Poll: Rice cereal age

[Ashley&Scott]

DS had his 4 month checkup today. Pedi said we could start rice cereal so DS could practice learning to eat solids. The actual amount would be minimal. He said we don't have to start now but he would like to see us introduce before 6 months.

I've been reading about delaying solids & we're leaning towards going this route. I'm curious what other MM moms are doing/have done.

kellymom.com/nutrition/starting-solids/delay-solids/
kellymom.com/nutrition/starting-solids/solids-how/

[Ashley&Scott]

If you skipped rice cereal what solid food did you start with?

[Deleted]

We started with banana, avocado, and sweet potato. We let him feed himself (BLW) from the start. He hates spoon-feeding, so I just rolled with that.

[auberge]

I EBF and didn't start solid until after 6 months. I didn't start with rice cereal either. I started with ground up oatmeal mixed with BM then whole milk yogurt then veggies/fruits mixed with bm (avocado first then peas and so on...)

This website was useful to me:
wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/index.htm

[mishap]

DS1 -- we did rice cereal at 4 months because that was the general consensus then. I don't remember much talk of delaying until 6 months then (almost 6 years ago), but it's possible I just wasn't paying attention.

DS2-- we also did rice cereal at 4 months (he's 1), but that was because he had pretty bad acid reflux and his gastro thought it might help (it did).

[Ashley&Scott]

Thank you both! As I said I don't really want to start solids until 6 months. Since rice cereal has little nutritional value I would rather skip it altogether too.

[mie]

We started after 6 months. With my oldest, I gave her rice cereal to start and had her get used to it before moving on to other foods. With my second, I tried rice cereal, but she didn't like it so I tried oatmeal before moving on to other foods. My youngest hated the cereal and oatmeal so I started her on vegetables first.

[hannamarin]

We started with oat cereal (okay if no allergy family) because rice is constipating. Oat is good for bowels. She was 4.5 mths. At 5 mths,we started everything. At 6 mths, we intro meat, yogurt,
I may have been slower to intro but she was interested in food and she is ff.

[DarcyLongfellow]

My understanding of the most recent recommendations is that if you're breastfeeding then you shouldn't introduce anything else until 6 months. If you're formula feeding, then you can start some solids at 4 months, but you have to be careful about which ones because some you need to wait until 6 months to introduce.

I nursed DD, so I waited until 6 months. And I never gave her rice cereal. Her first food was banana. I did start giving her cereal (I mixed it with her purees), but I used oat baby cereal instead of rice.

[karinothing]

We skipped rice cereal and are doing BLW. DS' first food was a slice of mango at 6 months. He is almost 7 months and so far as had pineapple, avocado, watermelon, cucumber, grean beans, apple (slices soften in micro), tomato, banana, toast, tortilla, perogies stuffed with mashed potato, potato salad, hambuger, chicken, and pork loin.

So far his favorite have been avocado, pineapple, piergies and pork loin. Other than the piergoi he hasn't ingested much. Like we gave him cantalope yesterday and he just sucks on it forever.

[Ashley&Scott]

I'm so glad I'm not alone. I was sitting there listening to the pedi thinking...wait a minute I know everything I've read about bfing encourages waiting to introduce solids until 6 months.

I'm going to read about BLW too

[whitepicketfence]

I didn't start any kind of solid food until 6 months with both kids. Even then, they weren't really that interested in it.

ETA: I did start them both with rice cereal, however. DD2 had severe constipation issues with it though so I switched her to oatmeal early on. I then started introducing bananas, avocado, squash, and sweet potatoes.

[satama]

We started at 6 months and did oatmeal mixed with breast milk. Then I did fruit and veggie purees that I made in the magic bullet with a little pumped milk to make them thin/smooth. I think sweet potato was an early favorite.

[oregonpachey]

I am in the minority and started cereal earlier than 6 months.

Both my boys have/had reflux so with DS#1 we started rice cereal around 5 months. It took him a super long time to learn how to eat though because his reflux was so severe that he had a bad gag reflex.

