Ready To Start Baby On Cereal, And First Baby Foods, Etc?
22 December 2009
I am a first timer and I was wondering how/how much/ and when do I begin him on cereal from a spoon vs in bottle with formula and what are other good first time foods. My son is almost 4 months. I did put a lil cereal in his bottle today but I am wondering should I just start trying by spoon- he is starting to reach for things and stare at our foods when we eat. Just wanting you all to share what you did and share some tips with me. Thanks!!!!!
Only 1 tablespoon of rice cereal mixed with breast milk or formula so it is runny. Always feed cereal from a spoon – not a bottle!
It is usually better to wait until 6 months, unless your pediatrician recommends starting earlier for some reason.
When you start solids only introduce 1 food at a time. Offer that food for 5-7 days and if there is no allergic reaction, then proceed with offering another food.
Sweet potatoes or squash are often the choice for the first time with veggies because most babies like them.
Look into getting more detailed info from your pediatrician or from WIC.
it’s really time to start now, mom and I disagree on this point, she says start with vegetables, I like to begin with fruits… mix a good spoon and a half with about that much rice cereal and formula, mix until you find the consistency he likes, be patient, he has to learn it needs to go down and not back out. I prefer disposable spoon to baby spoon. Always feed your baby from a spoon, not a bottle.
you can try plain rice cereal on a spoon but really thin, kind of soupy. it might make him gag though…so watch out. some people will not agree with this and say no to any solids until 6 months but my son was hungry and started cereal in a bottle at 4 weeks…HE WAS HUNGRY he has been tasting..not eating just tasting other foods since he was about 4 months old. if he is prone to allergies (if you or dad have them) i would be careful of other foods. if he gags on the cereal, wait a month or so and try again.
my baby is 5mo and at his 4mo checkup the doc told me he could have cereal from a spoon. They should only have 1-2 tablespoons 1-2 times a day. Next add yellow/orange veggies at 5 mo and then green veggies and fruit at 5 1/2 to 6 mo. Same quantities as cereal. only give 1 new food a week in case of allergy
It is advised now that you never put food in bottles..you cannot regulate what they are eating and they cannot display to you if they are not ready….a baby who is not ready will have difficulty eating from a spoon and will push the food out with it’s tongue automatically.
The best way is on a spoon at 6 months….4 months is a little early..they do not have the necassary enzymes reqyuired to break down the food and you can cause allergies and tummy pains.
I would wait a little longer…at the very least till 5 months.
EDIT….Please dont try to give him carrots or peas tet…he is FAR too small for that and you may cause him problems…why not visit http://www.babycenter.com
They have great advice on food for babies.
NEVER a bottle, ALWAYS a spoon.
usually they say that you can start single grain (stage 1) cereals between 4-6months. only try a tablespoon of cereal mixed with a bit of warm formula or breast milk so the consistency is pretty loose. offer it to the baby and see what happens. you may want to mix a little bit of stage one bananas or applesauce to give the cereal a bit of flavor and sweetness. feeding from a spoon the first time is so much fun! but don’t expect baby to just chow down – it takes some practice for him to figure out how to use his tongue to move the food from the front of his mouth to the back. He’ll probably suck on the spoon like a bottle the first time. be sure to have the camera or camcorder ready – it will definitely be a kodak moment.
I’m planning to breastfeed my four month old exclusively for the first six months and than I will start him on cereal by a spoon and hopefully if that goes good I will start stage one foods. Whenever you are introducing a new food let him eat it for 3-5 days before introducing something new to make sure there are no allergies. Check this site out http://www.beechnut.com/ you’ll get tons of really good info. on starting solids.
You aren’t suppose to feed babies solids until they are 6 months old. It has a lot to do with allergies that babies can develop if feed solids before 6 months.
We were told by Kaiser to never feed cereal from a bottle as it’s difficult to gauge how much they’re getting. We started spoon feeding rice cereal to our son after his 4 month wellness check (he was born 8/7/07). His doctor said to gradually work up to cereal 3 times/day (over about 3 weeks) and then gradually introduce one vegetable/week. Don’t introduce too many different things at once as his system needs to adjust and you want to be sure he doesn’t have any allergies. We went in this order: peas, green beans, squash, sweet potato and carrots. We started fruits last week- applesauce. Our son has liked everything except applesauce- he makes a bitter face when we try to give it to him and closes his mouth tight and refuses to eat any more!
i would mix up a tablespoon of pablum with breast milk or formula and just make it really milky, feed baby from a spoon, dont put the cereal in the bottle, these solids help your babies system to develop, and for baby food start out with 1/4 of a jar at a time.
Good baby food to start baby on are
carrotts, peas, green beans
bananas, pears, applesauce,
when you start a babyfood feed the baby the same one for a week so that you know there is no allergy and go from fruit to veggie so that baby doesnt start to only like one
I also used organic. I liked (and he did too) giving pureed sweet potato. Other good firsts are banana (although not too many because they can be constipating), peas, avocado, and squash. I recommend the book Super Baby Food. I really enjoyed making my son’s food using the suggestions in that book. Otherwise you can always just follow the “stages” on the gerber or Earths Best containers. I did Earths Best, rice cereal but I can’t remember how much- maybe a tablespoon or 2
NEVER put cereal or any solids in a bottle; it’s a choking hazard. If your baby is truly ready for solids, he should be able to take them from a spoon.
I wouldn’t start solids until at LEAST 6 months. Even then, I would just go with fruits and veggies – rice cereal has little nutritional value. Carrots, pureed avocado, sweet potatoes, mango, apples, plums, squash, a sort of “baby hummus” (make sure no lemon, garlic, etc. is added), and pureed broccoli (beware of tough pieces; make sure it is VERY pureed) were among my son’s favorites.
I also made all of his baby food – all organic and all fresh. It was healthier than anything that had sat on a shelf in a supermarket for months, it was very easy, and it was surprisingly cheaper. For the cost of one jar of organic baby food, I could make a week’s worth of organic food. I just froze it in covered ice cube trays, and defrosted a few cubes for a meal.
i would stop putting it in his bottle….this can cause a baby to choke and it may be forcing him to eat something when he is not ready for it. use a spoon. if you put a soft tipped spoon in his mouth and he does not thrust it out with his tounge, he may be ready. we started our little girl on oat cereal (rice cereal really constipated her which is common) at 4 1/2 months because she was reaching for our food, making a “chewing” motion when we were eating, etc. after about 2 weeks on cereal alone we started her on sweet potato and then waited another week before starting bananas. always space out introducing a new food by 4-7 days so if there is an allergy you can isolate it and know what they were allergic to.
I would start with 1st foods like carrots peas and applesauce. also I use oragnic for my son it has less pestides.
I have to agree, there is no need to give him cereal in a bottle. If he is watching you eat and acting interested in your food, then he is ready to start. All babies are different. I agree though, he is not ready for carrots or peas. You would first want to try cereal by a spoon. This is what he is most interested in anyway. It is not that he is starving. It is just that he is very aware and curious and wants to be doing what you are. This is good. Make the rice cereal (not barley or wheat) with a little breast milk or formula, so it is a little soupy. You can mix this with a little applesauce if he takes the cereal well and regularly for a week or so. Then if he continues to do well and want more, you would just add the new (very pureed) baby foods to the cereal, one at a time only and only one new food for each 3 days. I say every three days so that you can monitor any type of reaction he gets from each food (and know which food it came from). I like the book from Annabelle Karmel, she tell how to make your own baby food, but there is a lot of knowledge in there about babies and their eating habits as well. Good luck and congratulations!