Questions for those who decide not to start on rice cereal

[pixelbox]

I will be starting solids for my LO soon when he is a little over 6 mo. For those of you who decide not to start your LO on rice cereal... please advice:
1. What did you start your LO on
2. How old was your LO when you start solid
3. What's the reason you did not choose rice cereal

Thank you very much for your help.

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Hi,

Both of my kids were about 5/5.5 months when we started solids and they both had pear for a first food, followed by apple & banana. I think we did cereal after 6 months, but my memory is not so good anymore1

The reason?  Because I was starting them earlier than the recommended 6 months (here anyways) I though something like pears would be easier on the tummy than cereal.  My oldest never did warm up to it and even now gags if you put a spoon of oatmeal in front of her!

[Peek-a-boo]

I didn't do rice cereal because I opted to avoid all grains until after 9 months as they are hard to digest.  I've read that LO's are missing some digestive enzyme needed to digest grains until sometime between 9-12 months.   It's also very constipating.

We started with sweet potatoes and then pears.

LO was around 6 months.  We just did one meal a day for a month or so.  

[GingerNut]

We started with apple at 5.5 months, then moved on to pear, then the usual root veg - carrot, sweet potato, butternut squash. I didn't bother with baby rice as I didn't think it seemed particularly appetising!

She eats cereals now happily - in fact ReadyBrek is one of her favourite things at the moment.

[Chicane]

We started with rice cereal and pear. But I think the next time round I am going to start with mild fruits and veggies and leave the cereals for a bit later. I have a feeling that perhaps DS wouldn't be so carb crazy if I had started with more veggies...but who knows?

[aisling]

I BF'd until 19 months. We started with pear at 5.5 months and then moved on to sweet potato and then basically everything with reason LOL, of course following the 3 day rule. We have no food allergies or intolerances in our family btw.  I did not want to give rice cereal as I did not see it's nutritional value (and the scare tactic of iron deficiency if you don't give it to your baby!) outweigh the over processing of something in a box. I wanted to give my baby first foods that have their own natural enzymes that digest via there own chemical reactions and therefor easier for my baby's digestive system.  Cereal in a box has a shelf life for years! Scary.

I followed a great book, and still use it to this day as it was recommended by Tracy in BW Toddler - http://www.superbabyfood.com/

I made my own rice cereal, buying organic brown rice that I pulverized in my blender and made a delicious, all natural, nutritious cereal for my baby. 

I also used this website: http://www.annabelkarmel.com/     and: http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/

HTH.

[cath~]

We've just started weaning.  My LO is 5 1/2 months old now.

This is what she's eaten so far:

day 1 - carrot puree
day 2 - butternut squash puree
day 3 - pear puree
day 4 - sweet potato puree
day 5 - banana puree
day 6 - carrot puree

...

She's loving it all and always seems to want more.  However, I'm going to keep the portion sizes small for the first week or so, just to make sure her digestive system can cope with it all!

Was planning on introducing baby rice/baby porridge for breakfast next week or the week after, possibly with a fruit puree stirred in, and then have a veggie for lunch/tea.  Am planning on introducing apple puree, parsnip puree, avocado puree and swede puree over the next week or so, and then start combining purees to create more variety.

It's only been a few days, and I've not been giving her a lot, but so far she has slept for a longer stretch at night and last night she went from her df at 2215 until 655 without a feed.  Fab!

[anna*]

We started with pear at six months, then carrot. The first cereal he had was spelt porridge. I'd read about rice being basically zero nutritional value, and constipating to boot, so I didn't see the point.

[cath~]

Oh, and to answer your question no. 3, the reason I didn't start with baby rice was that I thought it sounded kind of bland and boring, and I was excited about making purees!  I followed the suggestions in one of Annabel Karmel's books (although I know in other books she suggests starting with baby rice).  I don't think it matters too much whether you start with rice or not (although this may depend on the age of the LO).

[Hedgehog17]

We are starting this w/e when DS will be a week under 6 mo.

First meal will be carrot 

We're avoiding cereals as I heard they make reflux worse, and we have only just about got that under control 

He is also prone to constipation as he got that with infant gaviscon, so I'm not taking any risks!

[pixelbox]

I'll also be starting LO on solids this weekend. Thank you for all your replies. I'm thinking of starting him on sweet potato. Does anyone know if sweet potato has the tendency to cause constipation? I know that the skin contains fiber but I'll be pureeing without the skin. Really want to avoid getting my son constipated.

Thank you

[Hedgehog17]

Hmmm I heard it can, so maybe you'd be better with carrot or butternut squash?

[trimbler]

Thanks everyone for good advice - can I just tag along here too? I started my LO on rice (very runny with EBM) a few days ago because I'd heard something about iron and calories and was starting to feel he might need a bit more than breast milk (and doctor agreed). I hadn't heard about it being constipating and hard on the digestive system but his night-time sleep the last few days has been awful! Cut out the rice today and will do pear in the morning (just once a day) for a few days and see if this improves things. But I'm also really keen to find out which foods are 'safer' for younger babies and which to avoid until later - so many things are advertised as being suitable from 4 months and I think I've been a bit gullible here... I spent last week making up the following purees - can anyone advise whether any of these should be delayed until later? Also I had thought that as long as the food is very runny then it shouldn't be a problem - our experience with the rice (if that's what it was) contradicts this, but I guess at 5mo the purees should be very runny anyway?

pear (very runny and more soft puree - which I'd mix with boiled water if needed)
apple (puree - again, would mix with boiled water if needed)
pea (ditto)
carrot (ditto)
carrot and swede (ditto)
potato (would probably mix with EBM to make more runny)
banana (ditto)
sweet potato (ditto)
butternut squash (ditto - or water, not sure)

also planning to do broccoli, courgette and green beans... any foreseeable problems with these?

