Just starting rce cereal today...what next?

Poppywedding

LO is 4.5 months old. She usually takes a 6oz bottle every three hours.

This morning I gave her a few nibbles of rice cereal.

How many times a day do I need to feed her cereal?

Should I also be offering fruit and veggies?

FYI: Started the cereal today out of total desperation, in hopes that LO will start to sleep more than 4 hours at night.

skio

I really don't know, I'd talk to her pedi.

But I know that rice cereal has no nutritional value whatsoever (it's just for them to practice eating, apparently), so when we start solids at 6m, I'll be mixing a little rice cereal with mushed up avocado to start, then going to just straight avocado, sweet potatoes, bananas, butternut squash, and peas. I'll introduce more things as she gets older. I've heard that fruits like berries and peaches/plums etc. can be more problematic as first foods. GL!

adryan

our pedi told us to completely skip the rice cereal since it has no value and go straight to fruits and veggies. he said to give them 4 veggies before introducing any fruits. we started out with sweet potatoes for about 5 days, then string beans, then carrots and now they are on peas. i started them right after their 4 month check up and they did great. i will start them on apples tomorrow and then go from there. the dr also told us to not hold anything back. we can give them any fruits and veggies and meats. that they've noticed more kids are allergic to things when they are avoided. hope this helps.

i got food ideas from wholesomebabyfood.com they have a complete food guide.

tistampsup

Cheeseburgers!  kidding.  You really need to talk to your pedi first.  When we got the go ahead, I gave Jake carrots. 

nicholson12

We started with oatmeal instead of rice at 4 1/2 months (heard rice can be constipating and we have enough tummy troubles as is).  The pedi gave the go ahead, but like everyone mentioned there's no value to so I was going to bypass it until she became EXTREMELY interested in anything we were eating.  I started with one tbsp before bed (fed out of a bowl) for the first week and then we moved up to 2 tbsp's because she goes crazy for it.  I plan on waiting until closer to 6 months for food, but with how she's devouring the cereal might be sooner!

nicolenjoli

the rice I give LO is whole grain rice, it has lots of IRON and it also has a little protein, it has vitamins E and B6 it has niacin and zinc and a few other vitamins, I use my breast milk to mix so I don't understand why everyone says there is no nutritional value in it? My LO loves it, I will probably try the oatmeal next and start veggies, then introduce fruits...

tistampsup

DS gets a lot of iron through his formula, so the rice cereal was just a practice food.  Now he's on to oatmeal.  I still can't get him to eat oatmeal alone.  I have to mix it with peaches or bananas.  Spoiled!