Should I start him on rice cereal now?

Question

My son will be 5 months on the 10th. 3 ten ounce bottles used to last him 24 hours and he used to wake up ounce to eat at night. Now 3 10 ounce bottles last him 12 hours and he wakes up twice at night to eat. Should I start him on rice cereal now??

Answer 1

Yes.  "They" say you can start solids atound 4-6 months.  He sounds hungry--lol!  

Answer 2

Absolutely! I started my kids on rice cereal at 3 months and they did great, and slept longer at night. I started out with once a day, before bed, then moved up to twice a day. By then it should be time to start adding fruits and veggies! YAY!

Answer 3

So he's taking 50 ounces a day?  That is quite a lot, and it might make sense to try a little solid food (doesn't have to be rice cereal) and see if that satisfies him.

If he's taking 40 ounces, that isn't too much, and I wouldn't start solids early for that reason.  (Really, expecting a a baby to eat only 3 times a day, no matter how big the meal, is probably  unreasonable. Imagine if someone told you "You can only eat once a day -- but the meal will have 2000 calories so you should be satisfied until tomorrow!" Have you considered offering more,but smaller bottles and see if he does better?  (Maybe 6 6 ounce bottles, or 5 8 ounce bottles, or something like that?)

Answer 4

Yes, I started feeding my baby rice cereal at 4 months but start only once a day and if he doesn't want to eat it don't force him.  He might not be ready yet.  It took me a few trys to get my baby to like it.  Try not to  prepare it too dry because baby is not used to solids yet.  

Answer 5

you can try..it won't hurt..

Answer 6

I would if I were you...

Answer 7

I started my son on cereal at 2 months. I thought it was a little early, but he had other problems at the time that having some solid food helped to correct. At 5 months, I would say that it would be okay for him to start some rice cereal. Just make sure that it's pretty thin (either mixed with formula, breastmilk, or water) so that he can get used to the texture. After about another month or so, you could begin to introduce some fruits. Just make sure to introduce one at a time. Give him some apple baby food once a day for about 3-4 days in a row, and then give him just pears once a day for about 3-4 days in a row, etc.. This will allow you to see if he has any allergies to anything. If you introduce more than one food at a time and he has a reaction, you wont know which food actually caused it. =)

And you can always check with his pediatrician as well to see what they recommend. But it sounds like he's ready for a bit more than formula/breastmilk.  

Answer 8

does he sit in a high chair at all? If so try it with a spoon very thin and see if he sticks his tongue out and pushes away if not he is READY!!!