Starting Foods...

please stop feeding her cereal. The americanacademy of pediatrics recomends no food before 6 months. She doesn't need it, she needs breastmilk and the cereal is crowding out the breastmilk. Babies just can't digest food yet at 4 months. Believe me with my oldest I started food at 4 months and he has tons of digestive problems and loose stool until he was almost 3! My youngest I waited until he was 6 months and everything is sooo much better with him.

I didn't start any of my kids on the cereal until they were 6 months, so you might just want to stop for a while her bowels might not be developed enough for the cereal just yet - I know the doctors are in favor of waiting now not like when my 16yo was born.

I did have this problem with my 7 year old. I had to mix in a baby size spoonful of prunes in her cereal - I think it was 2 tablespoons of cereal on small spoonful of prunes.... Other wise poor thing would be constipated - she actually had to eat a prune everyday until she was about 2 1/2. Guess her bowels just developed slowly - she was the only one out of my 4 kids - - -

Easy way to save money on the prunes since you use so little. By the Gerber 1st stage prunes(with nothing else in them) - put them into one of those mini mini ice cube trays - that way you can freeze a jar and have 24 days worth of prunes - saves a lot of money since the prunes wont last that long once you open the jar. Pop the prune cube in with the cereal when you warm it - dissolves pretty fast.

Good luck

I had the same problem at 4 months, I even took my son to the pediatrician twice in a panic! The second time, I was told to let him try some juice... apple, white grape and pear made no difference, so I started adding a tablespoon of apple prune juice to his cereal and it worked! He also got a few bites of gerber prunes every morning and went from pooping every 5 days to at least once a day (he's 7 months now). Oddly enough, prunes are now his favorite food! Much more pleasant than the baby laxative and suppositories that were recommended to me!

Hello...
Just wanted to give you some words of advice... I love being a mom and the best part for me has been breastfeeding. Do you have a Le Leche League group near by you could attend? They are recommending holding off on solids until six months. Also, Dr. Sears suggests starting with fruits and veggies. This is the advice we followed and it was a very smooth and easy transition. There are lots of reasons to delay solids and many of the popular media and many pediatricians are not up to date on this new advice. In addition, the new suggestion on juice will be not to offer juice anymore. Even the WIC program will be re-vamping the program to do away with juice.
I will post some links for you to check out.... Also... check out kellymom.com for more breastfeeding info. That site has saved my sanity many times over!!

http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/solids-when.html...

http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/solids-when.html...

http://www.bflrc.com/newman/handouts/0501-HO16-Starting_s...

Also...When you feel you are ready to continue with solids, I love to check out wholesomebaby.com, cook books by Anabel Karmel (she also has a website.) Making your own baby food is easy and economical and the best part for us is that we are eating better as a family now.

I hope some of the links above are helpful to you...

p.s. I also wanted to add another link about not sleeping through the night and your daughter being four months old. This is one of the articles that saved my sanity!! They should hand this article out to all breastfeeding moms at the hospital.

http://www.kellymom.com/parenting/sleep/4mo-sleep.html

I find this web site very helpful. It sounds like her digestive tract is not ready for solid foods.

http://www.askdrsears.com/html/3/t032000.asp

Good luck!

First off, I have to say that I am glad that my daughter is not the only one who has a rocket in her butt!!( j/k )Okay I do have to say that I feel your pain, my daughter is 5 1/2 mths and we just started cereal/1st foods. My kid is a goofy one, she doesnt really like the cereal unless it is mixed with a fruit. she likes the fruits and veggies more than the cereal. She has been on juice since almost birth. My daughter was born prematurly, and poopie problems have been around since her birth. I have to say the juice works with keeping her regular, if a baby goes more than 2 days with out pooping, then she needs help. Suppositories for children are also great, just cut it in three and put one end inside her butt. These are the things that my daughters doctor has told me to do and they work. She drinks only pear or prune juice, 2oz of juice mixed with the rest water. I do hope that something that I suggested helps, Good luck. God Bless.

