talk to me about starting cereal....

dd is 3 months and ped said she can start cereals next month. i didnt really ask questions yet because i was more focused on this month.
but thinking about it now.

did you start with rice then do oatmeal then barley?

is it necessary to do rice? can i go right to oatmeal?

what brand did you use?

if you skipped cereal at month 4 did you just wait to start fruits at 5 months?

talk to me about starting cereal....

I never gave DD cereal, we just started finger foods/purees at 6mo, all fruits and veggies and the occasional piece of meat. We have given her some oatmeal too, but we mostly stick to fruits/veggies/meat.

Re: talk to me about starting cereal....

It is not necessary to do rice. I think the on,y reason rice is recommended for the first food is that there is very rarely an allergic reaction or bad GI side effect. So you can "practice" eating w/o also having to worry about side effects too.

But you can start anywhere! I did oatmeal and intoduced one fruit ornveggie every 3 days, and shortly after did a multicereal mix so that I could see if ther was any negative response to wheat.

Re: talk to me about starting cereal....

Oh, and we used earths best or beech nut early in because they did not have any soy-based ingredients (dd is allergic to milk and likely soy). I'd say read the boxes and pick what has the least amount of additives.

talk to me about starting cereal....

We use the Gerber brand. We started with rice for 3-4 days and then went to oatmeal for 3-4 days. We never gave Barley because I just can't find it in the stores.

We gave it for dinner since it was easier for us (we were both home at that time) one meal per day. Then we went to two a few weeks later - breakfast was cereal, with a fruit or veggie mush for dinner.

Re: talk to me about starting cereal....

We started with gerber oatmeal.

talk to me about starting cereal....

I skipped rice and started with gerber oatmeal. I started oatmeal at 4 mos and fruits at 5

talk to me about starting cereal....

We did oatmeal because it was all that was in the store. After DS finished that container, we did rice because that was all I could find that day. I don't think it matters.

Re: talk to me about starting cereal....

We waited till 6 mos and started with Beech Nut single grain oatmeal. I just thought oatmeal would taste better and would digest better than rice. We did oatmeal for 2 weeks and then started fruits and veggies!

talk to me about starting cereal....

We started with oatmeal as rice is very constipating according to the ped

Re: talk to me about starting cereal....

I started with my DD at 4 months. I did rice cereal for a few days, then tried oatmeal. Then I started with Stage 1 fruits and veggies, in no particular order. I introduced a new fruit or veggie every 3-4 days. Once I went through all the Stage 1 foods I went right to Stage 2. At 6 months we started table foods..........scrambled eggs, cheese, yogurt, meatballs, pasta, shredded chicken, puffs, etc. I skipped all of the "meat" meals in the jar. My DD wouldn't touch them which was ok, they grossed me out anyway.

I used mostly Gerber baby foods but also would use Beech Nut and Earths Best on occasion.

Re: talk to me about starting cereal....

we started with oatmeal. after a week or so we just decided to start veggies and do oatmeal in the morning, he really didn't like it and i can't blame him.

we introduced all of the 5 first veggies, we stuck with veggies only for 3-4 weeks with oatmeal in the morning. Then we switched out the oatmeal and started introducing fruits.

we are a cereal free house now. such a waste i think.

Re: talk to me about starting cereal....

i started with rice cereal at 4 months, then after about 3-4 weeks did rice cereal and fruit. Then moved on to oatmeal which i still give now at 9 months.