Baby Cereal

chantz2387

Our pediatrician gave us the go ahead to start our 4 month old on cereal. She said we could choose the type, rice, oatmeal, or barley. I'm looking for pros and cons of each and what you all introduced first.

devinsmommy31115

My pediatrician said no rice cereal as studies have linked it to high levels of arsenic. I gave baby oatmeal for about a week but quickly switched to all vegetables.

ldmw

We are going to skip cereal as well and go straight to veggies. From what I've read, cereal is empty calories. She's breastfed so we're waiting until 6 months to start solids and will continue breast milk for a year.

KonaCoffeeBean

ldmw said:

We are going to skip cereal as well and go straight to veggies. From what I've read, cereal is empty calories. She's breastfed so we're waiting until 6 months to start solids and will continue breast milk for a year.

I agree with this. I think the advice to begin baby cereal at four months is pretty outdated. Personally, I plan to start with nutritious vegetables rather than highly processed grains.

lee5891

We started with oatmeal because when we had previously tried rice cereal for my daughters reflux it made her very constipated. Also keep in mind that milk should be the main source of nutrition and calories, you are just trying to get them used to new foods now. My ped told us at 4 months to stick with cereal bc it's mild and easy to digest, and save the other foods until 6 months. But my daughter loves to eat so we do mix different things in with the oatmeal like mashed banana, applesauce, veggies, etc.