Cereal at 3 months??

April - posted on 01/04/2010

My son just turned 3 mnths and we just started him on cereal the Gerber rice single grain one and i just put 2 tbspoons in his bottle. the dr told me it will be fine because my son was drinking the 9oz bottles every hour on the hour. he is normal sized so its just trial and error

Julie - posted on 01/04/2010

Oh and you are doing the right thing by using a spoon. Putting the cereal in a bottle is a choking hazard.

Julie - posted on 01/04/2010

I started all 4 of my kids early on cereal and veggies and fruits. My children were and still are fine. I started cereal at 2 weeks, then veggies at 3months and then fruits. After my kids were done with stage 1 foods and started using a food processor and they were eating regular table food.
You are the mother and you know your child best, so do what you feel, but be careful when introducing new foods. Good Luck with your choice.
Oh my doctor told me that what I was doing was fine b/c they were still gaining weight and the foods did not seem to bother them. The only thing he told me was not to change to milk until a year old. I gave my son a hot dog smooshed up and he had a little reaction at 4 months so we stayed away from them.

Daniele - posted on 01/04/2010

Quoting Cynthia:

Hi Daniele; I actually do nurse him for a minimum of 30-40 mins a feed and I nurse on one breast alone per feeding so he gets the all important hind milk as opposed to just getting the fore milk (hind milk generally starts around the 15-17 mins mark). I want to make sure he is balanced in both. And TRUST me, I've tried everything to get him to go longer between nursing. I go through an entire checklist to ensure it is hunger before I feed him. I have a really big boy, he weighed in at 9 lbs 5 ounces and 21.5 inches when he was born and now weighs 13 lbs and is 26 inches. I've been told by my midwife and doctor that we will likely have to introduce solids early as breastmilk alone will not be enough to sustain him for long...lol.

Cynthia - Wow. He is a big boy! I'm glad you are trying everything before you start solids. Have you tried nursing him for 30-40 mins on the first side and then letting him finish on the second side? Maybe just the slight amount he would get in a 10-15 min session would be enough to satisfy him? Also, at 2 mos he should be either about to have a growth spurt or just finishing one. So his appetite may lessen in the coming weeks. Also, remember your milk will become richer as he gets older and will change to suit his needs. Your milk supply may suffer some when you start solids or if you add formula to his diet.

Good luck. I hope the cereal will help keep him full if nothing else works!

Aubrie - posted on 01/02/2010

but stay with one kind bc they could be allergic, and also mix the cereal i use (baby rice) and mix it in to the formula. with a nipple that has a X on it. I had to make the X bigger. but it works good!

Aubrie - posted on 01/02/2010

oh no go ahead feed that baby cereal aha =)! my son ate cereal 2months-3months. he just tride the spoon the other day hes not to good at it!! but yeah i do the cereal in the bottle if i didnt ... he would at 3 months be eating a 8oz bottle and be hungry hour 1/2 later. with cereal he eats normal amounts =)

Anna - posted on 01/02/2010

it is recommended that a baby not start solids until 6 mo. of age. the body isn't equipped to handle it at this point, and there isn't really any need for it. plz delay solida until a more reasonable age and when baby shows signs of being interested in solids. don't do it just because this is what the Pediatrician told you to do. i find most dr's aren't up to date w/ the latest research these days.

Kim - posted on 01/01/2010

Quoting Holly:

Cereal at 3 months??

I feed my son cereal in the morning with a spoon as well in the evening. He is drinking 6 oz of milk each time he gets feed but usually do not drink it all, during the day he will drink the 6oz each time he is feed and I think he could drink more - although they do not recomend that they have solids until 6 months I would be feeding my child 8oz every hour by then!!
He was drinking 35-40oz of milk at 10 weeks and this is when I started him on the cereal and he went back to 20-25 oz. He is still gaining weight properly as I know there is not the same nutritional value in cereal as the milk. He is 14 weeks now and is back to 25-30oz a day along with cereal
He is so much more satisfied with the cereal!!! I started with rice and he was fine, last week I tried the oat and he was fussy and waking up more so I went back to the rice again for another while!
Anyone else have this issue??

 

Wow my son is 3 months and his doctor said giving him over 4oz a milk every 3 hours was too much but that is what he wants.... and now i have found out that my mom has been sneaking and giving him cereal, which my doctor said I can add a table spoon of it to his milk when he turns 4months.  He eats a lot and everyone thinks he is 8months already.  He is also giving us 5... they are growing so fast now.

Anna - posted on 12/31/2009

Yes, I had to nurse my son at least once an hour at that stage. There are good reasons, backed up by plenty of research, why not to give them solids before 6 months. They don't have the bacteria in their guts that are necessary to digest solid foods at a young age. So maybe he's ok with rice, but I don't think you should feed him anything else. Oats contain gluten, so you could trigger an allergy by feeding him oats too soon.

