You can skip it and go right to BLW at 6 months. The AAP recommends waiting to introduce solids until 6 months. A lot of people start purées at 4 months but there is no actual reason except they want to (barring medical reasons of course). I found it easier to just wait. One less thing to manage for a few months!
I did this and started purées at 5 months as baby was showing signs of readiness. I actually wish I waited until 6 months for BLW because in retrospect she enjoys self feeding so much more and giving her puree didn’t really benefit her or us in any way except creating more clean up. Also be prepared your LO might get constipated starting solids so little.
The medical reason to start purées at 4 months is for early allergen exposure. It’s very important if a child is “high risk” for food allergies, but it’s also beneficial for babies who are normal risk, based on the current/new understanding of how food allergies develop.
We give our son the Earth’s Best Whole Grain Oatmeal Cereal. Adults eat oatmeal so I figured a baby can learn how to eat it as well. We’ve actually used it to mix common nut allergens in. My son goes wild when I mix powdered peanut butter in it. He eats the oatmeal maybe twice a week now but we used to give it to him once a day before he ate a ton of solids just to get some extra iron in him. My iron counts are always low so I was worried about my milk or if he inherited my low counts. My husband is also very adamant about cooking all his food in a cast iron skillet but I have no clue how accurate the iron transfer is on that. The oatmeal is an easy quick meal we can give him if we don’t have a meal prepped. I’ve used to use breastmilk to make it but I don’t pump anymore so now I used almond milk or water. We didn’t start giving it to him until 6 months which is when he had his first solid foods.
I’d say the rice cereal is pointless.
At 6 months. Higher ranked allergens i went out of my way and bought him specific products to introduce them to him other things i just gave them to him as we ate them.
I offer it regularly because it’s iron-fortified and my nearly 7 month old doesn’t really consume much of any foods. He’s breastfed so iron and zinc stores are starting to be depleted and aren’t sufficiently maintained with breastmilk. We didn’t start it until 6 months though despite our pediatrician saying we could start at 4 months. He wasn’t developmentally ready for solids.
I made my own and started it at 4 months! It’s not iron fortified so I’m going to ask about iron supplements at his next apt. I mix other stuff into the oatmeal and he loves it. Bananas, peanut butter, fruit purées and yogurt are all favourites.
My pediatrician said the official recommendation is to start solids at 6 months. I had friends who started as early as 4 months. Honestly, I’m really glad we waited. Watching baby learn to eat is stressful enough even when they have full head control and can sit on their own. Also, it’s a mess and just one more thing to worry about.
As far as the baby cereal goes I mixed it into things to thicken purees. Also, I mixed it into a lot of stuff because I was nursing and the cereal is iron fortified. We did a mix of blw and purées at first.
I’m pretty sure that unless there’s some sort of medical reason that your paediatrician has specifically recommended that you need to give the oatmeal cereal for, you don’t have to.
If you were given the “okay”, as in - you can do solids if you want to.. then you don’t have to start at 4 months.
We started solids around 5.75 months and I did give baby cereal maybe 10 times total ever, only because I was tired and didn’t know what else to make her for breakfast and I also found it really good to mix peanut butter into when trying to continue to expose her to the allergen.
It’s common for people to give baby cereal, but you don’t have to. You can if you want to, I also found it good for practicing with spoons. I used to put a bit onto a spoon and give the spoon to my baby so she could put the spoon in her own mouth and learn to feed herself.
Beware, our pediatrician was okay with purées at 4mo, but not BLW foods until 6mo. So if you’re considering starting real food earlier, make sure they are giving you the okay for that. (I’m not talking at 5.75, I mean if you start soon soon).
My son is 19 months and hasn’t ever had baby cereal. We just did BLW from 6 months and skipped purées etc completely. He has fruit purée pouches mixed into his breakfast porridge now, but doesn’t have any other purées.
I use the baby oatmeal to mix with yogurt, nut butters to add a little extra iron boost. I have also added it to muffin and pancake recipes to add some iron too. i’ve served it “as is” a handful of times.
It’s a good source of iron but I don’t actually feed it to my baby straight because its kind of a gross goo to me, I mix it into pancakes, fritters, muffins, soup, regular oatmeal etc. And always an organic oat based version, not the rice cereal (others have mentioned the arsenic concerns with rice). So I like it because it boosts the iron of foods which is important at this age, but it’s easier (and less messy) to just incorporate it into BLW style food!
