Do you feed rice cereal?

[soozy87]

We mix the baby oatmeal into veggies if they need to be thickened. We picked oatmeal because it had some nutrition while rice did not.

[hocus2]

I did it the first time but skipped it the second time. I largely skipped cereals all together the second time because there is pretty much ZERO evidence that they are better than other foods (*note I FF so iron was not a concern). I did sometimes offer the fruit/cereal blends the second time around

[osulori]

We skipped it because I figured I could thin sweet potatoes or whatever veggie we did first to the same consistency as rice cereal.

[toesie]

We fed oatmeal cereal, but mostly skipped the cereal and went straight to fruit puree

[greycat]

We skipped rice cereal and tried oatmeal instead. DS didn't like oatmeal so we didn't try any other cereals.

[AlpineSlide]

no. i skipped rice cereal and am doing oatmeal (twice so far) but will be starting veggie puree today.

[smm5623]

No, we tried oatmeal instead.

[arch01]

we skipped cereal.

[ssmjlm]

Our pedi said to do oatmeal not rice b/c of the arsenic.

E never liked the oatmeal, so we basically did purees and BLW.

[bazinga]

We started with rice cereal by recommendation of our pedi around 4 months because DD is small and they wanted her to put on some weight. She didn't really like it and we only tried it a few times. We got the ok to start with veggies at 5 months and she has been loving those. We stuck with veggies and didn't go back to rice cereal. I think you might be a little early, but I am no doctor.

[rex]

no.

[amandakisser]

My DD hated rice cereal. I only tried it two or three times and then switched to oatmeal. That was marginally better. W mixed it with breastmilk at first but then started mixing it with sweet potatoes, apples, pears, etc. That went over much better.

I just wanted to make sure she was getting the iron from the cereal since I exclusively breastfeed, but she definitely prefers fruits and veggies to the cereal.

[cinco]

I did with my oldest, but did not with the younger two

[spanikopita]

May 16, 2014 13:43:50 GMT -5 soozy87 said:

We mix the baby oatmeal into veggies if they need to be thickened. We picked oatmeal because it had some nutrition while rice did not.

Same.

[spk926]

No, we never did any cereal. DD was EBF and got everything she needed through that for 6 months and then we did a lazy BLW (meaning we did some purees but mostly BLW).

[pugz]

we skipped cereal, which seems to be pretty normal these days. We went straight to purees and some BLW

[drloretta]

We did it, our dr said it was just to get DD used to eating off a spoon. We tried it for maybe a week or 2, then moved on to fruits and veggies. You can skip it, it's not a requirement.

[Jalapeñomel]

No. But D doesn't really like food.

[lilac05]

We started avocado, sweet potatoes, & bananas at 6 months. I add oatmeal sometimes to change the consistency and add some iron.

[AHappierHour]

We will be skipping cereals and starting with yellow and orange veggies next month.

[badgergrl]

Cereal can be beneficial for babies who don't get formula because they are iron fortified. I had a hard time getting dd to eat iron rich foods purried or whole.

[lolo]

I did not.

[zarapipe]

No, we did oatmeal.

[Saudade]

Skipped cereal altogether.

[sporklemotion]

May 16, 2014 13:48:41 GMT -5 mekiakoo said:

We are doing some cereal for fun right now. Not for anything nutritious though. But I had no idea about the rice.

It kind of looks like E likes the rice better than the oatmeal, but we've only done rice once. I suppose we could try out some vegetables. Or is it too early at almost 5 months old?

At 4 months, Our pedi said we could start with veggies, but to stick to purées until she sits up on her own. She didn't really weigh in on cereal or oatmeal one way or the other.  DD is really small but a big eater, so the pedi  thought this might sneak some more calories in (she is still predominantly BF-- she was not advocating using food to replace meals or anything).  We have tried avocado thinned with BM, but that's it (she is 5.5 months).  The first day was a hit but the second was a total fail-- either the purée was too old or it was too late in the day. We'll probably try again this weekend, when she is more alert.  
Everything I've read seems to say that there is no need to rush, so if we don't start just yet, I'm OK with that. 

[rikki]

May 16, 2014 16:23:29 GMT -5 pennypenny said:

Never did rice. We do organic oatmeal. E loves it. We mostly do it to thicken purees. We started with avocado and sweet potato at 5.5 months

Sent from my SCH-I535 using proboards

Exactly this, right down to both babies being E.

[CloudBee]

Never rice cereal, but we went though about half a container of baby oatmeal. I still pull it out sometimes just because I'm trying to use it up. He often eats rolled and steel cut oats now.

When I served baby oatmeal early on, I mixed it with a fruit, veggie, yogurt, or breast milk. The first few times he had it were with breast milk.

[shellbear09]

No I avoided rice for that reason. She loves the oatmeal.

We didn't do any food until 6 months.

[Deleted]

We just did oatmeal for the iron. But once he was eating meats more consistently we stopped. I also liked to use it to teach him to use a spoon since we did blw. We gave him preloaded spoons starting at 6mos.

[pescalita]

We start with cereal at 6 mos to get used to the spoon. Once they don't suck at it (couple/few weeks), they move to purees and ditch the solo cereal. We keep cereal around for thickening purees, and also add ~ 1tbsp to a bottle daily just to make sure they're covered on iron since they're EBF.

I use mostly oatmeal and mixed grain for thickening and rice for the bottle (dissolves a bit better).