another cereal question

I have been reading some of the other mommy's topic about feeding.. I thought that you would feed cereal first and then give a bottle.. if they dont finihs the bottle then they are full from the cereal . I ahve been reading that you mommas feed cereal about 1 1/2 after a bottle.. am I doing it wrong? and when do you start adding another cereal feeding?
right now i just do it at lunch.. they are 6mths tomorrow..
help!

 

Personally, I give solids (cereal, fruit and/or veggies) between bottles. If I wait until my boys are actually hungry to give solids they fuss and cry the whole time I'm trying to feed them. So I do a solids meal (which generally includes cereal) about 2 hours after a bottle, depending on naps, etc. Rather than reducing the amount of formula in each bottle to accomodate solids, I have just cut out a bottle. So we're doing four 8-oz bottles a day and two servings of solids. I started out with 5 (or sometiems 6) bottles and one serving of cereal at 5 months and built up from there. I don't know what is "recommended" - I never really asked my doc about when to serve solids, I just know what works for Evan and James. So here's a typical day for us:

6:30 wake
7 bottle
8:45 nap
10:30 solids
12 bottle
1:30 nap
3 bottle
5 solids
6:15 bottle
6:30 bed

My doctor did mention that she likes babies to be down to three bottles by 9 months so I guess I'll add a third meal of solids then.

 

I don't think there is an exact right or wrong way to do it....just see what works. My little ones haven't started solids yet, but with my older DD, I tried to give her cereal before nursing her, and she just got MAD, because she was hungry, but didn't quite get the hang of eating for quite some time.

So, I switched to nursing her first, and then giving her some solids a bit later, and it went a lot better.

Formula or breastmilk do provide enough nutrition for the first year, and solids are just for practice early on, so it's fine if they only eat a tiny amount in addition to their bottles....

 

QUOTE(nicolina @ Oct 1 2007, 01:21 PM) [snapback]430555[/snapback]
I have been reading some of the other mommy's topic about feeding.. I thought that you would feed cereal first and then give a bottle.. if they dont finihs the bottle then they are full from the cereal . I ahve been reading that you mommas feed cereal about 1 1/2 after a bottle.. am I doing it wrong? and when do you start adding another cereal feeding?
right now i just do it at lunch.. they are 6mths tomorrow..
help!


I replied in another post that I do cereal about 1-1.5 hours after a bottle so it would be inbetween bottles are our solid meals. But i dont think there is a right or wrong way, except do what works for you and your babes. However, if you notice that their formula intake is low, it may be due to the cereal before the bottle and you might want to try after so that they get what they need from the formula and then do the cereal. JMO. And i do agree from the PP that if I were to try and do cereal first in the morning my kids would be screaming for food-FAST! So the bottle settles their appetite for them.

I started with cereal first in the evening but that is what worked for us. Then I went to a breakfast meal probably around 6 months or so and then I did not introduce a third (lunch) until they were about 8.5 months.

Rachel

 

Formula is most important at 6 months, so I did bottle first, then solids. But, if they are still drinking their bottles fine, I would leave it be!

 

I was told by my Pediatrician that bottles should always be given before solids AS they are getting the nutrients from formula OR breast milk right now. Solids are more for "practice" right now at the age your twins are.. Right now we usually do breakfast (cereal) right after their morning bottle and veggies/fruit for lunch right after their 11/12pm bottle. They still get a bottle at around 3ish and dinner (meat/veggie/fruit) at 5ish and then their last bottle for the day at 6ish. I like to do one right after so that I don't feel like all I'm doing is feeding them. If I did it every 1.5 hours that's all I would feel like I was doing

I started doing two cereal feedings (breakfast and dinner) a day at 6.5 months old. We started cereal at 5.5 months and once we started doing veggies I added the second meal.

 

[SIZE=10pt]We haven't started solids here yet. With my older children I started around 4 months. We started with cereal after the morning bottle. As PP have mentioned, if I did cereal first they would fuss. After a bottle they were much more interested. Our PEDI also says that Breast milk or Formula is the only thing they need for the first year. However he is old school and says that you can start solids around 4 months, as long as head control is good. Not sure what we're going to do yet though.

April [/SIZE]

 

Just like pps have said...what works for you. Mine have never been too big on bfing or bottles so I have to do that first or I wouldn't get enough in them.

We started rice cereal at 4 months old and did it in the evening after bfing(after a couple of weeks started adding in some fruit and veggies).

At 5 1/2 months added in breakfast (oatmeal with fruit) after bfing.

Now we do:
5:15a bfing
5:40a breakfast (oatmeal with fruit)
9:00a 6 oz bottle
12:00p 5-6 oz bottle
3:00p 5-6 oz bottle
6:00p bf
6:45p dinner (a dinner like vegetable beef(usually with mixed grain cereal mixed in), separate veggie (usually a green), and a fruit)
9:30 2 oz bottle (just started this instead of bfing)

Sometime between now and 8 1/2 months I plan on getting lunch in there. On weekends they usually get a snack after their noon bottle (wagon wheel, cheerios, etc) but we just started doing that.

As long as they're still taking their bottles/bfing then do what works for you.

 

My doc told me to do it in the middle. So we do our normal 3pm bottle where they both drink their entire bottle (8oz for DS and 7oz for DD) and then we do 5pm solids. Then prior to bedtime we give them another bottle, and at this point they are still drinking their entire bottles. We aren't going heavy with the solids though ... they are splitting one jar/container of food. That's it ... So the little bit of solids they are eating is not at all affecting their bottle consumption.

 

It depends on the age of the baby. We started giving our girls solids at around 5 months and I timed it so that it was in between their 4 and their 8 pm bottles. Now that they are over 6 months old and drinking an average of 30 oz a day, our doctor said to give them solids and then a bottle. The reason she said this is because they are hardly eating any solids (only split a half a jar of fruit or veggie and split a Tbs of cereal) and we want to increase the amount of the meal and add a second meal soon. I would go by the recommendation of your ped because it depends on the age of the baby, their size, and the amount their drink each day (like if you are struggling to get 20-24 oz of bm or formula, our ped would recommend the bottle first and solids). Here is our day right now.. and we are going to start doing a second meal probably this weekend...

6:30 am- wake up
7:00 am- 6-7oz bottle
11:00am- 6oz bottle (we are going to add a 'meal' here probably right before the bottle at 10:45)
3:00pm- 6oz bottle
6:45pm- split 1/2 jar and 1Tbs of cereal- we are going to try to increase to a full jar and 2Tsp of cereal.
7:00pm- offer a 6oz bottle- usually take 4-5oz of it.
7:30pm- bed
10:00pm- dream feed 7oz bottle (usually they drink the whole thing).

GL! -Leighann

 

thanks momma's this helps me out alot. i started giving them cereal 1 1/2 hr after their first bottle in the morning.. its better that way.. I was doing the other way and gettting frustrated that they would cry all the time.. so now they are not starving when I try this. I am just dong once a day for now.