My doctor has recommended starting my 3.5 month old on rice cereal because he's hungry all the time. Well i tried spoon feeding him some which he loved for about 3 days and now seems to hate it and whines everytime i try to put the spoon near his mouth. So i thought about putting some in a bottle which i tried last night but couldn't seem to get the right consistency without clogging the nipple. Does anyone have a measurement of cereal they use...like how ever many teaspoons to this many ounces of formula? My son started sleeping though the night when he was taking cereal from a spoon so the sooner i can get him gobbling cereal again, the better :o)
Rebekah,
My son is almost 4 months old and his doctor started him on cereal in his bottle with formula to help his tummy. He has been on it for over a month. The doctor told me to put one teaspoon of cereal per one ounce of formula. Hope it helps. Also, moving him to the stage two nipples helped the clogging issue.
S.
Dear Rebekah,
I am sorry that you were given this terrible advice from your doctor. How old is he...must be "old school". Babies are not ready to eat food until they are at least 6 months old. They can develop major digestive problems and possibly food allergies if fed too early. They also are not physically ready. I am surprised that he actually ate from a spoon. Did you nurse? It is possible even with a child that is not a newborn. JK
The avent bottles have nipples for cereal, if I remember correctly the cut in the nipple is slanted.
My son's name is Isaac too! My pedi. recomended I spoon feed my son cereal right after giving him a bottle/nursing. I have also read that feeding it in the bottle can be a choking hazard. But I have never heard of special nipples for this purpose.
hi .... have you tried the bottles for cereal? you can find them at albersons.they are a special bottle that has a nipple which allows the cereal to flow through easer. and at the bottom of the bottle theres a push lever. as the baby sucks the lever pulls the cereal towards the nipple. and don't forget to make the cereal more formula then cereal. it has to be liquid enough that it will flow right. and as the baby gets better, you need to add a little more cereal then formula. if you get this bottle you baby will love you forever. trust me , i've used it for all three of my kids and for my grand baby.the only bad thing about the bottle is ... when i started using it , it cost around 3.00 and not i think it cost around 7.00+ . but it is well worth the cost. your baby will start sleeping all night , which mean you will get to sleep all night.... lol .. good luck ... L.
They have Y shaped nipples for cereal in bottle, Dr. Brown's. You might check other brands. We started out with maybe teaspoon, and then worked up to tablespoon.
Never feed an infant cereal in a bottle. Never.
My sister in law is going through the same thing with her 3.5 month old girl. The pedi told her to only put in 1 tsp of cereal per 4 oz of formula. If she makes 5 oz tho she still os only putting in 1 tsp. My daughter didnt like plain rice cereal either but likes the rice cereal with bananas.
I use cereal in my daughter's bottles for AR. The doctor suggested one teaspoon per 4 ounces of formula. It seems to come out of the bottle just fine. I hope this helps!
Here's a link to another person that had a question about this. I would NEVER give a child anything besides liquids in a bottle. If your child is not sleeping through the night, read the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child...it's fabulous. Personally, I think that children that young still need to feed during the night if they are not getting enough during the day. (But I breasfed my son so that was a little different). I've had friends that formula fed that would cluster feed their child in the evening to ensure a full stomach for bedtime. These are just my opinions. Good luck.
We created nipples just for cereal bottles. We nipped the top with scissors to create a slit so the cereal could flow through. You will have to play around with the consistency to see what works. We would make the formula then added cereal as needed to thicken. We did finally figure out a ratio but I can't remember what it was--maybe 2 oz cereal to an 8 oz bottle--not sure. But I hope the nipple idea helps!
If you haven't already, buy the largest nipple opening available for the bottles you are using. We used advent and for night time bottles with rice cereal added, we used a #5 nipple. I believe we used 1 tsp full of rice cereal. Hope this helps.
TwinsMom
We've been putting cereal in my daughter's bottle since 2.5 months (we still do and she'll be a year this week). We started out with about a teaspoon. We use the Playtex NaturalAire bottles. You will probably need to use a number 2 nipple just for the cereal feedings. Once your baby is on juice/water mixture you can add it to that too. Its a great way to introduce cereal and I have never heard of not doing it, my pediatrician also recommend it to us.
you could try the old fashioned method of sterilizing a safety pin and poking the hole in the nipple to make it bigger. or, you could buy bigger nipples. they used to make a bottle and nipple specifically for rice in the bottle. good luck!
From what I've heard and read you should NEVER put cereal in their bottle, they can choke while drinnking it. I don't know how your baby eats but, my daughter would eat every 3 hours which is normal, their tummys are small and they have to eat often. Maybe if you mix the cereal with juice he might like it better. Good luck!
