4 months=Intro rice cereal & 4 hr schedule?

Whitney - posted on 01/23/2010

I will say to introduce it once a day at the night time feeding right before bed. That way it will sit a little bit heavier on their stomach so they will sleep better! You can look at gerber.com and they actually give you a list too. Also the box of ceral tells you too, there is a canister of single grain rice cereal that will be more gentle on thier belly too!

Peita - posted on 01/22/2010

Hi Jody, I have 3 children, my first slept through the night (12hrs each night) from 10 weeks and he didn't start cereal until 4 months. My second slept through the night also 12 hrs from 9 weeks, she didn't start cereal until 5 months! My 3rd is only 3 months old, and she is sleeping 6 1/2hrs, up for a feed and then down for 5 1/2 hours without cereal, so for me, introducing solid foods did not make any difference! My children as babies would have at least 5, 225ml formula bottles during the day at the 3 month old mark and that seemed to satisfy them!

Jody - posted on 01/22/2010

If you are going to try anything new with your baby...your best bet is to try it in the morning first for a couple of days. That way if they are going to be fussy and have a reaction to it...it will be during the day and not at night disturbing your and baby's sleep.

My dr. has yet to say anything about starting cereal yet..and my baby is 4 months on Feb. 1st. She is having problems sleeping through the night now (she was sleeping 7-9 hours straight since 8 weeks) but the last few weeks have been awful so i was thinking of introducing cereal to try and "fill her up" so she sleeps longer through the night.

For the moms who have their babies on cereal...did it help with sleeping longer?

Peita - posted on 01/22/2010

I start cereal at the 4 - 6 month mark and always give the milk feed about an hour before the cereal! It was recommended to me to do thin until about 9 months old and then swap, solid food and then milk feed about an hour after, offer water in a sippy cup from 6 month's and bub should do fine! Remember that this is just a suggestion, do what you and your doctor think is best, my little girl (baby 3) in nowhere near ready for cereal, she is 3 months old and I don't plan on rushing it!

Jackie - posted on 01/22/2010

My lil man will be four months old on the first of Feb. and we've ben giving him rice cereal for about 2 weeks now. We started out very watery and gradually thickened it. We now tried giving him the banana flavored oatmeal cereal and he went nuts for it and likes it thick. It helps before bed to fill him up good. He poops fine every day and eats it like a pro. We just took it slow over a 2 week period to see how his digestive system handled it and it was fine. Good luck to you! Hope it all works.

Amy - posted on 01/22/2010

yeah I thought my oldest was constapated but the doc set me straight and then my second child was constapated around 15 months old or so and she tried to pass hard fit sized poops and she would scream like we were physically pulling off her arms or legs. So if your baby isn't going threw that he or she is just fine.

Kendra - posted on 01/22/2010

Amy, that is so funny you mentioned about the not going poop thing. My son didn't go for over a day and I called the doc and told her he hadn't gone and all she said was "Oh...he will".

Amy - posted on 01/22/2010

I am giving my son cerel just a tablespoon or two a day and I know he's kind of young yet but he's always hungery and this seams to satisfy him more than a bottle. I also give him a sippy cup too when in the high chair, this is a silly thing that i did with my girls before him and it made it very easy to wein them from the bottle in the future. He's eating well and is begining to get it to the point where his dad is able to feed him too. So I think this all depends on the baby my oldest was 5months old when she first got food my second was somewhere between 4 and 5 monhs old and now the baby's doing it at 12 weeks so your baby will tell you when he or she is ready to move to food, mine did. and they will stop when their full just like you or i so i don't think over feeding them should be a consern, and make sure they are still gettting enough fluid in their day and constapation won't be a problem. P.S. constapation is when the poop is hard, dry, and difficult to pass. Babies aren't constapated just because they cry when they poop. I know a lot of people who think that they are. And if your child hasn't pooped in a few days that's ok only worrie if it has been more than five days with out a poop... that's what the doc's have told me anyway. Hope this helps.

Kendra - posted on 01/22/2010

We just started our 3 month 3 week little boy on it 5 days ago. The doc said go ahead....he is a big boy weighing 20 pounds and is always hungry. The first couple of days it was about a teaspoon once a day and after two days we bumped it up to 1 tablespoon twice a day. We do lunch and about 6 in the evening. He goes to bed about 9:30. I could'nt figure out how to get him to eat till my girlfriend showed me. She told me to put a small amount on the spoon and kind of hold it in his mouth so he can "suck" it off. It worked!!! Now I don't have to hold the spoon in much at all. He chomps down on it now and after a couple chomps I take the spoon out. He is learning to eat w/ it and knows what the spoon means. He hasn't eaten it all but once..and we stop when he gets real fussy and go ahead and let him wash it down w/ his bottle. I try and catch him before he gets REALLY hungry. But I"m just learning, he is my first. Maybe someone else will have better advice lol? all babies are so different.

Alissa - posted on 01/22/2010

I may be off on this, but I think I read to start lightly with only 1-2 servings a day, like right before bed and then a mid-day. If you introduce too much too soon I believe they can become constipated, and also their digestive systems need time to grow and mature.