Why Do You Give Baby Rice Cereal And Should I Start?
06/05
I keep reading about moms giving rice cereal. Do I do this before can baby food? My baby is breast fed and is three months old.
Must Reads
Popular Posts
Categories
Archives
Tags
About Adolescent Adoption amazon Baby book Breastfeeding Care Child Children Custody Description Development Discipline Discussion Family Foster From Games Good Guide Health Help Home Kids Kindergarten Life Mother Name Names Newborn Parent Parenting Parents Part Post Pregnancy Preschooler Product School Single Time Toddler Video YearSubscribe
Meta
What mystic_eye said. There’s no point. It is cheap starch, heavily processed, not very nutritious at all.
“Cereals started as an important part of a child’s diet back when the infant formula companies couldn’t get an absorbable form of iron into the formula. They then fortified rice cereal with iron and introduced the rice cereal early into the diet as a way to make sure the kids got the iron.
Now, all the infant formulas are fortified with iron and of course, breastmilk has an abundant and easily absorbable supply of iron in it, so we really don’t need an extra source. If you take away the iron in the cereals, it’s just starch.”http://www.drjen4kids.com/myths/mythrice…
It is sweetened wallpaper paste with a vitamin pill stirred in.
Wait for signs baby is ready — can sit up unassisted, has lost tongue thrust reflex, etc — around six months.
A smushed-up banana (you do _not_ need to waste your money on commercial ready-made “baby food”), as already suggested, is a nice first choice. As is meat if baby is not vegetarian…
“Take rice cereal, for example. Under conventional American wisdom, it’s the best first food. But Butte says iron-rich meat — often one of the last foods American parents introduce — would be a better choice.
Dr. David Ludwig of Children’s Hospital Boston, a specialist in pediatric nutrition, says some studies suggest rice and other highly processed grain cereals actually could be among the worst foods for infants.
“These foods are in a certain sense no different from adding sugar to formula. They digest very rapidly in the body into sugar, raising blood sugar and insulin levels” and could contribute to later health problems, including obesity, he says.”http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9646449
“A recent study has confirmed that the consumption of highly refined and fortified cereal foods may not be the best way to maintain adequate iron status for infants. Researchers from the University of Colorado wanted to determine the nutritional efficacy and effect on infants of the consumption of either meat or iron-fortified infant cereal as their first complementary food.
…The authors suggest that more research is needed to develop optimal complementary feeding guidelines and conclude that the introduction of meat as a first complementary food for exclusively breastfed infants is beneficial and associated with improved zinc intakes.”http://www.infactcanada.ca/Winter_2006_P…
If you want to give your baby rice, cook up some brown rice and smush it a bit. Much better than the “cereal.”
“Have you checked out the taste and texture of commercial baby cereal? Pour some commercial rice cereal in a bowl. It has no smell. The taste is the very definition of bland. The cereal is made from refined rice that has been processed and precooked. Refined grains have nothing to offer but carbohydrates. Whole grains, on the other hand, contain not only carbohydrates but also protein, fat, fiber, vitamins, essential minerals, and life. The germ is still intact. If you put a whole grain in water, it sprouts. If you put commercial baby cereal in water, it makes paste. Why train your baby to want this? By pre-toasting organic whole grains, grinding them in a small electric grinder, and cooking the grains with water, you can create a fresh, delicious, nutrient-dense cereal with taste, texture, and aroma.”http://www.mothering.com/articles/growin…
Baby rice cereal is the perfect first food for babies since it has a very low potential for causing an allergic reaction. Gerber rice cereal is fortified with Iron and Zinc which breast milk can be low in after several months of feeding. Most doctors recommend starting around 6 months although sometimes there is reason to start earlier. That would be up to your pediatrician to recommend depending on your baby.
