Anyone have problems with rice cereal?

ash.flea

I started G on rice cereal Tuesday and it has not been nice to him.  I did 1/2 tbsp of cereal w/ 1oz of BM so it was REALLY runny, but still it gave him awful horrible gas.  He was up all night Tuesday.   I fed him again Wednesday morning but then he was gassy AND constipated, so I stopped and haven't given him any more.

Is this just part of starting solids?  Or is he not ready?  Or should I try something else?  I bought some oatmeal, and I have already made some purees.  I was planning to give him sweet potatoes this weekend but now I'm not sure if I should wait a while or what. 

We have an appointment with his pedi Monday so I'll ask him about it then, but I was just wondering what your experiences were.

Ashleysred

Our pedi recommended to start with something a little easier on the belly.  Rice cereal can be constipating and gassy for babies.  She said do sweet potatoes, bananas, or avocado first.  Go back to rice cereal when you can mix it with something else, like banana, apple, or pear.

Poor G!  I hope he feels better soon!

trevess

I agree with Ashleysred. I would try banana or sweet potato before quitting solids for awhile. I'm personally not a fan of rice cereal for many of the reasons you listed. GL!

ash.flea

I think I'm not going to give him any more rice.  I didn't love the idea of starting with it anyway but that's what our pedi suggested so I went with it.  I think I'll go ahead with the sweet potatoes and see how it goes, and later I'll try oatmeal.  I was thinking that he needed the rice cereal for iron but I didn't realize that the oatmeal has as much iron as the rice anyway.

Thanks ladies!  My mom told me to keep feeding him rice & he'll get used to it, but that didn't feel right to me.  I hate to see him in pain!  He's doing better now that I stopped giving it to him.

Jennifer43

We tested out C on some rice cereal ... he wasn't a fan, and then tried sweet potatoes one day, he liked it much better. We haven't given it to him much though. You can always mix a little of the rice cereal in with the sweet potatoes after a while to help him get the added iron without as much side effects.

MelVic

G had horrible gas from rice cereal....we tried it for 3 days and then I said forget about it and switched her over to oatmeal and then to sweet potatoes....

DreamsBride411

We had the same experience and I completely cut it out and haven't gone back to it at all.  Oatmeal has the same "heartiness" without the gas problems for us.  (I speak as if my kid actually eats anything).

Why not just move over to a veggie or some fruit or oatmeal?

And for the iron - doesn't G take vitamins?  Mari's been on poly-vi-sol with iron for like 5 months now and I thought that was the norm...

Hope you have a better night!!!