How Much Rice Cereal Do I Feed My 4 Month Old?

My daughther is experiencing the same with her 4 month old son. If you give him 4 yo 6 ounces of formula give 2 to 4 ounces of cereal in baby spoon.

My litle boy was 5 months old yesterday. When I took him to my daughter at 4 months old she said I could start introducing foods 1 at a time. I did Ceral and started with 1 teaspoon and used a Spoon. I never put it in his bottle. This went on about a week. He did not much care for the Ceral so I tried Applesauce by itself to make sure there was no reaction then I started mixing it in with his Ceral. The third week I started using Ceral by its self. I tried meat a jar of ham and he gagged so we went back to just fruits and ceral. The last two days since he was going to be 5 months old yesterday I started giving him vegatables. I only give him 1 kind of food a day. I was only feeding him at night before we would go to bed around 9 then 30 minutes to a hour later his bottle this way the food would digest and he would have more room for his bottle. He sleeps through the night when I do this. Starting today I am going to feed him lunch and dinner as he is not wanting near as many bottles. When I feed him I was only feeding him about 10 bites of food then I increased it to a 1/2 container and now i am using a full cup. All I can say is you know your child better than anyone else and everyone is going to have different advice.Follow you instinct and do what it tells you. I wish you the best. If you would like to talk more you can email me at ____@____.com Thanks.

I waited with my daughter until she was about 5 1/2 months old and she loved it. I also had a big boy, but when I tried to introduce solids to him that early, he didn't like it. So, what I'm saying is you have to take each child individually. For both children, I mixed rice cereal with breastmilk and started out thin and got thicker. For good informaton I trusted the Dr. Sears guidelines (they matched my Pedi). His website is http://www.askdrsears.com/.
Good luck! A.

I added one tsp to her formula and mixed together. As she got a little older i mixed it with her Stage 1 Fruits and Veggies. When she moved to Stage 2 i added it to her thinner foods like Carrots, greenbeans, apple sauce. I slowly added more and more as she got older to thicken it up to an almost paste consitancy. This helped her to adjust to solids easer.

I still used it up to her reaching a year old for her apple sauce and other items just as a thickener.

See the note below regarding the AMAP recommendation. Starting a 4 month old on cereal is a bad idea for several reasons - but primarily and most importantly because physiologically - his gut is not ready to accept - nor digest cereal, or anything other than breast milk or formula at this stage in his development. It can potentially set your little one up for all sorts of issues including but not limited to severe allergies and digestion problems now and later in his life, not to mention that developmentally he cannot recieve this cereal in any other way than in a bottle - which is not how it is intended to be eaten. The same argument can be made of the nutritional side of this - the increased iron in the cereals (as all are iron fortified) causes painful contipation in little ones. we did not introduce cereal for these reasons until our son was 6 1/2 months old - at the guidance of his pediatrician, our wellness coach as well as much research on my own.

to adress the former concerns that only breast milk and formula are okay for baby I will add that the formula "AR" means "added rice." So, if formulas are okay then the rice must be also. I have been adding organic rice cereal to my daughters breast milk bolttle since she was 2 months. This helped her with her reflux. I add one tsp to 4 - 6 ounces. I know the AAP guidelines have changed but we have a lot more trouble with allergies now than before when food was introduced earlier. Its all about moderation. Good luck!

Actually the guidelines have changed over the years, and unfortunatly most pediatricians haven't let parents know that foods really shouldn't be introduced until closer to 6 months. Amer. Academy of Pediatrics recs 6 mo. and so does the Amer Allergy and Asthma Assoc as many of the pieces of research show that it can increase the child's risk for allergies. Additionally, baby doesn't have the enzymes necessary to break down the foods.

If you still decide to intro food, small amts. no more than 1 T. will prob. be the realm that you are looking at... maybe 2 T.

Hope that helps~

Not sure if he's had any experience with foods yet??? But usually the first few attempts are more for experimenting than actually consuming...enjoy the messy meal times :) Around 6 months, I started by giving both of my kids about 1 TBSP rice cereal mixed in with breastmilk or formula to a thin, soupy consistency. As your son becomes more experienced with the spoon and gets older, you can thicken the cereal and increase the amount to meet his nutritional needs, as well as mix in pureed fruits (stage 1-2 Baby foods). Have fun!

At 4 months, I gave my son 1 tablespoon of rice cereal to 2 ounces of milk (breastmilk or formula) and fed him with a spoon. As he got used to the cereal I added more cereal to the same amount of milk. I also gave him 1 tablespoon of a fruit and then a 2 or 4 ounce bottle. Once he tried all the stage 1 fruits, we tried the stage 1 veggies (my doctor said to try the orange veggies first and then the green ones). After we tried all the veggies, we tried meat with a fruit or veggie for lunch until he tried all the meats. Now we are trying the "dinners" which have mixed veggies and such. Even if my son didn't like the "new" food the first time, we tried it again the next day. I would try to give him something he liked each day. So far he eats everything we have given him. He's 7 1/2 months old.

It is recommended by most peds not to feed cereal until 6 months. You really should ask your doctor.

You'll find that all doctors have their own idea when to start baby on cereal. I had a failure to thrive baby boy, 19 years ago. My doctor started him on cereal at 2 weeks. Now for my other children and my grandson this would have been too soon, but like you I wondered at 3-4 months also. I started with a small amount, 1 tablespoon or so and kept it pretty thin. I started with just once a day, the evening and I believe it helped them sleep better. You might find with your little guy that once isn't enough with his size. You just have to see what fits best for you and your little guy. I'm "old school" and we started things way early with our kids and not early with our grandkids. Fix up a little plain rice cereal and see how he does. You'll be the best judge on what his needs are.