s/o solids...

Keribells

Does anybody feed the jar baby food anymore? DD has her 4 month appt on March 2 and I'm guessing the pedi will have us put cereal in her diet at that time. I just assumed that we'd start with putting it in her formula bottles or jar baby food. No?

Also...I've been researching (instead of working) this afternoon. She is now starting to move to 5-6 oz bottles (formula) at each feeding but not regularly....usually 4 oz per feeding every 3 hours. My friend's baby will be 5 weeks on Friday and her's is putting away 5 oz per feeding with no problem (breast milk). I'm guessing we are doing ok with DD's feedings...yes, no???

bobcatsteph

I started out making food, then switched to jarred when I was wasting time/money on foods that DD wouldn't eat.

Many pedis are suggesting that starting solids be pushed back until closer to 6 months. We were told to not put cereal in DD's bottle, but to just feed it to her from a bowl mixed with formula or water (she hated it so we switched to the oatmeal cereal).

Be warned that starting solids can cause constipation issues (at least it did with us..and it was not fun).

I wouldn't worry about the size of the bottles your DD is taking compared to other babies..she'll let you know if she's still hungry.

Mrs.Purdue

most of the country still feeds purees (store bought).  only on the bump does it feel like everyone does baby-lead weaning or makes their own pureed baby food. 

when you start cereal, you'll likely start it by itself.  you mix a small amount of cereal (we started with oatmeal because she had a history of constipation and I didn't want rice cereal to bring it back) with some formula.  spoon feed it (it'll be runny).  once she gets the hang of it (might take a few weeks), you can start to thicken it up a bit so it's not almost as runny as just straight formula. 

we tried to start her on cereal about 4.5 months, but she hated it.  we didn't force the issue and gave up for another 2-3 weeks and then tried again and she liked it just fine.  we stuck with cereal for about 2 weeks (just once a day) and then started on purees (sweet potatoes).   so she was almost 6 months before her first purees. 

SarahPLiz

We didn't do cereal at all until a few weeks ago. I make it thick and put it on  a spoon and he weilds the spoon himself. Most of it gets in his mouth. I use oatmeal though and I have to put cinnamon in it or he won't eat it. The boy likes flavor. But we only do this on weekends. He doesn't wake up early enough to eat breakfast at home during the week (besides an occasional boob). 

If you want to do purees then cereal is a good place to start. If you don't, then you may want to question the necessity of it, especially if her formula is iron fortified already.  

My ex's daughter started on cereal with pureed prunes to help with her already awful constipation. She seemed to like it.  

BSE

i just wanted to say that we didn't/don't have any constipation issues with rice cereal. we started with just cereal in a bowl fed with a spoon. i make the simple purees (sweet potatoes, squash, pears, apples)- basically single or easy ingredients that cook easily and are quick to puree. i alternate these with the store bought ones because there are some awesome combination ones that you can buy that i don't have the time to make or access to the ingredients (such as peaches in the winter). so we do a combination of home made and store bought.

also, don't worry about what others are drinking- you'll know when you need bigger bottles- although in our case daycare just let me know when to add more.