Starting Baby Out on Rice Cereal?

I agree with Victoria T. - Start off once a day with rice or oatmeal. My son got constipated with rice so we went with oatmeal. Earth's best is great and Gerber is an ok brand.

I go for organic brown rice type of baby cereal. When I first give it to the baby, it would be really "watered-down" with your breastmilk. Do this at breakfast time like the other post said. Then just play it by ear to see how "thick" you will need to make it...like in a week or so. It's a learning curve that you just have to play by ear.
Other foods to begin rather than rice. I've heard of cooked egg yolk (perhaps from a boiled egg), bananas and other mushy fruits. This stuff is easier to digest than processed cereal anyways.

We are in the same boat. Here are my suggestions and what has worked for me with each baby:

1) No, do not mix cereal in with every feeding. Only do one feeding of cereal per day to start, nurse all the other feedings like you normally would. Give cereal in a small amount in the beginning (ie a tablespoon, although my chubby son eats more!) Your baby will dictate how much he or she wants to eat. Watch for clues. Mix the cereal with some breast milk to make it somewhat runny at first. Then, thicken it by using less breastmilk as baby gets used to it. My son loved his rice cereal and he liked it thicker, so again, it all depends on the baby.

2) Don't give cereal before you want to nurse, or he may start to refuse nursing. Wait an hour inbetween, or nurse first, then cereal, although he may be too full by that point. What works for us is to nurse, then wait an hour or so and give some cereal. This pushes the next nursing session back only 30 minutes or so, so it works well for us.

3) Remember to wait a couple days between starting new foods to be sure no allergies exist. For example, start him with rice cereal, give him a tablespoon full one time per day, mixed with breastmilk, for three or four days. Then wait a few days before introducing the next food. Our next food was avocado, then banana.

4) I recommend organic rice cereal. But remember - baby's first food doesn't have to be rice cereal. It can be another easy to digest food such as avocado or banana.

See the links below for some helpful guidance.....

http://www.babycenter.com/0_introducing-solid-food_113.bc

http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/cereals.htm (MY FAVORITE LINK FOR BABY FOOD IDEAS - YOU CAN LEARN SO MUCH FROM THIS SITE!)

I started at breakfast and you can try to mix the breastmilk in with the cereal. I made mine like a very runny soup until my daughter got use to being fed by a spoon and then slowly worked up to a oatmeal like consistency. It may take a few feedings for your son to get used to it. Don't get upset if he doesn't take to it right away. Also, my daughter didn't like rice cereal and did much better on oatmeal.

Just to add onto what is already posted, 1 tablespoon is 1 serving. As he grows, it is one tablespoon per year of age = one serving. Ex: for a three year old, 3 tablespoons of peas is 1 serving of veggies.
Rice was extremely constipating for my poor baby, so we switched to oatmeal.

We did oatmeal first for a myriad of reasons, but you just mix ever so little very thin and make more if he wants it. It won't seem like he's eating much at first, but he's learning. We did plain with breast milk or formula first. Then added veggies and cereal. We added fruits only after the veggies were all covered. We started with green veggies as they're less sweet than orange. I breast fed for around a year with each of mine, so don't worry about diminishing supplies. Have fun with it! If you have a family history of allergies (any kind), it's better to add only one new food per week, so you can see if there is any reaction.

There are two trains of thought about which to do first, and I found each worked with different children. Food first, when they're hungriest and more receptive. Or milk first and feed later when they're less fussy. Like I said, my kids had more of an opinion on this than I did. :)

I'd say if you are still nursing start off one at breakfast just to see how it goes.

At 6 months start giving rice cereal just at breakfast. A month later or so you can start 2 meals a day (AM and PM) and by 9 months it's 3 meals everyday. Check with your doctor - they will explain all this clearly based on how well your child is growing.Some babies are ready for solids at 4 months others wont take it until later than 6 months - so it all depends.My son is 13 months now and he is just starting table foods.I know kids start table foods a lot earlier and was worried, but he just wasn't ready. He started solids at 6 months and did good at it. If your son refuses solids at 6 months, wait for few days/weeks and give it again.

You can mix rice cereal with expressed breastmilk. That's what I did so that my baby still got all the nutrients. Don't make it thick initially. Your son will let you know how thick he can handle.

You can then try stage 1 veggies/fruits.You can mix it with oatmeal/rice cereal later on if it's too runny or go to stage 2 foods. Or make pureed food at home for your baby. Rice cereal is generally used as first foods because there is generally no risk of allergies with that. It doesn't have much nutrients though. I use oatmeal/ brown rice for my son. After you introduce a new food to the baby wait 3 days before introducing another new food.

