Introducing Cereal

My son was exclusively breastfed at that age and also had very frequent (4-5/day) very loose stools as well! I was buying Dreft stain remover by the gallon I think. I started on rice cereal at 6.5 months old and he did just fine with it. He is now 9.5 months. My ped also told me that breastfed babies will go 3-5 days without a Bowel movement. But my son never did - he went often and never missed! All babies are different. I would wait til 6 months for solids and start him on rice cereal, then oatmeal then multi-grain. I also started him on avacodos, sweet potatoes, and squash as some first foods. Remember the 4 day wait rule! Best of luck!

Hi J.....my 6 month old daughter had changes in her poop pattern as well. She was an excellent pooper from birth to about 4 months old. She went from pooping 3 or 4 times a day to only pooping once every other day around the 4 month mark. We started her on rice cereal at 14 weeks (with her dr.'s blessing) and baby food at 18 weeks old. Maybe that affected her pooping...who knows? After that the consistency of her poop changed as well. It became almost like adult poop. Very thick and looked just like the baby food. If we fed her green beans the poop was green. If she ate carrots the poop was orange etc. But she is healthy and thriving, so I don't worry too much about it.

Go ahead and try the cereal. I started out mixing the cereal with breast milk. She loved it. I made it the consistency of runny oatmeal. Your baby sounds ready for it. Rice cereal will probibly make his stools more solid and less runny. So will apple sauce baby food. And squash baby food as well. Give it a try and good luck! And don't worry too much about his poop. He sounds healty so just try to relax and enjoy his babyhood! Congrats first time mama!

Your son actually sounds like he poops A LOT for a breastfed baby! Mine only did it every few days and there was a month or so where my first only pooped on weekends...for daddy;)

You're right, there's no reason to start so early with solids. In fact, breastfed babies don't need cereal at all. You can start with mashed soft foods right from 6 months. There's a big story behind why cereal and stage one and two purees even exist that I won't go in to unless you want it, but just know that you can skip them both and just give him things like mashed bananas, sweet potatoes and avacado from the beginning. Sure, people start earlier and their kids are ok, and people feed formula and their kids are ok, but all the research shows that it's better to breastfeed exclusively until 6 months. It just takes away from the nutrition he receives from the breastmilk by filling him with non-nutritive cereal. If you want the ease of cereal for breakfast every morning, I suggest getting something else than the infant cereals. They strip those down to nothing and then add back a bit of nutrients and too much iron for formula-fed babies who need it. For a while I put regular quick oats in a clean coffee grinder and then cooked it with water in the microwave. But by 7 months, he didn't mind the lumpier oatmeal and I quit grinding it. You can really do this with any plain cereal. Buy a big box of organic puffed rice cereal or cherios-type and put them in the coffee grinder until it's powder then add breastmilk to make it a thin paste. Mix it with bananas for flavor. PM me for lots of other home-made starter foods.

As for the leaking. Everyone I've known who uses cloth diapers has never had a nasty breasmilk poo explosion. They keep it in so much better! If you don't want to switch to cloth, just keep trying different diapers to see if you can find one you like that doesn't leak as much and change him AS SOON as you see him grunt and poop so it doesn't have time to leak out.

Here's a check list of readiness for solids:
~6 months old
~sitting unassisted
~showing interest in your food (sit him in a highchair while you eat, let him see that meal times are a social time. Sit him in your lap and see if he reaches for your food or pretends to chew.)
~doubled birth weight (this one depends on an average birth weight to begin with. Big babies may not and small babies may even triple by 6 months).

Good Luck:)

Hi J.!
You sound like a very concerned mother, as only as GREAT mother would. It is absolutely fine to start your baby on rice cereal. Try rice first and make sure he shows no allergic reaction..oatmeal is another option. Once you see he's not allergic to either you can begin to give him both (but not mixed). I think you're supposed to wait a while longer for the mixed type. And don't forget he's tough..as your body is still recuperating from the birth...he's stronger than you :)

P.S He'll sleep better too.

J.-Hello, I thought I would respond with a little advice- I would not start with cereal anytime soon. The AAP as well as the La Leche league says to wait till 6 months or older. I unfortunately made that mistake with my first 2 and my second 2- I knew better than to give them cereal at all. I started with vegetables way after 6 months old with my second 2 babies. The cereal has iron in it that is hard for nursed babies to digest. I always started with sweet potatoes.If your son is growing well- I would not worry about giving him solids yest- as this tends to make your milk supply less and your baby will nurse less. The more solids you give the less milk you will make. Hope this helps!!!

A little about me: Stay at home of 4 children- one boy and three girls- And hopefully more someday soon!!! Married to a wonderful husband and father of 9 years!!!

First of all, even as a mother of 14 and 17 year old daughters, you will discover that all subjects lead to poop. That said, until children are about six months old that which goes in, comes out. Their little bodies are able to digest breast milk (which I solely fed my daughters both until they were 14 months) and most formulas fully, but when it comes to cereals and other foods before the age of 6 months, the food will not be as easily digested. I am not a professional in any way, however, I am an avid reader and remember reading that in several books during that time in my daughters lives. I didn't give either one of them solid food until they were at least six months. Maybe the reason you are experiencing such a vast amount of poop and leakage is because your son is nursing more.

I am a first time mom to a 4 1/2 month old baby girl. I was also concerned about starting her on the rice cereal. My husband and I began feeding it to her at night about 2-3 weeks ago, and have just recently began feeding it to her in the morning as well. I must say, she loves the cereal! I had also read that you should only feed your baby breastmilk for the first 6 months, but I think it really depends on your baby and pediatrician. Since your baby is healthy and on target developmentally, I would say go for it! It also helps the baby get used to using a spoon so you can introduce baby food in the next couple months. Good luck!

