Starting cereal questions for a 4 mo old...need help please!

Hi - DD is 16 weeks. She's a BIG girl, weighs over 16 lbs. At her last checkup her ped told me we'd discuss starting her on cereal at her next visit. She said if I want to try it before I can. She said NOT to put it in her bottle - spoon it to her.
I want to try and start her on it this week. She is an amazing sleeper at night - goes 12 hrs straight. However the last week she started to get so restless around 4am every night. She's still in bassinet in my room so I just stuck a pacifier in her mouth so she wouldn't eventually wake herself. She would snort like a piggy when I stuck it in her mouth - she seemed so hungry. I definitely think she'd take a bottle if I gave it to her which I will not at that hour. She hasn't woke for a feeding in almost 2 mos - I'm not going to start that now. She doesn't doesn't seem fully satisfied with her formula alone. Would really love to try her on cereal.

What did you all do - put it in bottle first or spoon feed it? I have 2 BTDT sisters who are both telling me to just put 2 tbls in her last 8 oz bottle. My ped said not to put in bottle....so I'm torn and want to go with what my ped said. We are going away for 3 nights next week and selfishly I don't want to have to deal with spooning her cereal while we're away...just a quick few nights in NYC. Was going to wait to start her cereal until after the trip but I'm tired of her restlessness waking me every night.

What would you do? Rice or oatmeal? Ped said either...my sisters tell me rice can be binding so they always did oatmeal.

TIA!!!

Re: Starting cereal questions for a 4 mo old...need help please!

Rice was very binding for us. In fact I only gave it when DS had diarrhea.

As for giving in bottle vs. spoon. The reason for spoon is that cereal is practice for purees, and purees are practice for table food. So its not really for nutrition or any reason its just to practice eating.

giving in a bottle defeats this purpose, but many people believe adding cereal to bottle, helps make the baby feel full and sleep longer. It didn't work for us.

IMO, if baby is taking a paci and going back to sleep, no matter how hard they are sucking they are not hungry, if they were hungry they'd be frustrated and awake.

Re: Starting cereal questions for a 4 mo old...need help please!

I think you should try it on the spoon first and see how she does. I only did cereal in a bottle for one of my sons because he had reflux/spit-up issues.

Both of my DS's are also big boys- started DS #1 at 4.5 mos and DS #2 at 5 months with cereal. They were both hungry and ready!!

I started with rice on the spoon, mixed with formula to make it kind of soupy. I did the first cereal meals in the middle of the day. This way, if it did not agree with them for some reason- the gas/discomfort would not be at night, keeping us all up.

After rice, I tried oatmeal. I did each for at least 3 days to make sure there was not any allergic reaction.

At 6 months- started veggies, than fruits. Have fun and GL!

Re: Starting cereal questions for a 4 mo old...need help please!

From a ped. dietitian

Your ped. is right. Do not put cereal in bottle for these reasons.

Changes sucking mechanism
replaces the nutrition from formula
adds excessive carbs, decreases protein

The idea behind cereal is to be a supplement to formula/bm and also to teach them how to manipulate their tounge to be able to eat.

Start out with about 2oz of formula and 1tsp of cereal - it should be a little bit thicker than formula. Gradually increase the amount of cereal to get to right consistency - will prob take about a month. It takes about 4 weeks for LO to learn how to eat. So don't be concerned if they spit it out - often!

After about 2-4 weeks you can begin adding veggies, fruits. I usually recommend veggies first b/c they are not as sweet as fruit. Start with oranges, then green, etc. Once they have taken all veggies/fruit you can start mixing. You can also mix it in with the cereal.

HTH!

Re: Starting cereal questions for a 4 mo old...need help please!