Starting rice cereal

I am planning on starting the babies on rice cereal this week. But I'm a little confused as to what time of day to feed them the cereal. Do I give it to them before I give the formula, or should I have a separate feeding time for the cereal?? All the feeding guides tell you what age to start feeding, but not the logistics of actually feeding the babies.

 

Our pedi told us to feed them the cereal at their happiest time of the day, in our case that was breakfast time. Some people did formula first and then wait a while (30 min to an hour) for the cereal. We did cereal first and then the formula. So really it depends on what you are comfortable with. Our first cereal feeding, we stripped them down to their diapers and put them in their bebe pod chairs and let them have at it. The first couple of tries they made a huge mess and took a couple of bites. Good luck!

 

I did my first one in the late in the afternoon about an hour or so after their afternoon bottles. That way they werent too hungry to be eating alot and not stuffed to not eat anything. At 4 months, be aware that they still might have the tongue thrust reflex that makes it a bit harder for them to get it. There is nothing wrong with stopping for a week or so and giving them a chance to mature a bit. Also I didnt feed them at the same time or even everyday when we first started. It gave me too much anxiety. GL and have fun.

 

QUOTE(DATJMom @ Jun 20 2009, 09:07 AM) [snapback]1361752[/snapback]
I did my first one in the late in the afternoon about an hour or so after their afternoon bottles. That way they werent too hungry to be eating alot and not stuffed to not eat anything.


Same here, GL!

 

I also did my kids in the afternoon, halfway between 2 bottles. They don't need it for nutrition yet, it's more to teach them how to eat, and it's very messy and time consuming!

Good luck!

 

Hi. It works for me to give them their meal right after their afternoon nap. My other toddler is still napping so I dont have to worry about him running around. I give then their cereal and then a boob. They seem fine with it that way.

 

My pedi suggested giving them cereal after a nursing session (we usually do it within 30-60 minutes after nursing) so that you're not adding yet another feeding time to your day, and so that they're mostly filling up on the breastmilk, their main source of nutrition, not the cereal. I started it after their late afternoon feeding...hoping that really filling them up later in the day would help them sleep longer at night (it worked!). I'd say do it whenever you have time. We do it twice a day now, but the second meal is sometimes breakfast and sometimes lunch, just depends on how the day is going.