Thread: Rice Cereal

So for the past two weeks, Cammi has decided to change her bedtime to 11:00 pm. She had been going to bed between 8:30 and 9:00. Everytime I would try to wrap her up and lay her down she would start screaming and nothing would sooth her. My mom suggested that I give her a little rice cereal in a bottle with BM to help fill her up and make her sleepy. At first I was hesitant, but by the second week of this, I decided to try it out. I pumped about 3 oz (my supply is much lower in the evenings) and added half a teaspoon of rice cereal. She wasnt too keen on the thickness and I'm sure different taste, but she finally fell asleep at 10:00, so that's progress I guess.

Has anyone else tried rice cereal this early?

With my girls I did. to me it didn't seem like it made a difference. With Des I've given him apple sauce already! He really liked that, although he changed his routine the past week or so and wakes up like every 2 hours to eat lol. I'm guess he's growing!

I really hope Desmond starts sleeping longer because I'm so tired!

Is she starting to sleep longer now that you gave her the rice cereal?

Well last night was the first night and she slept two four hour stretches. She usually does that anyway though, and will occasionally throw in a 6 or 7 hour stretch.

With my first, I waited til 6 months, and with my second, we gave something other than formula or BM at 5.5 months. I've heard mixed reviews about whether or not there are results with adding cereal to milk. One of my friends dealt with some serious constipation when her LO wasn't quite ready for it. I guess it just all depends on what their body is ready for. I have no plans of giving anything else before 5 months at the earliest..

Well at least she slept more! I hope she keeps up sleeping longer for you.

Tonight Desmond seemed like he was starving so I gave him a little apple sauce again. DD2 came out of her room (she was suppose to be asleep) and saw me feeding so she wanted to help. I thought she wanted some apple sauce to eat so I poured her some. Well I had to go to the bathroom so I ran and did that and then I started to worry when I heard DD2 saying "oh no!" When I came out Desmond was laughing and he and DD2 were covered in apple sauce! Lol there was apple sauce all over the floor, on her blanket, on his boppy pillow, but he was so happy that I just laughed.

I'm looking forward to foods. The discovery to them amazes me. Right now I have no set date that I am planning on introducing. With my first we started at 5 months or around there. He started to show signs of wanting to try foods. DD though is already showing signs of wanting our regular food lol. I have a feeling we'll be starting shortly after 4 months.

Well we've been using 1/2 a tsp, and that doesn't seem to do anything. I will try 1 tsp tonight and if that doesn't help her sleep then I will nix it. She definitely is having hunger issues at night though. Last night I gave her the bottle and then, within the hour, put her to bed. She was awake an hour later and wouldn't let me out her to bed until 11. Sighhhh

Maybe she's going through a growth spurt! Lol Desmond has been like this for about a week now and I swear right before he does a 3 hour stretch (the longest ugh) and right before that is when I've been feeding him apple sauce because he seems to be screaming of being so hungry. Plus when he sees I get out the apple sauce he just smiles away lol.

Hopefully she will start sleeping longer for you because I know how much little sleep sucks right now lol.

I did a lot of research on this since everyone kept telling me to do this with DD. There is absolutely no evidence in any study that has ever shown that it makes any difference in how long or how well a baby sleeps. It's actually a choking hazard and not at all recommended by experts.

Rice cereal also has no nutritional value and turns to glucose in the digestive system. This basically makes just like feeding your baby straight sugar. I completely skipped rice cereal all together for DD and will do the same for DS. I feel very strongly about the complete lack of value in rice cereal. That being said, there will always be those who swear by it and it is entirely every mother's right to feed it to her child, some pediatricians even still recommend starting solids with rice cereal.

Thanks for the info Anna! I definitely don't want to give her something that could be hazardous and not healthy for her. I mainly did it because my mom suggested it because when I was a baby the pediatrician suggested it. Of course I know things have definitely changed since I was a baby, but I guess I was just willing to give anything a try to help her go to sleep.

Katie, I definitely think Cammi is going thru a growth spurt!