Starting Infant on Solids

I mixed the fruits and veggies with the rice cereal. Neither of my kids would eat the cereal by itself. I did not blame them. It seemed gross to me too. I would try one fruit or veggie with the cereal and then wait a week or 2 and then try another one until we had them all covered. It was a great deal of experiementing. Both of mine, definitely gravitated towards the fruits. I am glad I started with the veggies because I don't know if I would have gotten them to eat them at all if I would have started in the reverse order.

In my opinion if he's not interested its because he is 4 months old and he is not ready for them. 4 months is really early to start solids and there is no reason at all to start them now. No nutritional value should be from solids at this age. I would wait a month..or two...or 4.

Steaming and purreing your own foods is great....but he is not ready for them.

There's no valid reason why you shouldn't try something else, but I want to give you some (hopefully) encouraging advice.

First, four months is very early for solids. I know...it's so exciting, you get so bored with breast or bottle, and you just want to try something new!!! I couldn't WAIT for either of my children to start on solids!! However, at least until six months, all they need for nutrition is breastmilk or formula and even up to a year, most of their nutrition will come from that.

If you want to persist, that's fine (I did, so I'm not saying not to!!!) but steer clear of allergenic foods, such as eggs, wheat, barley, etc. I moved my youngest from rice cereal to barley and wheat cereal around six months and she got very, very sick...and after months of testing, she was diagnosed with Celiac disease. Now, I'm sure that the early exposure didn't cause it and it's not extremely common or anything, but that would be my best advice...skip right to vegetables, or fruits, which are generally not allergens. Skip strawberries, however, and know that citrus can cause diaper rash because a baby's digestive system is not developed enough to handle it.

Some ideas? Bananas, pureed and blended with formula or breastmilk to thin the consistency, can be mixed in with the rice cereal...so can most jarred baby foods. I always did this, and they would eat it. :)

I skipped rice and all cereals with my second and third children. I used it for a very brief period with my first child because that's "what you used". Boy did I regret giving him any at all! I stopped and didn't give him any solids for some time then went to veggies and fruits instead.
There is no reason at all to start with cereal, rice or otherwise.
But, I wouldn't start any solids at all at 4 months. Their digestive system just isn't mature enough for it. Solids before the age of 1 are just for practice, they don't and shouldn't get any of their real nutrition from it. They should still be getting all of their nutrition from breast milk or formula until the age of 1.

If you want to be up all night with a screaming baby who is having gas and constipation then by all means start the baby on solids....lol.

They are just not ready until later.

Formula is complete nutrition. Baby food has extremely little nutrition. Nearly none at all.

If you are feeding her any food instead of the nutrition she needs then you will not be fulfilling her dietary needs. So please give her a bottle first then offer a tiny bite or two of rice cereal.

I called a baby food company once about some rood that I had been given. The person who answered the phone gave me a lot of information about baby food. They said it was basically flavored goo to help an infant accept new textures and flavors. That it was not meant to be their food because they expect parents to give their children formula to age 1, not rely on baby food for nutrition.

Baby cereal is rubbish, seriously it has no nutritional value and actually makes them feel full when they really should be drinking their milk.

Your baby is young, why the rush to solids? He doesn't need it, it's main purpose before a year old is practice, not meant to replace his main source of nutrition. If he's not interested, he not ready.

My kids span the years, the oldest is 21 and the youngest is 3. I sure did start solids early with the first 2, then I realized there was no reason to. By the time the others came along research pointed out that it is better to wait. The funny, or maybe not so funny thing is that my older 2 have always had 'weaker' stomachs compared to the other kids that I waited 6 months, sometimes longer. Coincidence? Maybe, i just know there is no reason to introduce it before they are capable of feeding it to themselves.

I started my DD on rice cereal when she was almost 3 months. I added the cereal to her bottle and then fed her by spoon as well. She did good with it. My DD didn't care for the bottle so that could be the reason she did fine eatting solids. I would say if he is not ready than don't force him. Good luck!

Why did you decide to start rice cereal? Does he seem hungrier, fussier, not sleeping through the night? If you started for any of those reasons then I'd probably say stick with rice a few more days and move to oatmeal, to me it seems a lot better too! ;)

If you just started because you felt like it and figured at 4 months he can do it, I'd just stop all together and wait a few more months.