Rice cereal is so mild it is not likely to cause an allergic reaction so it is one of the first foods to be given to baby. It also has virtually no taste of its own so baby is unlikely to reject it (breastmilk mixed in with it helps the baby to like it better usually). Doctors usually reccommend starting rice cereal at 4 to 6 months (closer to 6 the better especially if you are breastfeeding). Follow your baby’s cues-when he or she starts reaching for your food and really noticing when you eat, that is when they are beginning to be ready for solids. Expect them to spit out the cereal the first few times. Make the first bites very thin and watery (milky) and only give one or two spoons at first. Soon they will be gobbling. After 6 months, begin adding baby food. One new food a week so you can note if there are any allergic reactions to the new food. Start with veggies and fruits (mine always liked the orange veggies, peas, and any fruit). Mixing them in with the rice cereal to start is a good idea too.
I started giving my sons baby cereal when they were able to sit up in the highchair and when I noticed that breastmilk wasn’t enough. They would wake up more in the middle of the night because they were hungry…that’s usually one of the first signs your baby is ready for something more than milk. I would say they were about 5 months. And yes, I started baby cereal before I started baby jar food. I wanted to make sure my baby didn’t have an allergy to the cereal so I started him on rice cereal first for about a week. Then I changed it up and gave him oatmeal banana cereal for a week to make sure he didn’t have allergies….then I started him on jar fruits and veggies. But as I mentioned before…you have to start it slow to make sure your baby isn’t allergic to a specific food. Good luck!
EXCLUSIVELY breastmilk or formula for the first six months, as per the AAP. You do not ever have to give rice cereal. It has a similar taste to formula, so is often recommended as a first food. Fine, if you want to.
You’re breastfeeding, so baby would likely prefer bananas as a first food, at six months.
yah,at three months old is fine,actually I would go with the baby oatmeal,it is more nutritious ……
if baby is rolling its tongue it is ready for cereal and 1st veggies
I gave my baby rice cereal (runny) at 4 months so he could learn about what a spoon is used for and how to use it. By 5 months old I did a little in the morning of oatmeal and a little of rice at night. By the time he was 6 months, he was a pro! At 7 1/2 months I started 3 small meals a day with all kinds of food. And now at 8 1/2 months, we just introduced meats. He still wakes up through the night, so don’t do it to make her sleep. I would wake one more month. It is not for nutrition, only for the purpose of introducing a spoon and how to eat from it. Also, it does not replace any amount of breast milk/ formula that she eats either.
You shouldn’t give any baby rice cereal, weaning diets high in grains do not have the iron, zinc and protein babies need to thrive. Most commercial infant cereals are also full of chemicals, non-nutritive sweeteners and other things you would never feed a baby if your thought about it for 5 seconds.
You should start solids when your baby is ready which is between 6-9 months but there is no rush and certainly no nutritional reason to introduce non-breastmilk foods to your child until 12 months and many studies show 18 months and later.
All mammals are protected by the same thing -they can’t physically eat food until they are physiologically ready to digest it. For humans this means picking up the food, placing it in their mouth, gumming it, moving it back with their tongue, and swallowing it. The most obvious of course it the tongue thrust that newborns have -this reflex actively keeps food out of their body until they can digest it. But the other steps all have safeguards as well.
For healthy, full term infants the ability to eat food develops around 6-9 months. In recent years there have been numerous studies looking at the risks of certain things (allergies, asthma, anemia, etc) in relation to when solids are started and almost all have shown that the lowest risks are when solids are started between 6-9 months.
