Adding new foods

We have been giving the babies rice cereal once a day for about 2 weeks. They both seem to enjoy it. They smile and laugh, don't mind the spoon or the food, but were mostly spitting the cereal out instead of taking bites or swallowing. I know it's just practice so we eat (or play LOL) for about 5-10 minutes and then clean them up. In the last two days the eating has really clicked for Jude. He is smacking his lips, swallowing full bites, opening his mouth for more and ate all of the cereal I gave him last night (a couple of teaspoons). So what's next? We aren't in a real rush to introduce a lot of solids, but since he is starting to enjoy it so much I think he'll be ready for more soon. Once they had cereal down did you add in a second feeding of cereal? Or did you try feeding them a new food? The pedi said we could try other stage one foods if they did well with cereal but I'm not really clear whether we should stick to this for only one feeding a day or whether we need to try to add in solids at another feeding.

 

if they were premi's and are actually less than 4 months old I would wait to introduce anything else, they are still young.

We did rice cereal 1-2 feedings per day from 5 months (4 adjusted) to 6 months (5 adjusted), and then added the other cereals x 2 weeks, and then when they were almost 6 months adjusted we started with veggies and fruits. Everyone differs in their opinion of when to start solids. IMO it can't hurt to wait until their digestive track is more mature.

 

They're pretty young, so I would personally stick to cereals for a while, or mild fruits like avacado. I would hesitate adding another feeding right now because breast milk/formula is much more important at this stage so you don't want them to be full from other things. Take it slow! It won't be long before you're at 3 meals a day and two snacks and cleaning the high chairs 5 times a day :lol:

 

If they still intake a good amount of milk, then I don't see why you should rush to solid before 6 months.I started giving my son rice cereal mixed ebm around 5.5 months. Its because he was teething so badly and refused his bottles. He was hungry all the time but didn't want to take bottles. Finally I had to give him solid.he loved his solid and his milk intake dropped to 20-22oz/day. He ate like 8-10oz solid. Now he has been teething again for 3 weeks. Guess what he hates his solid and loves bottles now. I have no problem with that.I still offer solid but if he refuses I give him bottle. Now its hard to make him eat 4oz/day.and he is still gaining weight faster then he was before (when he ate a lot of solid and drank less milk)

My point is milk is more important then solid.if you introduce solid too early, they will cut back on milk. And its no good.

 

I agree with the pp - as young as they are, I wouldn't rush to introduce new things just yet. We didn't go any solids until 6 months, so we started adding quickly at that point. As long as they are getting plenty of milk/formula, you could probably add another serving of cereal, but you need to be careful they don't drop their milk consumption too much.

 

Thanks for the responses. I think our next step (in a couple of weeks) will be adding in another feeding of rice cereal in the morning and see how they do with that. I'm really not in a hurry, and won't have time until after the holidays anyway but I like to plan ahead. And I'm thinking we'll give oatmeal a try next before trying out a fruit or veggie.

 

With all three kids, I did cereal from 4-6 months. It was so they, and I, could get a hang of all of it! Once we did rice cereal, we moved onto oatmeal. Then around six months, we added veggies and a second meal. Once we went through the veggies, we added fruit. And by nine months we moved up to three meals/day.