How do I introduce cereal to my 4 month old son?

Question

I have a 4 month old son who I feel is ready for cereal. We actually go to the doctor next week, and she said we would introduce baby food at this visit, but I started him a week early due to lack of sleep! Anyway, I put 1 tblsp in his 5 oz bottle last night. Is this okay? Is this the proper way to introduce cereal or do you typically feed it to them out of a bowl? I am not putting cereal in every bottle, just the one right before bed. thanks for you help! 5 pts to best answer!!!

Answer 1

I put cereal in my daughters bottle at 2 months per doctor's recommendation for her acid reflux... so obviously this is safe. She slept through the whole night at 2 months everyday. They say the best way is out of a bowl... and I do that too, but she does get it in her bottle, and she doesn't eat anymore than she needs. She is perfectly healthy and happy. It has been done forever, but of course there comes a time when someone makes up some crazy rumor about everything and everyone believes it and it becomes the truth. If you shouldn't put it in their bottle, then why do they make formula with added rice cereal?...Some people will say they learn to eat it that way and won't eat it any other way. My daughter ate it from a bottle for 2 months and then I gave it to her in a bowl, and she ate it just fine. anyways it is perfectly fine,just make sure he also eats it from a bowl and spoon sometimes too so he learns to do it that way. Good luck!

Answer 2

you could probably put a little more in his bottle than that. typically they tell you to use a bowl but i used a bottle as well.  

Answer 3

just give it to him

Answer 4

"another myth...

Rice cereal makes babies sleep

This one hurts. I know sleep deprivation and the desire to get a good night's sleep very well. But this one just isn't true.

Sleep patterns are developmental phenomenon, they don't have much to do with hunger patterns. Kids wake up hungry, but they don't wake up because they are hungry.

Cereals started as an important part of a child's diet back when the infant formula companies couldn't get an absorbable form of iron into the formula.  They then fortified rice cereal with iron and introduced the rice cereal early into the diet as a way to make sure the kids got the iron.  Chances are pretty good that the eventual increase in sleeping at night that happens around six to eight weeks of age coincided with the introduction of the cereal, but not because of it.

Now, all the infant formulas are fortified with iron and of course, breastmilk has an abundant and easily absorbable supply of iron in it, so we really don't need an extra source.  If you take away the iron in the cereals, it's just starch.

And if you buy this idea that rice cereal "sits" in the stomach, then we have to talk about that too.  Nothing "sits" in the stomach (even when kids eat pennies and stuff, that stuff passes).  It's a metabolically active organ always working to digest its contents.

And at least one study has recently showed that early introduction of rice cereal (prior to 4 months of age) is a risk factor for the development of diabetes.

Different types of food take longer to digest.  Starch, which is what rice cereal is, is really easily digested.  Starches are used as quick sources of energy.  If we stayed asleep for however long our bellies are full (which I don't believe either or we would never sleep for 6-8 hours a night) then starch would be a poor choice.  We would need to load our kids up with a Big Mac or something to get them to sleep longer since fat is the slowest food type to be digested.

That's a long explanation to say that I don't really think the cereals are necessary-- they aren't a good source of nutrition and they don't make kids sleep and may, with the new info on the link to diabetes, be actually be harmful.   The AAP says 6 months without solids...we are learning that the rush to solids foods is NOT a good idea."

http://www.drjen4kids.com/myths/mythrice...

Answer 5

Congrats on the lil man! when i started my son i would take the cereal (making it with his formula) and make it rather runny...and sit him up in his carseat or his bouncer... You have to wrap them (like swaddling) so they dont wiggle and make a huge mess. you can feed him the cereal rather runny with the spoon. When you put the bite into his mouth... tickle his lower lip... (this makes him open) and when you get it into his mouth... put it onto his roof... this entices closing the mouth. he should get the hang after a few cereal meals. Also... I think you can give him stage one mixed in. (i think they sell it premixed as cereal and fruit.... you just need to dilute it some... since he is small he needs to learn still)

When i was feeding my son cereal i started about the same age. by the time he was 6.5 months... he was eating cereal 3 times a day. Plain for breakfast some of lunch with fruit and a tiny bit with his dinner botte. He slept well.  (as always... each baby is different... I would ask the dr to be sure!)

Soon you will be able to feed him thicker food and he will be ok. I hope this helps.  

