Starting cereal- how many times a day?

Mrs.M&M

Pedi said we can start this week- I'm prepared for him not to take to it, but we're going to start trying.  Anyway, how many times a day do you feed cereal?  When you start with cereal, does LO drink less milk throughout the day?  (I'm bf'ing)  How long usually until you start to thicken up the cereal?

LMBecky11

I have just started cereal with my LO. The first time, which was about a month ago, I gave her a tablespoon of cereal and made it pretty thin. She ate it but wasn't really interested. I thickened it up a bit the next time, but I only gave it to her 3 days (that was right after she turned 4 months and her pedi said I could start trying it). Then just last week I started again and I mixed 2 tbsp of baby oatmeal with 2 tbs of breast milk so it is kinda thick and she likes it a lot. I only give it to her once a day and only 2 or 3 tbs. She is still hungry afterward so she nurses a little after that and then she is good. It doesn't effect her other feedings at all. I figure in a week or two I will try a veggie and then maybe I will be giving her a meal of cereal and a meal of veggies each day, but still BFing quite often.

SarahKate31

We started with 1 serving per day (1 tbsp of cereal + about 1 oz of formula - it was pretty thin). It took him several days to get used to it and we gradually made it thicker. Now (2.5 weeks since we started) he gets 1 serving in the evening (2tbsp + about 1 oz of formula - it's pretty thick like adult oatmeal). On the weekends, we also give him a serving in the mornings. We are planning to try a veggie this weekend. He still takes the same number of bottles per day but occasionally he doesn't finish one of them.