4-1/2 Month Old Cranky with Cereal

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends waiting until at least 6 months to start solids. Until 6 months at least, babies should just be given breast or formula. This has a long term affect of reducing allergies and digestive disorders.

Hello M., Maybe it has nothing to do with the cereal and more to do with him wanting to be with you at bedtime. I highly recommend, "The No Cry Sleep Solution," by Elizabeth Pantley. Get the one for babies. The library has this book. It has tons of ideas and is respectful of all different parenting styles. ~T.

Hello M. -

Two things...

1) He could have an allergy - but I think it is rare to have a rice allergy.

2) It might be too early and the food is hard for him to digest. I breastfed - and had heard to wait until closer to 6mths to start foods other than breastmilk. There really isn't a rush... it's more practice in the beginning than nutrition.

If you are really gung ho on starting now, maybe try earlier in the day - maybe mid-morning. Or after a nap. If his tummy is having trouble it may be good to be awake for a while after the food.

Hope that helps.

My son doesn't do well on solids in the evening either! He's 8 months old now and still the same thing. It seems like he's spends the whole night pooping and gassy. He definitely doesn't sleep as well. So, I've just stopped giving it to him in the evenings. He eats solids for breakfast and lunch, and is happy to just nurse in the evening. I try again about once a week just to check, but so far it's a no.

Dear M.,
Consider why you are giving your baby cereal at such a young age. It may have "worked" with your daughter, but it is very hard on their little systems to be digesting foods at such a young age. If sleeping is the issue, I would prefer a baby that is up more at night compared to giving foods at too young of an age to digest. I have also found that all my children were different. I breastfed my babies and didn't give them cereal until they were older and then as I had more children I learned not to introduce foods until they were insistent to eat and had some teeth. Then I introduced one food at a time, fruit and veggies first made in the baby grinder. Allergies are a definite concern with early introduction of foods as well, and from my experience all of my boys were more prone to having colds, ear problems and croup than my girls.
Really look at what you want vs. what is best for your baby. Reading more on the subject, asking Naturopaths, that treat a lot of allergies would be a good start.
It may be harder to wait, but it is worth it.
God Bless,
H. B MOM (mother of many-9)

You might try Barley. Bob's Red Mill has some good options as well. Rice is actually pretty allergenic. We always started with Barley and never had a problem and we have one son with severe allergies.

You could try it in the morning and see if he has the same response. Then you know it is a gastrointestinal issue. Also, taking it away for a week would answer that.

I started my son on cereal at about 4 months old - only because he had acid reflux and the solid food (cereal mixed with breastmilk) helped to keep his food down better. Otherwise... as everyone else has said, 6 months is ideal for starting solid foods.

Two things could be going on. He could be too young for solids. I wouldn't start a child on solids until 6 months. Their little tummies have the enzymes to digest breastmilk and that's about it. I do not think grains are that easy to digest..IMO. If you want to start him on solids, perhaps start with broth.

Secondly, if you are feeding him before bed, he may need time to digest it so that he can poop. In my experience, my children will not sleep well if they have to poop. Could you try feeding him earlier in the evening? You could also add some baby probiotics to his cereal to see if that doesn't calm his tummy.

Hope this was of some help.

Warmly,
gwen

I have a 5 month old. We just started him on Earth's Best cereal one week ago. He gets 1TB cereal with about 1 oz milk. He was also very cranky when we put him to bed a couple weeks before the cereal and still after the cereal. The last two nights I've swaddled him - it was the trick. He now goes to bed just fine without the fuss. I wonder if your little boy is needing the swaddle and it's not the cereal that's making him fussy? Just a thought...since our boys are similar in age.

When we started my oldest on cereal we had similar problems. I would suggest either nursing first, and then giving him the cereal, or giving him in the mroning. That's what finally worked for us, feeding him cereal in the morning. I think my son just filled up to much on cereal, and then with nursing on top of it, his tummy was just too full, and then he'd fuss, and wake up a few hours later to nurse again. When we stopped giving him the cereal at night, he stopped with the crankines, and the waking up.

