if you skipped rice cereal....

liz18t · July 2011

We have waited a bit after 4 months to start food and plan to wait a bit more (hopefully until 6 mos). But the little guy is real interested in our food and looking a bit more hungry these days. I don't want to add any fuel to his tummy trauma but I think we might need to start thinking about how we want to introduce food.

I have read on this board that some parents have skipped the rice cereal and started with oatmeal? If you did that, what was your reason? If you skipped rice and did something else, what did you do and why?

Thanks in advance!

perplexed59 · July 2011

We are going to skip cereals and wait until 6 months. I just finished reading Baby Led Weaning by Gill Rapley and Tracey Murkett (I got it from my library). There is a lot of information on the internet as well.

So we are starting with veggies and fruit and meat (whatever we are eating).The book is a really good read even if you are going to start with cereals because it explains the development process of a babies eating ability.

If your baby has a sensitive stomach this may be a good approach for you. It allows your child to feed themselves what they like. In the book they say there is evidence that your child will avoid foods that they are sensitive to or allergic to.

mommyjenny257 · July 2011

My pedi recommended skipping rice cereal due to DS's constipation issues since birth. He said to do Oatmeal and if he gets worth with the constipation to mix in some prunes or pears. DS didn't like oatmeal, so I added a little bit of pears and now he loves it. I also went ahead and started on some veggies and he really eats them up. Did Squash and now Carrots. Will do Sweet Potatoes next befor starting on green veggies.

aubreyalise · July 2011

i plan on starting with sweet potatoes (i'm thinking in the next week or so).

i've read that rice cereal can be really constipating and that oatmeal is a good substitute, but there's a small chance they can contain trace amounts of gluten. i wasn't overly concerned about that, but i figured i was down to oatmeal or sweet potatoes anyways, so i might as well try sweet potatoes.

https://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/sweetpotatobabyfoodrecipes.htm

moyolehuani · July 2011

Talking to the pedi cereals become an important source of iron.
Right now LO gets all that from milk/formula. Once they start eating foods they don't absorb it the same way and can develop a deficiency. Cereals are a good way to replace it. We plan on using black beans (the broth from making them).
After all ... Beans, Beans,
They're good for your heart ...

Spin313 · July 2011

With DS and DD, we skipped rice and went to oatmeal. Our ped suggested we start with rice and then do a second grain before starting veggies, but I just felt like rice was an unnecessary filler. With DS, after oatmeal, we did two veggies (peas then squash, I think), then a fruit (banana), and then we alternated veggies and fruits. I plan to do the same with DD.

on_the_move · July 2011

We haven't done anything with DD yet but for DS we waited until 6 months and he didn't care for rice cereal so we quickly moved to oatmeal. This time I think we will just start with oatmeal at 6 months. I don't remember exactly but I didn't think rice cereal had much nutrition anyway.

srmmm09 · July 2011

moyolehuani:
Talking to the pedi cereals become an important source of iron.
Right now LO gets all that from milk/formula. Once they start eating foods they don't absorb it the same way and can develop a deficiency. Cereals are a good way to replace it.

A recent memo from the American Association of Pediatricians recommended NOT giving your baby rice cereal, saying that the baby can only absorb less than 10% of the iron in the cereal, and there aren't really any other positives to rice besides more calories. In contrast, the iron in breast milk is more like 70% "bio-available." If you're really worried about iron, have a bit of baby's blood drawn to check. Or just start on iron-dense foods at 6 months or so.

Personally, I'm gonna try to stretch EBF as long as possible, in hopes that I can skip the pureed stage and go straight to mashed/soft finger foods. It's kind of lazy, but BF is so easy and free!

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