tell me about starting solids with rice cereal/oatmeal vs. veggies/fruit purees...

[Anonymous]

We are starting DD on solids this week, she is a little over 5 months. I was planning on skipping the cereals and starting with the fruit and veggies purees (with the first being sweet potato). However, my ped (while also saying that plan was fine) said that introducing the grain cereals first may help with sleep, because it is more filling than fruits and veggies. DD is not a great sleeper, and still wakes up at least twice a night expecting to nurse, if not more-although that is a topic for a different thread-and I have to admit it sounds good to imagine her sleeping stretches longer than 4 hours. So for those of you who started with cereal-did you see longer sleep stretches? For those of you who started with purees, when did you introduce the cereals? Did your LOs not like them after eating the fruits and veggies? FWIW, I am planning on making my baby food for at least the time being, so anything she would be getting will be home-made, rather than processed.

TIA!

[Anonymous]

Just curious...why are you thinking about skipping over the cereals/grains?

[Anonymous]

Not really. It's an old wife's tale.

And grounds for me to find a new Ped!

[Anonymous]

Traditionally babies are started on rice cereal and oatmeal because it is the least allergenic food to begin with. However, there's no real research that supports statements like it helps babies sleep through the night, or anything. I would rather start my baby on fruits and veggies than commercialized cereal, but that's me...

[Anonymous]

For those of you who started with purees, when did you introduce the cereals?

We never did. We started with applesauce, pureed sweet potato, mushed up bananas ... and never had cereal at all. We introduced grains a couple months later with baby puffs as his first finger foods.

[Anonymous]

We skipped grains to begin with since they are much harder to digest. We started with banana and sweet potato a little after 6 months. Around 8 months we added oatmeal, but never did rice cereal.

[Anonymous]

My pedi told me she recommends rice cereal because of its iron supplements, which breastfeeding babies need beginning around 5/6 months. Earth's Best has organic, whole grain, brown rice cereal that does the trick.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My pedi told me she recommends rice cereal because of its iron supplements, which breastfeeding babies need beginning around 5/6 months. Earth's Best has organic, whole grain, brown rice cereal that does the trick.

Oatmeal also has iron and is better nutritionally than the rice cereal. Less likely to cause constipation/stomach upset as well.

[Anonymous]

We skipped rice cereal but are doing oatmeal & things like mashed sweet potato, mashed banana, applesauce, etc. I haven't used any jarred baby foods yet (baby is 7.5 mos) and I think I will probably make most of her food myself. I won't bother with rice cereal now, but she loves oatmeal & I can mix other things into it so I will continue with oatmeal. I have also given her very small bits of melon, peach & other fruit if I was eating it, and I have given a few cheerios, broken in pieces & she loved them. I tried avocado hoping she'd love it but she didn't. Will try that again, though, as it is great for babies & has a lot of healthy fats.

[Anonymous]

just my experience...i dont know about starting with sweet potato - it's a bit heavy. my dd did not do well with it all in the beginning, and it kept her up at night w/stomach issues. we also had trouble w/rice, but much luck w/oatmeal. frankly, if you find a food that agrees w.your child, i dont think it matters all that much.

and solids did not help my DD STTN. she's now 10 mo's, eating pretty much all that we are eating, and not sleeping. wahhh!

[Anonymous]

Cereal made my DS sleep worse! The rice didn't agree with his stomach so we switched to oatmeal. It still didn't help him sleep longer. At 5 months I would've been thrilled with only 2 wake ups a night.
My DS did start sleeping better when I Introduced meat though.

[Anonymous]

We started with sweet potato and banana (separately) at 6 mos and DS loved both and ate them by the bucket with no stomach troubles. We stirred a healthy dose of olive oil into the sweet potato to up the good fats. Use very ripe bananas. No effect on sleep, though.
DS never liked plain cereal, but later on we started stirring baby multigrain cereal into yogurt to make a nice thick porridgey dessert.

[Anonymous]

We started after 6 months and skipped the cereals on the advice of our pediatrician. We added them at 10 months (multigrain and oatmeal) for the iron; I stir them in with fruits and veggies.