Baby's tummy probably just isn't ready for the rice cereal yet. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no solid foods until 6 months old. Also, the iron in the cereal is not as easily digestible as the iron in breastmilk. So, the iron in the cereal is outsourcing the iron from your breastmilk and is not as digestible. Good luck!

Hi M.!

You know I had issues with Gerber rice with my daughter and I ended up finding a wonderful cereal that I use. It is by Beach Nut and I get it at Kings Soopers. It is actually brown rice instead of white. I think it mixed better and was easier on my daughter. For some reason she had a hard time with Gerber as well. The cereal from Beach nut has a night time formula and a morning formula (which has fruit in it) I will not use anything else with my daughter or any future children of mine. Good Luck! Let me know if it works for you!

J. S

1. You are filling the babies tummy to full by feeding and nursing so close together.

2. Feed cereal 1 hour earlier and nurse same time you are now.

3. If that doesn't work switch to oatmeal.

4. I know other people say "don't give solids till 6 months" The medical community typically recommends starting cereal at 4 months.

Hi, I'm a first time mom, so maybe this won't be even slightly helpful for you... My baby is 3 months 1 week, but HUGE. he's advanced in terms of weight, as well as motor skills and awareness. I asked my doctor if I could start him on pablem, but he informed me that my baby's stomach is still much too tender. My doctor told me that although sometimes my little guy will take 2 consecutive bottles, he shouldn't be introduced to solids this early on. Maybe you should try taking him off of the rice cereal for a while, see if it helps.

Hi-
My pediatricians have all said that solid food should not be started until at least 6 months of age, due to how difficult it is to digest. You could stop the cereal until a later date, or try oatmeal or barley cereal, which are much less constipating. I am not sure why everyone starts with rice when it is so hard to digest for the little ones. I switched to baby oatmeal and it was better. Also, feeding him solids before bed will not make him sleep better or longer. If you do keep feeding him cereal of some kind, limit it to once a day at first preferably in the morning or mid-day.

Try feeding him his cereal in the morning instead of at night. In daycare, the food program requires us to feed a baby cereal for breakfast and for lunch. Once he's tolerating it well, you can move up to giving it twice a day. But cereal and milk might be too much for him right before bed.

Try single grain rice, the whole grain is probably too hard to digest and may be giving gas.

You might want to only do solids in the mornings or try feeding them earlier in the evening. It may be causing gas because a young child's body is not used to digesting solids after only receiving breastmilk. Remember breastmilk is much easier for a child to digest than formula and baby cereal is even harder.

I hope you can figure out how to help your little one through this.

When my kids were babys, I gave them their cereal in the morning and then gave them a bath. The bath seem to help them. J. H

Babies' stomachs are not ready for anything other than breastmilk or formula until at least 6 months, and sometimes even then the baby isn't ready. Try doing to research on feeding solids to a baby before 6 months. Also cereal has no nutritional value so in essence what you are doing is filling up his stomach so he won't be hungry- when in reality he should be hungry for milk that will give him the nutrients he needs to grow.

We had the same problem when we started our son on rice cereal...his tummy just didn't seem to handle it! We switched to Gerber DHA oatmeal cereal and had better luck but even that seemed to cause tummy issues! Now we eat cereal for breakfast and at supper time but no longer right before bedtime and we do well with it! It's taken a few months but I think we have mommy, daddy, and baby's tummy trained! Goodluck!!

Try giving him mylicon after he eats, that will help him pass any gas that may be a cause. New foods, especially the first cereals. Maybe not give him cereal at night but in the mornings and see how it reacts.

Hi M. - have you tried moving up the cereal feeding? A bunch of cereal followed by nursing for 20 minutes may just be too much for his little tumnmy to handle, making it very uncomforatble to sleep. I doubt the rice cereal itself is causing the problem, but it could be a reflux issue, or constipation. I know Rice cereal is famous for causing constipation.....has he had any problems in that dept.? My pediatrician recommended Oatmeal for that reason. Good luck!