However it should also be noted that babies with allergies may refuse solids for up to a year, and that breastmilk is nutritionally complete for at least the first year of life despite earlier statements that it is not. An unpleasant feeling in the mouth is often a first sign of allergy and may cause babies to spit out rather than swallow allergenic foods. This is a very useful safeguard that should not be overridden.http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids…
The following organizations recommend that all babies be exclusively breastfed (no cereal, juice or any other foods) for the first 6 months of life (not the first 4-6 months):
* World Health Organization
* UNICEF
* US Department of Health & Human Services
* American Academy of Pediatrics
* American Academy of Family Physicians
* American Dietetic Association
* Australian National Health and Medical Research Council
* Royal Australian College of General Practitioners
* Health Canadahttp://www.borstvoeding.com/voedselintro…
It appears that a baby’s general development keeps pace with the development of his ability to manage food in his mouth, and to digest it. A baby who is struggling to get food into his mouth is probably not quite ready to eat it.http://www.borstvoeding.com/voedselintro…
The babies who participated in the research were allowed to begin at four months. But they were not able to feed themselves before six months. Some of the younger babies picked food up and took it to their mouths; some even chewed it, but none swallowed it. Their own development decided for them when the time was right. Part of the reason for this study was to show (based on a theory of self-feeding) that babies are not ready for solid food before six months. It seems that we have spent all these years working out that six months is the right age and babies have known it all along!
It seems reasonable to predict that if parents choose to provide babies with the opportunity to pick up and eat solid food from birth they will still not be able to do it until around six months. The principle is the same as putting a newborn baby on the floor to play: he is being provided with the opportunity to walk but will not do so until about one year – because his own development stops him. But: everything depends on the baby being in control. Food must not be put into his mouth for him. Since it is very tempting to do this, it is probably safer to recommend that babies should not be given the opportunity to eat solid food before six months.http://www.borstvoeding.com/voedselintro…
Many parents worry about babies choking. However, there is good reason to believe that babies are at less risk of choking if they are in control of what goes into their mouth than if they are spoon fed. This is because babies are not capable of intentionally moving food to the back of their throats until after they have learnt to chew. And they do not develop the ability to chew until after they have developed the ability to reach out and grab things. Thus, a very young baby cannot easily put himself at risk because he cannot get the food into his mouth in the first place. On the other hand, the action used to suck food off a spoon tends to take the food straight to the back of the mouth, causing the baby to gag. This means that spoon feeding has its own potential to lead to choking – and makes one wonder about the safety of giving lumpy foods off a spoon.
Why not cereal?http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids…
Cereal is not at all necessary, particularly the baby cereals. Regular (whole grain) oatmeal is more nutritious for your baby.http://www.askdrsears.com/faq/ci2.asp
The truth is, there is nothing special about these foods that makes them better to start out with. Babies don’t actually even need rice cerealhttp://www.llli.org/llleaderweb/LV/LVDec…
Meat provides additional protein, zinc, B-vitamins, and other nutrients which may be in short supply when the decrease in breast milk occurs. A recent study from Sweden suggests that when infants are given substantial amounts of cereal, it may lead to low concentrations of zinc and reduced calcium absorption (Persson 1998). Dr. Nancy Krebs has shared preliminary results from a large infant growth study suggesting that breastfed infants who received pureed or strained meat as a primary weaning food beginning at four to five months, grow at a slightly faster rate. Dr. Krebs’ premise is that inadequate protein or zinc from complementary foods may limit the growth of some breastfed infants during the weaning period. Both protein and zinc levels were consistently higher in the diets of the infants who received meat (Krebs 1998). Thus the custom of providing large amounts of cereal products and excluding meat products before seven months of age may not meet the nutritional needs of all breastfed infants.
Meat has also been recommended as an excellent source of iron in infancy. Heme iron (the form of iron found in meat) is better absorbed than iron from plant sources. In addition, the protein in meat helps the baby more easily absorb the iron from other foods. Two recent studies (Makrides 1998; Engelmann 1998) have examined iron status in breastfed infants who received meat earlier in the weaning period. These studies indicate that while there is not a measurable change in breastfed babies’ iron stores when they receive an increased amount of meat (or iron), the levels of hemoglobin circulating in the blood stream do increase when babies receive meat as one of their first foods.http://www.westonaprice.org/children/nou…
Finally, respect the tiny, still-developing digestive system of your infant. Babies have limited enzyme production, which is necessary for the digestion of foods. In fact, it takes up to 28 months, just around the time when molar teeth are fully developed, for the big-gun carbohydrate enzymes (namely amylase) to fully kick into gear. Foods like cereals, grains and breads are very challenging for little ones to digest. Thus, these foods should be some of the last to be introduced. (One carbohydrate enzyme a baby’s small intestine does produce is lactase, for the digestion of lactose in milk.1)
[...]
