adding cereal to babies bottle

Maria - posted on 05/25/2011

I have to agree with most of the comments. Cereal is not meant for a bottle, it defeats the purpose. Also, it won't help your baby sleep any better. If given too early, it will actually do the opposite as a baby's digestive system is too immature to be able to handle it. Breast milk and/or formula is just enough.

Sherri - posted on 05/25/2011

Feeding at 4mo's is fine Charlotte. I was actually told to start my oldest on solids at 3 1/2 mo's and my 2nd and 3rd I got the okay at 4mo's they were so ready and really needed it. I also started on cereal and they loved it. You are doing just fine Charlotte no worries.

However, your niece eeek no she should certainly no be adding cereal to the bottle and extremely dangerous and outdated practice for sure.

Teresa - posted on 05/25/2011

None of my kids have had bottles (except my girls had maybe half a dozen?), but I wouldn't put cereal in it anyway. It IS a 'treatment' for reflux which my son had, but he was breastfed from the tap so it wasn't a consideration.

Chatty - posted on 05/25/2011

Please, please, please don't add cereal to a babies bottle. It's dangerous and unnecessary.

Sarah - posted on 05/25/2011

Never did, never would.

*Fluffy Bunnies - posted on 05/24/2011

I agree with PP's. I would never put cereal in a bottle although I didn't use bottles. And I didn't introduce solids until my daughter showed all the signs of readiness (around 6 months old, sitting unsupported, lost tongue thrust reflex, can pick up food between tongue and finger, etc). I wanted to be sure that her little tummy was ready. She ended up not being ready until about 8 months. Personally, I think solids are started with babies when they are way too young.

Medic - posted on 05/24/2011

I do not think that introducing babies to cereal or any other food just because that is how it is marketed is a good idea. I think both of my kids were almost 8 months before we started foods and cereal was not at the top of the list. My youngest had gerd and was lactose intolerant and sadly they do not make the AR formula in soy so we had to mix our own so she wouldn't throw it all up but we used thicket to thicken it. For a while the dr said just try different cereals and one would work but it really didn't agree with her and it went against everything we had decided as parents.

Mary Renee - posted on 05/24/2011

I don't think there is any sense in introducing things to babies that they don't even need before they're ready. I didn't give my daughter solids (including rice cereal) until she was 5.5 months old, and only because she was grabbing her father's food and trying to eat everything in sight and I wasn't about to have "burrito" be her first food.



I think starting food too early can lead to obesity. Again, why add things that aren't needed? Basically you're substituting calories with LESS nutrition (as rice cereal is decidedly less nutritious than breast milk, which has the perfect combination of needed nutrients for baby) to hold baby over for longer. In the end this equals more empty calories + less nutrition which is basically what causes obesity, don't you think?



I received a lot of pressure from my MIL to put rice cereal in my 5-week-old daughter's bottle to make her sleep through the night and go longer between feedings. First of all, I was exclusively breast feeding, why go through the trouble of starting bottle feeding that was entirely not necessary just to give her rice cereal which isn't even recommended? Second of all, the only person being inconvenienced by her waking up at night is ME. I mean, MIL, and Papa aren't waking up with her, I AM, so why the pressure on something that - in my opinion - is between me and my baby.



Also I've heard of a phenomena called "open gut" where the infant's digestive system simply hasn't matured yet. One of the reason breast milk is so good is that it coats the intestines in probiotics and proteins to protect them and aid in digestion before the intestines have matured enough to create those things on their own. Feeding someone who isn't ready can wreak havoc on their bodies. I wouldn't risk it just for my own convenience of having her go longer between feedings - in my opinion - that's selfish.

Kimberly - posted on 05/24/2011

Just because the box says 4 months doesn't mean you should give it to her at 4 months, of course they'd say that, they want you to start buying their product as early as possible...The World Health Organization says 6 months and they've done a hell of a lot of research to show that it benefits your child to wait that long. There are some people who exclusively breast feed their children up to 1 year old and those babies aren't starving. Food is for fun until 1, not for nutrients. If for whatever reason your doctor tells you to start before 6 months, then that's between you because every child is different. Like I said before, it's your baby and not my business what you do with her, but if you want to give her cereal, just keep spoon feeding her and keep it out of the bottle

Charlotte - posted on 05/24/2011

the package of baby oatmeal cereal says 4 months, I am mixing it with fruit. She is able to eat it and likes it. She sits in her highchair. And she will be 4months old on the 7th of June.

Minnie - posted on 05/24/2011

Arbitrary age limits. You think 6 weeks is too young, I think 15 weeks is too young.

Six months for solids. And definitely no cereal in a bottle. Cereal is nutritionally deficient anyways, and the iron can cause all sorts of problems. Feed healthier options for solids once baby is READY- sitting up and picking up food.

Toni - posted on 05/24/2011

Cereal never agreed with my son it just constipated him so we started him on fruit and veg purees at around 3 1/2 months (on the advice of our doctors and health visitors) due to him being excessively hungry. I would NEVER add anything other than milk to a bottle it is completely un-necessary - if a baby cannot eat it from a spoon they are NOT ready to be having it!

Kimberly - posted on 05/24/2011

A baby doesn't *need* anything but breast milk or formula until they're 6 months old. I started my daughter on cereal just before bedtime at 5 1/2 months old only because I was exhausted from her waking so often in the night and people kept telling me a full belly would make her sleep longer...nope, she still woke up! Plus, I would NEVER put cereal in my baby's bottle! That's a very outdated way of giving babies cereal and it's a choking hazard as well. If you're happy to continue to just spoon feed her cereal then that's all I would do, but she really doesn't need the cereal at this point.