Answer 6

Please don't put cereal in his bottle. This is an old practice and has actually been found to cause choking hazards. It's not the safe way to introduce cereal into your baby's diet. When he's ready then do it with a spoon. At 4 months he may still have the tounge-thrust reflex but you'll just have to find that out. If he does the he's simply not ready. I would wait until you visit the doctor to give him any more cereal. That way you all can talk about how much and when to give him cereal, if he's indeed ready for it.

Answer 7

NEVER PUT CEREAL IN THE BOTTLE.  This deceives babies.  They will end up eating more than they need.

And as for sleeping better...no way...this never worked with my two children.  I would also wait until your child is 6 months to start introducing cereal...with a spoon.  Just make it very loose for the first few weeks and then you can start thickening it up  

Answer 8

If you insist on starting him on cereal before he's actually ready, it is safest to use a spoon.  Mix how ever much cereal with how ever much liquid to get it to a thick, creamy, mixture, and spoon feed it to your baby.  Cereal in a bottle is a big choking hazard as well as "soupy" cereal from a spoon.  

The problem with giving cereal now is that while your baby may be hungry, his body isn't ready to handle anything else besides breast milk or formula.  Hunger and interest in food are good signs of readiness, but his body won't be truly ready for solids until he can sit up with no support, can pick up a piece of food, put it in his mouth, chew/gum, and swallow.  This usually happens around 6 months old.  Before then, it's best to just give him more formula.  There's nothing wrong with him drinking 36-40 ounces of formula a day.

Answer 9

If you're adding cereal to the bottle, great! As long as it's not clogging the nipple you're fine. Try varying amounts and see which he likes best.

My daughter ate cereal in her bottles at night from 3 to 6 months, then in all bottles from 6 months until I took her off the bottle. She never liked cereal from a bowl. I used rice cereal in the bottle because it clogs less then oatmeal.

Don't listen to the nay-sayers about cereal not helping them sleep. Some babies it doesn't but in most of the babies I've seen, the additional fiber takes more time to digest, and most of baby's digestion is done while sleeping. I am the oldest of 6 kids, my husband the middle of 5, and we have one of our own (expecting #2 in 2-3 weeks), and I have been a nanny for years now specializing in infants. Generally the only babies who don't respond to cereal in the bottle by sleeping more (and more soundly) are those with severe reflux issues.

If you want, try giving him cereal from a bowl...he may love it! If he does, you're on your way to having a very happy eater in the future (at least we hope!). You can also try fruits at this stage, my daughter preferred bananas (get fresh ones and hand-mash them, soo much better then jars) and butternut squash at that age.

Good luck!

Answer 10

You say Jaxon, this is cereal. Ceral, this is Jaxon. That's all you have to do Betty.  

Answer 11

Cereal is never fed from a bottle. If you really think he's ready this early, you feed it from a bowl, with a spoon.  If he can't eat it from a bowl, with a spoon, he isn't ready for solids. (The only reason to give solids at this age is to introduce him to the spoon, and to new tastes and textures.  He can't get that if he's drinking it.)

So, give him his usual bottles.  After one bottle, (start in the morning, so if he has a bad reaction you won't' be up all night), mix about  a teaspoon of cereal with a bit of formula (it should be fairly thick -- just a bit thinner than adult hot cereal -- the practice of making it really watery dates back to the days when babies were fed solids before they were ready...) and offer it with a spoon.  He should be sitting in a high chair for this.  If he doesn't' open his mouth, or spits it out, or pushes it out with his tongue, try again tomorrow. If it's still no-go, wait a couple of weeks and try again. There is NO rush.

If, on the other hand, he is able to eat it, seems to enjoy it, and has no bad reactions, you can increase the amount tomorrow. You can also switch to bedtime if you prefer ... though it won't help him sleep any longer.

Gradually increase as he seems to want/need -- just be sure he isn't reducing his milk intake.  If he's getting plenty of mlk, he probably won't want more than a couple of tablespoons a day for several months.

EDIT: HardtoGet gave you detailed instructions on an EXCELLENT way to force feed solids to a baby -- this is what they did back in the old days when solids were given to very young babies... wrap 'em up nice and tight so they can't struggle,  trick them into opening their mouths, and spoon the food in so quick,and so far back that baby has no choice but to swallow it or choke.

This is NOT recommended. A baby who is ready for solids can sit up, and will voluntarily open his mouth for the spoon.