About the brands , I buy earths best(it's all organic) or gerber organic.

You can continue breastfeeding even after starting solids.For now , offer solids once a day and continue with your nursing schedule the rest of the day.My son is on 3 meals a day and nurses just fine for M.. Yes, they don't need as much milk as before once they start solids but they still need it , so no need for you to worry about your son continuing to breastfeed.

Hope this helps!

Very gradual is best. One small serviing a day for a few days will tell you whether his digestive system is ready to handle rice. It's not likely to cause allergies, but can be constipating.

Most moms believe that cereal, being semi-solid, will fill their babies up so they can go longer between feedings, especially at night. This is almost never the case – being all carbohydrate, cereals are digested very quickly, turn into blood sugar that is used up or stored as fat, and the baby ususally gets hungry at least as quickly, if not faster, than with breast milk or formula.

The protein and fat in milk is digested more slowly and keep the baby content for longer, plus they have much better nutrition. So start slow, and don't rush introducing new foods – your little guy will know when the foods you eat look interesting, and he'll start to reach for them.

You are going to get so many opinions so I will throw mine in the mix. My son started (at my ped request) at 4 months. Combine your breastmilk or formula with the cereal and feed it with a spoon during meal times. Continue to breastfeed on regular intervals.

There are 2 trains of thought and you can figure out which you think is best. If the baby doesn't like the cereal plain you can mix some flavored baby food in with it. A friend of mine suggested vegetables first so baby will like them before introducing fruits and I can see the value in that, but I also see value in making first foods a positive experience and introducing fruits first. I really think much of it depends on how picky your child is at first.

My son would get fussy when we would start to eat and was asking for food at each meal around 5 months. My pediatrician said to feed him whatever he wanted but try to push it. I started with rice cereal and formula (I'm not breastfeeding), then later added a little apple juice. Now he eats baby food and rice cereal depending on where we are and what we are eating.

Hope that helps...it is a fun time when they start eating.

Organic brown rice, once a day. Your breastmilk will make it so sweet and tasty you won't need to mix in anything else. Mix the rice with water, though, and it tastes like cardboard!! Just a bit to start, like everyone else has been saying. Right now it's not the importance of a meal so much as learning the skill of eating from a spoon. You'll increase the cereal and food as time goes on. We always started our babies at night (kind of in between two nursing sessions/shortly after one), when Daddy was home, so he could do the first feeding. Plus, that way their little tummies are a bit fuller and they'll hopefully sleep longer/better (never worked with our kids, though!) at night. Congratulations on your goal to continue nursing Baby! It's a lot of work, but worth it for a healthy baby!

As far as breastfeeding, continue to breastfeed when your baby is hungry, introducing new foods when he is very hungry is not a good idea, he may get upset and reject the new food. Breastmilk is still going to be his main form of nutrition for the next six months or so, he can not subsist on solid foods alone yet. That said, a six month old child can start to eat all kinds of foods, not just rice cereal. And rice cereal isn't even a very healhty food, it is fortified with iron but other than that it's pretty useless. I would suggest that you start feeding your baby pureed foods once or twice a day, increasing to three meals a day when he gets more interested in solids. A couple of tablespoons of food at a time is all he is going to want at first. Fruits and veggies are great of course, but even pureed meats can be quite good for the baby, they are a great source of iron and protein. I have read that babies that were fed pureed meats have had better blood iron levels than babies fed only fruits, veggies, and cereals. Many people seem to be afraid to feed their baby meat, but it is nothing to worry about! And it is also OK to add some spices to your child's food, there is specualtion that a too bland diet can contribute to the development of allergies, and it can also contribute to picky eating later on. It's not that hard to make homemade baby food, sometimes all you have to do is mash a banana or avacado with a fork or force a ripe peach through a strainer and ta-da, homemade baby food! But it is also OK to feed him the premade stuff from a jar, esspecially if you are out and about it is convenient to have something you can just throw in the diaper bag. After he is used to some simple fruits, veggies, and meats, he can start to have table foods as well, so long as they are mashed up and not a choking hazzard. Happy feeding!

Also, introducing one new food at a time is reccomended to rule out possible allergies. But starting with only veggies before any fruits is not nessesary, there is NO evidence that this will prevent a sweet tooth or that it is better in any way. I introduced a veggie, then a fruit, thne another veggie and then meat, there is no particular progession that MUST be followed. And I started mixing them together sometimes too, like avacado and mango are good together, or squash and applesauce with a sprinkling of cinnamon.