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I felt like rice cereal was just filler and had no nutritional value. We did do some oatmeal cereal because DS was having some constipation and the ped said the extra fiber could help.

We skipped cereals completely - started at 4 months with bananas thinned out with breast milk (started early at the advice of the lactation consultant because Bennett was wee and we were just trying to get more food into him).

Oatmeal is a good first choice if you want to introduce grains.

I wanted to also write that first foods vary so much across cultures. There seems to be no right way to do it, just the way that you decide. For example, in Europe, they recommend that the first food is meat and they tend to skip cereal, but you'll find the stores stocked with baby cereal.

We started with oatmeal (DS preferred it thicker vs thinner/watery) then did about a few weeks of purees before doing BLW. It worked for us.

We never did rice cereal. We did a little oatmeal once we started solids, but started with avocado and other fruit/veg at 6 months

We never did rice cereal. From my research it doesn't seem to have any nutritional value. We started solids at 6 months and did banana and avocado. We did oatmeal cereal a little later.

In my experience and observations it seems like most pediatricians are recommending to wait until 6 months.

We started at six months but wowzers! I could see why you are looking ahead, I would maybe wait until 5 months because of their digestive system or talk to your pediatrician. You could consider mixing breastmilk with a more nutritious first food or mixing breastmilk with rice cereal. We started with sweet potato and breastmilk, but also popular are Japanese squash/pumpkin, avocado, banana, and eventually we did purées including brown rice and salmon for example. Either way, sounds like your son will have a wonderful appetite, which is great!

We held all grains until 8 or 9 months. At 5.5 months, he had egg yolk with breastmilk. Then avocado, banana, etc. I started blending oatmeal into his purees around, I think, 8 or 9 months. I had read baby's guts aren't equipped to break down the enzyme (or something...it's been a few years) until then or even later, so we held off.

I did oatmeal with both boys at 4 months. Worked for us! Honestly, you need to follow your child's lead. If you feel like he's ready, try it. If it doesn't work, wait a bit and try again. There is no wrong way!

I'm also #teamnorice but we did baby led weaning too. LO started with squash at about 6 1/2 months (he was a preemie though so we started a bit later).

@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: lol

The dietitian told us that you should add the iron fortified foods (like the cereals) because its hard for infants to eat the iron rich foods (or enough of them) and their iron requirements double around 6 months and they don't get that much iron from breastmilk.

That being said we're starting solids next week around 6 months and will likely do a combination of purees and BLW. We'll try the baby cereals (rice, oatmeal, Ancient Grain Blend) as part of that process.

Our pediatrician told us to skip rice cereal since he was breastfed. It can make breastfed babies super constipated. Instead we went with an iron fortified oatmeal at 5.5 months (recommended by our pediatrician). DS was showing signs of being ready- interested in our food, following the food to our mouth, sitting up on his own, grabbing for our food.

I tried iron fortified oatmeal at 5 months. He didn't want anything to do with it so we tried again at 6 months.

We never did rice cereal or oatmeal. We started BLW at 6 months, so DS ate whatever we ate.

We did oat cereal when babe was 2 weeks shy of 6 months. She loves it! I mix it into fruit purée now to thicken them now that's she's eating a greater variety.

second time around I skipped rice and at just over 6 months we are starting veggies (doing purees and some BLW.) I will eventually do some oatmeal in the mornings mixed with fruit, but need to slowly introduce stuff.

My son had terrible constipation on rice cereal so we switched to oatmeal and he did fine on that, except he didn't actually care for the taste of any powdered baby cereal (the iron fortification is bitter and BLECH). He did like the little Gerber tubs of cereal mixed with fruit purees and happily ate that for breakfast. BLW did not work for us and we needed him to gain weight so we started solids early - between 4-5 months, but only really a few spoonfuls here and there. I think some babies are just metabolically hungrier than others so if you think you baby would enjoy solids, then go for it. No harm in trying.

Ha I guess I'm going against the grain here but our pediatrician said DD was definitely ready for solids at her 4 month appointment and gave us a plan and eating goals she wants us to achieve by six months. She recommended three weeks of cereals, one week of three different kinds starting with rice, and then five weeks of veggies, one new veggie each week. I'm guessing from replies on here that that's a little outdated, but I trust our pediatrician, that's why I picked her. Our baby loves cereal mixed with breastmilk right now. She'd been reaching for our food and utensils for weeks before the appointment so I wasn't surprised. Haven't experienced any constipation yet. I like the idea of BLW and probably won't introduce the veggies as purees. If you have a four month appointment scheduled I would just wait and discuss with your pediatrician then.

Edited to add: my daughter is small for her age and her size didn't factor into whether she was ready to eat.

I am also going to go against the grain. Our pediatrician was absolutely fine with DD getting puréed food, rice cereal, and/or oatmeal starting at 4 months. Personally, we started with puréed veggies and DD LOVES them and is super interested in eating! We also tried oatmeal for the first time this morning, but she was not nearly as into that. I'll try it a few more times but we may just be on the veggie train. But I definitely did not feel the need to wait until six months.

ETA: DD is 89% for weight and averaging 34+ oz of formula a day.