My daughter didn't have any cereal or anything until 6 months and it worked great for us. Plus I didn't have to mess with steaming veggies until absolutely necessary.

My son did start on cereal at 4 months b/c he was on soy formula it just went right through him. The cereal helped him stay full just a little longer. We waited until 6 months before we introduced any purees b/c cereal was making him happy.

Remember that they get all their nutrients from breast milk and/or formula so their isn't a huge need to start foods for a while yet. Do what you like, but my opinion is to wait.

There are several good reasons to begin with barley or rice cereal. First you start with one cereal and only one for about a week, to rule out being allergic to that particular food. If they don't like it, it has nothing to do with their taste preferential yet, rather, they may not be ready for solids. Mixing it with breast milk or formula will make it more appealing. With every new food you introduce, try and keep it to one new food at a time so that if your child has an allergic reaction to something, it will be easy enough to figure out what caused it. What you want to look out for when introducing foods includes sudden vomiting, change in skin appearance, red around the cheeks, broken out in hives, diarrhea, etc. plus the more severe reactions of difficulty breathing which may be noticed by wheezing or a blue appearance around the lips. Increased mucus production and chronic coughs can also be indications of a food allergy, too. If you notice something, please consult your pediatrician. The second reason to start with cereals is so the child's body can slowly develop the stomach enzymes that it takes to break down the food. The stomach has some acid in it but only by the introduction of the different foods, does it produce the proper balance of enzymes necessary for your child to absorb the nutrients for the food. Carrots, as yummy as they are to us, are very high in sugar and would be very hard for your child to digest at this stage.

I hope this helps.

My son, now 14 months, would not take it either. We started at 5 months. Then skipped a month or so and tried again, and then at 7 months tried Oatmeal. He wanted nothing to do with it. We never even finished the 1st boxes. At 7 1/2 months we just started giving him soft veggies. He would not eat mashed ones and I think I bought a total of 20 jars of baby food which for the most part were never truly finished. Sometimes we ended up dumping a portion of the jar. He just preferred the regular food. He even made chewing motions right away and was chewing his food by 10 months. Most of baby's nutrition for the first year should come from breastmilk or formula, whichever you are using. At 4 months, no need to rush.

I tried my son on rice cereal at 6 months, 8 months, 10 months - he just didn't take to it.
Finally just before he turned 1 yr he was ready to work solids into his meals on a regular basis.
His digestive system finally didn't rebel with gas and upset causing a lot of fussing.
Breast milk and formula are very easily digestible and absorbed.
It's a big switch to digest other foods.
Plus, their tongues are use to nursing (or bottles).
To eat by breast feeding, the tongue instinctively moves a certain way - they know this from (and probably before) birth.
When they first try solids, the tongue does what it has always done - and ends up pushing the food right out of baby's mouth.
It takes a while and a bit of practice for their tongues to learn new tricks (and to stay out of the way of any teeth that turn up (starting at roughly 6 months give or take)).
I didn't completely stop formula (I breast fed till 5 months and then my milk dried up) until he had a wide variety of other foods he was eating.
There's no reason to rush on this.

My son is 4 months old and I just started him on rice cereal at night - per the doctors OK. He has been on it a week now and he is still unsure of what it is. He is "offered" a tablespoon of rice cereal a day, at night per the directions from his doctor. Sometimes he's awake enough and eats it all up, sometimes he is tired and barely gets through half and struggles with his toungue, so we are working on switching when we give it to him. I would continue to try it - since it does take time for them to get use to eating.

We started cereal because my son went from sleeping 5-6 hours and being satisfied with 4-5 oz at a time to eating 6 oz every 3 - 3 1/2 hours - basically overnight and this lasted for 2-3 weeks, so the doctor said it's time to start cereal as long as he doesn't have any digestive issue. In another month, she suggested try morning & night cereal and then at 6 months introduce veggies and fruit. With my first son, we started cereal at 3 months and then offered fruits/veggies at 5 months.

Everyone has their own opinions on what you should/shouldn't do...but I firmly believe your should talk with your doctor and make sure you are starting him on food for the right reason.

I had the same problem with my daughter, i just added a half of a teaspoon of applesauce to the cereal...........she ate it right up. Plus the apple sauce stimulated bowl movement, so she didn't suffer constipation from the cereal.