Starting Solids While Breastfeeding...

I agree with pp, Joanna S. I was going to post the exact same thing. 5 months is way to early and rice cereal is not too tasty or nutritional. It is also constipating. My almost 9 month old gets 99.99% of his nutrition from my breast milk and only recently has started to show a genuine interest in food, not just playing with it etc. His favorites are apples slices, avocado, cheese and broccoli! Good luck!

At this age, she shouldn't be eating solids. Six months is the minimum for introduction for solids for a breastfeeding infant.

Also, cereal is nutritionally void and causes constipation. Cut out all solids, wait a month, and then start with some healthy, easily digestible and nutritious foods like banana, sweet potatos, and avacado.

Also, under a year, all babies should get the MAJORITY of their nutrition from breastmilk, or formula if the baby is prematurely weaned. Solids under a year are for fun and games, to get the baby used to new tastes and textures, not as an actual source of nutrition.

I've been told that for the first year that the baby needs mostly breastmilk and anything else yougive is extra. My doctor for my son said i could start cereal after 4 months if he seemed interested. I didn't start until he was 6 months because he just didn't seem interested and he was in love with his bottle9pumped breast milk) he used to wave his arms like he was cheering at a game and kick his legs it was really funny. My daughter is 3.5 months and already seems interested in food. She loves to stair at it when I'm doing stuff and has already started to grab at things, but I won't astart her yet.
So to answer your question breastfeed first and then offer a couple of table spoons of cereal. When did you start feeding your girls cereal and did you breastffed them? I'm sure with 2 it's hard to remember I can't remember a lot about my 3 year old.

At this age your daughter should be getting her nutritional needs from breastfeding.
morning and evening cereal should only be about 2-3 tablespoons each feeding. a little applesauce will make it taste much better. as she grows so will her appetite.

As a daycare provider I cannot feed a child anything before eight months old. At that time I can serve cereal with a fruit/vegg at breakfast and lunch.
when they turn 1 year they have to be switched to table food.

You can just skip the cereal altogether. Have you ever tasted it? It's nasty! Also, if you have a breastfed baby, the idea that veggies must come before fruits doesn't make any sense as breast milk is sweet, so they are already used to sweets.

We didn't introduce solids until 10 mos as I had no interest in feeding DD anything other than real food. By 10 months she was very interested and capable of eating soft chunks and she has only ever been spoonfed applesauce. She started with avocado, then banana, then every kind of veggie you can imagine. Later we gave her oatmeal and now she eats most things (other than nuts). I avoided most grains for a while and was hoping she'd be interested in enough different things that she wouldn't want just white foods-pasta, bread, etc. She still loves all kinds of veggies (though I hear they start getting picky any time now). She's 18 mos.

Cereal should not replace breastfeeding as it is just empty calories with some iron added in. If you really want to feed it to her, you can prepare it with breast milk so it has some nutrition.

The current AAP recommendations, I believe, recommend only breast milk or formula until 6 months. Unless you are in a hurry to wean her from breast milk, there really is no rush on the food. But real food is definitely prefereable to highly-processed cereal. I'm sure she will want to keep up with everything her big sisters are eating soon enough.

As long as the dr says she's ready she can start solids. One serving of cereal shouldnt effect her nursing too much. As long as she is doing good with the rice you can start introducing her to one fruit or veggie every few days. By 6 months she should be eating to meals a day and by 9 months she should be eating 3.

My daughter will be 5 months on Thursday and I started her on cereal on Sunday. I did read a lot about it and it is extra food at this point. Just start with a tablespoon once a day and increase gradually to more. Eventually you can be up to 5 tablespoons. Just do a search on yahoo for starting babies on cereal. There's a lot of info out there. I wouldn't add fruit just yet. Give her time to adjust to the cereal. Her poops will change :) Good luck
M.

Hi,

At this point just keep nursing her as often as she wants it. My 8 month old is still just learning to eat. He's not to interested right now which is fine by us. So I nurse him whenever he's hungry and 'feed' him maybe once a week to see if he'd like to try something new or if he's ready yet.
Remember at 5 months she's still really young to learn to eat....

