Irritable 5 Month Old?

When we started cereal we had the same problem with rice cereal. It caused DD constipation every time. We did two things. One we did not give anymore rice cereal. Second we increased P fruits as we introduced more cereal. The doctors suggested that not only prunes but also pears and peaches would help keep her regular.

One other thing though....look at the incredients of the rice cereal you are using. Many companies add other stuff to the cereal. It is possible that some additional ingredient is the real cause of the pain he is experiencing. We found Beechnut was always the most straight forward ingredients. It's harder to find but worth a try.

Personally, I would stop giving him the rice cereal. He is a little young imo for solids anyway. He is better off, nutritionally, having only breastmilk. When you give him anything in place of breastmilk you are actually replacing a nutritionally perfect food for an inferior one. He doesn't actually need any other nutrition at this point. DD's diet was about 90% breastmilk until she hit 12 months. DS at more solids earlier. This website has a lot of great info. www.kellymom.com Good Luck!

I would probably hold off on solids for another month or so. Even then, rice cereal has no nutritional benefit so you may as well just skip it and go to veggies and fruit. Great first foods would be avocado (mashed up) or squash. His tummy probably just isn't ready for solid foods yet. Also, when you do start, just give him a tablespoon amount for the first week or so. Just for practice (practice for him, not you LOL) but breastfeeding should be his primary food source for as long as possible.
HTH!
:)

W.,

My breastfed daughter started solids at around 9 months. She was fine. 5 months is early. I agree that there is pressure to rush kids.

A few little facts and thoughts:

1- There is no nutritional benefit to rice cereal, or much other solid food at this age. The reason to start solids is to teach the baby HOW to eat by moving the food from front to back with his tongue. His nutrition is from breastmilk. Never sacrifice breastmilk sessions for solid food introductions, until much later.

2. Rice and grains generally should not be a foundation of a nutritious diet, even as he grows. Emphasize veggies, and some fruit, and later on, your choice of healthy proteins. Grains should take a back seat.

3. If he ever reacts to a food, simply stop the food. Just because your neighbor's child can eat it, doesn't mean yours can.

4. Question the logic of "treatments" of prune juice, Mylicon, or any other magic potion to push a food through your son's system that his body doesn't want. Doesn't it make more sense to simply not eat that food?

Good luck!

It sounds like he is just not ready for cereal yet. Also, pediatricians are now recommending you wait until six months before starting solids. I think you should go back to just breastmilk for a month or so, then start with something like smashed bananas and avocados. He is still getting everything he needs from your breastmilk.

Most babies thrive on an almost exclusive diet of breastmilk the first year of life. And then breastfeeding until 2 (or even 3) years old is always a nutritional plus. Consider holding off on the solids for a few more months. There is too much pressure to start solids in our society. If you're uncomfortable waiting much longer and when you do start solids, try things like mashed avocado, mango, bananas. Your breastmilk is giving your baby ALL of the nutrition he needs! (I have 6 extremely healthy kids who were breastfed and my 14 month old is still almost exclusively breastfed with her trying out some of the soft fruits and veggies I mentioned) The extra plus is no boxed cereals, no jarred baby food, no bottles, no sippy cups! Do some research online as well and decide what is best for you. Rice cereal usually messes kids tummies up. Again, he's getting everything he needs through your breastmilk.

There's a saying for breastfed babies: Any solids before one is just for fun!

Rice cereal is very hard on baby's stomachs/digestive system. If you really want to give him cereal, try oatmeal. Otherwise, there's no harm in just starting pureed vegetables, fruit, or even meat if you follow the normal allergy watch guidelines (one at a time for a few days, etc.)

My son has never been able to tolerate rice. I started trying it in his bottle at four months, and got the same reaction that you had. I have tried it five or six times since then (in a bottle, or as cereal), with the same results. Interestingly, he recently had allergy testing and is not allergic to rice. I just think that he has trouble digesting it. When he was able to eat, we used ground oats for oatmeal as his first cereal. Hope this helps.

Hi my name is S.
You may need to stop feeding him Rice cereal, and try fruit cereal instead,Sometimes certain cereals cause gas on a baby stomach, also he may have infected ears while he's screaming or may be he is teething, have his doctor check him out. Have a bless day. I'll be praying for your baby.

S. K. Whitehead

It sounds more like he is teething. How is he during the day? Both of my kiddos cut their first 2 bottom teeth at 5 months. It was about a 4 week ordeal before they actually came thru the skin. The teeth first have to break thru the bone, which is the more painful part and then they work their way thru the gum. My daughter had days where she was irritable during the day from teething but mostly woke up at night several times crying. I started giving her Tylenol before bed and she slept much better, sometimes thru the night and sometimes woke one time (if it was 4 hours later I gave her another dose of Tylenol and she went back to sleep). For teething also, I would take a pacifier and fill the nipple with water thru the tiny hole on top of the paci and freeze it. She loved nawing on them even though she isn't a paci baby, it was easier than the teething rings. Also, take a baby size wash cloth, wet it and fold it up into a rectangle, place in a ziploc bag and put it in the freezer. They love nawing on a cold washcloth. Also, with teething the stools can become looser becuz of all the saliva they swallow. Hope this helps, teething is a process and doesn't resolve right away, he could be fussy for a few days, be fine for a few days and then fussy again. It could last a week or it could last 4 weeks. So hard to tell but all those things help them thru it! Good luck!

