When did your preemie start eating cereal?

Janine - posted on 11/18/2010

Health visitors advise you not to feed you baby cereal till there 6 months, and if they were prem leave them till 6 1/2 months, but I am gonna start matthew on his at about 5 1/2 months so he gets used to eating jars of food at 6 months :) x

Macdoanld - posted on 11/18/2010

hello, my son was born at 34 1/2 weeks gestation, he was 9lbs. 5oz. and 21 1/2 in. long... his entrance into this world was encouraged after months of illness, pain, and patience... i had five amneocentesis' among many other tests and torture sessions... after 3 days of inducing(many different proceedues) my boy was brought into this world via c-section... my daughter was born via c-section at 37 weeks gestation. she was 10lbs. 6oz. and 23 inches long. i bipassed all the torture with that one and picked my big baby girls birthday... my babys began getting pablum at 2 weeks old because the formula was not enough for them. they slept through the night from two weeks old, and still do. my children are 20 and 15 now and i would not change my experience having them or change them for the world...

Laura - posted on 11/17/2010

my daughter was only 4 week premature and we tried rice at 5 months but she didn't like it so we tried again at later date and she really liked it, i think since it is a new taste it will take a while to adjust

Kathryn - posted on 11/16/2010

The goal at that age is to get her used to the new textures. So, I'd keep offering it. The dislike may just be a getting used to it look. We had to do that for my son, and experiment with flavors--he did not like Rice, but liked the barley one. You can also mix some fruit in it, too. If she seems to be gagging on it, definitely stop and wait a month.

Marinda - posted on 11/15/2010

My prems only weigh .900g and 1.00kg they were only alowed to eet soled any soled food from 6months I think this is the safest!! Not even Rice Cereal

Renee - posted on 11/15/2010

my daughter was born at 35 weeks, and at 5 months she started feeding every hour, so i started giving her a little cereal in the night and that`s when she started sleeping through the night, she didn`t like the rice or the oat cereal, the only kind she likes is the heinz barley cereal.

Charmaine - posted on 11/11/2010

Both my children were premies and both started eating runny rice cereal at 3 months (not corrected age). The NICU doctors where my children were born give all prems rice cereal at 3 months. Even the micro prems. Some premies are very sensitive to touch and some have difficulty eating, the doctors work with the babies to get them to tolerate solids from early on. I would however caution to not change your child's diet without talking to your doctor.

Felicia - posted on 11/10/2010

My son was born at 32 weeks. He's 11 months now ( 9 months adjusted) he sees a feeding team, they told us to start trying at 7 months and he would and still wont eat the box cereal. We brought him the jar cereal and he loves it, maybe try that. Good luck! :)

Cheryl - posted on 11/10/2010

Well, mine started when they were about 2 months old mixed with formula so if would stay down as they had projectile vomiting. It all depends on your baby. If shes ready and wanting it, give it in morning at first then morning and night. They will actually sleep longer during the night if you feed the cereal at night. Rice is the best as a lot of babies are allergic to the oatmeal.

Karen - posted on 11/10/2010

My daughter was born at 34 weeks gestation, and by age 3 months, I was having a difficult time keeping her satisfied with an 8 oz. bottle of formula, Thus, I started her on rice cereal. I think all babies, as well as all preemies are different. As long as she is growing well, and seems satisfied with just the formula, then I wouldn't be concerned.

Terri - posted on 11/10/2010

My son was born at 32 weeks and the doctor told us that developmentally he may not be ready to eat cereal until he was 6 months old (about 4 mths old had he been born on my due date). We did start feeding him around 5 mths and it took him a while to catch on but soon fell in love with it.

Melissa - posted on 11/09/2010

I started when he was 5 months actual age putting some baby rice in his milk and took it from there. I found it best to add flavours to the rice - sometimes a bit of yoghurt or mashed fruit, sometimes just a little bit of fresh juice. His favourite was actually baby porridge w/ banana.

Jessica - posted on 11/09/2010

I have two little ones that were both born 6 weeks early. I started my daughter shortly after she was 4 months old and my son just turned 4 months old and i started him at about two weeks before he turned 4 months. I think it just depends on each individual and how comfortable you are with it but it is always best to ask your pediatrician as well. I would say as long as your baby is still taking enough milk every day i wouldn't worry. good luck and that is awesome about the 90th percentile.

Jessie - posted on 11/09/2010

At my daughters 4month check up, (2.5mo corrected age, she was 6wks early) the pediatrition told me to start cereals and depending on how things went to start stage 1 foods. So i started her on oatmeal cereal with breast milk. It did take a couple tries to get her used to the texture, but she did great with it. At that time, she had already nearly doubled her birth weight of 6.5 oz, I believe she was just over 13lbs. The rice cereal backed her up.(the doctor had suggested i add a little to her bottles to help thicken it as she had reflux pretty bad due to the caffeine she was on when she was about a 6wks old. After that, i decided to not bother with the rice if i already knew how it affected her. She does great with all the stage 1 foods except the peas, as they were quite a bit thicker than all the others. Good luck, and usually if they are watching you drinking and eating and seeming like they are interested in what you are having, then they are usually ready to start.

