rice cereal in bottle for spitting up?

nikinikinine

DS spits up A LOT - he'll spit up after every feed several times and can spit up nearly two hours after eating last.

The recommendation for this is to add rice cereal to his bottles - I would have to pump and then mix the rice cereal into breastmilk - but I'm thinking he's too young for this still.

Has anyone done rice cereal to help with spit up? 

blondek8

Both my guys are HUGE spitters. They spit up still after every feed and continue to spit up right up to their next feed. Their physician said as long as they aren't in pain and are gaining/thriving it's more of a laundry problem than anything. It's better now that they're a little older and they're definitely "happy spitters". It doesn't seem to bother them at all. I walk around the house covered in barf all day though.

Lilystar82

We do this but for reflux. LO has severe reflux so we add 1 tsp of rice cereal to a 4oz bottle. Its really really helped so far, but he has really bad reflux.

cocojack10

One of my boys has reflux and has been eating rice cereal at every feeding since 1 month!  It actually got worse and now they just eat it at last bottle, and he's on medicine, but not your question.  LOL

I tried the cereal first to avoid the med, but he needed it. 

Ruby_Tuesday

Who recommended it to you?  Sometimes pediatricians will recommend thickening feedings with rice cereal if a baby is in pain due to reflux.  You should only do this if your pedi recommends it.  There is a (very) small risk of choking.  My pedi did tell us to try it for my son's reflux and I still didn't do it.  Instead we put him on Enfamil AR which is pre-thickened.  You don't need to do anything for "happy spitters".

octbride1234

One of my girls had to do this. She was spitting up and actually choking on it.We did not do it for very long because of two reasons, she started choking because of the faster flow nipple. Could not use a newborn nipple, the cereal would not pass through and the other reason is because the Rice cereal constipated her really bad.  I hear good things and bad starting them on cereal so early, if you decide to do it, just watch your LO for such problems.  What worked for us other then her getting older and it decreasing was increasing the number of feedings in a day and doing smaller amounts.  Also keeping her elevated for one hour after eating and never lying flat.  Everything was elevated, even the changing pad.

juliannat

Hi Niki, I agree with ruby - was it your pedi that recommended this?

Are they happy spitters or is it reflux? I have one of each

DD spits up a lot while eating and then often randomly 1-2 hours later. DS is growing out of his reflux...I THINK...HOPE...it is happening less and less frequently now...he spits up while eating and then 1.5-2 hrs later his whole body twists and contorts and it's nasty rancid acidic puke (and out the nose too). He was also projectile vomiting occasionally but we ruled out pyloric stenosis via u/s (and because he continued to poop and put on weight). 

Good info on happy spitting vs. reflux:
https://www.webmd.com/parenting/baby/bottle-feeding-9/spitting-up

It sounds to me like you might just have happy spitters so I'd tend to avoid the rice cereal...we leave bibs on LOs nearly all the time, wait at least 30-60 min after eating before tummy time, and burp them at least 2-3 times during each feed. We also add probiotics to their feeds 3x/day and took DS to the chiro and that worked wonders for his reflux.

The drs at the university hospital where I delivered were against rice cereal (and interestingly, they also recently - as in, sometime in Feb - changed their position on medicating for reflux with zantac/prevacid - they no longer do this as there is not enough evidence that it helps - Goldie and others I know will disagree; I have no opinion either way on it)

 

caden

I tried rice cereal but it made my boys constipated. Now we use oatmeal cereal in their bottles and that works fine.

I agree with the p.p. that said only to do this if your pedi recommends it and if your kid is a happy spitter then it's not really necessary. My boys have wicked bad reflux so I was desperate and even then my Pedi said not to do it until 2 months. I made it to 3 months and their digestive system still couldn't really handle it.

MrsLnt

We started thickening with rice after the 2m WBV because DD has reflux, per the recommendation of the pedi.  DS had silent reflux (he seems to have outgrown it) and, we put it in his bottle for about a week to see if it did anything (such as helping them STTN) and it did nothing.  It did help DD, although we have recently switched to oatmeal because the rice was constipating. I think she likes the oatmeal better and it has seemed to help things in that department.  

We took a bunch of level 1 nipples and cross cut them to get the right nipple flow.  

WifeOfARedhead

blondek8:

Both my guys are HUGE spitters. They spit up still after every feed and continue to spit up right up to their next feed. Their physician said as long as they aren't in pain and are gaining/thriving it's more of a laundry problem than anything. It's better now that they're a little older and they're definitely "happy spitters". It doesn't seem to bother them at all. I walk around the house covered in barf all day though.

You just described my boys and I to a T! That's the exact same boat we're in too.

 Niki - we've been thickening their formula with rice cereal for a couple months now as per our pedi's rec and they still spit up just as much as before.