Starting food question....LONG

So how do I go about this....

As of right now...DS drinks 7ozs of milk and I give him rice cereal once a day at his 6pm-7pm feeding time since I want to be the want to feed him. I make his 7oz milk and pour a little over 1oz into a bowl and put 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of rice cereal (he didn't like it too watery). Then I wait a little bit (20-30min) and give him the rest of his milk.

Now that I have the go ahead to give him barley, oatmeal, veggies and fruits...what do I do?

Is there a specific order I should be introducing them? ( I already know to introduce one thing at a time, do it for at least a week before introducing something different)

Do I cut back on the milk - he drinks 7ozs every 4 hours and he sleeps about 5-6 hours through the night.

And when he said veggies and fruits...is this homemade stuff or something like beechnut, gerber, ect?

Thanks ladies...

Re: Starting food question....LONG

I used earths best fruits. My peds said there is no real order you have to do but to start with the basic stage 1 fruits.. like apples, bannnas (can cause binding so dont mix with rice), peaches, pears. At first i gave fruit alone and made my cereal the same way i did before, then after a couple of tries i started mixing the fruit in with the cereal and slowly took away the formula and now just use fruit to mix with cereal.

With the formula intake i let my dd tell me how she wanted to do it. At first i gave a ounce before cereal to ease her hunger. Then i stopped that and go straight to cereal and then gave bottle and watched how much she drank and kept an eye on how soon she wanted to eat again. Adventually she stopped the bottle right after and now has it about 2 hours later.

Re: Starting food question....LONG

There is no right way to do this...I would go by the advice of your doctor and what you think would be best for you and your child.

When I started DS on foods, we did the cereals first. I did one week of rice, then oatmeal, then barley. I would give it to him in the morning about 2 hours after his first bottle. They suggest early in the morning, just in case there is a reaction so his sleep at night wont be affected.

Once you are good with all the grains, and there are no reactions..i would start a fruit or veggie. Do each one for 3 or 4 days for the same reason. Some people will say babies do better if you start them on veggies, and then fruits. Fruits taste better, so if hey have that first, they might not like the veggies. I did veggies first and DS likes it all. That you will have to decide.

You can do the fruit or veggie at the same time as cereal or wait until after there next bottle.

DS dropped one bottle when I started foods becaue I was able to space them out more. I went from 5 bottles every 3 hours, to 4 bottles every 4 hours, because I was giving him cereal and/or fruits/veggies in those 4 hours which helped to hold him over. He still takes the same amount in each bottle.

Hope that helps! Let me know if you have other questions...it can be very confusing!

Re: Starting food question....LONG

I was told to do

Rice
Oatmeal
Barley

We skipped rice because DD has constipation issues

We then introducted fruit. Some people start with veggies....it is up to you. I use Gerber but lots of mommies seem to like Earths Best.

In the beginnging food is not supposed to replace a bottle. Eventually you DC will stop drinking so much formula when you increase the food intake.

DD used to drink 5 6oz bottles a day. Now she only drinks 4 but I also feed her breakfast, lunch and dinner.

HTH!

Re: Starting food question....LONG

Re: Starting food question....LONG

Thank you ladies...

My doctor told me to start feeding once a day and then feel him out when I want to increase. I just don't understand if that once a day means I have to pick between grains, veggies, fruits or can I give him one of each once a day?

He also told me to do veggies first because he might end up with a "sweet tooth" and not eat his veggies.

Now...I knew how to mix his cereal with his formula from here...because there was no instructions on the can on how to start....

so what are the instructions...keeping in mind he's 4 months (but 18pds15oz, sits up and currently eats his cereal as if he's been eating cereal forever, goes for the spoon and doesn't spit it out unless he doesn't want any more.)

Do I still do 1 1/2 ozs of formula with 1 1/2 teaspoons of cereal/oatmeal/barley and increase when I see he stays wanting more?

And do I give him a whole bottle/can of stage 1 food?