When to start giving rice cereal?

Question

My little girl is soon to be 2 months old, and my parents are telling me already to start putting a little rice cereal in her formula, so she will sleep more during the night. If I put her to bed at around 9 or 10 she will wake up around 2 or 3 to be feed, then again around 6 or 7. Do you think I should use it, she is a pretty good sleeper. And if no, when should I start? Suggestions or experiences.

Answer 1

I don't think you should give her rice cereal until she is 4 months old.

Answer 2

Don't start cereal just yet. And dont put it in a bottle, choaking hazards other mom's will tell you.

She is still too young, their digestive systems are not ready for that yet. give it another 2 months then try cereal with a spoon. If she is already a good sleeper don't worry about it for now.

Start cereal around 4-6 months. But rice cereal is not that great. My LO didnt like it much so I did oats, and they don't cause constipation like rice cereal does. Then after a few weeks of that you can move onto purees of veggies and fruits, giving a 4 day grace period in between each introduced food, cus of allergy risks.

She is still gonna be waking up for feedings for awhile, they need that.She is still is very lil, she needs all the nutrients she can get. Dont have her sleep all the way through right now. She will do that later on, I have a almost 6 month old and she is still once in awhile waking up hungry.

Here is a great site about when to start , what to start with how to make them and what to avoid.

I make all the foods, they are cheaper and better then the jarred food, if you are interested.

Good Luck

Answer 3

first let me start by saying that your daughters sleeping habit sounds healthy..second i will admit that at 3 months old i decided to do the ceral in the bottle thing, all the mothers i know and even my own mother said it will make him sleep so i can sleep( i was up more then twice a night).. it didn't help at all..same sleeping pattern..it did hurt his little tummy though.. made him fidgit in his sleep and tiny moans..i really wasn't sleeping then.. i did keep trying for 1 week.and finally said forget it..at his 4 month checkup the doctor said he was ready to start solids, he is 6 months now and has meals for breakfast,lunch,and dinner plus his bottles and he still wakesat 2am and 6 am..so really i don't believe there is any benifit from it.. don't worry a couple more months and she will be ready..just be glad she sleeps like she does

Answer 4

First off, don't ever put cereal in a bottle. I started my son on pablum when he was 4 months old, we started out in the mornings for a week to make sure of no problems, then we started morning and night. I don't recommend any earlier than four months and only when she is showing signs of readiness.

Answer 5

A lot of people told me to put cereal in my daughters bottles but i never did it. But i would say 5 to 6 months. I always feed my children by spoon because that's what the doctor told me to do and because i saw when people put cereal in the bottle they had to widen the nipple hole which i thought was dangerous. Also personally I think some parents that result to just putting cereal in the bottle instead of feeding their children by spoon are lazy.

Please don't hate me for my opinions.

Answer 6

Normally you start with cereal at around 4 months old.  It's recommended that you don't put it in the bottle, but that you feed with a spoon in order to start good eating habits and getting the baby used to feeding with a utensil.  I would ask your doctor.

Answer 7

There is little to no nutrition in cereal, it's useless c**p. Nothing but filler and calories. It is also dangerous to give it to a baby in their bottle unless they have severe acid reflux. It has also been suggested that it could be linked to SIDS in younger infants. In my opinion continue breastfeeding or using a bottle until they are ready for baby food.  

Answer 8

Definately wait till she is 4 months.  If given earlier it is likely that she can develop allergies from this.

Answer 9

I was told by my doctor to wait until my baby was 6 months old. And even then He said to never put the cereal in the bottle. Babies have to suck to hard to get it out and it can cause ear infections.  I think 2 monts old and only waking up twice is great. You are getting at least a 3-4 hour stretch of sleep.  Even after I started giving my baby cereal and baby food she didn't sleep any better. I kept waiting for the magic to happen like I kept hearing of but it doesn't really matter. It's how the baby sleeps.  

Answer 10

i was told that to and it didnt help one bit, its a old wives tale just made my girl constipated wait until 5 to 6 months truste me because some babys tummys cant handle it

Answer 11

Nothing but formula until 6 months, there are very good reasons for this.

http://www.askdrsears.com/faq/fit3.asp

Attention all Grandmothers:

Much has been learned over the past thirty years about infant nutrition and development. Many practices that were common three decades ago are now known to be unhealthy, maybe even dangerous to a young infant.

I know that the experts told you to start feeding your babies cereal after a few weeks of life; and you followed their advice because you loved your children. Now we know that an infant's gut is not ready for solid foods until around six months of age. If you start a food too early, he is much more likely to become allergic to it. This can result in damage to the intestines, weight loss, blood in the stool, and malnutrition. You might argue, "Well, my kids started solid foods at three weeks, and they turned out just fine." The truth is, very few adults have perfectly working digestive tracts. Just look at all the commercials for heartburn remedies and stool softeners... "ever feel gassy and bloated after a meal?"

Here is what the experts are saying now:

    * Breastfeed for at least one year.

