Starting cereal question

Seamus is due to start cereal at 4 months. He will be 4 months old on Sat. Im in California right now visiting my sister. We are due to go to the Ped on Dec 1st to start cereal

For the last 3 days he seems insatiable. He wants a 6 ounce bottle every 2-3 hours! I have gone through so much formula already! Do you think its ok to try cereal now while Im here? My sister said she will go get that and a bowl and spoon etc and show me how to give it to him (since she has given it to m niece before)
It just seems as if he is SO hungry. He slept 11 hours straight in NY. The first night he was fine here but the last 2 nights he has slept no more than 5 hours because he wakes up starving

WWYD? If I do give him cereal should I go rice, barley or oatmeal?

Re: Starting cereal question

I would start it. It's only a couple of days early. I started with rice, then barley, then oatmeal.

Re: Starting cereal question

He's only a few days shy of 4 months so I would guess it would be fine - but don't expect cereal to instantly solve the hunger issue. Some moms claim it helps ASAP, some say it didn't make much of a difference (at this point they're getting so little and it's really just for practice, not nutrition).

Anyway, a lot of parents skip rice b/c it constipates them - that would be your call. I started with rice and Ryan didn't poop for a wk. So, oatmeal is the next best thing. We started 1TBSP of oatmeal mixed with 1 oz BM (or formula). You can play with the consistency to see how Seamus likes it. In the beginning, you'll probably want to start with a consistency of thick soup - not too thick, but not too thin that it doesn't stay on the spoon.
And you should stick with the same cereal, whichever you start with, for 3-5 days in a row (so you can make sure he's not allergic).

Good luck & have fun, oh - take pics for us!

Message edited 11/18/2008 3:16:38 PM.

Re: Starting cereal question

I had DD's 4 month visit a few days ago and according to the Ped starting solids won't really make them any less hungry, because they aren't going to be eating too much. When you start solids its more a developmental thing and it may take awhile for them to get the hang of it. Formula will still be the main source of nutrients for awhile, so I am not sure if starting solids would help too much.

If you do decide to start solids I would go with the rice because apparently it is least likely to cause an allergic reaction.

Re: Starting cereal question

We started our DS (4months) on solids this past weekend. A mixture of apple sauce & baby oatmeal. I don't think he got ANY of it down his throat the first day (it all ended up on the bib ) By the next day we saw some improvement and yesterday he really started to catch on (although the bib was still a mess LOL)

Anyway, the sooner you start the quicker he will get used to spoon-feeding. Our PED recommended to attempt solids about 1-1.5hrs after his morning bottle that way he won't be a raging maniac during the feeding.

Re: Starting cereal question

Posted by mamochk

We started our DS (4months) on solids this past weekend. A mixture of apple sauce & baby oatmeal. I don't think he got ANY of it down his throat the first day (it all ended up on the bib ) By the next day we saw some improvement and yesterday he really started to catch on (although the bib was still a mess LOL)

Anyway, the sooner you start the quicker he will get used to spoon-feeding. Our PED recommended to attempt solids about 1-1.5hrs after his morning bottle that way he won't be a raging maniac during the feeding.

Re: Starting cereal question

Re: Starting cereal question

Re: Starting cereal question

we are starting rice cereal at 4 months...Dr said to wait for the fruit until 5 months, then comes veggies... however, if your DS is that hungry, you can give him more formula at each feeding as well... sometimes DD drinks 8oz at a time, but lately she has been easily polishing off the 7oz bottles... and she has one of those every 3 hours...she just turned 4 months on yesterday (mon)