Cereal in bottles - Why not again?

kyluvsaj

Okay, I am desperate.  Sloane isn't eating her cereal.  My mom, DH's mom, may Aunt and every elder I know put cereal in our bottles from the time we were 6 weeks old.

 Why aren't we supposed to do it again?  Choking while eating? With spit up?  What is the difference when I feed them cereal and follow up with a bottle.

Thoughts?

blueladybug

Oh Lord, don't get em started

Just kidding ladies, love you!

april062604

"they" say it can cause choking. ?DD had cereal in her bottle for a while b/c of reflux. ?she never choked, but the dr told me it's hard to get them to start eating it off a spoon if they know it can be out of a bottle instead, and we did have that problem. ?just give her time, maybe she's just not ready. ?btw...i love the name sloane.

MNheidi

Max is eating like a champ.  Opens his mouth and sqwuaks like a baby bird; it's like he knows exactly what to do.  Luke on the other hand, is not digging it.  He'll play around for awhile b/c it's something new but after a few rounds he just wants his bottle.  I'm going to give it a little more time, let me know if you find any tricks.

kyluvsaj

lol....I never thought I would consider it so I never read the other posts!

mwilson44

Hey girl!  I would wait it out too if you can help it.  Brody still isn't a great eater...some days are better than others.  Aidan on the other hand will open his mouth at anything.  I hope all is going better with you.  I know you've been a little stressed lately and I've been thinking about you with your sister and all!

AkinaMaluki

ok, from what I understand the point of feeding them cereal at this point is just to teach them how to eat and not for nutrition, so it's not about getting the cereal in her anyway you can. imo it sounds like she isn't ready. Just try again in another 2wks, hoefully it will go better then.

mnj917

I had never heard that and I gave DD bottled cereal from 4 months on - she's fine and we never had any problems spoon feeding (crap - I forgot about those fun days!).  Not that what I did is 'correct'.  Good luck!  Oh - I do remember mixing the cereal with a little baby yogurt once we strted spoon feeding - I thought the cereal was disgusting and felt the need to doctor it up.

jd0614

I believe its because they won't eat it off a spoon if started in a bottle...?  Not 100 percent on that though.  Anyway - it may just be she's not quite ready.  My first son we started at 5 months and it got so frustrating because he would just push it out - after 2 weeks of trying, I stopped for about 2 weeks and started up again at 6 months.  He took it immediately.  May just be a timing issue.

mel&greg

My pedi also said that they get the food much faster through a bottle and can't guage properly when they are full. Like pp said, cereal at this point is more for a learning experience...learning to push food back with tongue, learning to eat with spoon, etc.  I wouldn't worry too much yet!

kyluvsaj

Thanks guys.  I am so tired and just ready for the next phase.  I keep thinking that if I can get her to take to the cereal then I can move her to other stuff in a couple of weeks and will eventually be able to start cutting back on my pumping.

I am trying really hard not to give up but I just don't know how much longer I can do it.

kblindgren

This might be late (I see most posts were from yesterday) but when I work with feeding therapy with babies, the only reason they say to not feed cereal from a bottle is to teach them to eat food from a spoon - exactly what others said.  It may be harder to get them to eat food later if they are used to getting full from bottles.  If they constantly suck on a bottle (or paci or sippy cup) it could cause a higher risk of speech problems because they can get used to something in their mouth all the time, and having the constant sucking (again bottle, paci, etc.) could cause dentition issues.  Some kids have no problems at all.  Other than that, it's not particularly dangerous or anything as long as they're monitered.