Question About My 4 Month Old - Cereal in Bottle

I have a five month old with reflux and we have added cereal to his bottle because his doctor said it would help with spitup because of reflux. We ended up switching to AR formula which is thicker. It already has the rice starch added to it. When we added it to his bottle it was about 1 formula scoop to his 4-5 oz bottle. Just remember it will be thicker so you will need a different nipple for him to get it out. The only one we forund that worked was the platex dropins medium flo nipple. The rest of the bottle just have more holes in the nipple for faster flow. Playtex actully has one hole that gets bigger.
I would also try starting him on regular cereal or food. It might help fill him up before bed. We have tried starting my son on food for about a month. If they are ready they will take it and if not they will refuse so it is not too early to try.

I had a horrible time trying to put cereal in the bottle at 4 months. I didn't have the cereal nipples, so I could never get the formula thin enough to go through the bottle. I was also using soy formula which I found a little thinker than regular formula anyway so that could of been a problem. I just went ahead and fed her from the spoon. I made the first few bowls of cereal very liquidy until she got the hang of it, and then I slowly thickened up the cereal. I tried putting as little as a teaspoon in the bottle (and I think a Tablespoon is a "serving) and still had problems. Maybe you really need the cereal nipples to get it to work, or it was human error on my part.

My daughter had bad reflux and they had me put cereal in her bottle. I think I put a teaspoon of it in and shook it up and I had to enlarge all of the openings on the nipples. We really had to play with it to get it thicker but not too thick. But back then they didn't have the ready made formulas with added rice. All of the major brands have it, even Target brand I think. I'm curious as too why they wouldn't try to medicate if they are thinking it is reflux. Around that age, my son was a big eater and was waking a lot (he also had reflux). The doctor had me start him on baby food so he wasn't so hungry all the time.

I would ususally put in about a teaspoon for a 4oz bottle.

A tip:
Put the cereal in a baggie first, and use your fingers to grind it up into a dust. Then put it in the bottle. That way, your little one won't struggle with clogs if it's too thick.

For the record, this tip came from a neonatal nurse friend at Children's Memorial who told me that that's what they do for babies who are only a couple of days old and struggling with reflux. So the bit about the whole digestive system, etc... is really, really overblown.

I put a tablespoon in every 6 oz bottle, so maybe you can do 1/2 a tablespoon...

I would do about a tablespoon, I just pour some in and see how it looks after it mixes. The thicker the better because more food in the tummy, but it needs to flow out the nipple enough to be soothing. We do it for our 7 month old, like his dr suggested, and it really helps, esp with the acid. When they go through a growth spurt or teething, they will eat more and sleep less at night.

If the dr recommended it then I would call your dr and ask how much. The only problem with added cereal is it will not teach your baby when he is full. The change in sleep schedule can also be due to a growth spurt or the weather change.

Why not use a spoon? I was told never to use a bottle for anything more than milk, water or formula.

I remember our pedi suggesting that we do this too. I can't remember exactly how much, but you'll need to buy the larger nipple size. Trying to put the cereal in the bottle with the regular nipple = 1 oh not so happy bob! (sorry....we say bob instead of baby in our house ;-) ) But doing this did help fill his tummy before bed. I do remember asking her....if he's been sleeping through the night and suddenly starts waking up....if I rush in & feed him every time he crys will he then continue this pattern in order to be fed in the middle of the night...even though he's really not hungry & has proven that he can sleep through the night without eating. Of course you take into consideration the growth spurts, but I think this is where the cereal helps out a lot. I remember her saying to try the cereal....if he goes right back to sleep after a short feeding then it's up to you whether or not you want to take a few days & well.....gasp......let him figure it out or just feed him & put him back.
All the best to you & your family!! :-)

oh & I found ____@____.com...

"my doctor said 3 tsp rice to one ounce breastmilk. then the next week increase 4 tsp rice to one ounce breastmilk. then do 5 tsp to 1 oz and then switch to oatmeal.

posted 06/22/2010 by stefanie35"

don't worry about what others say about putting cereal in your babies bottle. It really is just bad for newborns. My daughter has severe acid reflux and I have been told by more than one Dr. to put cereal in her bottle. They have always told me to add 1 tsp per oz. Just be aware that the rice cereal will probably make him backed up. My gastro. recomends 1Tbs of prune juice mixed with 1 Tbs of water twice a day. I swear my kids are like science projects trying to figure out exactly what to put in to make sure that things come out right. You might also want to put gas drops in the bottle as well. I am not sure what Bottles you use but I use advent and they make a nipple that is for thicker formulas and it has been great with the added cereal so I don't have to guess if I cut the nipple right. I have been adding cereal to my daughters bottle for over a week now and she has been a lot better. One other thought is your son is old enough to start spoon feeding so you can always spoon feed him the cereal as well to mix it up a little.