Starting on cereal - not napping/not sleeping well

[markash]

I thought I would see if anyone has had the experience we are going through after beginning to introduce solids to our daughter.

3 days shy of her 6 month birthday we started her on a few teaspoons of Rice Cereal once a day at 12:00pm.  She really seems to enjoy it, which we were very happy about.  all other meals she is exclusively breastfed.

She was previously napping 1.5 hours in the morning, 2 in the afternoon, and sleeping through the night from 9:00pm - 6:30am straight. 

Now she will not nap longer than 30 mins in the morning.  After 30 mins of napping in the afternoon, she wakes up crying.  This seems to be a cry/wimper of pain.  I actually could hear her tummy rumbling which leads me to think the rice cereal is giving her a tummy ache/cramps.  I can't get her to go down after this and she is waking up 3-4 times in the night. 

I took a break today from giving her the cereal and just breastfed...same thing, after half hour wakes up crying.  Looks like she got in a routine. 

Does anyone have any suggestions/experience with starting on rice cereal and naps/sleeps/tummy.  Any help would be appreciated!

I am thinking sweet potatoes might be our next try at solids...

[becj86]

Are you offering water/EBM/a quick BF with/after solids? That was something I didn't do with DS til we had similar issues.

Also, how are her poos? The added iron in the cereal can constipate LO's. It is quite possible she's just getting used to how it feels to have solids moving through her - she's only had milk til now. Remember how she acted when she was newborn and feeling milk go through her tummy and doing a poo? She may have squirmed, gone red in the face, or even cried - this is related to the new sensation.

For now, I'd just BF for a few days, do some tummy massage and see if she comes good. Solids introduction is a slow process. I stopped for a week, then gave solids once every two days when I started again. TBH, I never did rice cereal again and we never had those issues again, though we often have issues of some kind if we use bought jars of food.

re: naps/night sleep - she may not be sleeping as well and therefore not as rested, so she's getting OT from the same A time she can usually do.

[markash]

yes i am actually breastfeeding (sorry don't know all the abbreviations) following the feed of the cereal.  Would you not recommend doing this?

She did not poop for 2 days in a row, so i figured the rice cereal did back her up. I took a 2 day break from the cereal and went back to strictly breastfeeding, and she did get back to normal.   Tried sweet potatoes yesterday and she pooped 2 times yesterday and does not seem to be upsetting her tummy as bad.  Tummy massages also helped. 

Now we need to work on sleeps and naps.  I agree with you, she is definitely not well rested, sleeping bad during the day, therefore sleeping bad in the night. 

[becj86]

No, its important she gets some liquid at the same time as her solid intake I didn't think of it when I started DS is all...

Good luck!

[flutie]

I think cereal an be hard on their bellies.  We started with pears, and are moving on to root vegetables (sweet potatoes, carrots, squash) next.  Going quite slowly in order to identify which causes any problems.....best of luck.

[Silashenrimom]

I am having the same issue. I can't figure out how to get my ds (4 months) back on schedule. He was sleeping through the night fine, but then started waking up in the middle of the night to eat. My doctor told me it would be fine to give him some rice cereal to help him feel full. That has constipated him. I tried going back to strickly bf but that didn't seem to fix the problem. Now he is waking up multiple times (around 4 times) throughout the night. I will try cutting out the rice cereal completely and maybe introducing sweet potatoes, but I am curious what you did to get him back to sleeping through the night. Did that just solve itself once the baby's tummy settled? I feel that he has gotten in the habit of waking up now since he seems to wake at the same increments each night. He often takes a full feeding when he wakes, but I wonder if he just thinks he is hungry bc of his tummy ache. He also is on zantac for gastric reflux, but as long as he has his medicine that doesn't seem to bother him anymore. Any thoughts?

[Lolly]

Silashenrimom - there is a huge growth spurt at 4 months which is probably why he started waking for feeds in the night again. There is more calories and fats in milk than in rice cereal so upping his milk intake is better for him than starting solids. Cereal is really hard on tiny tummies, especially if he already has digestive issues so I would stop solids for a while, he doesn't need it for a while yet anyway. Has his zantac dose been checked against his weight recently - 4 months is also peak time for reflux so that could be having an impact on night wakings too.

Laura

[dizzy]

I am having a similar problem but it is porridge that I think is the problem or breadsticks. I am going to have to remove them I think and go back to the beginning. Funny thing is they are really the only things he seems to like to eat apart from yoghurt. He is not fussed on the pear, carrot, sweet potatoor parsnip. He seems to like the finger foods mainly. Any advice.

[Silashenrimom]

Thank you for your help. I went back to bf exclusively and he is doing better. I think a little while longer and I will be able to get him back on schedule. I did notice a rash on his stomach yesterday. It is already almost gone, but that day he had a couple ounces of formula while with a sitter. Could that be a milk allergy? How old is your baby Dizzy? With my older son, he really enjoyed the dissolving fruit flavored snacks similar to cheerios that Gerber makes.  I also buy sweet potato fries sometimes that you bake.

[Erin M]

Dizzy, are you familiar with baby led weaning?  There's a thread on it at the top of this forum -- you can give things like carrots, sweet potatoes, etc as finger foods, as long as you cook them until they're mushy and cut them up into small pieces.  Worked really well for my dd2 who would never eat off of a spoon. 

Silashenrimom, not sure about the rash, has it ever happened before?