Starting cereals tonight, what are your schedules for that?

The Ped wants us to start the girls on Rice Cereal this week. We planned to do it tonight at the 6:30 feeding. She said we could give it to them as much as 3 times a day.

how many times do you give it to your twins?
what are your new feeding schedules like?

Thanks!
Jess

 

At that age, mine were getting it about 3 times a day. I would give it to them about an hour to 2 hours after their morning bottle. Then late afternoon, and before bedtime.

*Mix it with formula instead of water, to increase their formula intake.

 

I highly recommend the book "Super Baby Food". It is extremely in depth about the different foods to give at the different ages. The author has a set of B/B twins herself and made all of their food!

My twins just started on cereal and we're doing once a day. I think it's easier on their systems this way and easier on me to not be doing feedings 3x/day until they are really proficient at taking them. Also, you don't want to give them the same food over and over and over because it increases the chance of allergy. From what I understand, it's good to start with once a day and after they've been exposed with more foods, you have enough that you can give them a variety at their different feedings.

(Of course, if you have a child with reflux, your ped may think it best to give them rice cereal at every feeding just so they can keep it down easier).

 

Hey Jess!

Here are the 5 month schedules. Mine is in there, and it looks like I was on a breakfast and dinner solid feeding schedule. Hope that helps!

 

Hi there. I'm in the same boat. This may sound silly, but I have no idea how/when to introduce cereal to my guys. Today we have our 4-month doctor's appointment and I got the okay to start my very hungry, 18-lb, 4-month old baby on some rice cereal. Evan is often not able to go three hours after drinking almost 8 oz...so the doctor said it's okay to try him. I'm not sure if his tongue thrust reflex is gone, yet, but I'll give it a go next week. This may sound silly, but Evan and James are my first babies and I have no idea how to go about feeding them. What should I do? I'm sure he can't sit in his high chair yet. Should I put him in my lap? In a bouncy chair? Should I give him a bottle first? Afterward? Later? How many times per day - when during the day? What kind of spoon should I use? Sorry if these seem like silly questions! Any help would be greatly appreciated.
P.S. I think I'll wait to start James - he's happy with his bottles. We'll see how things go with Evan first!

 

Ha, ha, ha, good luck with that 3x a day! Mine were like "what the heck is that, get it away from me!" the first time we tried it with a spoon at five and a half months. So we put it away for a week, tried again. I thought it was way too watery the first time, so we made it thicker after that. Cate was sort of interested, Sarah still hated the idea. Now, at 6 weeks, I think they are finally ready to have it once a day. They are still learning how to swallow it. On the other hand, my friend with a singleton that is 6 days younger than my twins had no problems. Her daughter just gobbled it all up, even though a lot ended up in her hair and on the bib. Don't stress about it too much. Unless yours are EXTREMELY hungry, it is supposed to get them used to the idea of spoon food, not really a nutritional supplement yet, if they are drinking enough BM/formula.

It is quite a bit of extra work, so I am not sorry that we are going slowly. I am working off of a worksheet that my pedi's office gave us. We are trying rice cereal once a day, every day this week, then I will move on to oatmeal, then barley cereal, and slowly start to introduce vegetables at dinner time. I tried a banana with Cate to see if she would like the texture better, but she didn't. So now I am just following the sheet. It says to add fruit after vegetables, then finally meats. I don't think I will have them on 3 meals a day for about another month. I am planning to keep them on 5 bottles of formula a day until they do that. Good luck!

 

QUOTE(CHJH @ Jul 4 2007, 12:57 AM) [snapback]316726[/snapback]
I'm not sure if his tongue thrust reflex is gone, yet, but I'll give it a go next week. This may sound silly, but Evan and James are my first babies and I have no idea how to go about feeding them. What should I do? I'm sure he can't sit in his high chair yet. Should I put him in my lap? In a bouncy chair? Should I give him a bottle first? Afterward? Later? How many times per day - when during the day? What kind of spoon should I use? Sorry if these seem like silly questions! Any help would be greatly appreciated.
P


I bought one feeding chair by the first years, since mine can't sit unsupported yet - well, at least not for long stretches. So I strapped that chair to a kitchen chair and feed Cate in it. I have also used a bumbo chair - balanced it on a kitchen chair at the table, not great, but it worked. Definitely safer on the floor, but it will do. I have also put them in a relatively upright bouncer and fed them that way, but I don't think that is great - choking hazard. The feeding seat is my favorite. It adjusts to various different positions, and they also like to sit in it and play with toys if I put them on the tray. It wasn't that expensive (much cheaper than a high chair.) We got a bunch of small silver spoons as gifts, (ha ha, DH's side of the family!!) so we have been using that, but my friend has the Gerber spoon, they sell it near the baby food. I like that one better. It is covered with some kind of rubber or plastic, which I think is better because the spoon is not so cold, and you can wipe the spoon on their tongue or gums to get the food to say in their mouth.

In terms of when to do the bottle, I am still working on that. My worksheet says to feed them a little breastmilk or formula before, if they are really hungry. Then do a few spoonfuls of solid, and finish with the bottle. They probably won't take much cereal the first time. Mine don't seem to care when they get what. They definitely prefer the bottle, but are getting more interested in the food each time we try. They did spit a ton of it out at first, so one friend with 3 kids told me she put food in their mouth, then shoved the bottle in, so they would swallow it. I tried that too, I think it just takes a while for it to click in their heads how this whole eating thing is supposed to work. I think you are smart to try with one child first! I don't think there is a rush. 4-6 months is the window most docs recommend you start. We started towards the end of that window, but they were obviously not ready for it before.

I'm still muddling through myself. Good luck!

 

We just started about 2 weeks ago and are only doing it once a day. We try to do it in the middle of their two last bottles. So usually they eat at 6 and then at 9, so I try to do cereal around 7:30 pm and then immediately give them their baths. I have found that some nights they are interested and others they are not. However, when they are interested it tends to interfere with how much of their bottle they will take at their last feeding. Since I don't want to replace their bottles with food, we have just limited it to once a day. We have the Fisher Price space saver chairs that recline. We put them in a semi-reclined position when we are feeding.