Our new ped has been insisting on grains and rice cereal, and although I'm wary of rice cereal I'm curious because she's generally pretty scientific in her ideas and methods. When we discussed the possibility of him being allergic to rice she suggested oatmeal, which made me wonder - are the cereals necessary?
She doesn't want him to move past "stage 1" foods (don't even know what those are) for now because he's having so many feeding and GI issues so we're limited in our options.
GOLD / wonderful apricot / 22646 posts
Our ped mentioned it, but we never did rice cereal. We started BLW/purees a mixed approach at 5.5 months!
hostess / wonderful watermelon / 39513 posts
We fed LO 1 rice cereal a few times but we skipped it completely for LO 2.
GOLD / papaya / 10206 posts
Naw, we skipped it for both kids. The big push (from my understanding) for rice cereals is that they are iron fortified and babies need the iron. We just chose to feed naturally iron rich foods to make up for it
cantaloupe / 6171 posts
We skipped rice cereal but did introduce baby oatmeal after a little while. We started with avocado mushed up with formula and then other fruit and veggies.
grapefruit / 4988 posts
We started with veggies and fruits (avocados, bananas, mashed sweet potatoes were her first foods). We waited until LO was 6.5 months to start since she had/has lots of food sensitivities and possibly allergies. We did eventually start giving her oatmeal though and I don't have a problem with it. I think we may have skipped the rice cereal completely.
pomelo / 5298 posts
We used oatmeal (skipped rice cereal), but it was more of a "filler". We did purees first and then bulked them up later with some oatmeal mixed in.
cantaloupe / 6791 posts
Nope, we skipped them and went straight to purées at 5.5 months.
pomelo / 5258 posts
We never fed LO rice cereal. I think our HMO's printed material suggested skipping it. However, if you're having feeding issues I would probably follow the doctor's instructions.
eggplant / 11716 posts
@spaniellove: I think instructions for your LO might be different because of the feeding issues. My LO is MSPI and her GI doctor said start with rice or oat cereal, too....she said babies with feeding issues usually need to start with what's easiest on the tummy and some vegetables (she mentioned sweet potato specifically for some reason) are harder on tummies.
Too bad at that point, I'd already given my LO butternut squash and sweet potato.
hostess / wonderful persimmon / 25556 posts
We did a little of the oatmeal because it was an easy thing to offer her and I mixed it into other purees I made. We started with pureed veggies, though.
And just a tip - we used Earth's Best baby oatmeal. We found it everywhere, including Walmart. 
persimmon / 1343 posts
We fed oatmeal cereal for the extra iron since my daughter is slightly anemic. She's 18 months and still gets oatmeal cereal mixed with applesauce before bed haha
grapefruit / 4213 posts
We skipped them and went straight to purees after our pedi okayed starting solids.
honeydew / 7916 posts
@Anagram: Was butternut squash one of the bad ones too? Of course before I stopped solids I was giving him butternut squash pretty much daily.
@mediagirl: We used Earth's Best for rice cereal and I think we'll use it for oatmeal! I like that they're supposedly not cross-contaminated with soy.
grapefruit / 4923 posts
we mixed oatmeal cereal with purees. i thought the purees were really runny but i didn't feel confident about moving up to the next stage of purees, so made them a bit chunkier with the oatmeal. also it made the purees last longer but i didn't feel like i was just giving him filler since oatmeal is pretty good for you (right?).
eggplant / 11824 posts
We never gave rice cereal and our pedi encouraged skipping it / said it was not necessary at all. BUT, we also didn’t have any dietary or feeding issues. If we had, I would have most likely followed what the pedi or specialist advised.
honeydew / 7230 posts
We skipped it at first, although my kids ate AR formula prior to solids so they had been exposed to rice in a form. We went straight to purées, but Blake had a very difficult time digesting solids (still does at nearly 8 months) so we sort of went backwards and tried oatmeal. He does ok with the oatmeal, but still deals with a lot of constipation. We've had good luck mixing the oatmeal with fruit, though.
pomegranate / 3565 posts
I did the baby oatmeal with both my boys and they loved it. Within a week we started veggies and then fruits.
cantaloupe / 6059 posts
From my understanding, grains are actually pretty hard/complex to digest, so I have skipped those with my babies until they are over a year. I've been happy with that decision with my son as he tends to prefer foods that are not grain based when compared to my friends who started their LOs with grains. Those kids seem to have a harder time branching out from grains.
However, I haven't dealt with feeding issues so I can't speak to that situation.
blogger / pineapple / 12381 posts
We skipped grains and cereals. We had to deal with a lot of intolerances and there's lots of new allergy and obesity research that hints that grains are an unnecessary and potentially allergenic step. We did veggies first.
