This week we went to Annabelle’s four month check-up at the pediatrician. Her weight and height are great, she is as healthy as can be, and she only shed a few tears when she got her shots. The only concern I have with our little Princess right now is her poor sleep habits at night. The doctor said she should be dropping a night feeding by four months, but little Miss A still wakes up every 3 hours. The Doc suggested that we try giving her rice cereal at dinnertime with the hopes that her belly is totally full when she lays down for bedtime.
I knew from other Moms that rice cereal is not a favorite among the babies, but I thought I would give it a shot anyways. I picked up a cute bowl, baby spoons, and some Organic Rice Cereal at the store. Then B and I got the camera ready to capture Annabelle’s first taste.
Based on the photos above, I bet you can tell how much she liked it. After another failed attempt, and a secret spoonful in her bottle before bed, we have decided that there is no point in putting her through this torture. She didn’t sleep any longer after we put the rice cereal in her bottle and there isn’t any nutritional value in the stuff. We shall wait until she is 6 months to try food again. For now – she will stay on her strictly breastmilk diet!
Did you feed your baby rice cereal?
No need to push her. She will show signs of readiness and then you will know to start food. And don’t stress too much about her sleep. Nutritionally at this point does she need middle of the night feedings, probably not, but breastfeeding provides more than just nutrition. Some babies just want time with their Mommy, and that is OK. We can stress ourselves out so much about babies sleeping through the night, and we forget that it is a big scary world for them, and some babies need us more than others. Trust your instincts!
Great response Shannon 🙂 That’s basically what I was going to say, so I’ll just second your comment!
My son is 5 months old and has had a tbsp of rice cereal in his bottle for every 2 oz of formula since he was around 2 months old. It was the only thing that would help with his reflux. However, he does not like thickened rice cereal. Maybe it’s a texture thing? We tried it a few times and both agreed it wasn’t worth the torture he was going through. I think we’re in agreement with you all: there’s no need to rush it, he’ll eat when he’s ready 🙂
We skipped the cereal since it has little nutritional value and my plan was to wait until 6 months to start solids but my son started showing signs of being ready so we slowly started at 5 months. We started with bananas and it’s going great! His sleep is still all over the place but he’s pretty much given up all night feedings. I don’t think it’s because of solids because he doesn’t get food every day but just that he was ready.
Bahahah. A is NOT a fan of that stuff. Poor sweetie.
We tried rice cereal a few times when my son was a little over 6 months, but mostly for practice with new textures and spoon feeding. He didn’t like it either, and we never tried it in his bottle. There were nights that my formula-fed son woke up every 3 hours, I think it gets to be a habit for them to want to be comforted, even if they aren’t hungry!
I’m so worried about putting Jack on cereal. I have a feeling it maybe coming. He is taking down 6 ounce bottles recently. He occasionally eats at 11 and wakes up at 4 am but usually sleeps until 5:30. We have always been lucky how he sleeps but weight gain has always been an issue for him. I think he looks nice and chunky but we shall see at his appointment in 2 weeks.