Babies do produce functional enzymes (pepsin and proteolytic enzymes) and digestive juices (hydrochloric acid in the stomach) that work on proteins and fats.12 This makes perfect sense since the milk from a healthy mother has 50-60 percent of its energy as fat, which is critical for growth, energy and development.13 In addition, the cholesterol in human milk supplies an infant with close to six times the amount most adults consume from food.13 In some cultures, a new mother is encouraged to eat six to ten eggs a day and almost ten ounces of chicken and pork for at least a month after birth. This fat-rich diet ensures her breast milk will contain adequate healthy fats.14
Thus, a baby’s earliest solid foods should be mostly animal foods since his digestive system, although immature, is better equipped to supply enzymes for digestion of fats and proteins rather than carbohydrates.1 This explains why current research is pointing to meat (including nutrient-dense organ meat) as being a nourishing early weaning food.http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content…
The results indicate that in a group of healthy, well growing 12-month-old Swedish infants one-quarter is iron-depleted, although iron deficiency anaemia is rare, and one-third may be zinc-depleted. The high cereal intake of Swedish infants from 6 months of age may have limited the bioavailability of both iron and zinc from the diet.http://www.jpgn.org/pt/re/jpgn/abstract….
Conclusions: These results confirm that meat as a complementary food for breast-fed infants can provide a rich source of dietary zinc that is well absorbed. The significant positive correlation between zinc intake and exchangeable zinc pool size suggests that increasing zinc intake positively affects metabolically available zinc.
i am skipping the cereals…..they are junk…..in fact i am skipping spoon feeding her altogether
my babe just turned 6 months and she has just begun to eat some solids….but she feeds herself
i give her slices of banana, apple, broccoli, carrot, bread and she holds them and knaws, licks and chews some
Your doctor should tell when your baby is ready to start rice cereal. Think my kids were both just at 5months when we were allowed to start them on it.
Usually u start them on rice cereal before jarred baby foods because rice cereal is easy to digest and unlikely to be allergic to. Also u start making the rice cereal w/breast milk usually and make it very thin and slowly increase the thickness of it as your baby is able to handle it.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends starting rice cereal at 4 months. It serves several purposes:
-Helps baby get used to more solid foods ( babies aren’t used to the thickness of baby foods and cereal is a good plaec to start and doesn’t cause tummy distress)
-Is fortified with Iron
-It DOES have nutritional value and is low allergen
There is nothing wrong with giving it. You don’t have to give it first, but if you don’t start rice cereal at 4 -6 months, you should wait until 6 months to start baby food. You can also mix baby food with rice cereal. Your pediatrician will discuss this with you at the 4 month visit.
yup before baby food that starts at about 6ths
it will fill the baby up more and they should sleep better
you can put it in the bottle
good luck
you can thumb up or down but all mothers do different things and feel that is the best and they are right
as all doctors are different and will say different things to
it is your choice and yours alone
all we can say is what we have done
good luck
My little girl turned 6 months a week ago. We started her on rice cereal a week before she turned 6 months. I started with a tbsp of cereal and mixed it was 4 or 5 tbsp of formula. She didn’t eat much at first, but after a few tries, and a few days later, she had is mastered. I then, added more cereal and less formula. I am soon going to start her on a mixed cereal. My Ped advised us not to start her on ANY solids until 6 months of age, which we agreed to. Feeding earlier than 6 months is known to cause more allergies in babies, because of their immune system! Anyway, the point being, you should start your baby on cereal at first, by a spoon, because rice cereal is not likely to cause allergies, unlike jarred baby food. Take it easy on your baby. S/he will eventually be eating jarred baby food, just give her/him time.