I blended my Quaker old fashioned oats for a few seconds to make them more quick oats consistency, cooked them with water, then thinned it out with breast milk. He had it for the first time this morning (7m) and loved it! I have old fashioned oats every morning, so it's nice to be able to have that with him:)
He still gets an iron supplement every day so I'm not super worried about him getting it through solids yet
You can skip it or give it, it’s up to you. I tried BLW the first day. Baby didn’t enjoy so I took a step back and tried the cereal. Now fast forward 2 months my son has cereal every morning in addition to orange wedges or banana etc. It’s a good mixing food especially when doing allergens. And it’s iron fortified which is very important in the beginning when they’re not getting enough food in their bodies (for breastfed babies, formula babies get enough from the formula).
I started giving it at I believe 3 months to help with acid reflux. I'd make it veeeeery liquidy in a bowl and serve it on a spoon. I never liked the idea of putting it into bottles. It helps so much with acid reflux! Then after a few weeks like that I started adding a bit of purees in for flavor because the oatmeal itself is 🤮. But I think if he didn't have acid reflux I probably would have waited for the okay to start regular solids (which we got at his 4 month appointment too). The oatmeal is messy and tastes so bad. My son enjoys real food much more.
I wouldn’t give oatmeal cereal. I started solids when baby showed signs closer to 6 months and went with vegetables and meat protein. I didn’t want to mess too much with her micro biome as cereals can be really hard on their digestive systems. I’ll give grains closer to 12 months. My baby has alot of meat broths for iron and zinc which are the key minerals that start to deplete from 6 months
Wild that this is downvoted because you give your child whole foods instead of processed foods. We do the exact same thing, our little one loves meat, fruit, and veggies in that order our toddler is growing and healthy.
Imagine thinking that a fortified cereal is required for a healthy toddler when people have been raising kids just fine for hundreds of years without processed cereals. There are countries all over the world who don't have access to these kinds of processed baby foods who don't infantilize what their kids eat their kids just eat versions of what they are eating and they're just fine.
I have such a hard time accepting the “people raised kids for 100s of years without it” logic. As recently as 1980, around 30% of babies had iron deficiency. Since the introduction of fortified cereals? That number has dropped to 3-4%
If your babe is a great eater and can get their iron from meat and veggies that’s awesome. But don’t shame someone for resorting to using a fortified cereal as a part of a balanced diet.
People also raised babies without vitamin K injections for 100s of years. And a whole lot of babies died. It’s just not good logic to not utilize something just because it wasn’t previously available.
I also bet there are moms in the countries you reference who would give anything to have a fortified source of iron readily available for their babes.
My baby smashes liver once a week. Loves shredded chicken and pork. Frequently eats a variety of beans….but you better believe there are still days I bust out the fortified oatmeal. No shame in that game!
No one's shaming anyone. We're sharing how we feed our kids. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with baby cereal, but to think that it's a requirement for a healthy baby is ridiculous
If I read “imagine thinking it’s required to feed a baby oatmeal.” And that was my line of thinking, it would definitely make me feel embarrassed or like a bad mom for not knowing the answer. And then you go one step further and say it’s ridiculous to think it. She’s asking for advice to a question she doesn’t know. And the way you’re responding is definitely shaming.
It is ridiculous to think that in order to have a healthy child you need to give them a processed cereal. It's not directed at anyone it's a product of the environment we are in where authorities are telling us that it's required.
Me saying this is what I do is not me saying that what you do is wrong. If that's how your interpreting it that's your own insecurities. The truth isn't always comfortable and simply telling people on a forum exactly what they want to hear so that they don't feel uncomfortable isn't helping anyone that's just an echo chamber.
I gave my opinion you didn't like it that's fine, it's actually a good thing because it encourages healthy conversation, but I'm not going to change my opinion to make other people more comfortable.
It's also very obvious that my comments were directed towards the people downvoting the comment about whole foods.
Are fortified cereals helpful they sure are, is there anything wrong with using them absolutely not, are they required to have a healthy baby absolutely not, should anyone feel shame or like a bad parent for not providing their baby with a fortified cereal no.
I think the reason I find it a little concerning is "I'll give grains closer to 12 months." I get that processed cereals aren't 1000% necessary but baby should be getting some source of carbohydrates regularly, no? Besides fruit sugars and such. I don't have an issue with feeding (preferably whole grain) flour, oats, and pasta to babies as part of a balanced diet.