Could he be teething? Also i breastfed my kids for 18 months apiece and i would suggest if you are going to give rice cereal, mix it with apple juice. Then at least he has the juice to help with digestion. Good luck!

Any time you advance a babies diet and introduce a new food their body has to adjust. My suggestion is to mix only a tsp or two with breast milk and slowly increase it as his body adjusts to it. Also, try some milicon drops. This will help with the gas. His stool is going to change color and consistency. Sometimes babies don't have a poop for 1 or 2 days when adjusting to solids. I wouldn't let him go longer than 2 days. If you add just a smidge of prunes to his milk it'll help. If the prunes don't work you can try "little tummies" I've used it on both of my kids. If that doesn't work try a glycerin suppository. Get the pediatric size and cut it in half.Hope this helps!

It seems like you've already figured it out. If when you stopped the cereal he was better, then started it again and now he's not better.....must be the cereal.

Maybe you can try a different type other than rice?

Could it possibly be teeth coming in that's just coinsiding with this new food?

I'd call your Ped. if it continues so at least you have one professional opinion. :-)

My daughter had what I guessed was a rice allergy when we started her on baby food at 6 months. She had reflux from 6 weeks to 6 months and her reaction to the rice was similar. We just dropped the rice and went on to oter baby foods. A few months later we tried something with rice again (by then she was off the cereals and on to small grain snacks but still eating primarily baby foods for meals). She had no reaction to rice then. I think she just grew out of the rice intolerance. Hope that helps!

Are you mixing the rice with breastmilk? Maybe do a little preparation along with the rice cereal. You can give him a little mylicon before and after the rice and chase it with the prune/milk. If he still has problems, thin out the cereal a bit more until his system can tolerate it and then gradually increase the rice to milk ratio as he can handle it.

Sounds like he's teething. My daughter cut her first bottom teeth at 5 months, and I thought it was the food, but she would do this exact behavior when she was cutting teeth. She would be miserable for about two weeks, and boom, the teeth had emerged. This will soon pass, and keep putting prune juice in the bottle, it helps keep them regular. Rice cereal might be too much for him, give it another month. Offer the first foods. Sweet potatos, and pears are always a favorite, and won't hurt the tummy. Any fruit that begins with P is good for bowel movements. Also bananas, and rice can be constipating.

Maybe you are making the cereal too thick? Or it may just be that he's not ready yet. They now say not to feed solids to babies until they are 6 mos old.
Also, its best to feed him the cereal in the morning, that way by the time its bedtime, he's passed his gas or constipation. My 7 mo daughter was very gassy with rice cereal but is perfectly fine with oatmeal cereal.
And be sure to keep him sitting up for at least 20 min after eating it. I always put mine in her bumbo chair or swing. I won't lay her flat until its been at least 20 minutes.
It also helps to feed him a little breast milk immediately after the cereal so that it helps "pass down" the cereal.

hi W.
when my son was that same age and also breast fed..he too got REALLY constipated...he went 5 days w/o a BM and he was so miserable. I tried everything and finally took him to the hospital for x-rays...he was REALLY backed up so he had to have some special med that made him go. It is possible for breast fed babies to get constipiated....despite what people say. Seemed like as soon as we switched to formula(my milk dried up) he was much better and regular. he was constipated a lot when i was breast feeding him. sorry you have to go through this..but keep this info handy just in case it gets worse...but try talking to his pedi and see what he/she recomends you do.
good luck
S.

Rice cereal is notorious for causing constipation. Have you tried oatmeal instead? It's not quite as sweet, but most babies still like it. Of course, at 5 months he doesn't really need cereal yet. You might wait a month or so and try again. He may just need some time to get his digestive stuff going. My daughter struggles with constipation, so we constantly have to be giving her prune juice. It's been that way since we started solids, so you'll probably have to continue to make sure he's got enough liquids in him to ease digestion. Good luck!

There is a growth spurt in there around 22 weeks (and again at 37?) that causes BMs to go even 5 days apart. Talk to your pediatrician about it. I could never let my little ones go more than 5 days before I used the rectal thermometer. We also used Mylecon and it worked well. The best for us was the football hold - holding the baby on our forearm so the baby faces out - it helped whenever we had one with gas.

W.,
Have you tried mixing your the cereal with prune juice, or even with stage 1 sweet potatoes, squash, or prunes. You do not have to put a lot of the baby food in it, but if you mix one of those in the cereal, those are natural antioxidants. It could be that the cereal by itself is to potent and it makes him constipated, but if you mix one of those baby foods, he may be able to eat it without getting stopped up. Hope you are able to find a remedy!

W.,

Our baby was constipated too when we added rice cereal. The doctor told us to give him watered down pediatyle in a bottle (no more than 2 a day and they don't replace formula or breast milk). In a few days he started becoming more regular. I've also heard other mothers switching to other options like oatmeal.

Good luck... hope baby's tummy feels better!