Adding Cereal to the Bottle

Well, It really depends on who you ask. I had my first son in 1994. His Dr was the head of pediatrics and on the board and traveled everywhere across the US. My son was not sleeping through the night at all..woke up every hour! when he was about 8 weeks, his pediatrican told me to feed him cereal at nighttime and he would sleep longer. He had me get these orange nipples that had a criscross cut on the top. anyway, it helped sooooooooo much! and there were no problems..when he was strong enough..I started using a spoon:)

I can't give any advice on how to do this as my boys never took a bottle. I am responding with a warning. If you warm the cereal please, please, please check the temperature first and make sure other caregivers do too. I was given one of those feeder bottles as a baby. The sitter got the food too hot and I still have a scar on my cheek form a burn she gave me. I'm 36 and it is still visible. I'm not saying don't put the cereal in the bottle, just remember it will get hotter in the center than formula or milk alone. I'm sure all will be fine with your daughter. I just wanted to put this out there if any other new Mom's read it and don't know to check the temperature.

Yes, we just poked a bigger hole in the nipple and added the cereal. Worked like a charm. They used to sell "cereal bottles", but we found a regular bottle with a bigger hole worked best. I was never overly paranoid about that-- my hubby is a nurse and agreed it was fine. Our babies were small and needed the calories.

I don't know if all brands of bottles have them, but the type of bottles we used with my older daughter had available Y-cut nipples, which I'll bet would be good for letting the thicker cereal mixture pass through, if you do decide to put the cereal in the bottle.

I have breast fed my daughter since she was born so I haven't had any experience with this myself, but my friend Nick and I grew up together and he has a son who is 1 month older than my daughter. His mom tried to breast feed him but nick is a very big football player and his son takes after him so she couldn't make enough milk to satisfy him. They started him on bottles and after about 2 months they started adding cereal to the bottles because he was eating formula all the time. He's a perfecly healthy boy. They have never had any problems with him since so I would say go for it. I'm not sure exactly how much they put in his bottle, I've never actually mixed it up for him before, when I feed him I give him solids but 2 tbsp per 6 oz. sounds about right. I think your daughter should be just fine.

You can add the cereal to the bottle but you will have to make sure of the size of the holes in the nipple are a bit larger or cut it a bit so the thicker formula can come out. You don't want the formula to pour out but you want it to come through without too much struggle or the child will get upset and not eat. Try it and see what happens.

As for the person who said you should never give cereal to a baby, how do you think things were done in the days of old?

It really all comes down to what works best for you and your baby. My first I breast fed only -til 4 mo, did both til- 6 mo, and had no cereal til 5 mo and only from a spoon. She gagged and choked on all but one kind of bottle and nipple, and feeders were the worst. She started sleeping good around 3 months old if I remember right. She was colicy from 2wks old til about 6wks. I quit drinking milk and it stopped. She ended up on soy products til she was 2. No problems now though. No ear problems or lactose intollorance. I just went by the doc and books best I could.

Now my son was a whole other story. They were only 2 oz different at birth but he has a much bigger appetite. The books say they will sleep through the night when they are ready. And around the clock cluster feedings during growth spurts is normal. I breast fed him 2 mo only - til 4 mo mixing breast milk and formula in a bottle 2ce a day and supplemented one more mo then stopped at 5 mo old. I had to ease him into formula because he was gassy and colicy til 4 mo old and nothing really helped. It wasn't diet related. No one formula relieved it. No food elimination helped. Gradual mixing helped. and something called gripe water. I didn't have a pump with my daughter so her supplements were all formula. Gas wasn't the problem though with her. She would throw up and get diahrea from formula except soy, she grew out of it eventually. My son either got gas or would go days without a bowl movement, not constipated exactly but uncomfortable til I tried mixing.
He didn't sleep more than 2 hours in a row for the 1st 6 wks of his life...everyone said to give him cereal, but the doc said no and I hadn't with my first one...finally at my exhausted whits end and feeling so sorry for him, I quized my doc and spelled out my situation, my sons colicy symptoms were always based on hunger his weight gain was great so my milk was fine, I gave in and gave him formula a few times to see if he just needed more but he still didn't sleep better,

she said that it was really not gonna hurt him to give him cereal once in a while, (one tsp to two oz formula or breast milk), he was too small for a spoon, what works best for us is a fast flow nipple to the same bottle, just mix well before you let any cereal enter the nipple, the dry pieces will plug it. My doc said that they don't recomend cereal too early because of the excess calories, for fear people will add it to all bottles to cut expense, some get constipated, and if they are going to get excema it can bring it out early, well cereal in the bedtime bottle is still our routine and he is fine, not too big, no excema or constipation and it worked well. His gas got better too. My daughter who didn't have it early did have excema, go figure. Neither one 12 yr old or 8 month old has ear problems. Or anything else. I was lucky he did both breast and bottle so easily, my daughter was harder. Both preffered platex and brown not clear nipples, he likes regular nipples she liked the nuk, anyway to each his own. He still has spells of a few hungry nights. Its all part of the mommy experience.
good sleeping
HS

I had to do the same for my son at about 3 months the milk was not filling him up. I don't remember how much though and I just made the hole in the nipple a little bigger for him. I also fed him cream of wheat for breakfast.

My son had really really bad gas so we substitute one of his water bottles with a mixture of 1/2 water and 1/2 sprite to relieve him of the gas worked liked a charm.

You can not give a baby cereal in a bottle at all. Typically, if a child is at least 4 months, weighs at least thirteen pounds and has good head control, solid foods can be started by using a spoon.
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"As for the person who said you should never give cereal to a baby, how do you think things were done in the days of old?"
Quoted by someone on this thread..... Babies were nursed! Until they were capable to hold their head up to eat from a spoon.

Well, I gave all four of my boys cereal in a bottle and I'm sure at different times. My oldest started cereal and bananas at two months. I was young, he wasn't sleeping and my grandmother insisted.

I even remember giving my 2nd oldest son a mixture of formula, cereal and applesauce. He loved it!

I waited later with my 3rd and 4th sons.

It really depends on what you are comfortable with. Some babies need a little extra and some don't.

I do know that Babie R Us has a "feeder bottle" that is for feeding infants cereal and first foods.

I'm not sure about the cereal in bottle quantities but if she has good head control, perhaps you can start giving her stage 1 baby food at dinner? Mine is 14 wks and I just introduced solid foods so she is sleeping like a champ through the night now.

They suggest not doing it because it can lead to ear infections...I am a prime example. My mom fed me cereal from 2 weeks old - apparently i was a hungry baby. i had so many ear infections i almost went deaf.

But, i was suggested this for my daughter who would wake up every 2 - 3 hours until she was 9 month old and then it was every 4 - 5 hours. She awoke hungry.

I tried feeding her cereal before bed but didnt want it. I was told to get the Y cut nipples and thin out the cereal in her baba. i found that playtex has those type of nipples.

I chose not to do it and just fed her formula when ever she woke up.