Skip the cereal?

amarie1504

Did anyone skip rice/oatmeal cereal and go straight to fruits and veggies? If so, I would love to hear about your experiences. My LO has seemed pretty gassy the few times I've given him oatmeal cereal, so I'm considering this option and will, of course, discuss with his pedi first. 

SmrBrd2012

Yeah, lots of people skip cereal now it seems. I gave oatmeal a few times just because it's so mild but my son didn't care for it. I moved onto carrots instead and the other veggies and fruits.

amarie1504

@SmrBrd2012 I think I'm going to do the same. My son doesn't care for it much easier, and given it seems to be hurting his belly it doesn't really make sense to keep feeding it to him.  

Bigboobsmcgee

maral1015 said:

@SmrBrd2012 I think I'm going to do the same. My son doesn't care for it much easier, and given it seems to be hurting his belly it doesn't really make sense to keep feeding it to him.  

Yep, it's not necessary at all. Skip it.

2winterbabies

maral1015 said:

@SmrBrd2012 I think I'm going to do the same. My son doesn't care for it much easier, and given it seems to be hurting his belly it doesn't really make sense to keep feeding it to him.  

If he is hurting when he eats it, I wouldn't feed it to him either. With DS I started rice cereal at 3months. Pediatrician said it was too early to wait until 4 months at least but since his weight gain was fine he recommended 6 months. I didn't listen and continued to feed him oatmeal and rice cereal at 4 months of age. Peditrician never gave me crap about it. As long as baby is healthy. Weight was fine.

I plan on trying cereal with DD when she turns 4 months.

jham201

I plan to start her off with avocado next week as her first solid with the support of my ped.  She suggested avocado when I expressed that I had some concerns with the nutritional value of rice cereal.  She will be just a week shy of 5 months and I have EBF up until now.

tpete12

Rice cereal made my daughter really gassy and oatmeal wasn't much better. We started with banana, then she had avocado, sweet potato, butternut squash, zucchini, apple and we just started peas yesterday. 

eajanvrin

I was told by our pedi to give a little bit of cereal every now and then for the iron since we EBF.

amarie1504

@eajanvrin our pedi said babies can now have pureed chicken early on to help with iron as well, which I am going to use instead of cereal for reasons listed above. If you experience trouble with the cereal like I did you could always give this a try!

NurseRieger

I started with rice cereal at 4 months just for the 1st few days then did purees of veggies then fruits. At 6 months the pedi said to use a little oatmeal fortified with iron. The rice was a little constipating. I mix the oatmeal with formula and stir in pureed fruit. So far he's done fine. Seems a lot of people do skip cereal though.

redfallon

Skipped it with DD, who's now 2.5 years old. Started her on mashed up bananas around 5/6 mos. 

Saramore10

I wanted to skip rice/cereal as well. My pediatrician told us that it would help work the muscles that are used/needed when eating solids. My son is 4mo and almost 3 weeks. As soon as he is 6mo, I plan to start him on solids and leave behind the cereal.

Knottie1442268460

Never used cereal on my oldest. Don't plan to with baby. I'm actually interested in baby led weaning. Anyone with experience? Have t decided when. Working with nutritionist since preemie. Looking like waiting til 6 mos adjusted. 

Knottie1456179799

My pedi suggested starting DD on rice cereal. She's 18 weeks.  I'm wondering if I'm better to delay to closer to 5 months, but she seems interested in the spoon.  Has anybody started a baby this young with fruits/veg?

Ceridwen77

Knottie1456179799 said:

My pedi suggested starting DD on rice cereal. She's 18 weeks.  I'm wondering if I'm better to delay to closer to 5 months, but she seems interested in the spoon.  Has anybody started a baby this young with fruits/veg?

My DD is 21 weeks and so interested in food, however, we prefer to wait until her gastrointestinal system is fully developed before offering food (6mo), which is also the recommendation of the AAP. 

Knottie1456179799

Ceridwen77 said:

Knottie1456179799 said:

My pedi suggested starting DD on rice cereal. She's 18 weeks.  I'm wondering if I'm better to delay to closer to 5 months, but she seems interested in the spoon.  Has anybody started a baby this young with fruits/veg?

My DD is 21 weeks and so interested in food, however, we prefer to wait until her gastrointestinal system is fully developed before offering food (6mo), which is also the recommendation of the AAP. 

That was my thought as well.  We're taking a middle route- offering her fingertips of solids, but not really "feeding".  This morning she took a few licks of avocado, and she seems to like the flavor, but didn't take in enough to call it food. Our biggest worry is that even pumping at work my production has slowed enough that she is going to need to supplement sooner than 6 months...

Knottie1442268460

You can supplement with formula. Solids don't really provide nutrition until older ages. It's just learning to eat at this stage. 

christina4436

Yep we did. Ped said it was fine bc she is taking a multi vitamin with iron. The main reason for cereal is the iron. And yes he said solids right now are just fun and trying out different textures and tastes. 

momotheflyinglemur

We plan on having his first food be avacadoes. We have from even before he was born. We are going in for our 4m appt in the next couple weeks and I am interested in seeing whether his pedi reccomends rice cereal. 