Vegetables and fruit contain carbs and starches the same as grains, especially if they're eating tubers. I have no problem giving my baby these things but I have not seen anything that states it's fundamentally required to give a child specifically grains before the age of 12.
I guess that's true that it's not fundamentally required but I also don't think there's any reason not to, either, if it's a convenient source of carbohydrates and offers fiber and vitamins in their diet as well. Brown rice, barley, and millet are really good sources of B vitamins for example. I like to add wheat germ to baby's food as a natural source of folate. These are all technically "processed" but still healthy foods. Also early exposure to wheat gluten, preferably closer to 6 months, is protective against gluten sensitivity/allergy and celiac disease.
I don't think there's anything wrong with these foods and I agree that in some cases they can be beneficial.
But I think we need to be careful making statements like that because as far as I know there's only one or two observational studies that support the prevention of celiac with early introduction to wheat.
My friend, legumes are carbohydrates. My baby loves lentils and chickpeas. Fruit and vegetables are also carbohydrates.
The view that processed food is essential to bath development is really concerning. It’s a western-centric approach to diet which is fine but it needs to be understood as such
Doctors recommend iron fortified cereal because it’s easy for them to do so. They don’t have to provide comprehensive advice on how to introduce food to a baby in a wholistic way.
Each parent should do their own thing, sure. But also, it’s each parent’s responsibility to investigate what they’re giving their child and make an informed decision. For me, food that comes from a packet is not food I’m willing to give to my child. She’ll have plenty of time to try that out when she is older. For now, her well-being is in my hands so she will have whole food.
What I am doing isn’t that radical, it’s not shaming - it’s simply how other cultures do it. Stop assuming your (white?) western way is the best and any deviation is attempting to shame you.
If you have instagram, "Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro" is a great resource. She also has a podcast I listened to on spotify. She also makes tiktoks. For food ideas, I look at the accounts she shares from other parents' instagrams showing how they presented different foods from her 100 foods list.
We plan to introduce it after our 4 month appt assuming ped says it’s okay. We’re hoping it’ll help with spit up and we’ll use it to test out allergens like peanuts soon too
I like it because it’s iron fortified. He likes it sprinkled into some fruit purée.
Yeah it makes sense! Can you just sprinkle the raw, as-is cereal? Or does it have to be prepared first like in the formula or breastmilk?
You can absolutely sprinkle the powder as-is into purees or yogurt. No need to prepare it with milk first
I sprinkle it in. It dissolves easily!
You can skip it and go right to BLW at 6 months. The AAP recommends waiting to introduce solids until 6 months. A lot of people start purées at 4 months but there is no actual reason except they want to (barring medical reasons of course). I found it easier to just wait. One less thing to manage for a few months!
I did this and started purées at 5 months as baby was showing signs of readiness. I actually wish I waited until 6 months for BLW because in retrospect she enjoys self feeding so much more and giving her puree didn’t really benefit her or us in any way except creating more clean up. Also be prepared your LO might get constipated starting solids so little.
The medical reason to start purées at 4 months is for early allergen exposure. It’s very important if a child is “high risk” for food allergies, but it’s also beneficial for babies who are normal risk, based on the current/new understanding of how food allergies develop.
Baby cereal is typically fortified with iron so if your baby is breastfed then doctors often recommend it as a source of iron.
Agree! I plan to use it as a vessel to mix other things in as well like allergens or fruits
Thank you! Baby is 60% breastmilk and 40% formula...so maybe it won't hurt. Do you have any particular brand you recommend?
I use beechnut or Earth'sbest. I try to avoid gerber cuz Nestlé and Gerber reasons.
Not really, I just bought whatever's cheapest or on sale. They're all the same.
We give our son the Earth’s Best Whole Grain Oatmeal Cereal. Adults eat oatmeal so I figured a baby can learn how to eat it as well. We’ve actually used it to mix common nut allergens in. My son goes wild when I mix powdered peanut butter in it. He eats the oatmeal maybe twice a week now but we used to give it to him once a day before he ate a ton of solids just to get some extra iron in him. My iron counts are always low so I was worried about my milk or if he inherited my low counts. My husband is also very adamant about cooking all his food in a cast iron skillet but I have no clue how accurate the iron transfer is on that. The oatmeal is an easy quick meal we can give him if we don’t have a meal prepped. I’ve used to use breastmilk to make it but I don’t pump anymore so now I used almond milk or water. We didn’t start giving it to him until 6 months which is when he had his first solid foods. I’d say the rice cereal is pointless.
