Cereals/Solids and general eating

AuburnBride06

I cant decide if I want to start with rice cereal like pedi said (5 months) or go to fruits/veggies. My apprehension is that DS had major constipation issues before Similac Sensitive. We recently tried the advance and it was horrible. Thick pasty poop returned. So we will keep him on Sim. Sensitive until we go to WCM. 

I know that cereal can cause constipation and I'm worried. He's not the best eater anyways (he ranges only about 20-27oz of formula/day....he varies a lot) and when constipated (which hasn't happened in a long time) we are lucky to get past 17oz. He still only takes 3.5-5oz if we are lucky) bottles. I told pedi this and he wasn't concerned. He was 12.2lbs @  4 month. I am going to be using wholesomebabyfood.com for guidance.  With constipation issues in his history, would you skip cereal ? It does not seem that he would need to "practice" for solids but what do I know.

Also, if your baby didn't drink a ton of formula for his age, did that change when/how you did solids? How much did/do you worry about how many ounces they take? I know that we will be doing bottles first and then half hour to an hour later do solids, but I'm still worried he will start taking less formula.  If we decide on cereal, I think we may start this weekend. ETA: We areabout 2 weeks shy of 5 months. Is 2 weeks too soon? Probably dumb question....but do you see more weight gain in a shorter time frame once solids are started?

TIA.

krissyh21

I only did 1 day of cereal and D hated it so went to apples so I could eventually mix it in with his cereal. I used to feed him formula first, make sure he drank his normal amount and then feed him the solids, he never ate less formula doing it that way.

mrsolsenk12

We started cereal at 4 months. Rice cereal is quite binding and can cause constipation. However Oatmeal or barley cereal doesn't cause the binding issues of rice. We made Hayden's food and I loved using wholesomebabyfood.com as a reference. We started veggies at 5 months after doing several weeks of cereal. (We started early because of reflux issues). Their formula intake shouldn't change with adding solids at that age. If they are eating less formula than he is eating too many solids.

BeccaLandes

My son Benjamin also tended toward constipation, so we gave him oatmeal rather than rice cereal.  I often mixed it with prune puree or pear puree since those help babies poop.  Really, since starting solids, Benjamin has gotten a lot more regular!

I don't think it is too soon to start solids, we started them on a non-regular basis around 5 months, too, I think.

We did not see weight gain with solids, probably because it coincided with them learning to crawl and being so physically active.  My guys are little, and always have been. 

brideinOC

My ped no longer even recommends starting with cereal and suggests going right to fruits/veggies.  Claire was good with fruits and veggies, but really preferred a liquid diet of formula.  I think our ped started us at 5 months.  Seems like forever ago and the time frame is so fuzzy!  Good luck!

emmyloustu

We did the Earth's Best Organic Brown Rice cereal instead of a refined white rice. She never had issues with constipation. I also jumped to avocado, banana and sweet potatoes very quickly.

kme930

My pedi said it was fine for us to skip cereal and while we tried oatmeal, Will never really liked it! I'd stick with things like pears and prunes initially as those might be easier for him! Good luck!

And you should start on a time frame that you and your pedi choose, without outside influence! Good luck with that. FWIW, we started at 4 months, 2 weeks.

ladychicago

In your shoes, I would probably delay the solids.. But you should do whatever feels right to you! My pedi said she should get at least 24oz once we started solids (we started at 6 months), but for a while it was a struggle to get 20-24oz in her. We had a good month or two with low formula intake, so I would just reduce the amount of solids so whe wouldn't totally fill up. Now, however, she is drinking 6-8oz bottles (24-30oz per day) and eating a ton of solids, so it all just evened out as she got older. Because your DS is formula fed, the cereals are less important, so I would think starting with a fruit or veggie would be fine, but I always get the advice of my pedi for decisions like that. Ditto PP about starting with pears or prunes if you are worried about constipation. We have struggled with that, and prunes are a staple in our house!

perry7285

in regards to your question on timing, i think it's totally okay to start solids now--lots of pedis recommend four months. we started our little guy at 4 months 1 week, and he did fine.

12.2 lbs at 4 months isn't that bad, especially if he's short, so if your pedi isn't worried, try not to worry! our guy was 13.5 at that point, and i was worried about fattening him up, but the pedi said that he was totally fine.

LCB34

We skipped cereal all together.  I tried it, Kate was unimpressed, and then I just decided not to feed her any "filler".

Kate has major tummy issues and can only have so much in her stomach due to her delayed gastric draining.  So, I didn't want to fill her up with non-nutritional cereal.

She hasn't cut back on her formula but like Noah, never has taken a lot (an awesome day is 4-25 ounces total but normal is more like 19-20).  She is still on a 2-2.5 hour bottle schedule so I give her a bottle, wait an hour, give her a small amount of purees, wait another hour, and give her another bottle.

It has worked great so far.

I will say though that she didn't really get purees until 5.5 months.  And, steer clear of bananas as they tend to cause constipation.

GL!

 

sliz

We started with apples, sweet potatoes and pears at 4 months. Dd is breastfed with supplemental formula but she's never been great about taking the formula so if we can get 5-8 oz of formula in her that is a good day (in addition to the breastmilk) - she is growing well so I guess she is getting enough - stay away from bananas cause they plugged her up horribly - she was never constipated before that - I just tried rice cereal today at 6.5 months - she seemed to like it but I mixed it with a little pear juice - prunes are awesome for poop issues too