule did you follow)

6) Any advice?

mhop

My only advice is to wait until Robbie shows you he's ready (has good head control, reaches for your foods, etc).  I caved to pressure from my husband and family who insisted we start feeding C.  She did ok but not great (had a lot of tongue thrust), soI decided to stop and wait a few more weeks because I really felt it was too early.  When we re-started she ate like a champ and hasn't stopped.  So, if you try it and decide Robbie's not ready, you can always stop and try again later.