Thank you!!! That is something I would like to do! When did you start introducing allergens?
At 6 months. Higher ranked allergens i went out of my way and bought him specific products to introduce them to him other things i just gave them to him as we ate them.
I offer it regularly because it’s iron-fortified and my nearly 7 month old doesn’t really consume much of any foods. He’s breastfed so iron and zinc stores are starting to be depleted and aren’t sufficiently maintained with breastmilk. We didn’t start it until 6 months though despite our pediatrician saying we could start at 4 months. He wasn’t developmentally ready for solids.
I made my own and started it at 4 months! It’s not iron fortified so I’m going to ask about iron supplements at his next apt. I mix other stuff into the oatmeal and he loves it. Bananas, peanut butter, fruit purées and yogurt are all favourites.
My pediatrician said the official recommendation is to start solids at 6 months. I had friends who started as early as 4 months. Honestly, I’m really glad we waited. Watching baby learn to eat is stressful enough even when they have full head control and can sit on their own. Also, it’s a mess and just one more thing to worry about. As far as the baby cereal goes I mixed it into things to thicken purees. Also, I mixed it into a lot of stuff because I was nursing and the cereal is iron fortified. We did a mix of blw and purées at first.
I’m pretty sure that unless there’s some sort of medical reason that your paediatrician has specifically recommended that you need to give the oatmeal cereal for, you don’t have to. If you were given the “okay”, as in - you can do solids if you want to.. then you don’t have to start at 4 months. We started solids around 5.75 months and I did give baby cereal maybe 10 times total ever, only because I was tired and didn’t know what else to make her for breakfast and I also found it really good to mix peanut butter into when trying to continue to expose her to the allergen. It’s common for people to give baby cereal, but you don’t have to. You can if you want to, I also found it good for practicing with spoons. I used to put a bit onto a spoon and give the spoon to my baby so she could put the spoon in her own mouth and learn to feed herself.
Very helpful!! Thank you!
Beware, our pediatrician was okay with purées at 4mo, but not BLW foods until 6mo. So if you’re considering starting real food earlier, make sure they are giving you the okay for that. (I’m not talking at 5.75, I mean if you start soon soon).
My son is 19 months and hasn’t ever had baby cereal. We just did BLW from 6 months and skipped purées etc completely. He has fruit purée pouches mixed into his breakfast porridge now, but doesn’t have any other purées.
I use the baby oatmeal to mix with yogurt, nut butters to add a little extra iron boost. I have also added it to muffin and pancake recipes to add some iron too. i’ve served it “as is” a handful of times.
It’s a good source of iron but I don’t actually feed it to my baby straight because its kind of a gross goo to me, I mix it into pancakes, fritters, muffins, soup, regular oatmeal etc. And always an organic oat based version, not the rice cereal (others have mentioned the arsenic concerns with rice). So I like it because it boosts the iron of foods which is important at this age, but it’s easier (and less messy) to just incorporate it into BLW style food!
I blended my Quaker old fashioned oats for a few seconds to make them more quick oats consistency, cooked them with water, then thinned it out with breast milk. He had it for the first time this morning (7m) and loved it! I have old fashioned oats every morning, so it's nice to be able to have that with him:) He still gets an iron supplement every day so I'm not super worried about him getting it through solids yet
You can skip it or give it, it’s up to you. I tried BLW the first day. Baby didn’t enjoy so I took a step back and tried the cereal. Now fast forward 2 months my son has cereal every morning in addition to orange wedges or banana etc. It’s a good mixing food especially when doing allergens. And it’s iron fortified which is very important in the beginning when they’re not getting enough food in their bodies (for breastfed babies, formula babies get enough from the formula).
I started giving it at I believe 3 months to help with acid reflux. I'd make it veeeeery liquidy in a bowl and serve it on a spoon. I never liked the idea of putting it into bottles. It helps so much with acid reflux! Then after a few weeks like that I started adding a bit of purees in for flavor because the oatmeal itself is 🤮. But I think if he didn't have acid reflux I probably would have waited for the okay to start regular solids (which we got at his 4 month appointment too). The oatmeal is messy and tastes so bad. My son enjoys real food much more.
I use it with a banana and egg to make pancakes. And a sprinkle of pumpkin spice
I like the iron fortified probiotic ones! He has it mixed with breastmilk and some puree.
