When do I introduce baby cereal?

[jennifer h]

My baby is 3 months, and up until 2 nights ago she was waking once at night to eat. Now she has been getting up 2 or 3 times. She has also been spitting up more than usual. She is breastfed. Should I be giving her cereal? What do I mix in with the cereal? Is water okay?

 

[Barbra Elder]

you could give her ceral. u can mix in warm water or breastmilk. breastmilk would probally be better but u can use water to just make it warm. i suggest use single grain rice ceral for a suppoted sitter. its thinner unless u dont add enough breastmilk or water then it will be kinda thick. or u can try gerber first foods but id wait for that untill at least almost 4 months if not 4 months. For the spitting up try burbing her more. when the baby eats they can suck in air which puts a air bubble in there bellys and then they eat more so when they burb they spit up. thats what my son was doing and i started burbing him more frequently during feedings and he stopped spitting up as much just every now and again

 

[Pippin]

Current advice to is begin solids at around 6 months, with the earliest to even consider them being 4 months. Breastfed babies in particular benefit from delaying solids until at least 6 months.

3 months is a common time for a major growth spurt, so she's extra hungry. Keep nursing her, and she should return to her previous pattern in a few days.

When you do start solids you don't have to start with cereal -- any simple food is fine. If you do opt to offer cereal at that point, you'd mix it with breastmilk -- mixed with water it has no taste and no real nutrition.

 

[Lemons]

With as much as this gets asked every day, you could've easily Googled this. Start rice cereal no earlier than 4 months, preferably don't start until 6 months. you might be surprised to find your daughter, like my son, cannot handle rice cereal. It's actually been proven that babies can't digest it properly until 3 years old & it's only given so early because it's so bland & easy to make as thick or thin as needed. Mix the cereal with either expressed breastmilk or formula, never water.