rice cereal with every meal?

this is probably a dumb question, but is rice cereal something you are supposed to start with because it's bland and then move on to fruits and veggies, or are you supposed to feed rice cereal every time (along w. fruits and veggies) for nutritional value? thanks.

 

I'm no nutritional guru, but I will say that we still buy and feed them rice cereal because they like it, it's nutritious, and honestly I'm not very creative when it comes to finding foods that toddlers will eat. I usually mix a little applesauce or yogurt in, but they do like it. You can control the consistency, so it's good for toddlers learning to use a spoon (thicker cereal means a *little* less mess).
HTH!

 

Our pedi said rice is the least allergic, which is the reason they start the babies on that.

We were told to start with rice cereal at night for a week or so, then to add oatmeal in the a.m. for a week or so. We then added veggies one by one at the same time as the rice. Once we found out they were okay with each veggie (4 days of each), we moved on to fruits with the oatmeal in the a.m. When we added a third meal at lunchtime, we gave them a fruit and a veg. So at that point they would have oatmeal and fruit in the a.m., fruit and veg for lunch, and then rice and veg in the p.m. When they started eating more table foods, we dropped the rice and veg at night first.

 

Rice actually has no nutritional value, its just filler, and its binding. But it is the least allergenic and easiest on their bellies.
You can do it anyway you want, but you should wait 4days before trying new foods to make sure there is no reaction.

 

Once we went through the rice cereal and oatmeal, then stage one and two foods, I moved on to finger foods and haven't fed any rice cereal or oatmeal since. I actually feed very little baby food at all now. Mostly people food. They don't like to be spoon fed anymore and they do a really good job of eating on their own. I understood rice cereal and oatmeal to just be starter foods until they got the hang of it.

 

We have rice with every meal, sometimes if I think they need it, I use Oatmeal instead. I use it to thicken baby food when we eat baby food and I use it for their carb serving at other meals.

They like it and it is easy!

 

Nutritionally speaking it mainly used first due to lower allergic potential and it has iron, but if you are using iron enhanced formula then they don't need that either.
All solids are for practice and experiencing different tastes for the first 12 months, after that you can worry about a well balanced diet, until then formula/breastmilk will provide it all

I really only used rice cereal/oatmeal to thicken yogurt/baby food.