TwizBeans

Knottie1456179799 said:

Ceridwen77 said:

Knottie1456179799 said:

My pedi suggested starting DD on rice cereal. She's 18 weeks.  I'm wondering if I'm better to delay to closer to 5 months, but she seems interested in the spoon.  Has anybody started a baby this young with fruits/veg?

My DD is 21 weeks and so interested in food, however, we prefer to wait until her gastrointestinal system is fully developed before offering food (6mo), which is also the recommendation of the AAP. 

That was my thought as well.  We're taking a middle route- offering her fingertips of solids, but not really "feeding".  This morning she took a few licks of avocado, and she seems to like the flavor, but didn't take in enough to call it food. Our biggest worry is that even pumping at work my production has slowed enough that she is going to need to supplement sooner than 6 months...

Food is just for practice and not intended to provide nutrition or fulfillment until a year old. If your supply is dropping, supplement with formula. The AAP does recommend you wait until 6 months to start foods but that is a loose guideline. You can start earlier.

CantPeopleNeedCoffee

I've never given it, and this is my third. I always start with mashed avocado. 

pupsicle23

For those of you who do avocado, how do you store it? Do you take a tablespoon and eat the rest? Use some magic to keep it fresh? Let it turn brown? I want to do avocado, but I'm not sure of the best way to go about it. 

Ceridwen77

mhuber223 said:

For those of you who do avocado, how do you store it? Do you take a tablespoon and eat the rest? Use some magic to keep it fresh? Let it turn brown? I want to do avocado, but I'm not sure of the best way to go about it. 

Refrigerate it in the skin. The browning will be minimized to a small surface and isn't harmful. 

CantPeopleNeedCoffee

Ceridwen77 said:

mhuber223 said:

For those of you who do avocado, how do you store it? Do you take a tablespoon and eat the rest? Use some magic to keep it fresh? Let it turn brown? I want to do avocado, but I'm not sure of the best way to go about it. 

Refrigerate it in the skin. The browning will be minimized to a small surface and isn't harmful. 

This and leaving the pit in helps. I eat a ton of avocado though so this really isn't an issue in my house. Lol. 

missphil

CantPeopleNeedCoffee said:

Ceridwen77 said:

mhuber223 said:

For those of you who do avocado, how do you store it? Do you take a tablespoon and eat the rest? Use some magic to keep it fresh? Let it turn brown? I want to do avocado, but I'm not sure of the best way to go about it. 

Refrigerate it in the skin. The browning will be minimized to a small surface and isn't harmful. 

This and leaving the pit in helps. I eat a ton of avocado though so this really isn't an issue in my house. Lol. 

You can also squeeze some lemon juice on the parts exposed to prevent oxidation (browning)

FunnyGal18

You can also squeeze some lemon juice on the parts exposed to prevent oxidation (browning)

Citrus is not recommended for babies younger than 10-12 months

helsbels222

Wow you guys actually have left over avocado at your house? 

missphil

FunnyGal18 said:

You can also squeeze some lemon juice on the parts exposed to prevent oxidation (browning)

Citrus is not recommended for babies younger than 10-12 months

The amount would be very minimal- just for antioxidant purposes. I highly doubt it would affect the baby's health. Plus, it's advice on preserving food- the parents may be the ones ending up eating the rest of the avocado.

CantPeopleNeedCoffee

helsbels222 said:

Wow you guys actually have left over avocado at your house? 

That's what I was thinking. I usually just eat the rest.

amylee5185

I think it's awesome how so many of us are so enthusiastic about avocado for the LOs. I myself can't remember ever eating an avocado as a child but now can't get enough of them. It was Isabel's first food and she really seems to love it. I like to mix a little bit of breast milk in with it to make it smoother and add a little familiar flavor and some extra nutritional value. 

Knottie1442268460

I just made rice cereal for baby. From an online recipe. I ground organic brown rice in my vitamix & cooked on stove. 

2-Step

Both of my kids hated rice cereal. My pedi said its really just for practice because you can water it down so much, and doesn't give them much nutrition anyway. I went straight to veggies and fruits and they are healthy 4 and 6 year olds now. There has been a lot of media coverage recently about the amount of arsenic in rice cereal that also gives me pause. I may do a little oatmeal for practice with this one but I'll  be skipping rice.
https://www.cnn.com/2016/04/25/health/arsenic-rice-cereal-baby/

4N6s

I'm skipping all the cereals and starting baby led weaning at 6 months.
there was an article recently stating that rice cereal has arsenic in it. 

korpatch

Like most others have said here, we are skipping the rice cereal for avocado! I'm so excited, but he isn't ready yet. Probably within the next four weeks!

egraves4

@4N6s we too are skipping rice cereal, but at least what my pedi said is that arsenic is in all rice, not just rice cereal and that is similar to fish having Mercury in it... Should we be eating every day? No.  But, it does have some positive qualities to it, such as iron.  We're still skipping unless LO for some reason really needs the iron, were EBF.

4N6s

Thanks for the info @egraves4

Bestmomideas

My second was allergic to the rice cereal so we tried oatmeal and he hated it.  We just went straight to fruits and veggies after those attempts.