What Brand of Rice Cereal Should I Get?

Our family eats mostly organic, so we bought Happy Bellies. ^_^

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Edit: Your ped almost certainly will say it's okay to start solids. Most do, as I indicated below. Just realize that, while it's not a terrible and dangerous thing (hence most peds will still say it's okay, even though they go against almost every health organization in doing so), it's not the best thing for your child.

I agree with the posters who say none. 4 mos is too early for solids. The World Health Organization, American Association of Pediatrics, American Academy of Family Physicians, and a whole bunch of other health organizations recommend waiting until at LEAST 6 months. 4 mos was the old recommendation, and some doctors will still tell you that you can start solids then, but research has shown it's healthier to wait.

Introducing solids before 6 months is linked to higher rates of obesity, type 1 diabetes, asthma and allergies (I believe there are other things, but I cannot remember them all off the top of my head). Infants' GI tracts are also not really ready for solids before at least 6 mos, and in addition to causing GI discomfort, solids create tiny little perforations in the GI tract that make the baby more susceptible to illness.

Introducing solids at a particular age is sort of silly, anyway. Babies develop at different rates, so when my baby is ready for solids may be different than when you baby is ready for solids (just like they may roll over at different times, start cooing at different times, etc.). The signs of being ready for solids are: Sitting unassisted, doubling birth weight, losing the tongue-thrust reflex, opening mouth and leaning forward for spoon. When the baby has reached all of these, he/she is ready for solids. I don't know of any babies that actually lost their tongue-thrust reflex until at least 5 mos. There is no medical reason to introduce solids until after 6 mos, and even after 6 mos, solids are really for tasting and practice, not for nutrition. Babies' main source of nutrition should be breastmilk or formula until 1 year (this is why you should only give solids after a full "meal" of breastmilk or formula).

When your baby is ready for solids, we did rice cereal for a couple of weeks (the Earth's Best brown rice kind, since white rice is a pretty nutritionally-void simple carb) and then went on to organic oatmeal.

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Whatever is cheapest and on sale :) I would start with single grain, then you can do oatmeal then mulitgrain and then you can do the little mixes like rice and apples etc. The only brands around here that are at the stores that I shop at are Beechnut and Gerber. Both are great. I breastfeed my son, but I put one scoop of formula in his rice cereal and he really likes that.

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NONE!!! 4 months is too young to start solids anyways... their GI tract is still open and immature until about 6-8 months old. If you really must force solids on your less than 6 months infant... use oatmeal and not rice. Rice will cause extreme constipation and stomach cramping in most infants.

If you are breastfeeding... infants do best when only on breastmilk for the first year or at least 10 months. If you are formula feeding tho - you've already introduced foreign bacteria and flora into your baby's sterile and immature open gut, so the solids won't inflame or irritate the bowels anymore than you already have with the formula.

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None. The AAP has been recommending starting solids at 6 months and not before since my 11 year old was an infant, starting at 4 months is outdated advice. There really is no superior brand when you do start, but I'd skip that rice cereal which has no nutritional value and go with a whole grain or oatmeal baby cereal, at six months. Remember that babies get all their nutrition from their milk the first year so food isn't needed at such a young age. Good luck!

We used Earth's Best--- because it was the best~ :)

I started my DD on rice at 4 months old... She got constipated off of it. I would suggest trying oatmeal instead. Once I switched to oatmeal. she didn't have any issues whatsoever. :)

Happy Bellies is great b/c it has probiotics. Dont feel like you are stuck with just rice cereal. My kids did best on Oatmeal. Experiment to see what you and your baby like the best.

I usually do organic anything, but I found that all rice cereal is lacking in nutrition. I found on drugstore.com Gerber whole grain cereal that is way healthier. I'm surprised they don't advertise this more so people know about it! I'm not sure if it's better for older babies though, but you could start in tiny amounts mixed with milk. Also start at around 6 months. Good luck!

It probably doesn't matter that much, but you don't have to start with rice cereal, you could feed bananas, avocados, sweet potatoes, basically whatever you want to start. Oatmeal is also an option if you really want to start with a grain.

We also used Happy Bellies or Earth's Best. Good luck with starting solids!!

I agree that go with what is easiest and/or cheapest. I usually got the rice cereal in the cannister by Gerber. It's a bit more expensive but I liked that it had DHA in it, but mostly I liked it's mess free design! You could easily get the box though and just pour it into your own container for ease! Be ware that rice cereal will likely constipate your little one. It's totally normal! Maybe move onto prunes soon after if it gets bad! With my daughter we moved to oatmeal as quickly as possible b/c of that, but with my son he wasn't nearly as affected, so we stuck with rice for a lot longer.

Earth's Best.
Mix it with breastmilk or formula. If you mix it with plain water, it tastes like cardboard.
p.s. Not need to start on solids this early.

Try oatmeal instead of rice. It didn't matter with my son, but my daughter became extremely constipated after eating rice cereal. And now it's a battle to get a BM out of her!
We use Gerber. I really don't think it matters whether it's organic or not. We try to stick with organic when it comes to milk (hormone-free, etc) and produce.