Cereal

At Lauren's 4-month appointment, our pediatrician told us that we could start her on rice cereal.  To be honest, I wasn't crazy about the idea, considering the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation to exclusively breastfeed for 6 months.  I exclusively breastfed Hannah until she was 6 months (adjusted) before starting her on solid food, and I'd planned on doing the same with Lauren.  I pressed the doctor a little and she said that they now said starting solids at 4 months was okay, so long as there was no family history of allergies.  Of course, this recommendation is contrary to the exclusive breastfeeding recommendation, but when I'd asked her about the change, I hadn't focused on the breastfeeding part, just the solids earlier part, so I didn't actually press her on breastfeeding versus solids.....after reading books, talking to Jon, etc., we decided to try some cereal around 5 months.  You see, Lauren is really interested in watching us eat and loves to sit in the highchair during meals.  She intently watches us bring food from our plates to our mouths, so we figured maybe she was ready.

So, I tried her on a tablespoon of cereal with some of my milk.....

Not quite sure what she thinks about the rice cereal.

She was really interested in the spoon....

In fact, she grabbed it and tried to put it in her mouth!

 

Ultimately, she seemed to enjoy the cereal, but doesn't quite have the tongue movement to eat efficiently.

4/13/11 Update - We've been working with her on cereal for about 2 weeks or so now.  I'll give it to her every few days while the rest of the family eats dinner.  She is still really interested in eating and opens her mouth like a little bird and leans in for the spoon and seems to really like it, but she still doesn't have the tongue movement to get the cereal to the back of her mouth.  I read Child of Mine:  Feeding with Love and Good Sense in trying to help me decide what to do about feeding.  A pediatric dietitian friend of mine gave it to me....and I like the advice in it because it is practical.  For example, there is a chapter on bottle feeding, since there are tons of books on breastfeeding, but few books talk about how to properly bottle feed -- I'd never thought about that (although it also includes a chapter on breastfeeding).  The book also includes sample snack menus and portion sizing for toddlers and pre-schoolers.  One thing I found interesting is that the USA uses more commercial baby food than any other country in the world -- by a lot -- most other places just mash or grind or adapt "adult" food.  After going through the book again, I don't think Lauren is ready (physically), even if she wants to be ready, so we're going to continue just trying every so often, but I'm not going to push it.  I prefer waiting until they're really ready and rapidly progressing to mashed table food, instead of spending lots of time on baby food.  I think our baby food stage with Hannah was less than 4 months -- and she was premature.  I hope to do something similar with Lauren, but we'll see.