Do You Have To Wait To 4 Months To Feed Cereal?

Yesterday at Easter my mom was telling me that I should start feeding the boys solids, they are big kids and it would fill them up more than just milk. We have our 4-month appt on the 18th (thier birthday) but my honey weighed himself holding the boys and they are each around 15 pounds - Chase is already wearing 6-9 month clothes. I said I wanted to hold off until their doc appt to see what she has to say, Mom said I could go ahead and start the cereal - what would you do?

BTW, they are exclusively breastfed, and I thought breastfed kiddos could go to 6 months before starting cereal and solids?

 

AAP recommends to wait until the age of 6 months. I wanted to wait until 6 months but started last week at 5.5 months. I've fed them rice cereal about 4 times now and they seem to like it. I wanted to make sure they were able to sit up independently in their booster seats before starting. I would continue waiting if i were you.

 

I was determined to wait until 6 months but I ended up starting cereal towards 5 months and the following week introducing stage 1 solids. I did this because they were drinking all the milk during the day and eating a lot in the middle of the night. Looking back I could have started cereal a few weeks earlier. My boys have always been towards the top of the weights charts!

 

Hmmm ... mine eat about every 3 hours during the day, one final nursing before bed, and then they go anywhere from 5-7 hours before waking for a feed - last night they were down at 8 and up at 3:15 to eat, then down until 630 this morning. So they are getting enough at night where they don't wake up to eat all the time ... I wonder if cereal would fill them up even more and they would sleep throught the night, or if I should keep a good thing going and not mess with it.

 

QUOTE
I wonder if cereal would fill them up even more and they would sleep throught the night, or if I should keep a good thing going and not mess with it.


I should have add in my op that the cereal did not help mine sleep through the night. They were still waking out of habit to eat but that was at 5 months so we had to CIO. I would not mess with a good thing!

Some people swear that the cereal helps them sleep longer but it did not work for mine. I have also heard that if you start cereal too early, it can actually keep them up at night due to their stomach being bothered if they are not ready for it.

I also did not BF so I dont like to give much advice on feeding issues to BF moms since it is different then formula and I know nothing about it!!!

 

We started cereal at 5.5 mo for one and close to 7 mo for the other. It didn't change their sleep schedules (which I believe has more to do with development than diet). There's more calories and nutrition in breastmilk than in cereal and they don't actually consume all that much while they are still learning, so I was never in a rush to get there.

 

For my boys their pedi put them on a tablespoon of cereal 2x a day when they were 2 weeks old to prevent reflux. They began solid foods around 4 months.

I never breastfed (due to being hospitalized a week after their birth and all the meds), however, I did pump. So, I can not tell you what the recommendation would be for breastfed ones....just tell you from personal experience.

Since your appointment in 8 days I would just wait until I see the pedi and talk to them about it then.

 

Technically, it won't hurt them if you even start it as early as 2 months. I gave it to mine at 2 months, for reflux issues, and everyone I know starts it then as well, even if they do not have reflux issues. I think alot of people assume if they begin cereal right away their child will sleep through the night, which isn't always true. A baby will sleep through when ready regardless of a full tummy or not... sometimes a full tummy can have reverse effects, and cause stomach discomfort.

Yours aren't to young to start it, they are a week shy of 4 months? You can try it out.

 

I'd discuss it with the pedi first, even if just over the phone..

 

If you are breastfeeding they don't need cereal - or any solids - for the first year. That first year is practice, so no need to rush. There actaully isn't too much nutrition in baby cereal anyway, other than the iron that's added. You could get iron from sweet potatoes or something and skip the cereal - my kids never took to it so I never gave it to them.

 

I have started all of my kids at 4 months off of a spoon...but they have all had reflux issues, and we have added cereal to their bottles from the beginning(about 2 weeks old). Soooo....I don't think that it will help them sleep at all, but I don't think that it will hurt them to try it. Or, you could wait and get some reassurance from your ped!