Rice Cereal Question

I agree with once a day for a week... too much too soon with constipate her. Rice cereal is pretty gross, I'd move on to fruit asap. We did applesauce, pear, peaches at first, but stay away from prunes unless she is REALLY constipated, or you will have a mess in her diaper that you won't believe! :-)

Hi M.! Sure you want to offer any new food every day. Check out the book "What to Expect the First Year" for great advice/tips. What time works best for you? If you want to start with breakfast every day cool...if lunch time works better, that's cool to. It's a good idea to stay consistant. At first your little one will be wearing more than she seems to eat, and that's okay because your still using bottles (or nursing her) and that's where she will contiune to get most of her nutrional needs met for a while. I tried a new food about every 10 days or so, if your afraid of allergic reactions you may want to go two or three full weeks inbetween each new food. Usually allergic reactions will happen quickly. Don't worry about using that nasty babyfood meats...most babies don't like them at all. LOL if you try them you'll see why...ewww! Relax and don't stress out about feeding time. Kid can drive you nuts with what they will and won't eat...no matter how old they are! Best wishes.

I didn't start any solids until my daughter was almost 6 months old b/c I am concerned about allergies. Once we did start, I gave her rice cereal for one meal/day for about a week. Then, I added oatmeal as a second daily meal. It doesn't matter which meal you feed- look at what works best with your schedule and what your baby's mood is at different times of the day (try to get her when she's pretty aggreeable). At her 6 month well check my ped told me she should be eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner, so we did ceral for breakfast and dinner and veggies for lunch. My ped told me to start with veggies when ready to move on from cereal b/c of the fruits being so sweet. He told me to start with orange veggies (sweet potato, squash, carrots) b/c they are a bit sweeter than the green veggies and baby will be more likely to eat them. Then after introducing all the veggies we started on fruits. At this point my daughter is 9 months and eats all the fruits and veggies and the only thing she isn't a big fan of is squash. Make sure you wait a few days in between each new food to check for allergies. I started off waiting a week b/t foods, but now introduce new foods every 2 or 3 days and she's been fine.

At this age any thing beyond your milk or formula is only practice. You don't HAVE to give it any exact amount per day. I have always heard that when you start baby food, you should start with veggies first because some babies do not want the veggies after having fruits because they like the sweetness of the fruit.

it's been a while (my youngest will be 3 this month!), but I think with my first, I gave her rice cereal for every meal... maybe 3 times a day for two weeks, then we did the other type of cereal (my memory is shot), and then we started her on veggies. She was a piggy though... she was always hungry from the day she was born!
My second didn't care much for food, i was wasting more than she ate at 4 months, so I stopped, and waited until she was 6 months to try any cereal or baby food... and she still barely ate anything until she was about 8 months!

So I would say, every kid is different... if your daughter seems to be hungry and wants the cereal, give it to her! Take her cues... you'll figure it out. I did have to start giving my older daughter an ounce of juice (pear juice worked great) mixed in with her cereal because it got her a little "plugged up". :-)

There's no exact science to this. Every baby will respond differently, so just take your cues from her. I started my 3 with once a day at dinner time. They didn't take much at first. It took a while for them to get used to the texture and the spoon. Stick with one type of cereal for a week or two, then you can try oatmeal, etc. Try to give each food two weeks or so to diagnose if she has any food allergies/intolerances.

We did vegetables before fruits. Some babies won't eat lots of veggies if you start them with the sweeter fruits. That's up to you though. Watch out for constipation with too much cereal. When she starts eating a good amount at one meal you can try offering solids at lunch too. If you want to try, making your own baby food is pretty easy. They sell inexpensive little blenders just for that. You can make extras and freeze it in ice cube trays, then pop a few cubes in the microwave for a portion.

Best of luck!!

I would start once a day for a week or so, and as long as there is no bad reaction you could increase that after a couple weeks. After the first few times, I gave cereal at dinner time to try and cut out a night time bottle (mine wasn't and still isn't a great sleeper!).
It will take a little while maybe for your daughter to get used to it, and you doing the right thing by keeping cereal as a "meal" in the high chair. Also, you could probably start fruit in the next week or so too, although I am not totally sure what a "p" fruit is (pear??). My ped said to wait a week or 10 days between new foods to make sure there is no allergic reaction. Also something to keep in mind, and I know this may sound weird, but get ready for a whole new ballgame with her poop once she is on solids! :)
Not sure why your pedi said a month on the same fruit, unless your daughter has had some digestive issues?? Either way, you should do what the dic says! Just remember to use your instincts as well, they are what will gauge her abilities with solids better than anything else! Good luck and have fun! :)

When I started my kids on cereal, it was usually at night, dinner time, and then mornings. Having a full belly helps them sleep better at night (problem for us). And first thing in the morning your body has been dormant all night and need the nourishment.
P would be peaches, pears (gritty a little - my duaghter wouldn't eat them) but we also chose bananas. Never feed your child from the jar, expecially at this age because putting the spoon back in the jar cause contamination. Just take out what you think she will eat and put the rest in the fridge.
Enjoy this time with your child - they grow up too quick!

I agree to give the rice cereal 1x a day for a week to 2 weeks, then you can move to 2x a day. For starting other foods, use the Gerber or whichever brand pureed foods (stage 1?) OR, make your own (very easy!) and freeze it.

I was always told to start veges first, otherwise the child might get "hooked" on the sweeter stuff and turn her nose up at veges. And introduce 1 a week, or every 4-5 days. I introduced peas, then carrots, then sweet potatoes, then green peas, squash, THEN moved to fruits (pears, prunes, avocado, applesauce, bananas, peaches, apricots, mango, etc.). I usually do my veges at lunch then fruits at dinner, as if veges didn't go over so well I wasn't completely out of patience at noon as I could be at 5pm. I also continued giving cereal until like 9 mos as I breastfed so the iron was important because she wasn't getting it through iron-fortified formula.

Check out www.wholesomebabyfood.com for ideas, or my friend recommended the book Super Baby Foods (or something like that). She swears by it for a month by month "tutorial".