Solids @ 4 monts???!!!!

Amy - posted on 12/15/2010

I started my son on rice cereal at 3 1/2 months due to the fact that he'd eat 40-50 oz a day and still be starved, the rice cereal did help a lot! It made him constipated so after about a month or so we switched him over to oatmeal version of rice cereal and that worked great for us.

I have heard from many parents that starting cereal it does help with spit up. When giving solids to a baby that young always give the milk first then the solids because the milk is what they really need.

Sarh - posted on 12/15/2010

My son is now 6 months old and 20lbs, he was about the same weight as your son at 4 1/2mo. He also has reflux and I had to take it upon myself to put him on rice cereal at about a month old because our previous pediatrician was dismissing it!!! The new pediatrician put him on Zantac as well at about 2-3 months old, but I continued w/the rice cereal and purees. It did not at all affect our breastfeeding and helped a LOT w/his reflux!!!
Right now I don't give him the medication because it was doing nothing, he is eating solids twice a day and we were told to up to 3times a day because of his age and what not. His pediatrician was more then ok w/this at 4 months old and told us to go ahead w/twice a day feedings at that time.
Nurse him when he wakes, then for the next feeding give him some rice cereal or barley or oats which will not cause constipation like rice cereal does in some babies, you can also start with veggies or fruits (avoid oranges which babies shouldn't have anyways, but I have seen them in Gerber baby food, along with pineapple and things like that). To start with just give him about 1/4of a jar or the first recommended feeding of the cereal, then nurse him. Make sure he nurses after each "meal" of solids!! Sometimes my son doesn't nurse immediately afterwards, but will w/in about 15 minutes.
Some times my son only nurse 2-4 times a day and he has been sleeping 9-12hrs a night since he was a month old (just before starting solids). Do you eat the same amount EVERY single day?! I bet not.
My son was spitting up non stop!!! I'm not kidding you and it wasn't a little bit and he was still gaining weight! My little brother was born at 8lbs something, projectile vomited constantly and literally across the room and he was 24lbs by the time he was a month old from being exclusively breastfed!!! Thankfully he stay 24lbs and just got longer until he was about 12 months old.
Anyways I hope I made sense, and I hope I didn't ramble too much. Good luck!

Lorraine - posted on 12/14/2010

I would take cues from your little one. Even if you don't think it was enough, what is your son doing? Not acting hungry or fussy? Still gaining weight? If he is thriving, I wouldn't get to anxious about enough feeding time. I started my daughter around the same time with solids and did not have a big interference with breast feeding. Start your mornings with a regular feeding and maybe after give one meal of rice cereal. Then keep the rest of the day the same. The more he gets use to it you can add more later. I had a lot of help from Gerber. You can read exactly what you need from this link. http://www.gerber.com/SupportedSitter/Nu...
I'm sure that you will do great!

Carolyn - posted on 12/14/2010

if you do start the rice cereal, only a few table spoons at most after a nursing. overfeeding him solids will interfer with breast feeding.

start with nursing, then a little bit of cereal afterwards. start in the morning for your test run . so you have all day to watch for any adverse effects.

my son spit up ridiculously, i found that when i gave him a bit of cereal after nursing, it seemed to "weigh" the milk down and significantly reduced the issue.

now my son wasnt diagnosed with reflux, he just spewed ALOT.

continue to breastfeed as usual, the cereal should only compliment, the nursing, not replace it.

my son since about 3 months would feed ( breast , or bottle of expressed milk) 5 times a day and slept through the night, the 5th feed was a dream feed. so he ate roughly every 3 1/2 to 4 hours. Logan was 17 lbs at 2 months ( i know right) 19.5 at 4 months and weighed in at his 6 month check up at 22 lbs !!!! all this to say, some big healthy babies dont need to nurse as often and can often go longer between feeds, or consume more than an average amount in a feed.