E. P.

J.-
I have a daughter who is 18 mos old, and when she went on cereal, I was still breastfeeding alo, this is what worked for me.
In the morning, I would breastfeed like normal, and then about an hour or so (as a snack) I would offer the cereal--she did not like it at all, so after about a week, I tried her with fruit--and from then on, I mixed the cereal with the fruit--and she ate it up. I continued to do it this way until she was 11 month old.
She was born at 4 lbs--only 2 weeks late--and feeding her this way worked out perfectly fine.
Then I would feed her cereal with fruit for lunch, and then about 4pm I would breastfeed. When I would try to do it all at once---she would either eat all cereal--and no milk---or would breastfeed--and then wouldn't eat any cereal. My doctor said that it was very important to keep breastfeeding.
ANd this system worked for me.
Also, about bowel movements--we had the same questions. At a certain age--abt 5-6months, their bowels mature, and they don't have a bowel movement at every feeding. It actually slows down to about once a day--and they can even not have one for three days. (after 3 days, call your doctor. Good luck, hope I helped

Hi J.,
I'm not sure how much breastmilk she will need, but my guess is that won't change much if she's only eating cereal, unless she's eating great quantities of it. But really at this age, she should still be getting most of her nourishment from the breastmilk. Actually, if she's not into the solids, there's no real reason to even have her on them yet, unless she's not growing enough. Every kid is so different, and so is every doctor, as far as what they will tell you. All I know is that as a mom of 6, soon to be 7, only one of them started solids this early. The rest ranged in age from 7 months to 12 months. Believe it or not the one who refused to do anything but nurse for 12 months has been my healthiest one yet, and eats the most variety of foods now. Go figure! But technically, as long as your daughter has been on the rice cereal for several days and there's no indication of any allergy, you can introduce fruits, veggies, and other single grains one at a time, as long as you give each one several days to see if there's a reaction. And yes, the bowel movements should change drastically, especially if she was only breastfeeding prior. As long as she's not having diarrhea or anything like that, which could signal an allergy.
Have fun!

Check out this web site: http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com
even if you are not making your own babyfood, it was helpful for me to see how much of what.
-S.

Hello!
Congratulations on your new baby! My son is now 8 months old. When he was 5 months I was told that he needed between 25-30 ounces of formula/breast milk a day, or more if he wanted.....also, Gerber makes rice cereal with banana already in it..it's yummy! Also, it's not too soon to mix fruits in with it....I started my son on baby food at 5 months and jsut did one at a time to make sure he wasn't allergic!

As others have said, it is really best to start solids at 6 months. If she isn't showing interest in the rice cereal she is probably not ready. I'd try again next month with the cereal and go from there. Good luck!

HI
your baby girl doesnt need to start on soild foods not til after 6 mos old :o) when you are ready for her to start on soild foods.. what u can do is just breastfeed her first before give her soild food or feed her after breastfeed. from my experience i prefer breastfeed first as if u want to keep breastmilk supply up and want her to drink most of milk. bec she may be little full to drink milk but less of milk after soild food? it is depend on what you want to do.

simple fruit u can add to it if u want to feed her soild.. i will say avacodo :o)

i know some mothers said you are not supposed to start ur baby on soild until she try all other cereal. well i only did rice and oatmeal with my son and give him other kind of grains thru soild food not try barely and not try other cereal. i always puree the oatmeal.. more nurtients to the diet (not baby oatmeal, the regular oatmeal, just puree it)

I first introduced rice cereal to my kids at around 4-5 months, per my pediatrician's recommendation. I would replace one of their breastfeedings with the cereal and some fruit. I think they were feeding 5-6 times a day, so one of those times became cereal. Then, about a month later, I introduced oatmeal as a second feeding option. So it became rice cereal and vegetables one feeding, and oatmeal and fruit another feeding. By 8-9 months, I had introduced Yo Baby yogurt and reduced breastfeeding to 2 times a day -- right when they woke up in the morning, and before they went to bed at night. Weaned from breastfeeding when they were 13 months old. That's just my experience. Hope it helps!

I know these days that pediatricians really push solids starting at 4 months. I waited until 6 personally, but started quite slowly.

I'd say cereal once a day and continue breastfeeding often. If you notice a big change in stool, especially constipation, I'd skip the cereal for a day or two to get your daughter back to normal. The iron fortification of the cereal can be difficult for their little digestive systems. I started my baby on sweet potatoes, avocados & bananas.

There's also some great info on this website:
http://kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/index.html

A little off topic, but related to the notion of adding fruit. When we started introducing solids to our kids we got some good advice about fruits and vegetables. The cereals are first, of course, but we'd been advised to do the vegetables first. So each week we'd introduce a new vegetable, and we got through most of them before we started with the fruits. The reasoning -- once they've tasted bananas they're not going to want squash. So help them get a taste for veggies before they discover sweet stuff. Of course you can't prove anything but my now 8 and 12 year old sons eat a lot of vegetables.

You are supposed to try all cereals first not just the rice before starting fruit. It is now recommended you wait until your child is 6 months old to start feeding any solids as well.
I would stop for a while until she is 6 months and you will notice her bowels becoming more regular again. Then when you go to try the cereal again try something different like barley or oatmeal. Then you should start with veggies before fruit but if you are still having issues with the baby eating the cereal then I would go ahead and introduce the fruit first.
My son was the same way so I waited until he was 6 months and then I had better luck. Beware to once you start putting fruit in the cereal your baby won't take cereal without fruit!!