Try oatmeal! It seemed to be way easier on my babies stomachs.

it sounds to me like she is not ready yet. i suggest taking her off the solids completely for a few weeks then try again. how often does she nurse? if she constantly seems hungry and she needs to nurse constantly, then she should be ready, if not, then dont push her to eat yet.

I remember having similar difficulty when my son first started cereals at 4 months. The transition to solids can be stressful for young bodies to handle. When I first started giving my child solids, I began testing cereals one at a time for a period of about a week to test for food alergies. Perhaps your little one will fare better with a different cereal grain. Additionally, it could be the brand. I found that my son reacted more mildly to natural, organically produced foods. From what I have read, four months is a bit early to start fruits and veggies. Most literature suggests starting veggies at around 6 months, one a time to test for allergies. On a final note, each child develops at their own pace; your child may just need a little more time of a strictly "mama's milk" diet.I hope you find this helpful, best to you and your's.

I had this problem with my daughter who is now 5 years old... The doctor recommended me to stop and try again later. I did and she really didn't start any type of foods until 6 months. There little digestive tracts are not all the same. Every child is different. So around 6 months old she was ready. So give it a try. If she's sleeping throught the night just on breastmilk and is at the right weight I wouldnt be alarmed. Good luck!

wait till she's 6 months before introducing baby foods...cause thats what i did with my daughter when she was still a baby...and thats what her doctor told me.
if she reach 5-6 months,try giving her the mashed vegetables and fruits (gerber)...or if you're not sure, ask your daughter's doctor...

rice cereal can cause a problem sometimes. it's the iron and the grain. oatmeal is better because it has more fiber. You can make the oatmeal yourself and then it wont be fortified with iron. just take half a cup of oatmeal (old fashioned rolled oats, not quick cooking and if you can get organic that's even better) run it through the food processor or blender add that to two cups of boiling water and cook for 10 minutes. my daughter loves this with a little fruit mixed in. and you can thin it to whatever consistancy you need, either with breastmilk or water.

you can try giving her apricots, plums or prunes (cooked, not raw at 4 months).

btw - an exclusively breastfed baby doesn't need any other souce of nutrition. The whole guideline for starting solids between 4-6 months is based on the assumption that the baby will be completely weaned by 6-9 months. her little digestive system just might not be ready for solids. i would just go by her cues and your instincts about how she's handling the food, it's definitely ok to wait a little bit. As long as she's nursing enough she's doing great!

good luck!

Oatmeal worked better for my daugther. Rice cereal is very constipating. Mushy rice is recomended when a person gets diarhea to firm up and absorb toxins. Bananas are constipating too. I mixed them with avocado. Introduce separately but then you can mix. Avocados are a great first food. YOu could als try making your own rice cereal with brown rice. Good luck!

Baby's don't need ANYTHING but breastmilk for at least the first 6 months. Maybe she isn't ready for it. I wouldn't push the cereal.

Hi T.

My Daughter had gone through the same thing I actually stoped feeding her rice cereal all together and just went back to nursing. I waited till she was about 5 1/2 months. and tried the cereal thing again but instead of mixing with breast milk I would mix it with apple juice so it would help her absorb the iron better. It worked for us. She is now 6 1/2 months and I have only introduced her to baby food just recently. Hope this helps.
- E.

My advice would be to quit giving her the rice cereal. It seems to me that all was fine until you started giving her the cereal so I'm wondering what made you start her on it? Was it because she showed an interest in your eating and was not satisfied by nursing alone? Or was it just because she is 4 mos? I have heard of mothers giving their babies only breastmilk up until 6 months or even a year. If she needs more than nursing can give her, I would suggest doing the fruits and veggies thing. Most importantly, trust your instincts as a Mom.

