Rice Cereal at 8 weeks?

My son has terrible reflux and the Pedi suggested adding 1tsp of rice cereal per ounce in his bottle. However, the nipple is way too fast for him and he coughs and chokes on it. Now we just have him on zantac, but I'd love to add cereal back in so that they BOTH sleep an extra hour or so at night - (they sleep from 8:30 - 11:30, then up every hour or two after that!!!)

Any suggestions, advice? thanks Twins are 8.5 weeks old and weigh over 12lbs each.

thanks

 

What nipples did you use? I use the Dr. Brown's y-cut nipples and they work pretty well, although the holes do tend to grow and they have to be replaced pretty often.

 

Things could have changed but I want to think Avent (if you use those bottles) makes a nipple that is for thicker formula. The hole is bigger but not so much that it's coming out too fast.

 

Mine were 8w when we started thickened feeds (1tsp per oz) and had an awful time finding a nipple that would permit the formula to flow but wouldn't be too fast. Now they are 12w and I have found the Playtex Drop Ins level 3 works very well. It flows and does not choke them.

 

I was going to suggest the Y nipples as well. Or I think you could cut into the nipples you have now to make the Y. That's what our pedi suggested(but I never ended up adding the rice cereal). But it may just be a case of trying various ones to find out which ones work.

Good luck! And good luck with the sleeping. Over here-it was a myth with them sleeping longer! :laughing:

 

Thanks everyone. I've tried the Y-cut nipples for Dr. Brown's and it's just too fast for him. Ends up all over his face! Oh well....maybe we'll try again in a few weeks.

 

Gerber makes an x-cut nipple that is a smaller opening than the y-cut nipple. They are latex, though, which I know some people don't like. Seriously, I think I tried EVERY nipple out there before I found the one I was happy with.

 

That is around the same time we started thickened feeds as well. It took a while, but the best one I found was the fast flow nipple on the playtex airevent advance bottles. I tried just about every other one there was. I have 4 different kinds of bottles in my cabinet and probably 8 or 9 different kinds of nipples. It's really trial and error, but the playtex seems the best. The y and x cut nipples were WAY too fast for the girls. We just went with the faster flow nipples.

 

thanks. I'll try those that you guys mentioned and see what works for him.