Cereal... Yay or nay?

SarahS11 · October 2014

Will you feed your LO cereal when the time comes? What kind? Why or why not! Click on the poll cause it's fun and then give me the details below!

SarahS11 · October 2014

Like rice cereal... The mushy stuff!

JmeJoLee83 · October 2014

Yes, rice cereal unless the doctor says nay

JmeJoLee83 · October 2014

@BrightEyes112‌ well we go for 4 month shots tomorrow so I plan to ask then..but I intend to start with cereal unless he disagrees.

lest12 · October 2014

My pediatrician is always talking about rice cereal.

I don't necessarily see a problem with it, I just don't know why he seems to push it so much.

lest12 · October 2014

First, it was at the 1-month, because I mentioned LO spitting up when I laid him flat on his back. We just tried elevating him instead and that worked. At the 2-month, he followed up and asked again If we wanted to try rice cereal, even though the problem went away.

Then at his 3-month, lo dropped from 30th to 25th percentile in weight, and even though he "wasn't concerned" mentioned it again.

Weird, no?

lest12 · October 2014

That's exactly how I feel @BrightEyes112‌ .

b48kate · October 2014

We are likely to start with juk. Super popular Korean first food and is basically the same as rice cereal in that it is rice + fluid.

kriati03 · October 2014

No to rice cereal for a few reasons, we're hoping for real foods instead... 1) BM changes flavor all the time, no need to ease my baby into that as we have been EBF. 2) iron fortified - we plan to get iron in other foods 3) we plan to attempt baby led weaning which is self feeding and therefore more finger foods. 4) consistency - as long as baby is developmentally ready to eat (head control, sitting supported), they have ability to learn how to chew and things don't need to be softened.
This is the goal anyway, hoping it works!

coffee89 · October 2014

My goal is not to use it. However if LO is still not gaining well after we fix his other issue then I am open to discussing it.

Savvy122 · October 2014

MegK82 said:

Since we're talking about cereal...DD2 was the only one I was still nursing when we started solids. I noticed that when making the cereal with BM, that it progressively got thinner and more watery the longer it sat. So, while it may have been thick when I started feeding it to her, it was almost a watery consistency as we got through the bowl. Has anyone else that made cereal with BM had the same thing happen??

@MegK82 Breast milk has enzymes that actually break down the cereal... so the longer it sits, the more it will break down and become more watery.

MrsRahl · October 2014

When you say cereal when the time comes, what do you mean? Like 4 months or 6? Cuz my question to everyone is if you're doing cereal are you just waiting or skipping it all together?

Savvy122 · October 2014

I am still undecided on the great cereal debate. We did it with DS1 (but he also had it in his bottles from 4 weeks on due to severe reflux). I'd like to take a more BLW approach this time but I have also noticed recently that DS2 (19 weeks) seems to be showing all the signs of being ready to try solids. We may give oatmeal a shot and see how that goes.

erind228 · October 2014

No solids until six months here, and we will skip cereal and go straight to purées.

babygabe614 · October 2014

I'm not sure what we will do yet. My pedi didn't really feel it was time to discuss it at our 2 month appt. so I'll bring it up at the end of this month when she goes in for her 4 month. Ideally, I think we would like to go straight to purees (we plan on making our own) to minimize the amount of processed stuff going into her body. That is just a principle we have for ourselves in my home (limiting processed foods/added sugars/etc), so it makes sense to me to continue that line of thinking with DD but I definitely need to do more research on the pros and cons before we make any kind of decision.

AandJ28 · October 2014

What does BLW stand for?

JujuB22 · October 2014

I don't know what we are going to do yet. We just had our 4 month appointment and the pediatrician said we could try solids, starting with rice cereal. I don't think P is ready yet, but when he is I don't know if we will do the cereal or just veggie purees.

otter1103 · October 2014

We just tried some cereal last night with MJ. Only about a tablespoon. She did great with it. I don't want to rush adding foods too fast so we will probably stay with that amount a few times a week. So she can keep using /practicing the mouth and tongue motions. I originally wanted to wait until 6 months but after talking with the pedi at her 4 month check, he said it sounded like she was showing some interest so we could try.

rainbowdashh · October 2014

We'll skip it completely and do BLW with the occasional purée. If she's anything like S, then no purées at all.

amackattack · October 2014

My pedi said we should do rice cereal at 4 months. I am kind of confused why she says that though because everything I've read suggests that if you are BFing that is all they should get for the first 6 months if there are no other factors.

So, I think I'll print some stuff out and have H bring it to her 4 month appointment so she can do some 'splaining.

flerlgirl · October 2014

I want to try BLW. Maybe at least one of my kids will start feeding themselves by 2015.

cinnamonsmiles · October 2014

kriati03 said:

No to rice cereal for a few reasons, we're hoping for real foods instead... 1) BM changes flavor all the time, no need to ease my baby into that as we have been EBF. 2) iron fortified - we plan to get iron in other foods 3) we plan to attempt baby led weaning which is self feeding and therefore more finger foods. 4) consistency - as long as baby is developmentally ready to eat (head control, sitting supported), they have ability to learn how to chew and things don't need to be softened. This is the goal anyway, hoping it works!

This.

Also, when we discussed infant nutrition in Life Stages it was recommended to give something not high in carbohydrates/sweet until later as babies can develop a preference for sweeter food (as opposed to "blander" veggies).

catsinawindow · October 2014

I'm thinking of doing BLW with this LO (I did purees with DS) so if we do that, we'll probably do minimal cereal. Honestly, though, I probably won't be militant about it and we'll probably end up giving some purees. So, DD might get some cereal mixed with fruit/veggies, but not on a scheduled basis. We won't start any solids until 6 months.

catsinawindow · October 2014

KrystaJ said:

We're going to do oatmeal cereal a few days a week at my pediatricians recommendation. When she no longer has the tongue ejection reflex, we'll start with some veggies.

YES. I have a feeling that in 2-3 months, the baby will be feeding herself and 3 year old DS will be refusing to eat unless we feed him. Toddlers...

kks4471 · October 2014

Ped gave us the ok to start cereal when we saw him on Tuesday, but I'm not in a rush. DS doesn't seem interested yet, so maybe we'll start around 5 months. He's EFF, so I like the idea of introducing a new taste and consistency to him. I'm going to give him oatmeal cereal instead of rice, even our ped acknowledged the arsenic problem with rice cereal.

MrsRahl · October 2014

How do you know baby is actually leading weening? What does that even look like?

AandJ28 · October 2014

Some have mentioned that the baby isn't interested in moving onto cereal/solids... I'm curious how you know when they're interested or ready. LO is EFF (not sure if that makes a difference).

Savvy122 · October 2014

@AandJ28

kellymom.com/nutrition/starting-solids/solids-when/

DS is starting to really take notice when we are eating. He also is reaching for my food (I generally eat dinner with him on my lap because he won't let me eat otherwise).

AandJ28 · October 2014

Thanks @Savvy122‌

becomingmommyagain · October 2014

We're attempting to spoon feeding rice and oatmeal mixed with BM. Our pedi said we were good to start at 4 months.
LO has a voracious appetite and is doing well on BM (bottle fed). He's up to 5oz every 3 hours during the day and he sleeps well at night, but he's recently started demanding more than 5oz. Our pedi had said that he'd prefer he keep around the 5oz and start adding the rice and oatmeal to his diet.