T.,

Hi hun. Congrats on your baby. I so miss having a little one. My baby just turned 2. Starting an infant on cereal at just 4 months old may be pushing it a bit. Especially considering that she was perfectly fine without it. Her body seems to be telling you that it is not ready. There is a condition called *open gut* which all babies have in the beginning. You can google open gut and read why it is best to delay starting solids. Here is a bit of info that I found for you:

Babies, in the first four to six months of life, have what’s referred to as an “open gut”: there are spaces between the cells of the small intestine. The reason for this is so that beneficial nutrients and antibodies from the milk that Baby drinks can pass easily into the bloodstream...

Babies’ digestive systems lack the resources to process foods at the rates that adult systems do. The enzymes that digest the food don’t reach adult rates until nearly the end of the first year. If solid foods are started before a baby’s system is completely ready, it can cause uncomfortable effects such as gas or constipation – which, in turn, can lead to irritability and fussiness.

(http://www.googobits.com/articles/2885-introducing-solid-...)

For the above reasons, I tended to wait until later to start solids. I didn't know any better with my oldest (now 16) and he paid dearly for my lack of knowledge. :( With the other 4, I waited later and later to start solids. My now 3 year old didn't start solids until shortly before his first birthday and was not eating solids regularly until a few months after that. He was still the second biggest of my 5 children, weighing in at a hefty 29lbs on his first birthday! Remember, formula and/or breastmilk has EVERYTHING your child will need for at least the first year of her life. :)

Good luck!

Hi T.,

The AAP is now recommending babies start solids at 6 months, because some babies systems are just not ready for it until then. I would wait a month or so & then try again.

i know the peds are saying you can start at 4 months now, but i say two things: 1) if it ain't broke, don't fix it. you had a happy well-fed breastfed baby who was sleeping through the night and taking good naps. now you have an unhappy uncomfortable sleepless baby who is probably in semi-constant digestive pain. 2) four months is too early. especially for exclusively breastfed babies- it's a huge shock to their system. PLEASE STOP GIVING IT TO HER IF IT'S MAKING HER AS SICK AND SLEEPLESS AND UNHAPPY AS YOU'VE DESCRIBED. yes, yes, yes- switch to fruits and veggies or stop altogether and wait until the 6 month mark when the digestive system fully matures. sorry to come on so strong, but it seems like the answer to your question lies in your description of what's happening to your baby daughter. you'll both be much happier if you stop the rice cereal. she's not ready for it.

good luck!

S.

Hi,
Try switching to the oatmeal cereal instead of the rice cereal. My daughter got constipated on the rice cereal too.
Good luck!

I have a 7 month old girl and she started at 4 months also. We had the samething happen with her she gets constipated if she eats Rice Cereal so I have given her oatmeal instead she still gets constipated sometimes and I give her prune juice with water the doctor told me and it works. Maybe try her on oatmeal

Hi T., I got this great book called Super Baby Food. Tells you everything you need to know about feeding, including how to make your own food. I made all my own baby food, including the rice cereal. There is a great receipe for it "super porridge" my son did great with it, and it is much healthier than boxed rice cereal. Then you can decide about the iron yourself. Hope this helps!

try a new cereal. She may be allergic to it.

T.,

If it were me, I'd definitely quit the rice cereal. She's obviously not dealing with it very well in general and it has very little nutritional value anyway. Whether it is the iron she's reacting to or something else, I'd just quit using it. Then I'd give her a couple of weeks with no solids to give her gut a chance to clear and then I'd start with veggies. Most babies start solids between 4-6 months so she's really on the young side for solids anyway. It certainly wouldn't hurt anything even if you decided to just quit giving her any solids for another month or longer.

Both of my boys did nothing but scream with rice cereal so neither of them had it for very long.

:-)T.

