Kaboutjie SA Mommy Blogs by Lynne Huysamen
Did you know that there are a few concerns around starting your baby on rice cereal?
Here are some reasons rice cereal is not a great first food:
- It can cause obeseity.
- It can make your baby constipated.
- Aspiration risks
- Lack of nutrients in rice cereal (other than iron).
Please do not add rice cereal to a bottle of formula or breast milk and think that it will allow a child to sleep longer as this is very dangerous and it could land up in your child’s lungs.
Prior to 4 months, infants may not have the oral motor skills required for swallowing non-liquid textures, and they may breathe food into the lungs. Even at 4 months or older, infants should not start solid foods until they show signs of readiness.
I’ve started my 5month old girl on cereal reason why she has a big weight when she was born she weight . 4.2 an now she’s even heavy. Everytime I ate something she use take my hands to her mouth even when I drank something I took the signs as she’s telling me she’s ready for food is this right?
My 7 month old baby boy didn’t want to eat any solids until recently. He kept pushing away food and turned his head when I tried to feed him which to me meant he was not ready for solids. As long as he was drinking his milk I was fine. I kept on trying though by slowly introducing cereal in his baby bowel with a soft tip spoon-not in his bottle as everyone was telling me. I did not want to make him lazy or to delay his swallowing. He is slowly starting to eat his cereal- which is a mixed cereal that I mix with his milk which has lots of vitamins and he eats a few spoons a day. I personally do not want to start him off with rice cereal as I feel it is too heavy for such a small child.
This is interesting … My baby eats cereal but not rice cereal (As my mom advised me against it) … My one has cereal for breakfast and some purity for lunch … We do not add it to the bottle but mouth feed.
Wish I had known about rice cereal causing weight gain as my baby girl had the opposite problem of most. She had trouble keeping on weight. I fed her very enriched oatmeals with applesauce. This was around seven months old though, she was more than old enough for baby foods. I would have added in rice cereal if I had known.
And, yes i do agree that an infant should never be given rice cereal too early as it can pose a health risk.
Im thinking af wait till 6 months then only see if his ready if not i will be patient till his ready…
I agree Lisa. My baby is 11weeks now and i also want to start with cereal and purity at 6 months only.
Marisca starting solids is loads of fun! Enjoy:)
Lynne is that sarcastic? Lol…??
Cause ive heard the diapers are terrible when they start solids.
No I meant enjoy starting the solids, that’s fun. The nappies are not so cool. Firstly baby often gets constipated when starting solids and also the poops are… well umm you’ll see!
While only on milk the poops are not bad at all, not that smelly… but when they start solids it gets really gross.
Yes,i started to feed my boy when he was 4months though and i make sure it was not too solid for him since he have a small tummy.
I never fed my son rice cereal but I give him organic cereal and purity from clicks for age from 2 months