Any healthier alternatives to rice cereal?

Question

ive been researching a lot about rice cereal and how its not really necessary and just a starch.....olivia will be 4 months soon and we plan on trying her with some solids then...any tips or advice?

(btw-im not downing anyone who uses rice cereal with their babies! you child, your choice! :) )

Answer 1

you can start your baby on fruits or veggies if you want; cereals are just recommended because they are easy to digest and less risk of allergies

Answer 2

You don't have to give it at all. Solids aren't necessary while an infant is still on breastmilk or formula. While babies CAN start solids at four months, there's no real reason they have to.

The reason they used to recommend rice cereal as a starter is because of its blandness and because it's a low allergy risk. Gerber makes a single grain oatmeal cereal as well as barley. Perhaps those might be better for you.

Answer 3

We will start our baby on homemade sweet potato puree. You definitely don't need to start her on cereal if you don't want to!

Answer 4

You should use oatmeal single grain cereal instead. It's healthier and has a better taste then the blandness of rice. Any single grain cereal is fine for her first try but I highly recommend oatmeal ALSO for help with constipation. Alexis got constipated when we had her on rice cereal. Now with the oatmeal she does better. Plus prunes and other fiberous foods we give her. What I also do that has actually helped a lot is filling her bottle with water an extra half ounce more. Meaning, she gets 6 oz bottles but we fill to 6 1/2 oz of water and put in the powder amount for just 6 oz. The extra water helps with constipation as well. At least it did for Alexis.

Good luck!

Answer 5

How about nurse exclusively until she's 6 months?

Brown rice cereal is something that you can use instead, as are orange vegetable purees such as sweet potato, carrots, acorn squash...  Peaches, apples, probably not green beans, just try only one new thing every 4 -5 days.

Answer 6

Why not wait a couple more months, and let her feed herself real food? There is _no_ advantage to starting early, and some possible risk.

Of interest: http://kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/del...

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?...

http://borstvoeding.com/voedselintroduct...

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9646449/

It doesn't really matter what you offer first.

"It has been the habit of physicians to suggest that babies be started first on cereals and then other foods be added. However, the six-month-old is far different from the four-month-old. Many six-month-old babies do not seem to like cereal if it is introduced at this time. Do not push the baby to take it, but offer other foods and perhaps try again when your baby is a little older. But if he refuses, do not worry he will be missing something. There is nothing magic about cereal, and babies do fine without it. Anyhow, your baby may soon be eating bread. The easiest way for the baby to get additional iron is by his eating meat.

There is no good reason why a baby needs to eat or be introduced to only one food per week or why vegetables should be started before fruits. Anyone worried about the sweetness of fruit has not tasted breast milk. The six-month-old can be given almost anything off his parents’ plates that can be mashed with a fork."

http://www.naturalfamilyonline.com/go/in...

Answer 7

Well, if you really want the 'healthiest' alternative, I would be giving no solids at all this early.  At 4 months no baby 'needs' solids, and even the healthiest solids just replace the more valuable breastmilk or formula in the diet.  The tradition of starting solids at 4 months is a very outdated one. (Based on old-style feeding practices that resulted in babies really *needing* somethig other than formula by 3-4 months, because the formulas in use at the time weren't nutritionally adequate -- and virtually no mothers breastfed. Modern formulas (and breastmilk of course) are nutrtionally complete for 6-12 months.

When you DO start solids (the usual recommendation is to start around 6 months, but some babies don't want them yet even then, and some parents opt to wait until 7-12 months -- or whenever baby is interested) you can start with any food you wish.  It's just for fun until around a year anyway, so any food baby enjoys is fine.  At 6 months you could offer pureed fruits or veggies or meats, or other cereals.  If you wait longer, you can start right in with table foods.