Rice cereal, what did your Dr say?

Re: Rice cereal, what did your Dr say?

• LaurenNewph member

  January 2016

  That's basically what my doctor said too, as well the iron in cereal.

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• ElleMF728 member

  January 2016

  My pedi likes to start with rice and then move to oatmeal around 5 months so I do as well.  I understand why other people prefer not to but the standard at my office is if LO is averaging around 30 oz of formula a day and at least four months then go for it. 
  

  

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• yellowbean15 member

  January 2016

  Our provincial health board publishes a book that is given to all new parents with their current recommendations for all things baby/child related. My doctor basically told me to refer to this for his recommendations.
  
  In it, it says that by 6 months babies need extra iron in their diet from solids foods. So it says to start with iron fortified infant cereal and/or iron rich foods sources (meat, fish, eggs, legumes, tofu). I've always heard of people starting with fruits and veggies and a lot of people on here who've done their own research (I haven't) say they aren't doing the infant cereals at all and are going straight to fruits and veggies.
  
  So I'm basically just all kinds of confused about this and have no idea what we are going to do with introducing foods. I'm going to ask the public health nurse for clarification when we go get 4 month shots in a few weeks. Regardless, we are waiting until closer to 6 months just because I think that's what's going to work best for us personally.

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• dmbfan46835 member

  January 2016

  At my appt today I was told it's our choice to start foods and to choose fruits like puréed bananas and avocados. I expressed my concerns about starting too soon and food allergies/tummy issues and she said I could wait til 6 mos no problem. She said most of her parents are eager to start early but she's good with 6 so that's what I'm doing.

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• thinkpink101 member

  January 2016

  Our pediatrician said that she only recommends rice for EBF babies because they need the iron. She said we were of course free to use rice even though we supplement with formula, but that there's little nutritional value so her recommendation would be to just skip it. She said if we do rice to be choosy because some areas where rice is grown have high concentration of arsenic (like the Midwest). We decided to start with avocado, followed by sweet potatoes. LO absolutely loved both of those and is a natural with the spoon. Didn't lose a morsel of food, lol. Next we'll do either green beans or carrots I think.
  
  When our older three were little the recommendation was pretty much only rice, followed by other single grain cereals. Fruits and veggies were introduced later.

  
  

  
  

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• thinkpink101 member

  January 2016

  dmbfan46835 said:

  At my appt today I was told it's our choice to start foods and to choose fruits like puréed bananas and avocados. I expressed my concerns about starting too soon and food allergies/tummy issues and she said I could wait til 6 mos no problem. She said most of her parents are eager to start early but she's good with 6 so that's what I'm doing.

  Oh and our pediatrician said that a few years ago the recommendation was to wait until 6 months, but now it has changed again, and that it's better to expose babies to a wide variety of foods early to hopefully avoid allergies. I swear they do a 180 every few years! Just go with your instinct.
  

  
  

  
  

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• buckleyk member

  January 2016

  With my 2 year old the dr said to wait until 6 months and that the research in terms of preventing obesity and diabeties supports that. In terms of allergy prevention, the research goes back and forth so the dr's advice was to do what felt right to us. When I told her I wanted to skip rice cereal since it has not nutrition she pointed out the iron but said it was fine to skip. My husband felt strongly he NEEDED rice cereal so we complained on baby oatmeal.
  
  We started with oatmeal mixed with BM for dinner and then added a veggie. I guess around 7 months we added breakfast of oatmeal and a fruit and started lunch around 8 months. By 9 months the dr's advice was to move away from purées and we just have him bits of whatever we ate.

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• imsoexcited915 member

  January 2016

  I started another post because we just went to the pediatrician for DD 4 month appt sat and was told the same. I recalled reading here some ladies say they sere skipping rice cereal because it lacked nutrition but she said it's got iron which is needed. So I will be following her advice.

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• adeckard2014 member

  January 2016

  I am a pediatric dietitian. I have no understanding of the current trend towards skipping rice... Even if waiting to 6 months for any solids. Rice is very very hypoallergenic and easier to digest compared to oatmeal and other grains. It is very easy on the GI tract and most importantly fortified with iron... The main reason for introducing solids at 6 months anyway. I agree to only spoon feed rice, or any other solids really.

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• chelseajeanene member

  January 2016

  Our pedi said that same thing

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• ForeverEverAfter member

  January 2016

  Our doctor and public health nurse said to skip cereal, and start at 6 months with any iron-rich food. Health Canada and WHO say to start at 6 months with any iron-rich food. With DD1 she sucked and gummed strips of steak (juices are a good source of iron), and ate flaky fish (like cod). Iron is more readily absorbed from meat (heme iron) than from fortified grain or supplements.