Cynthia - posted on 12/31/2009

Hi Daniele; I actually do nurse him for a minimum of 30-40 mins a feed and I nurse on one breast alone per feeding so he gets the all important hind milk as opposed to just getting the fore milk (hind milk generally starts around the 15-17 mins mark). I want to make sure he is balanced in both. And TRUST me, I've tried everything to get him to go longer between nursing. I go through an entire checklist to ensure it is hunger before I feed him. I have a really big boy, he weighed in at 9 lbs 5 ounces and 21.5 inches when he was born and now weighs 13 lbs and is 26 inches. I've been told by my midwife and doctor that we will likely have to introduce solids early as breastmilk alone will not be enough to sustain him for long...lol.

Daniele - posted on 12/31/2009

Quoting Cynthia:

Quoting Amanda:

I started mine on cereal early too, and my health nurse told me that it was fine. She said that the main concern with cereal is for small babies it takes up the room in their tummies needed for milk, which they get more nutrients from. With you baby still gaining weight and still eating alot of milk it's obvious the cereal isn't hurting him.

When I started my daughter on cereal, I started with the rice for about two weeks, then switched to barley and then to oatmeal. I had no problems with the barley or oatmeal but I found that after I stopped giving her rice, she didn't like it anymore. It made her gassy and irritated, although, now she'll eat it if it's already mixed in her baby food. It may be that he doesn't like the taste or that it gives him gas. Stay with the rice for awhile and try the oatmeal when he's a little older

I've been looking into giving my son rice cereal when he 3 months old as well. He's only 2 months right now and is really voracious when it comes to eating. I'm not sure how many oz a day he gets as I breastfeed but he gets fed every 2 hours, sometimes every hour depends on his appetite for the day. I do give him a bottle or 2 a day of expressed milk and he usually drinks about 4-5 oz during the one feed. However, I've read that when you introduce solids you should always give him his milk first and then the rice cereal afterwards if he's still hungry that way he doesn't fill up on the cereal before the all important milk is given.

I hope this little tip helps!

Breastfed babies do have a tendency to nurse more often than formula babies do. The nutrients in breastmilk are more completely absorbed  by their bodies. It is completely normal for a 2 month old to nurse every 2 hours. You can probably get him to go longer periods by nursing longer in one sitting. Try nursing him for 10-20 minutes per side. He should be able to go about 3-4 hours if he's really nursing well. It's also important to realize the true hunger signs. Just because the baby wants something in his mouth doesn't mean he's hungry. Some babies just have an oral fixation or a need to suck/chew.

Also, I would highly recommend waiting as long as possible to start solids. It reduces the risk of food allergies, and digestive problems later in life. Plus, babies do not get many nutrients from solid food until around 12 months because they do not have the enzymes to break down the food properly. The main purpose of providing solids between 6-12 months is for the baby to learn different tastes and textures.

Great advice on giving milk before solids. The solids will only fill up the baby and the milk/formula is so important to their little bodies.

Chris - posted on 12/31/2009

When you make the cereal use formula or breastmilk (whichever you use) and that will help him to get the milk he needs.

Cynthia - posted on 12/31/2009

Quoting Amanda:

I started mine on cereal early too, and my health nurse told me that it was fine. She said that the main concern with cereal is for small babies it takes up the room in their tummies needed for milk, which they get more nutrients from. With you baby still gaining weight and still eating alot of milk it's obvious the cereal isn't hurting him.

When I started my daughter on cereal, I started with the rice for about two weeks, then switched to barley and then to oatmeal. I had no problems with the barley or oatmeal but I found that after I stopped giving her rice, she didn't like it anymore. It made her gassy and irritated, although, now she'll eat it if it's already mixed in her baby food. It may be that he doesn't like the taste or that it gives him gas. Stay with the rice for awhile and try the oatmeal when he's a little older

I've been looking into giving my son rice cereal when he 3 months old as well. He's only 2 months right now and is really voracious when it comes to eating. I'm not sure how many oz a day he gets as I breastfeed but he gets fed every 2 hours, sometimes every hour depends on his appetite for the day. I do give him a bottle or 2 a day of expressed milk and he usually drinks about 4-5 oz during the one feed. However, I've read that when you introduce solids you should always give him his milk first and then the rice cereal afterwards if he's still hungry that way he doesn't fill up on the cereal before the all important milk is given.

I hope this little tip helps!

Amanda - posted on 12/31/2009

I started mine on cereal early too, and my health nurse told me that it was fine. She said that the main concern with cereal is for small babies it takes up the room in their tummies needed for milk, which they get more nutrients from. With you baby still gaining weight and still eating alot of milk it's obvious the cereal isn't hurting him.

When I started my daughter on cereal, I started with the rice for about two weeks, then switched to barley and then to oatmeal. I had no problems with the barley or oatmeal but I found that after I stopped giving her rice, she didn't like it anymore. It made her gassy and irritated, although, now she'll eat it if it's already mixed in her baby food. It may be that he doesn't like the taste or that it gives him gas. Stay with the rice for awhile and try the oatmeal when he's a little older

Barbara - posted on 12/31/2009

To each their own, but the reason they say not to give solids until they are six months is because they may develop allergies or intolerances for certain foods later in life, maybe not until they are much much older. I can't tell you how many people I see coming into our natural foods store with a gluten intolerance that only just came upon them as they reached their 30's and 40's. If I were you I would leave him on the rice cereal that he's used to until he is older. You've got to do what you think is best, though.