Looking after a young human is a journey with many unexpected turns and twists. You know your destination, a happy and healthy child but you do not know what paths to follow to reach that destination. Every parent feels that way but you are going to figure it out. Feeding your baby is going to occupy most of your time in the first few months of your baby’s life. You will be feeding your baby once every few hours despite it is day or night.
Starting solid foods is a major milestone in your baby’s life and it will make your life a little bit easier. If you are a breastfeeding mother, you will no longer be the only source of nutrients for your baby. Baby formula costs a fortune a month but when your baby starts to eat solid food, you will be spending a little less on baby formula. Although solid food does not fully replace breastmilk or baby formula, it will replace one or more nursing sessions/bottles.
When comes to starting solid foods, many parent’s first choice is cereal. Over the years, parents fed their babies cereals in bottles mixed with breastmilk or baby formula. Is it safe to feed cereal in your baby’s bottle? If so, when you can feed cereal to your baby? Keep reading to know the answers to these problems.
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2. Is it safe to feed your baby cereal from the bottle?
3. How to feed cereal to my baby?
1. Starting solid foods
Before six months, babies are not ready to eat solid foods. Their digestive systems are still in the process of developing and are not ready to digest any food other than breastmilk or baby formula. Your baby will also push out food from his mouth using his tongue. Several signs will help you to know if your baby is ready for solid food. If a baby shows the below skills, he is ready to supplement breastmilk/baby formula with solid food.
- Can keep his head straight without a support
- Can sit up with no assistance
- Has the ability to grab objects around him
- Shows an interest in the food that adults eat and try to put them in his mouth when gets a chance.
You should never introduce solid food to your baby before he is ready. Eating solid food too early can cause obesity in later life. There is also a risk of developing allergies if your baby is too young for solid foods. Be cautious about the symptoms of an allergy or diarrhea, even if you introduced solid food to your baby at the right age. Wait few days after the first time of eating solid food and continue if there is no allergy observed.
It is a myth that you should wait to introduce potential allergens like eggs, meat, and peanuts to prevent allergies. You can introduce them as your baby start eating solid foods. When your baby has practiced eating cereal, give him fruit, vegetable, or meat purees. Make sure you introduce one food at a time and wait few days to see whether there is an allergic reaction.
2. Is it safe to feed your baby cereal from the bottle?
It is advised to start feeding solids to your baby with simple one ingredient food items with no added sugar or added salt. Therefore a cereal like rice, oatmeal, and barley becomes the first choice of busy parents. You might have heard from your parents, friends, or neighbors that cereal offered in a bottle mixed with breastmilk or baby formula will keep your baby full throughout the night and he will not wake up for feeds. This is the reason that forces many parents to offer cereal in the baby’s bottle.
Offering cereal from your baby’s bottle will increase the risk of choking that you need to avoid at all costs. Research clearly shows that feeding cereal to your baby will not prevent him from waking up for feeds. A baby cannot sleep for more than 5-6 hours in a stretch at this age so he will definitely wake up at the time he is used to waking up for a feed.
Mixing cereal with breastmilk or baby formula will create a thick liquid that will confuse your baby. Babies who confuse semi-solid or thick liquid food for solid food will struggle to eat real solid food. No parent wants to go through such an unnecessary problem in introducing solid food to their baby.
If you are offering rice cereal to your baby, there is another risk associated with it. Rice has a higher level of arsenic in it, when compared with other cereals. Arsenic occurs naturally in our environment, in soil, air, or water. But arsenic is not good for the health and development of your baby, not even in the slightest proportions. Arsenic is a carcinogen that will lead to many diseases. Hence, the American Association of Pediatrics recommends using oatmeal for babies.
Whatever the type of cereal you choose to feed your baby, you should never offer cereal in a bottle.
3. How to feed cereal to my baby?
Start with one ingredient, iron-fortified cereal mixed with baby formula or breastmilk. Mix one tablespoon of cereal with four tablespoons of milk and feed to your baby with a small spoon. Let your baby sit upright and give him the loaded spoon. If your baby seems to like cereal, offer him more. Never force your baby to eat cereal if he does not like it. Offer him the cereal after few days until he starts to accept it.
It will be messy until the baby learns the process. When your baby is getting used to eating cereal, increase the thickness gradually.