With this DS, he is 4 months and we just started brown rice cereal and oatmeal.

I EBF.

[hocus]

We did rice for my older kid very early because she was taking in too much formula (45 oz per day) and our ped wanted us to get that down. With my second kid we didn't really do cereals much at all. We introduced fruits and veggies at 6 months with both kids. With my older kid I did the wait 4 days between new foods but with my toddler I just did all the fruits and veggies at once except berries which are the ones most likely to cause issues.

[hilwithonelary]

We started with sweet potatoes at 6 months. I never gave rice cereal, but I did give oatmeal occasionally later on.

[froggy76]

We just started at 6 months, with sweet potato and broccoli (BLW). Pedi is really encouraging me to do rice cereal or oatmeal, so I'm going to try some oatmeal this weekend. DD's been sick, so she hasn't been too interested so far when we've tried food.

[bunch]

I did a few purées between 4 and 6 mos. I'm not sure why. I guess I was just impatient. We did avocado first. At 6 mos we started BLW and never looked back. Dd will now eat anything and everything.

[Deleted]

May 18, 2012 14:16:23 GMT -5 @tokenhoser said:

We started with banana, avocado, and sweet potato. We let him feed himself (BLW) from the start.

This is my plan exactly down to the food selection.

[drloretta]

Dr said we could start at 4 months, but DD was clearly not ready. At 4.5 months she was mimicking my chewing and gazing longingly at my breakfast. We started her then.

A lot of people I know have skipped rice cereal and started with something like sweet potato or banana

[pierogigirl]

With DS1 I did rice at 6 mos. He didn't like it so we went to purees and oatmeal. I'm skipping rice with DS2 and will start with sweet potato at 5.5 or 6 mos. He really wants to eat. He stares at our food and tries to grab it all the time.

[keh2oblue]

We started solids at 6 months, but never gave rice or oatmeal. We just went right to veggies.

[vanillacourage]

Six months with DS1. DS2 is giganto-baby so it will probably be sooner for him given his higher caloric demands.

[UnderProtest]

May 18, 2012 14:22:01 GMT -5 Ashley&Scott said:

Thank you both! As I said I don't really want to start solids until 6 months. Since rice cereal has little nutritional value I would rather skip it altogether too.

I started with purees at four months. Pretty much skipped the rice cereal since it has little nutritional value compared to other foods. I did give some rice to them to thicken up some pear purée. All on the advice of my pediatrician.

[slug*bug]

We did rice cereal w/DS at 6 mos. a grand total of twice...complete w/massive blowout poops in the bathtub 30 min. after dinner, lol.

We moved on quickly to avocado w/him and just skipped cereal altogether w/DD and started w/avocado and other soft fruits and veggies.

We got the all clear to give them whatever at 9 mos., though I did delay honey (and I think peanut butter?) until 12 mos.

[curbsideprophet]

I highly recommend the book Baby-Led Weaning. We never gave rice cereal. We started solids just before she was six months.

[statlerwaldorf]

We started at 4 months. I had a lot of problems with my supply, so we decided to start solids earlier than planned (we planned on 6 months) instead of supplementing with formula.

[lala]

May 18, 2012 14:16:23 GMT -5 @tokenhoser said:

We started with banana, avocado, and sweet potato. We let him feed himself (BLW) from the start. He hates spoon-feeding, so I just rolled with that.

This exactly, including the foods. Well, we never even tried to spoon feed her, so I'm not sure what she would have done. I skipped cereal w/ DD1, too, but still used purees, didn't feed solids to either one until 6 months and other milestones were met.

[doctorsbaby]

We started with sweet potato at 5.5 months. Our plan was to wait for 6 months but she had been showing all the "readiness" signs and one night she lunged for my dinner plate and got a handful of food & aimed for her mouth. We gave her puréed sweet potatoes the next night.

[zeewifeandmama]

We only did rice cereal once....I ground up some rolled oats and did oatmeal for a few days before I finally just did avocado and banana. She was 7 ish months.