Rice Cereal

My girls are 5 months old. I wanted to wait to feed them any food until 6 months, but my husband thinks we should start them on rice cereal at night so they sleep better. Right now they use the slow flow nipples. If we mix the rice cereal in the bottle, should we use the fast flow nipples? I have never even seen rice cereal out of the box, it looks paste-y and thick on the picture on the box. Do you just give it to them at night or three times a day? Please help!

Thanks!

Carly

 

in my opinion and experience, giving babies cereal at night does not help them sleep better... it may even disturb their sleep because their tummies are not used to processing the cereal. if you still want to do it, and i'm sure it is fine if your pedi has given you the green light for solids, i would spoon feed them the cereal, not put it in their bottles. the only reason to put cereal in their bottles is if they have reflux issues.

when we started on solids i started with the breakfast meal just in case it bothered their tummies and slowly worked up to 3 meals a day by 9 months.

 

Giving rice cereal in bottles often helps if they have reflux, but won't help them sleep longer at night. If you really want to start cereal at their age (I started at 5 months with my older kids), I would just feed it to them with a spoon.

ETA - I started with just one meal a day, then slowly worked up to more.

 

I agree with PP. We put rice cereal in the girls bottles because they had reflux and it didn't really help them. Also, it didn't help them sleep longer. I believe that's an old wives tale. we started spoon feeding around 5 months.

 

giving them cereal at night does not usually help them sleep longer and if anything sometimes if you start at night they may become very fussy. I would not put it in their bottles, and I would not start until closer to 6 months. The reason for the age to start foods is because babes need time for their GI systems to mature and also because they need to develope the appropriate swallowing reflexes. If you do not allow time for these you could end up with very miserable babies and they can actually asperate if their swallowing reflexes aren't developed enough. I agree with the girls it is best to start in the morning once a day and work your way up. That way if they get an upset stomach or have a reaction you are able to deal with it during the day. Hang in their, when they are ready to sleep longer they will. My boys are almost 9 months and they still get up once a night even though they eat three meals a day. Good luck

 

I agree with the PP's on the fact that it won't help them sleep longer at night, it may just make the situation worse. I know some doctors suggest it for reflux babies but it didn't even work for DD.. If you want to start cereal I'd just put it in a bowl and spoon-feed them. The picture on the box is far from accurate, their first cereal feeding should basically be thickened formula, and just increase thickness gradually.

Mine hate rice cereal, so if yours like it more power to ya.

 

Thank you for the advice! I will continue to wait until they are 6 months (actually maybe a little past, since their next ped appointment is when they will be 6.5 months..). And all the reasons everyone mentioned make sense.

 

Carly, I'd like to add a little something also. My girls are coming up on 5 months, I've been giving them a cereal bottle (they're not good with spoons yet) at lunch everyday. I mix the cereal as directed on the box, mixing it with water, maybe dumping a tad more cereal to mix then add a little bit of juice to kinda flavor it up a little. I'm sure the rice cereal alone is not tasty at all. They've done really well with the rice and today I mixed them a bottle of oatmeal cereal and put a small container of stage 1 bananas in there...I even tasted it and it wasn't all that bad. The babies TORE THAT BOTTLE UP! They REALLY liked that combo! We use the Sassy feeders that you can get at Wal-Mart, Target, or Babies R Us. I've never tried a fast flow nipple, so I can't help you there...Anyways, good luck!!

 

I agree!

 

I started close to 6 months and also with a spoon. It took them awhile to get the hang of it and did not help them to sleep longer at night. In fact, starting solids had the opposite effect on my girls. Having something new in their tummies disrupted their sleep for a couple of weeks.

 

i've been giving my LO's cereal and all kinds of food since they were 4 months. they dont sleep any longer than they did then. you should give them cereal in a spoon i think, but if you want to do bottles, they sell a "Y" shaped nipple specifially for cereal bottles. the thickness you make the cereal is totally up to you, mine like it chunky, my cousin's kid likes it thin and watery. you just kinda eyeball it and make it to their taste. good luck

 

We introduced cereal at about 4 1/2 months by spoon and it took about a month for them to get the hang of it. I did not try to feed them the cereal every day at first, we tried every few days until they got the hang of it. And then slowly moved to multi feedings.

Cynthia

 

My pedi gave us the go ahead on cereal. We feed with the spoon and DD loves it and does really well moving the food to the back of her mouth. DS does pretty well and gets better every feeding. They get a TBS. every morning and about 1/2 tbs. in the late afternoon around 4:00. We have done rice cereal and oatmeal and they like both. DS was a little slow to warm to the oatmeal. We have reflux, but other than that we have no other issues. We have been doing this for about two weeks now.