Thanks - hope any replies to this are also useful to you, pixelbox, and that I'm not just hijacking your post!

[Rileysmum]

We started at 6 months with butternut squash and sweet potato. The reason we started with those was because I had also heard rice cereal could be constipating, and figured that vegetables would have more nutritional value. Chose these 2 specifically because they have a little bit of sweetness, but not as much as fruits, and I didn't want him to expect too much sweetness from every new food.

[jesie]

DS was weaned at 6 months, he had pureed fruit and veg, no cereals or rice due to multiple allergies and intolerances.

[~inbalance~]

We skipped rice cereal for much of the same reasons already mentioned.  Started at 5.5mos here with DS1 and 6+mos with DS2, and with both I started with pear.  DS2 didn't like being spoon fed so we moved past purees and onto BLW after 6mos.

Trimbler, I don't think that any of those foods are problematic for a younger baby, however I do caution when starting so early (before 6mos in particular) to go slowly and maybe introduce only one of those every 3 days or even longer so that you can watch for any reactions your baby might have.  If you move too quickly and he reacts to something it would be almost impossible to figure out the culprit.  It's always a good idea to keep a food log as well.  Maybe some of these ladies might have something to add as well.  

[trimbler]

Thanks - I don't think the rice caused constipation as it was very runny with EBM. He did go about 36h between BMs (although that has happened with breastmilk before, very rarely), but when the next one happened it was still very runny. But I do think he was in some discomfort (which may have been teeth and not the rice at all!) so I'm going to be very careful in introducing new foods, as you suggest. Definitely had a better night last night with skipping the rice, so hopefully that will continue...??!

[cath~]

Hi trimbler - I am following Annabel Karmel's suggestions about which are the best fruit and veggies to start with.
She lists these here:

http://www.annabelkarmel.com/nutrition/babies-6-months/best-first-foods

Basically, she suggests that apple, pear, banana, papaya, avocado, carrot, potato, swede, parsnip, pumpkin, butternut squash and sweet potato are all fine to start with as they are easy to digest and unlikely to provoke an allergic reaction.

[trimbler]

Thanks cathn, seems like we're not too far off-track though... but I do wonder where the green veg comes into this, aren't they supposed to be good for iron? Are they not recommended near the start of weaning? So far (apart from the baby rice, which didn't seem to work very well), we've just done pear and sweet potato (mixed with EBM), both of which seem to have been taken very well, despite the sweet potato perhaps not being quite the right consistency (only discovered on defrosting)! But I was thinking I'd like to introduce a green veg quite early on... are there contraindications?

[cath~]

Hi trimbler,
Sorry for late reply!  I don't know exactly what the advice is for when to introduce green veg, but we introduced it (peas, brocolli, leeks (are they 'green'?)) around 6 months (2 weeks after we started weaning) and didn't have any problems.  I think Annabel Karmel says that once they've got the hang of the first few purees then it's ok to introduce almost anything (there's only a small list of things you can't give them, like salt, honey and eggs if they're not well-cooked), just as long as you do it gradually.  We've been adding new veggies, meat, fish, cheese and lentils to her diet quite regularly as she doesn't seem to have any problems with any of it.  Hth.

[trimbler]

Sounds like you're doing well! Our DS has gone off his food a bit recently (inc milk) due to a nasty cold so it's hard to judge which foods he likes - but he definitely has a preference for fruit over veg! Guess we'll just have to be patient and keep trying... Tried green beans for the first time this morning but I don't think he had any at all, despite peas being taken well at first... fun and games

[mianita]

Hi Ladies!
I'm also going to start solids with my DD in couple of weeks, around 6mo (will watch her cues if she is ready). And I'm researching for several weeks already. Our ped recomends to start with rice cereal. But I think we will go with veggies first, like butternut squash and sweet potato, then green veggies and some fruits. I don't want to start with fruits because of too sweet taste. I've heard that some LOs don't want veggies after
I've also read that some veggies contain lots of nitrates, even organic, like carrots... So it is better to introduce them little bit later than other food. Anyone heard about this?
Also from cereals I'm planning to introduce buckweat first. I've read that it's easy to digest, has looot of iron and not alergic. It's hard to find it though, but I found some buckweat baby cereals through Internet.

[lukemom]

I introduced my DS to solids at six months.  I did not give him rice cereal because my ND said that infants lack the digestive enzyme to breakdown the rice and therefore end up getting constipated.  When I did finally introduce grain it was at nine months and it was oatmeal.  Ds loved it and it is such a great way to start the day.  He is 28 months and still starts off with a bowl of oatmeal everyday.  The great thing about the oatmeal (or really any other single grain like ground brown rice) you can "hide" some nutritious foods like broccoli or in out case fish oil in it with fruit puree and he loved it.

To the pp, I avoided carrots until he was seven months old cause of the whole nitrate business.  The book Super Baby Foods also recommends waiting until atleast 7 months old.

As far as greens go between 6-9 months we did broccoli at 8 months, green peas at months and green beans at nin months.  Tried cauliflower at 9 months but DS never really liked it. 
Some other first foods i did was avocado and DS LOVED it, to this day he will eat that first off of his plate.  it is such a great first food.  Sooo healthy for them. Bananas, prunes, pears, mango, papaya, sweet potatoe, applesauce, carrots, squash and peaches, blackberries.  That was it for the first foods between 6-9 months. i still have my paper schedule with all the foods on it and the months i gave it.  LOL!!  Sorry if too long.
Good luck and have fun!!!!