Rice cereal intolerance?

[Tina (mum to 4)]

I have tried my baby (6mths) on rice cereal on 3 different occasions now (waiting a month from the 2nd to 3rd try) and she becomes extremely unsettled for the day after having (very similar behaviour to when she had silent reflux - squirming, not sleeping, wanting to be held etc).  I have read that it is very rare to have an allergy to rice, so I am wondering if it may be something that they put into the cereal (additive etc) or if she really is intolerant.

Has anyone else found this with their baby?  Has anyone tried making their own rice cereal?

DD is also diary intolerant and on goats milk.

[scarlettsmom]

Hi there,

It is pretty rare to be intolerant to rice, however my dd2 was!  Some rice cereals have soy in them, and the preservatives could bother your LO.

Honestly, I never even did rice cereal with dd2.  It constapitated dd1 so terribly after the very first try neither of them ever had it since. 

Has the symptoms gotten better since removing the cereal?  Have you checked out the ingredients to see if there is anything suspect?

[deb]

I'd try a different cereal. Josie got bound up pretty much with rice as well, so we tried barley, oatmeal, and millet, and it's been so long I can't remember what we settled on, I think oatmeal.

If you can get a look at Ruth Yaron's book Super Baby Foods, she talks a lot about different grains and making your own cereal. I used it as a sort of template for my kids, didn't go along with everything (she's vegetarian and we're devoted carnivores, for example *grin*), but once we found all the other stuff that babies can eat besides the standard rice cereal in a box, it opened the door for a lot of new stuff for us all.

[Tina (mum to 4)]

Thanks ladies. 

Well she settled the next day and has been fine, so I am thinking I will just avoid the rice cereal altogether until she is older. 

Thanks for the name of the book, I will def give that a read.  It just seems my dd is sensitive to a lot of things.  I even think my perfume sets her off (spewing, cause I love my perfumes!!).  She keeps me on my toes, my first 3 children didn't have any of these probs.

Thanks again ladies! 

[skipper11]

I know you've already decided to avoid rice cereal, but I just wanted to add to those whose baby had a problem with rice cereal.  My DD is dairy intolertant too -- I *thought* maybe our rice cereal had a dairy product in it?  But it's been over 6 months since we cut it out, so I can't really remember ...

Anyway, we switched her to oatmeal and she was a much happier baby.