  

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• ForeverEverAfter member

  January 2016

  The Health Canada recommendations also agree with BLW, saying to offer foods from the family table, with varying textures and allow them to experiment feeding themselves.

  

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• ForeverEverAfter member

  January 2016

  
  
  
  

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• ElleMF728 member

  January 2016

  @ForeverEverAfter Offering food from the family meal is a great idea and one that I hope to use with this LO, but it doesn't work for every infant.  DS1 refused any finger foods until after his 1st birthday.  He had a texture issue and would gag and sometimes even throw up the second he touched it.  I offered finger foods every meal for 6 months and he wouldn't eat anything.  BLW is great and I think I'll have more success with DS2 just because they are different kids, but some babies won't do well with it which I think gets forgotten sometimes. 
  

  

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• tpete12 member

  January 2016

  My daughter is just starting to show interest in food. I started introducing the spoon today. I just put her in her seat and attempted to give her just milk on the spoon. She has a ways to go, but it was a good start.

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• chelseajeanene member

  January 2016

  I just had a checkup for my son and he's 4 months now so I asked about the rice and she said not until 6 months now. She said it's typically for babies who are eating more then 32 oz a day. She then told me my son is the size of a 1 year old baby and I should wait lol

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• Bellarose212 member

  January 2016

  I just got back from the pediatrician's office for my LO's 4 month check up. He's 17 pounds and in the 85th percentile!!! I'm in shock actually. But she said to start him on solids-more shock. I thought the recommendation was 6 months? I just don't feel ready emotionally to start. She also said its ok if I want to wait a little while, but that the newest research available suggests it's better to start at 4 months. Anyway, I'm waiting a little longer...

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• Ruthie.Roo member

  January 2016

  My pediatrician told me my 15 lb 6.9oz 4 month old doesn't need solids until 9 or 10 months. I asked her because we ebf and my MIL keeps trying to push food but DD isn't showing signs of being ready and I'm not looking forward to solids poop on her cloth diapers. DH and I agreed to revisit at our 6 month appointment but I'm in no hurry.

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• KYmama9286 member

  January 2016 edited January 2016

  So I had a long talk with the pedi about this today. We did BLW with the other 3 and plan to do it this time around. What we do is start with a stage 1 jar of baby food just to see if they can actually figure out how to manipulate the food in their mouth. Once I know they are able to do that we pretty much feed whatever we eat.
  
  The pedi did suggest we start something by around 5 months because they've found in recent research that for some babies who start solids later around 6 months or older there have been slightly higher risks of developing a wheat allergy/intolerance later. I'm not a fan of rice cereal and my kids haven't been either. He said the biggest reason to do rice cereal is for the added iron at 6+ months old. He said you can get the same iron by doing pureed meats and since we do BLW they get meat that we eat early on either in a food mill or prepared very soft and able to swallow.
  
  He also informed me that restrictions have changed and the only thing they recommend NOT giving before a year is honey. Peanut butter and eggs are considered safe now and recommended. We have no history of food allergies so I'm not super cautious with that aside from high allergen foods like strawberries or eggs and I'll introduce those solo to watch for any reactions. Hth!

  

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• jen83mn member

  January 2016

  Bellarose212 said:

  I just got back from the pediatrician's office for my LO's 4 month check up. He's 17 pounds and in the 85th percentile!!! I'm in shock actually. But she said to start him on solids-more shock. I thought the recommendation was 6 months? I just don't feel ready emotionally to start. She also said its ok if I want to wait a little while, but that the newest research available suggests it's better to start at 4 months. Anyway, I'm waiting a little longer...

  My little man was 17 lbs 10 oz at his 4-month exam and my pedi also said we could start him on solids now if we wanted, or we could wait. I'm in no hurry! Even though he just stares at us as we eat at the dinner table, lol. I'm sure he'll be more than ready at 6 months, but considering what a huge baby he is, I don't think he needs the extra food right now!

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• LaurenNewph member

  January 2016

  @KYmama9286 do you know of anywhere I can read about the wheat allergy thing? My husband's family has a strong history of celiac disease. My son if 5 mos as of yesterday and I may talk to my pediatrician before our 6 mo appointment! He suggested we wait since my son was a premie.

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• KYmama9286 member

  January 2016

  @LaurenNewph
  
  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16740862

  

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• KYmama9286 member

  January 2016

  These may not apply for preemies since you often have to go by adjusted age. It may be worth bringing the article abstract with you to the pedi and ask them their thoughts. Our pedi is great about staying current on new research which I really appreciate.

  

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• LaurenNewph member

  January 2016

  Thanks! I talked to my BFF who is a pediatric np so I didn't have to go to my pediatrician with "I read on the internet..." Lol she said if celiac runs in the family he's going to get it no matter when I start!

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