She is probley not ready for ceraeal yet. Just becasue it says you can start foods at 4 months old soes not mean all babies are ready. In fact the longer you can wait the more mature her digestive system will be. I think you are causing problems that she wouldnt have had especially if she was still content nursing an sleeping all night. Generally if you have a bigger baby who can't get enough from you and can't sleep through the night becasue it needs to be fed, then you need to feed them solids. My daughter was strictly breastfed until she was 8 months old and we added cereal then. Babies can go over a year even just nursing, you need to take cues from your baby. When they are interested in what you are eating making mouth movements with you when you eat and such. Stop the cereal and wait a few more months. My baby boy now is 5 1/2 months and we still haven't started him on solids. He is content with normal feedings and sleeps through the night. I plan to wait as long as he needs. :) Hope this helps!!

my baby girl had an allergic reaction to rice cereal. the doctor told me to try barley and it was fine

I agree with the other moms - there is no reason to start solids until after 6mo. Regardless, you will see a change in stools with any new food. For breast fed babies, normal stool pattern is once every 10 days to 10 times per day. Solids will change the pattern and it will continue to change. Studies have found that babies do not really digest foods well and have potential increase in allergies if started under 6mo of age. If you do have constipation issues, and for any baby getting solids, offer water (no more than 2 oz to start and not in place of breastmilk or formula). I recommend the book Super Baby Food for great nutrition information for infants and recipes to make your own food when baby is ready. Also try wholesomebabyfood.com.

T.-

I totally get your problem... I have heard that the iron could do it... Sometimes we put a little prune juice in the cereal. Not only did it sweeten it up a little, but it usually did the trick!

Good luck,
K.

I recomed waiting till she is at least 6 months old before doing solids. You run more of a chance of allergies when you start too young :)

I'd say to stop the solids, her body is definitely trying to tell you something, it sounds like its saying she's just not ready. 4 months is really young to start solids anyway, and if she's thriving with the breasmilk I'd leave well enough alone. Give its at least a couple of more months. There's no hurry. Good luck!

Rice cereal is very constipating - my daughter had a serious SERIOUS problem with constipation as an infant, and the pediatrician reccommended we stop the rice cereal as it only adds to an infants constipation. Instead, he had us try the other type of infant cereal (I think it was single grain oatmeal, but Im not sure - just the OTHER infant cereal made my gerber). its the same consistancy as the rice cereal, but a different grain altogether that does not constipate. As your pediatirican, and he can tell you specifically which type to switch too!

As the other moms stated, since she is exclusively breastfed, she does not need anything else until she is 6mos (26 weeks). IF you are set on keeping her on food, and it has been long enough, try mixing the slightest amount of prunes in with her cereal...I mean slight! Take her baby spoon, dip it in so it is covered well and bring it out. The immense amount of iron that is in the baby cereals combined with the "nothingness" that is rice will clog anyone up, especially the littlest ones. It's going to take a few days and if it seems like the prunes are too much, any "P" fruit will do well. In fact, pears are very tastey and very gentle!

Take care, let us know how it goes!
M. M.

T.,
I had to laugh when I read your post. It reminds me of the same issues I had with my first two kiddos. I know get off such a good schedule is no laughing matter, but the poop exploding everywhere, I experienced that a lot! Anyway, my first two were both wanting to start solids at four months as well. My ped. recommended the oatmeal cereal or the mixed grain. I did oatmeal and they loved it. I just did that for a while with breastfeeding. They also really loved carrots. Carrots is also good and may help a little. I wish you the best, and hope that your little one gets to sleeping again!

I have a 5 1/2 month old baby girl and we had the same issue with the rice cereal which I tried last Tuesday. I gave it to her twice and on the third day she was miserable...constipated, gassy, not sleeping-everything you described. A few moms I know suggested the oatmeal instead because it has more fiber. I gave it to her this tuesday and wednesday and so far so good. She is more gassy than usual but doesn't seem to be uncomfortable. If you don't want to try the oatmeal then you could try making your own rice cereal, that would eliminate the iron which I suspect is the cause of the constipation. I've never made it but this is what a friend of mine suggested: cook organic brown rice, don't use oil or salt in the water, then puree it, and add a little breast milk to make is the right consistency. Good luck! I know how difficult starting solids is. I've been so confused and reluctant about it but my baby seems like she is so hungry so I'm giving it a go.