solid foods when? and what?

Hi ladies,
I have a silly question abut when to start solid foods and what do you start with? My MIL swears that my 9 week old twin girls would sleep all night if we would jsut give them rice cereal in their bottles. Everything I've ever read says wait until at least 4-6 months. But she is soooo pushy, it's driving me nuts!!!

When do you add veggies and fruits...how does this work? Please help!!!We don't see the pedi for another month for 2nd round of shots..so any advice would be appreciated.
thanks,
steph

 

I would advise not until 4 to 6 months.
When were they born? what gestation?
If they were born early you really need to be careful of their little tummies. Other then that, I have 4 kids and didnt start feeding any of them cereal until they were at least 4 months.
then I would start with either rice or oatmeal cereal. Don't get frusterated it takes a while the taste is something that they are not used to. Plus the texture. Don't give up, keep trying.
If I can help in any way dont hesitate to contact me!

Good Luck

Keri

 

Back in my mom's day it was standard practice to feed rice cereal. It backfired on my mom. It is not recommended before 4 months and it is actually recommended to wait until 6 months. Rice cereal is a good place to start because it has the least chance of allergic reaction. Cereal too early could actually cause more stomach upset & therefore cause them not to sleep. Babies will sleep through the night (which btw is 5 hours) when they are ready. You can get pamplets from the clinic about feeding solids to give to your MIL if necessary. I know how stressful it is being pulled in so many directions, or in a direction you do not want to take. Try breastfeeding toddlers! There is a whole different fight there! HTH

 

What ur MIL is telling you to do is outdated info from the 60's and 70's. The newest recommendation from the APA is to hold off on all solid food and stick to strictly breast milk or formula until the child is 6 monthes of age. They say that starting solids to early may be the reason behind the increase in food allergies over the past 3 decades. They say the stomach and intestines aren't ready for solids early than 6 monthes of age. This info is relatively new and thus has not made it to most books yet, but you can view it on the APA website. HTH

 

Solids did not help my boys sleep through the night and they were even having more then just cereal in their bottles. THey were having solids 2 times a day at 5 months and still woke to eat at night.

People told me it worked for them and I needed to try it but I am one example where id definately did not work!

 

This is one of my replies from last week. I don't think I would start solids at 9 weeks unless it was under the advice of the pedi for digestion issues. Most books now recommend 6 mos., my girls' pedi starts at 4.

At my girls' 4 mo. appt., their pedi had given us step by step instructions on how to start and when. 1) rice cereal at dinner for 3-5 days; 2) oatmeal in the a.m. for 3-5 days; 3) veggies with rice cereal at night starting with orange veggies, for 3-5 days, then 4) fruits with a.m. cereal for 3-5 days. The 3-5 days are to make sure there are no allergies. She told us that babies their age typically took 1-3 tbsp. of cereal per feeding and 1/2-1 container of fruit/veg per feeding. My girls must have tiny tummies because they will just eat and eat and eat and then spitup about once an hour for an entire day. I have limited their cereal to 1/2 tbsp. each feeding along with 1/4 container of fruit in the a.m. and 1/4 container of veggie in the p.m., as well as 25 oz. (1 oz. used for cereal) of formula per day that's about all they can hold down.

The most important thing we were told is that the solids right now are simply for learning how to eat, they still need to get their nutrition from their forumla. We were told not to cut down the formula at all, but to cut back the solids if it seemed too much.

 

Thanks so much for all of the reinforcement ladies. This is what i thought but my oldest son is 13 years old...it's been a while!!LOL

I think I know what is best, but its always better to get reinforcements!!I am perfectly happy that they sleep from about 11-12---05-0600.

I think that they will eventually start sleeping longer stretches, but for now we can't get them to go down any earlier...they tend to just fuss and cry if we put them down around 7pm. So, we'll just keep plugging away and keep the MIL at an arms reach. She lives in a different state..lol.
thanks again,
steph

 

I am the one everyone hates on here due to solids.

I have five kids...seven including my step children.

The one that waited to start solids has a food adversion and he is 16.

The two that started cereal at two weeks and baby food at 4 weeks have no allergies, food adversions, or obesity. This was an old doctor that had old thoughts.

My twins started cereal at two months (actually due date adjusted) due to reflux. They thrived more when cereal was introduced. Plus, both of mine have sucking problems, so...sometimes solids are the only foods I can't get into them. I would rather give them solids than have to have a feeding tube put into their tummies.

If you look at the past, when the babies came home from the hospital on cereal, there were a lot LESS food allergies than babies that are waiting. If you look at schools now...there are TONS of food allergies...my feeling is because they wait so long to feed them food. So...actually my thought is it worked much better when solids were introduced early.

You have to do what you feel is right. You will know when things are right. If you are concerned, I would just follow the doctor's instructions.

And...I have mentioned this before, but I believe it was January Child's magazine that said that some babies are developing allergies if they wait too long to start solids. I think it was something that was researched in England. I can't find my magazine so I can't find the article.

 

Both of mine are on cereal in their bottles due to reflux...one sleeps through the night and the other doesn't. Aiden just started all of sudden and we just stopped waking him up with Noah for feedings in the middle of the night. I'm hoping Noah starts this soon but his reflux is worse and might have something to do with it. My MIL is pushing cereal on a spoon at this point. I didn't try it yet b/c they are still bobble heads.

 

If you want to start solids because you think it will help them sleep, do yourself a favor and wait. My DH talked me into trying some rice cereal in our twins' bottles at about 10 weeks because his sister swore it made her son sleep better (he's 6 mos older than ours). It didn't help and ended up constipating DD. I had to give her prune juice to fix it.
They started sleeping through the night at about 3 months on their own. We started solids a week ago and ever since they've been sleeping much worse. I wanted to wait until 6 months but they were both eating over a quart each of formula per day so we figured we'd better get them started on learning to eat. They'll sleep when they're ready.
Don't let people push you into doing anything you don't want to. They're your babies, not your MIL's. I made the mistake of listening to someone else and not doing what I thought was best. I won't make that mistake again. If your MIL pushes the issue tell her you asked the pedi about it and he told you not to.