Is rice cereal necessary?

Miller238 · June 2010

I skipped rice cereal and oatmeal and went straight to veggies and fruits. At her 6 month well visit, the pedi told me to start giving her rice cereal because of the iron. Is this really necessary? Won't she get iron from breastmilk and her fruits and veggies?

Meg41208 · June 2010

Katie wouldn't eat rice cereal. We gave her oatmeal instead. There is some debate whether there's enough iron in breastmilk. Katie never ate a lot of cereal - we probably gave her half a serving a day (not a full serving at every meal like I've seen some babies eat), and when she got tested, her iron was fine.

identicaltwins2be · June 2010

My pedi told me no solids were truly "necessary" and that they are more for practice than anything. She said babies could live on breastmilk or formula alone for the first year. Now, with that being said, we did start giving the boys a little bit of oatmeal cereal. They seem to enjoy it but it certainly doesn't make up much, if any, of their "normal" diet.

KristenBtobe · June 2010

I'd give any kind of fortified cereal. Oatmeal, barley. I mixed it with purrees.

curlypie1 · June 2010

My personal opinion is that it isn't necessary. When I gave solids early on, it was more for the practice of eating. With that said, when I did try to offer rice cereal, it didn't go over well, so I just stopped offering it.

Mrs.Cooley2bee · June 2010

I thought all baby cereals were fortified with iron? Hmmm. In any case DD never got one bite of rice cereal (started with oatmeal) and her pedi didn't have an issue with it.

Superchicy · June 2010

Brooke hates rice cereal with a passion. We gave oatmeal and barley to help her figure out the spoon, and then went straight to fruits and veggies.

Mrs.Babbsy · June 2010

My girls won't touch it, I buy the gerber with the fruits and oatmeal mix.

preglicious · June 2010

This might help:

https://www.babycenter.com/404_does-my-baby-need-an-iron-supplement_1334529.bc

segerama · June 2010

My daughter never ate cereal by itself, but I still use oatmeal to thicken up the YoBaby yogurt at 13 months old. The yogurt is too runny by itself, so I add 3 T of cereal to get it to the right consistency. When my daughter was eating purees, even homemade, I did the same.

adamsbabble · June 2010

It's not necessary. I think it's an old school thought process that you have to start with cereal or give it at all. Like PP's said, any food you give in the first year is just for practice and the majority of their diet should be breastmilk or formula.

With that said, I offered Ava rice cereal just to practice with the spoon, but it didn't go over well. She hated it! We either went to oatmeal (which is also iron fortified) or straight to fruits & veggies after that. She did like the oatmeal better but I only gave it for a short period of time and mainly just gave fruits, veggies & yogurt. I gave it to Charlotte just because her sleep seemed to improve once we started it.

rottie06 · June 2010

We have done oatmeal with bananas, DD loves it. We have not tried rice. Check out this website, if you have not already, https://wholesomebabyfood.com/ I find it really helpful! It will give you more info on the subject.

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