Cat - posted on 11/09/2010

5.5 months... actual age? That's REALLY early for solids - you'd want to start solids at around 6 months adjusted, particularly since preemies can be more prone to allergies. Also, you might want to start on stage 1 foods - baby cereals don't have any real nutritional value.

Holly - posted on 11/09/2010

Hi Amanda if i were you i wouldn't worry about the cereal. My daughter was born at 24 weeks and she never EVER ate rice cereal, or any kind of mushy pured baby food, once she had more teeth and i thought she could handle them, i gave her cheerios and she loved them. and she honnestly just started eating table food with us. as long as you keep up with the formula she will be ok. Remeber this have you ever seen an adult who won't eat anything but bottles of formula ;)

Sharalyn - posted on 11/09/2010

We waited until 6 months adjusted age for my son. He didn't like pureed textures at all (he has Sensory Processing Disorder), so we thickened everything with cereal until it wouldn't even fall off the spoon. Double calories that way, too. :-)

Ainsley - posted on 11/09/2010

My daughter (born 32 weeks) didn't want cereal until she was 7.5 months. My son (born 29) weeks started eating cereal when he was 2 months old. It all depends on the baby and every baby is different.

Mitzie - posted on 11/09/2010

I know having premies is a little unnerving. My twin boys were born at 29 weeks. They didn't start eating cereal until 6 months and it was not much. I was always told to put weight on them. They claim it takes premies until they are 7 years old to really catch up to their brith age. Well my premies at 14 years old and in high school. They are taller then me but still on the thin side. The boys play baseball, basketball and have played football. I have to order 3 pizza so they each can have their own and my husband and I get one. Don't worry it does take them a little longer to catch up, but they do. Oh and they are both on the honor roll, but if I had to do it again I would have held their start date to their actual due date. They would have been one of the oldest in their class instead of one of the youngest. It just would have given them an extra year to grow.

Cassandra - posted on 11/08/2010

ugh. my first daughter didnt want to eat it either till she was about 6 month. but my 2nd child is 5 month old and was 4 weeks early. i started her on little things like pears, apples ect. to help her learn to open. and to help her go up to level 2 in the food group. she would never eat the kind out of the box u mix. but u can buy gerber cereal already mixed in clear little boxes(all kinds of flavors). she should be able to eat that. for some reason it has a better taste to them but it is as thick as a stage 2 form so u might want to make sure she will be able to swallow it. so i hope i help u a little bit. -cassandra

Ashleigh - posted on 11/07/2010

i had a 28 weeker and i gave her rice cereal at 4 months because she was not putting on the weight, it is up to you, and my paediatrician said it was ok to. just try it with her formula in it

Shelbra - posted on 11/06/2010

My daughter was born at 26 weeks, 4 days. I fed her cereal from a spoon at 3 months old. I was told to wait til 6 months, but being that I have three other children that I started feeding cereal at 2 months old, I just felt like she was ready. I have no regrets, she still loves it and caught up in size and weight in no time.

Jackie - posted on 11/05/2010

My son (25weeks 1 day) would always watch us eat and he pretty much told us at 5.5 months corrected (9 mths actual) he wanted some food. He is now 17 months (13.5 corrected) and he is at the stage of some mush, some solids (snacks mostly). But he is between 25 and 50 percentile. As was said earlier they are all different. A friend of mine has a non-premie who was exclusively breastfed to 10 months+. Her daughter was just not interested in food. Now at 12 month she eats finger foods not mush.

Good luck and try not to worry. If she is at the 90 percentile she's getting everything she needs, why would she go through all the effort of eating if she can just nurse and cuddle instead?

Candace - posted on 11/05/2010

my pediatrician is just allowing my son to have it. He's six months( 4 months corrected) she told me that with baby being preemie it's best to wait until their digestive system has caught up. So she's just allowing him to have the cereal but you should talk your pediatrician and see what he/she says. Sounds like she's doing great, so she may not even need the cereal. The milk may be enough for her

Jillian - posted on 11/05/2010

My twin girls wouldn't eat cereal until they were about six months old. And even then they weren't consistant. They only liked certain brands and only rice cereal. The cereals with oatmeal had a different texture and they refused it. You could try just plain rice cereal and see if it makes a difference.

Liz - posted on 11/04/2010

Just keep in mind that they usually adjust the preemies age up until the age of two years old. My b/g twins were born six weeks early, and they were ready to eat cereal at four months old actual age., but every child is different. It does take a bit for them to get used to the texture of the cereal though. My youngest will be four months on the 12th, so we're gearing up to try baby cereal and baby foods with him soon too.

Julie - posted on 11/03/2010

My son (born at 26.5 weeks) never at cereal. I tried introducing at 8 and 11 months. He didn't eat solids besides yogurt until over 18 months, and then it was pretty slow going. He pretty much skipped mushy, pureed stuff and went to soft solids.

Congrats on the excellent weight gain -- sounds like whatever you're doing is working well for her:)

Brandy - posted on 11/03/2010

congrats on the 90 percentile :) jenna was born at 28wks we didnt try cereal until she was 9 months because we were told to wait. but i agree with nicole all babies are different so you should ask your pediatrician

Nicole - posted on 11/02/2010

my daughter was born at 29 weeks and i didnt give her rice or oatmeal cereal until she was bout 6-7 months old. shes 15 months now and eats solid foods but rlly all preemie babies r different