The loose stools are most likely due to the increased saliva. Now, whether or not he gets teeth soon is a different story -- some kids show teething signs for months before that first tooth breaks through. If he's had a cold recently (even a tiny runny nose that you barely notice), that can cause runny stools, too.

Honestly, I don't think the loose BMs have anything to do with his readiness for solids. If you were already planning to wait until 6 months, go ahead and wait. In fact, starting solids when he's having other "issues" anyway might not be a good idea b/c you won't notice as easily if he's having an abnormal reaction to the cereal.

No one has mentioned this, but it's not necessary to use cereal as a first food either. Cereal is mostly empty calories -- yes, it has iron, but some studies have shown that our bodies don't absorb that iron as well as naturally-occuring iron in other foods and breastmilk. One great first food is banana b/c it's soft, and it's sweet like breastmilk.

All that being said, if you truly feel like he's ready for solids, he's not really that far from 6 months. I started my oldest on solids at 4 months (b/c that was the recommendation at the time) and my next two somewhere b/w 5-6 months. The great thing about waiting until closer to 6 months is that they don't really need "baby food" -- they can eat a lot more table foods, so it's easier to just share some of what you're eating. You can still use baby foods, but older babies are able to eat foods with a bit more texture so don't require the purees that younger babies do.

I know those runny stools are annoying (we've got some messy diapers this week due to my 17-month-old's runny nose), but they'll pass, and hopefully, you'll be back to only 1 dirty diaper a day soon. :-)

S.,
mom to Megan (5 y/o), Annie (4 y/o), and Jack (17 m/o)

P.S. If you haven't heard of it, www.kellymom.com is a great site for nursing moms - tons of breastfeeding info!

It would not hurt to start him on cereal or regular baby food. I started both of my sons on baby cereal when they were two weeks old. I made it a littl runny so they were able to eat it. Both of them are as healthy as can be.By the time they were six months old they were eating the same foods as I ate. I would say yes on starting him on baby cereal.

You have the blessing of your pediatrician, who is well aware of your child's medical history. The ped has been tracking his weight gain and other milestones, so if the ped says it is okay, then give it a try!

Remember, it might be messy and frustrating (for you) at first. If your son is disinterested, spits it out, or cannot get the food into his mouth, give it a break and try again in a week.

We started cereal at 4 months with the blessing of our pediatrician and our son did just fine! He had been following his curve on the growth chart, could sit up, and had lost the tongue-thrust reflex, so we got the green light. He freaking loved the cereal. It did get messy at times, but just remember that your son is a baby and he's learning what a spoon is, what swallowing food feels like, and learning a brand new experience. He might want to mush it between his fingers - no big deal; he's just trying things out from a new 'sensory' point of view.

Good luck - welcome to fun, messes, and the end of not-so-badly-stinking diapers!

My DD always has loose stools when she's teething. It's almost like diarrhea. I would guess that it's probably from that, if he doesn't show any other signs of being sick. You can try some rice cereal if you want too.l I think that 5 months is old enough. We started my DD on rice cereal (almost the consistency of BM, just a little thicker) at about 5 months. She really didn't have an interest until she was about 6 months though. Since you'll need to start the cereal at a fairly liquid consistency, I wouldn't bet on it firming up his stools anytime soon.

My 13 months old still poops 3-5 times a day and it on all table food so each baby is different. FWIW we started cereal at 5 months.

My own two had wierd poop when they cut teeth and yeah, it was sort of loose, but I didn't let it concern me unless it was Niagara Falls watery. My kids went on rice cereal at 4-5 months and while they didn't care for the rice (too bland bor my bunch) they loved the oatmeal and lapped it up (my daughter as an infant ate 1/2 cup each morning!!!) It certainly won't hurt to try a bit of rice cereal to see what he'll do, and he'll probably resist at first, since he's not used to the consistency, but stick with it, because the cereal has the iron that breast fed babies need (since it's not in breast milk). Babies are rarely allergic to rice, so start there!!

Hi J.,

I know exactly where your coming from. My daughter is 5 months old and she pooped alot at first then once overy 2-3 days when she was 2 months old. I called the doc and she said everything was fine. Breast fed babies have loose stools. (My daughter is breast fed too) I started her on cereal when she was 3 months old and she pooped more but the consistency was the same just more of it. When I started her on veggies (4 months) she started having poop that was more formed. If you think your baby boy is ready for cereal just try it. The box recommends one teaspoon to start out with. I mixed it with breast milk and now I mix it with juice and she loves it. At first I held her while I fed her and that started getting to hard so now I put her in her bouncy seat. We will be using a high chair soon as her back muscles are strengthening and she is almost able to sit up. When you give him the cereal just put a little on a spoon and if he swallows it without spitting much out then he is ready for it. Babies have a natural reflux to spit foreign objects out of there mouth. They are born with it. If you are having to put the same bite back in his mouth 5 or 6 times he is not ready. Good luck with everything and congrats on your precious baby boy. Remember you are his Mommie and you know best. He'll let you know if he likes it and is ready.
Have fun with him!!!
M.

Your baby sounds just like mine! He's 5 months too, and still exclusively breastfed. I'm still going to wait another month to start solids though... for me, breastfeeding is just so easy that I'm dreading starting anything else. Then I will actually have to prepare something, have more clean-up, think in advance... haha!! I'm putting it off as long as possible--I have enough trouble figuring out what I should eat myself! I have had people tell me I should start him on rice cereal, but I haven't paid much attention. Good luck though, with whatever you decide!