AAP recommendations on feeding have been evolving and I don't think we're at a consensus point... So the "evidence base" for your Ped to draw on isn't that great right now.
watermelon / 14467 posts
We skipped rice cereal completely and went straight to purées. She didn't have oatmeal until 8 months.
wonderful grape / 20453 posts
Our ped discouraged it because they can cause constipation. We introduced oatmeal much later on--now she eats it sometimes. I think it's whatever you want to do, honestly. We did avocado first, I think? then some ground meats.
wonderful pear / 26210 posts
We didn't have any feeding issues at the time, so we did begin with rice cereal. I did a lot of reading on labels and found that some rice cereal contained milk powder, so if you do go that route, read carefully.
We also began with orange vegetables and ground meats, but my son's love affair with oatmeal can not be underplayed here. He loves it and still eats oatmeal regularly. He has no food allergies that we are aware of.
Oh, and as for the reason we had to introduce cereal at all was because we were on a staged formula, and my son was consuming the maximum amount and could have easily drank more, but we were advised not to increase the amount or move to the next level until 6 months of age. So we had to introduce something else, and it turned out oatmeal with fruit was our magic combination.
blogger / apricot / 378 posts
No rice cereal here! Our ped never mentioned it, we went straight to "real" foods...he had a puree pouch every once in a while but that was it.
GOLD / wonderful pomegranate / 28905 posts
@spaniellove: we didn't find it necessary. But if your LO has stomach and feeding issues then I can see why your ped wants your LO to start with something bland like cereal. If it were me then I would buy steel cut oats, grind it into a powder and make my own. When LO would have oatmeal when she she was younger that's what I did.
honeydew / 7916 posts
@Mrs. Jacks: It didn't sound like there was a reason for the cereals other than having a portion of grains, a portion of fruits, and a portion of veggies each day. And considering that he appears to be allergic to rice I don't know if it's worth going through that with oatmeal just so he can have the requisite portion of grains? I mean, he's gaining weight just fine without it?
blogger / pineapple / 12381 posts
@spaniellove: Exactly. It's a very modern thing to be doing grains in babies under 1. How old is he now? (Sorry I've lost track. I still think of him as a newbie!) As for food groups, our older daughter is 4 and has never really had milk. We find plenty of other ways to get her calcium...
clementine / 927 posts
There is some really solid research against delaying the introduction of grains. Specifically, waiting too long to introduce grains has been linked to increased risk of having celiac disease, type 1 diabetes and wheat allergies. Grains and other starchy foods have been babies' first foods in many parts of the world for time immemorial. Unfortunately, it is grain's turn to have a bad reputation ... recall how bad fats were (and how we know now how important heart healthy fats are), and how bad carbs were (and now we can appreciate the value to complex carbs).
This article is a nice overview of the above and MUCH MORE regarding the digestion of grains and other starchy foods.
That said, I don't think rice cereal or any grain needs to be the star of our diet.
coconut / 8472 posts
We didn't do cereals first, but our ped did highly suggest oatmeal because DS was having constipation issues and she said the increased fiber would help.
clementine / 927 posts
Oops, I forgot the link
http://scienceofmom.com/2013/11/08/amylase-in-infancy-can-babies-digest-starch/
grapefruit / 4110 posts
We did not have quite as many issues but my son was MSPI and we did skip cereals. One thing I read that wasn't very scientific but led my way of thought was that by playing with food helped him learn about food. So we went the path of BLW and gave him chunks of food first. No purees or cereals. He was 6 months old when we started and for him/us it was very successful and he is a fantastic eater.
blogger / pineapple / 12381 posts
@Leah: While your link has a lot of good information, it only looks at one aspect of exposure to grains. Can babies digest it? The answer of course is yes, and there are several papers to suggest that early introduction of allergens may protect against development of allergies. There is definitely conflicting data on protection against celiac disease (some say early introduction is better, some say delayed introduction is better.) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15900004
But with regard to obesity and diabetes, there may be advantages to delaying solids/grains.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/263106.php
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/91/5/1506S.full
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2011/02/07/peds.2010-0740.abstract
In other words, it's complicated and there are no right answers... but I don't think it would be an unreasonable approach to delay.
nectarine / 2504 posts
We skipped rice cereal/oatmeal and jumped into vegetable purrees at 7 months. We introduced grains around 10 months.
blogger / pomegranate / 3044 posts
D's doc had us start on veggies, then add meat, then add grains. During an endoscopy she found some kind of cells everywhere that indicated he would probably be sensitive to a range of stuff. Obviously his issues are very different but still the veggies recommended were anything with less than 3g of sugar (no carrots, sweet potato, etc)
grapefruit / 4997 posts
We introduced it at 5 months, rice cereal and then oatmeal also to see which she preferred. She refused both and would spit out immediately. This went on for over a week, so we moved on to purée veggies shortly after.
blogger / wonderful cherry / 21616 posts
We started with veggies and fruit instead! We didn't give any grains until after he was a year old.
pomelo / 5607 posts
We won't be bothering with things like rice cereal and oatmeal. It's just unnecessary at beat.
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