    * Start cereal and other solids after six months of age.

Grammy, please let your daughters follow this advice, because they love your grandchildren as much as you do.

Dr. Jim

http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids...

Will giving formula or solids at night help baby to sleep better?

The idea that solids will help your baby sleep is an old wives' tale that has been disproven by medical studies. Feeding your baby solids or formula in an attempt to make baby sleep longer is not a good idea for several reasons:

There's no evidence that it will help. Some babies will sleep worse, due to reactions to the formula or solids (tummy ache, etc. are not uncommon), particularly if baby is younger than around 6 months. Two studies have indicated that adding solids to the diet does not cause babies to sleep longer. These studies found no difference in the sleep patterns of babies who received solids before bedtime when compared to babies who were not given solids. Here are the two studies:

    Macknin ML, Medendorp SV, Maier MC. Infant sleep and bedtime cereal. Am J Dis Child. 1989 Sep;143(9):1066-8.

    Keane V, et al. Do solids help baby sleep through the night? Am J Dis Child 1988; 142: 404-05.

[...]

Early introduction of solids (before six months) carries its own set of risks.



Recent research suggests that longer stretches of deep sleep are associated with sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and babies who sleep longer/deeper may be more vulnerable to SIDS (see in particular the research of James McKenna, PhD). Some scientists are saying that it appears that long sleep stretches are not "natural" for human infants and that sleep interruptions in the early months may provide a protective factor against SIDS. More research is needed on this subject, but parents might want to think twice about significantly manipulating baby's natural sleep pattern in the early months.



A little more about feeding baby cereal from a bottle...

Doctors and other experts recommend that you never give baby cereal in a bottle unless recommended by baby's doctor for a specific medical condition. Here are some of their reasons:

    * It is a choking hazard.

    * The cereal takes away from the amount of milk in the bottle (adds carbohydrates and dilutes the nutrient density), and baby may not get adequate milk volume for proper growth and development.

    * Baby is being given a higher concentration of calories without being able to regulate her own intake. This can lead to weight problems in the future.

If baby’s doctor suggests thickened feedings for reflux, consider asking about alternatives, as many doctors question this practice and it has the potential to cause more harm than good.

http://www.drgreene.org/body.cfm?id=21&a...

Most children seemed to thrive. A small number of children, though, did not tolerate the addition, because their sucking and swallowing actions were not yet fully coordinated. They inhaled small amounts of the rice cereal into their lungs, which led to pulmonary problems.

I’m much more concerned about a subtler issue. Babies are born with a wonderful mechanism for knowing how much food they need. During the early months, they take their cues from the volume of what they drink. Adding cereal derails this mechanism. It forces them to take in deceptively large amounts of calories. It teaches them to overeat.

By starting with a spoon, resting between bites, and stopping when your child lets you know he’s full, you will be laying an excellent foundation for good eating habits throughout his life.

A major study looking for the causes of obesity found that short-circuiting young children’s self-regulation of how much they eat is a major cause of later obesity.1 Cereal in the bottle does just that.

Babies that are fed this way may appear to be unaffected – but those few weeks of added convenience may result in a lifetime of struggles with weight. This common practice may have contributed to our being the most obese generation in history.

And it doesn’t even work. Scientists at the Cleveland Clinic studied the effect of cereal on sleep and found that adding the cereal did nothing at all to speed up the age of sleeping through the night. That first uninterrupted 6-hour stretch of sleep came no earlier in those who took cereal early.2

People swear otherwise. I suspect the reason is that kids do fall asleep a bit more quickly, and some babies may even go a bit longer between feedings. There is no scientific evidence, though, to support the claim that cereal in the bottle will help an infant increase total sleep or decrease crying.3

Answer 12

Sounds like you have a healthy normal baby.  Young babies are SUPPOSED to eat at night, and if she's sleeping 5-6 hours at a stretch, that's great.

And putting cereal in a baby's bottle is not recommended for ANY reason (except occassionally to treat reflux.)  It doesn't help babies sleep lonoger, and puts them at risk for choking, overfeeding, belly aches, constipation, and obesity.  

Solids are normally started at around 6 months  (the current recommendation of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the World Health Organization, UNICEF and many other reliable sources) -- the absolute earliest to even consider starting is 4-5 months. And some moms opt to wait even longer (and some babies aren't inerested into longer). Babies dont' really  'need' solids until around a year, so anything between 6-12 months is just for fun anyway, so whatever you and baby enjoy is fine.

When you do start, there is no reason to start with  cereal. A baby old enough to eat solids can eat fruits or veggies or meats, he doesn't need overprocessed rice flour. (RIce cereal became a traditional first food back in the 1940's and 1950's, when most babies were fed home-made formulas made from evaporated milk.  Such formulas contained no iron, so early solids, fortified with iron, became the standard. Today, most babies are breastfed or fed commercial formulas.  Both of these provide everything baby needs for at LEAST 6-8 months ... so no need to start early OR start with cereal.