Cereal?

heatherkennedy021

Anyone adding cereal to bottles yet? My LO is 16 weeks old and has been drinking 6 oz every 2-3 hours and acting like I haven't fed her all day. Today she has had 38 oz since 6:00 this morning it's now 9pm. She isn't a fat baby she only weighs 11 lbs...I'm gonna ask the doc what she thinks about adding cereal but I also wanted to see if any of the bump moms had any expierence with this or are thinking about adding it to their lo's bottles. 

alysa03

I do... Only to his night time bottle thought...or else he would be a very chubby baby lol. He loves it!! The first time we did it his eyes got all big and I have never seen him drink a bottle that fast before!! We haven't had any issues what so ever. I think he likes it because he feels fuller. And yes he is getting enough to eat lol he just loves the milk coma feel

Mizuiro007

There have been some other threads on this but it's generally not recommended to add rice cereal to bottles.

We were told at DS's four month checkup we were told to start feeding him rice cereal for the calories. He was ready developmentally so we spoon fed.

DD had her four month check Friday and we were told to add it to her bottles for reflux.

ETA we haven't noticed her eating any less frequently. She takes a bottle every 3 hrs at night and every 2 hrs during the day.

heatherkennedy021

Dakota is a spit up baby and drinks Enfamil AR which already has the rice starch in it to help with her acid reflux ... I Mean it's 1 am here and here I am feeding her another 6 oz.

kdoak2015

heatherkennedy021 said:

Dakota is a spit up baby and drinks Enfamil AR which already has the rice starch in it to help with her acid reflux ... I Mean it's 1 am here and here I am feeding her another 6 oz.

Umm yea, babies do tend to wake at night to feed. It's really not recommended to add to bottles, that's s very old method. If baby is waking it's because he needs it. 

NDPA

It's considered a choking hazard these days to be adding cereal to the bottle and honestly, it's not really nutritional, empty calories. We'll be doing Baby Led Weaning around six months when she shows all signs of readiness, completely skipping the cereal. 

heatherkennedy021

@kdoak2015 I'm fully aware that babies wake up in the middle of the night my LO has been doing it since day one you obviously missed what i was saying. I'm not upset that she is awake and hungry I am concerned that she is drinking 39oz during the day and is still hungry which is why im asking about cereal and what other moms are doing? 

Gingermom15

if she's 11 lbs at 16 weeks then she probably needs what she is eating. Adding cereal to keep her full will only give her unhealthy, empty calories and can cause excessive weight gain. Nutrition should be coming from a healthy source at this age. 

Court11152325

@heatherkennedy021 you're right in the window of a developmental leap and you could even be experiencing a growth spurt. I'm not familiar with how to use formula, but could you try smaller amounts more frequently? 

kdoak2015

heatherkennedy021 said:

@kdoak2015 I'm fully aware that babies wake up in the middle of the night my LO has been doing it since day one you obviously missed what i was saying. I'm not upset that she is awake and hungry I am concerned that she is drinking 39oz during the day and is still hungry which is why im asking about cereal and what other moms are doing? 

Sorry I just read the 1am comment and assumed you wanted to add cereal to keep her down longer which is what most do. I BF and supplement with formula and my DD gets about 20oz of formula a day and bfs 8-10times so I'm assuming gets another 10-15oz of bm a day sometimes less formula the more she bfs. Aroind 15w give or take they go through a huge mental leap I know mine did. Is she always eating this much? Maybe she's just comfort eating. 

Gingermom15

I totally understand worrying over how much or how little baby eats, but don't worry about guidelines as long has her growth is good. She may be taking exactly what she's needs

redfallon

Nope, didn't use it with either kid. 

heatherkennedy021

Thanks ladies. I'll just keep letting her drink what she wants 

BrookeBrown2015

I have been wondering about this but since my son has kidney and bladder problems I would definitely not want to go ahead with it without the approval of his doctors. Also, WIC hasn't said anything about it either. My son was born 12/7 so he's not quite 4 months yet. My aunt keeps telling me that her daughter/my cousin is giving cereal to her son already. I just keep reminding her that her son is 6 weeks older than mine. But my aunt thinks that my son is so extra fussy because he doesn't get full enough. (He gets about 4-8 oz of formula a day plus boob) I don't think that's why he's so fussy though because just a few minutes ago he was offered both and kept screaming.

BrookeBrown2015

(my aunt was dealing with him while I typed that.)

Mizuiro007

@BrookeBrown2015 With DS Wic began supplying cereal and fruit and veggie purees from six months until he was a year old. They also decreased the amount of formula we could get.

BrookeBrown2015

Mizuiro007 said:

@BrookeBrown2015 With DS Wic began supplying cereal and fruit and veggie purees from six months until he was a year old. They also decreased the amount of formula we could get.

I was just wondering-did they still give you food for yourself at that point like cheese and yogurt? "fruit and veggie PUREES" -thank you for that word! Lol I had been referring to them as "baby apple sauces and ya know other sauces like casserole and green bean sauces, all those sauces" lol!

Mizuiro007

@BrookeBrown2015 Lol you're so welcome. I'm not sure if it varies between areas but for mom it's one year if you're breastfeeding and six months pp if not. I'm not sure about partly. Once he turned a year old DS started getting a lot of the same stuff I do. They've also been really great working with us on alternatives to the milk for him.

beccabeeee

@Mizuiro007 I was curious, I'm on WIC too, if your pedi recommends starting food before your LO hits 6 months will they change your checks to start baby food? I'm wondering what we will do once she starts solids because right now she's using soy formula and has been doing great on it so we decided not to switch anything up on her and just stick non-dairy. What kind of milk do they give? 

Mizuiro007

@beccabeeee They don't give solids until six months. The doctor had us start DS at four months and we just had to buy it for the two months. You can get soy milk with WIC. Then instead of cheese and yogurt you can just get more milk.

redfallon

Also, you don't have to start food at four months if you don't want to. 

alysa03

I'm sure wic is different everywhere. In my state wic will only voucher for formula for the first year. So I am buying cereal out of pocket... Which isn't bad... We go through a container every couple of months.