Juice, Rice Cereal and All That Stuff

I never gave cereal. No nutrition, really...unless you're doing oatmeal or barley. I started with some fruits and veggies at 6 months. By 10 months he was eating table foods, but formula was still his main nutrition. At 12 months we took him off formula and he's been eating whatever we eat ever since. I never did juice. My son is 22 months and he only occasionally gets very watered down juice. My pediatrician approves this, he hates juice for kids. Zero nutritional value.

I didn't give my babies anything (except breastmilk) for the first 6-7 months. Then I started introducing veggies and fruits, whole grain toast, oatmeal and puffed wheat cereal, pasta. Around 9 months I gave brown rice, whole milk yogurt and cheeses, but not *actual* cow's milk. Around 11 months I gave ham, very finely ground beef and poultry, and eggs. It wasn't until way after a year that I gave cow's milk, chocolate, honey, peanut butter, juice.

for the past 10yrs, all of the babies in my care were given cereal btwn 3-4 months, with fruit/vegies following. Quite a few of these families used well-watered down juice occasionally to help ease constipation - which was typically caused by the iron in the formula.

By contrast, my sons were on cereal at the request of their drs before 1 month! My sons are 9yrs apart in age.....had different pediatricians....& both of these drs "broke" the rules. Both sons thrived on the early cereal, neither had digestive issues......nor do they have allergie issues - other than my younger son's peanut allegy which developed at age 5.

Check with your dr.....I think this decision should be based on the individual child......as opposed to basic guidelines.

cereal at 6 months. if given earlier it could cause digestive problems and/or allergies.

rice cereal could be at soon as 4 months but unless they are big eaters they don't really need it until later. It does seem to help them sleep longer at night as their belly stays full a little longer with cereal.

at least 6 months for baby food and juice.

Like other posters, I started both my guys on cereal around 6 months (rice, then barley, oats, wheat, and mixed), followed by fruits and veggies and some baby meat (which both of them hated!), then dairy around 9 or 10 months. I don't think my oldest had his first sip of juice until he was 2 1/2! Even now at almost 4 he only gets juice at preschool (and I still would honestly prefer milk or water), and my 16 month old has not had any juice. My pediatrician strongly recommended not giving juice, and instead giving the whole fruit, or giving water/milk/formula.

Wait until they are at least 4 months old, preferrably closer to 6 months. Definitely only rice cereal until 6 months.
Then, don't forget to introduce only 1 new food at a time, with a week in between (feeding the same food and already tolerated foods during that week, of course). Their main nutrition should still be formula/breast milk until a year.

As the mother of 9, I have had a varied experience with this. I have breastfed all of them With my first couple, I started cereal at about 4 mo, then fruits and veggies at about 6. I never really did juice, and they could have cows milk at 1 year. By my last 3, I tried cereal- they didn't like it, I waited until they were over 6 mo to try anything else- by then they were getting teeth, and I could just cut up a real banana and give them that. In fact, my last child didn't really have "people' food until he was almost a year- he was happy and content with just breast milk- he nursed until he was 4 as did my 6th and 7th. In fact, the last 3 tandem nursed- and they all grew just fine without artificial food. Let your baby decide when they are ready for 'real' food- they will definitely let you know.

The second time around I waited until 6 months for cereal, just wasn't in a rush. But you can definitely start at like 4 months on the cereal if you want, especially if you want to increase their intake. I had to do that with my first bc he had reflux, so I breastfed all the time and fed him to make sure he got enough and he was a lil' fatty:D I would hold off on watered down juice until like 8 or 9 months, at least that is what I did both times;) About a month after rice cereal is going well then you can introduce some veggies, then I think it is fruit, then meat/meals. I think I looked it up online for a more specific time line. But on the rice anywhere from 4-6 months is good, six I think is considered optimal but as I said it could be more on the four month side with twins, I am not totally sure on that. Take care :D

with my daughter the Dr said I could start at 4months - tried that and she wasn't interested so we waited until she was 6 months old with much better results.

I started my DD on cereal at 4 months... BUT the general rule now is to wait until 6 months. I started her on easier to digest foods a couple weeks after the cereal, and went from there. She still doens't get juice unless she's constipated (even then I try prunes and massage first...) and then it's diluted down to 1 part juice to 2 parts water. Wholesomebabyfoods.com is the best website for any info as far as this is concerned! :)

No juice for atleast 6 months, with WIC not allowing it until 1 yr. Rice cereal at 3-4 months, can be mixed with fruit at 5-6 months.

My daughter is almost 7 mo and we started rice cereal at about 6 mo, and level 1 baby food as soon as she mastered eating from the spoon. I don't think the Dr recommends juice until after a year. There is limited nutrients and lots of sugar. But the choice is yours. I've read both multiple opinions on merits of juice. Good luck!

we started the baby cereal and food at about 6 months, just little bits to get her used to eating. Juice we didnt start until she was about 2. she was formula only drink wise until 1, then only water or whole milk.

Check with your pedi on this one. The rule 12years ago was cereal @3 mo. Since then, I've heard so many different things.
Other than that, add a new food only after they've had the last one for several days with no problems. As far as juice goes, I only gave it to my babies after they were 6 months old, and then it was pretty much only if they were a little constipated (pear juice, I've found, works pretty well for that).
I try not to give too much juice because they're not getting a lot nutritionally from it, and I prefer to not get them too used to sweets.