Which do you give you for first solids? My 8 month old has been eating rice but I noticed she's been constipated and I'm not sure if it's just solid food in general, rice vs barley vs oats or the fact that it has 49% daily intake of iron? I used oats with my first and she was also had BM issues.
We started with rice. Then oats.
Mix fruit with the cereal and that should....loosen things up a bit.
You're right--it's the iron!
I avoided iron-fortified cereals because I was breastfeeding and the babies get enough iron from breast milk. I would imagine that they get plenty of iron from formula as well.
Because iron is in just about all commercial baby cereal, I used to just throw rolled oats in a blender and then cook that powder with water and then would thin that with breast milk and mix with fruit. That helped to avoid constipation but I didn't use much cereal anyway - it was really just a vehicle for mixing fruit or veggies or yogurt for us.
Also rice cereal is like glue and has no nutritional value. If it's binding her up, I would try something more wholesome - perhaps Earth's Best makes something that's less glue-like and actually has some nutrition in it.
This link has some good info on baby cereal. Don't torture yourself or you baby - if it's not working, it's not a "required" food anyway:
Iron can definitely contribute to constipation. I would look to see which one has more fiber, fiber should help ease the constipation. (You can try a little prune juice if the constipation is that bad.) Also you may want to make it less thick. If baby does well on cereal for a week, you can try veggies or fruits mixed into the cereal. I started with veggies, because fruits are sweeter and a lot of times baby will want fruits over veggies. Starting my son on veggies worked out great, he would then eat anything! He's 10 and still loves veggies.
Cereal is just for training, and iron can cause constipation. I would stop the cereal and start with veggies and fruits.
Make it more runny.
Not all thick.
Make sure she gets enough hydration.
Rice, can be constipating for some.
Iron, can be constipating for some too.
Use SINGLE grain cereals at first.
Or give baby other things, that are not constipating.
Or, give her like 1 ounce of prune juice mixed in your milk or her Formula, to get her un-constipated.
But be prepared for a runny poop.
people will try to tell you that rice cereal, the oatmeal/barley cereal has no nutritional value, that is just plain not true!! all you have to do is look on the box and it tells you what is in it. of course, there's not much there but it is a good start. my boys dont like just the plain cereal, but we mix it with the baby food and they like it that way. my little guys seemed constipated by it at first but after a bit they got over it/