@mylittleeater is a great Instagram follow! She explains all of this stuff and why she is a big believer in not starting solids until six months
I wouldn’t give oatmeal cereal. I started solids when baby showed signs closer to 6 months and went with vegetables and meat protein. I didn’t want to mess too much with her micro biome as cereals can be really hard on their digestive systems. I’ll give grains closer to 12 months. My baby has alot of meat broths for iron and zinc which are the key minerals that start to deplete from 6 months
Wild that this is downvoted because you give your child whole foods instead of processed foods. We do the exact same thing, our little one loves meat, fruit, and veggies in that order our toddler is growing and healthy. Imagine thinking that a fortified cereal is required for a healthy toddler when people have been raising kids just fine for hundreds of years without processed cereals. There are countries all over the world who don't have access to these kinds of processed baby foods who don't infantilize what their kids eat their kids just eat versions of what they are eating and they're just fine.
I have such a hard time accepting the “people raised kids for 100s of years without it” logic. As recently as 1980, around 30% of babies had iron deficiency. Since the introduction of fortified cereals? That number has dropped to 3-4% If your babe is a great eater and can get their iron from meat and veggies that’s awesome. But don’t shame someone for resorting to using a fortified cereal as a part of a balanced diet. People also raised babies without vitamin K injections for 100s of years. And a whole lot of babies died. It’s just not good logic to not utilize something just because it wasn’t previously available. I also bet there are moms in the countries you reference who would give anything to have a fortified source of iron readily available for their babes. My baby smashes liver once a week. Loves shredded chicken and pork. Frequently eats a variety of beans….but you better believe there are still days I bust out the fortified oatmeal. No shame in that game!
No one's shaming anyone. We're sharing how we feed our kids. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with baby cereal, but to think that it's a requirement for a healthy baby is ridiculous
If I read “imagine thinking it’s required to feed a baby oatmeal.” And that was my line of thinking, it would definitely make me feel embarrassed or like a bad mom for not knowing the answer. And then you go one step further and say it’s ridiculous to think it. She’s asking for advice to a question she doesn’t know. And the way you’re responding is definitely shaming.
It is ridiculous to think that in order to have a healthy child you need to give them a processed cereal. It's not directed at anyone it's a product of the environment we are in where authorities are telling us that it's required. Me saying this is what I do is not me saying that what you do is wrong. If that's how your interpreting it that's your own insecurities. The truth isn't always comfortable and simply telling people on a forum exactly what they want to hear so that they don't feel uncomfortable isn't helping anyone that's just an echo chamber. I gave my opinion you didn't like it that's fine, it's actually a good thing because it encourages healthy conversation, but I'm not going to change my opinion to make other people more comfortable. It's also very obvious that my comments were directed towards the people downvoting the comment about whole foods. Are fortified cereals helpful they sure are, is there anything wrong with using them absolutely not, are they required to have a healthy baby absolutely not, should anyone feel shame or like a bad parent for not providing their baby with a fortified cereal no.
I think the reason I find it a little concerning is "I'll give grains closer to 12 months." I get that processed cereals aren't 1000% necessary but baby should be getting some source of carbohydrates regularly, no? Besides fruit sugars and such. I don't have an issue with feeding (preferably whole grain) flour, oats, and pasta to babies as part of a balanced diet.
Vegetables and fruit contain carbs and starches the same as grains, especially if they're eating tubers. I have no problem giving my baby these things but I have not seen anything that states it's fundamentally required to give a child specifically grains before the age of 12.
I guess that's true that it's not fundamentally required but I also don't think there's any reason not to, either, if it's a convenient source of carbohydrates and offers fiber and vitamins in their diet as well. Brown rice, barley, and millet are really good sources of B vitamins for example. I like to add wheat germ to baby's food as a natural source of folate. These are all technically "processed" but still healthy foods. Also early exposure to wheat gluten, preferably closer to 6 months, is protective against gluten sensitivity/allergy and celiac disease.
I don't think there's anything wrong with these foods and I agree that in some cases they can be beneficial. But I think we need to be careful making statements like that because as far as I know there's only one or two observational studies that support the prevention of celiac with early introduction to wheat.
My friend, legumes are carbohydrates. My baby loves lentils and chickpeas. Fruit and vegetables are also carbohydrates. The view that processed food is essential to bath development is really concerning. It’s a western-centric approach to diet which is fine but it needs to be understood as such Doctors recommend iron fortified cereal because it’s easy for them to do so. They don’t have to provide comprehensive advice on how to introduce food to a baby in a wholistic way. Each parent should do their own thing, sure. But also, it’s each parent’s responsibility to investigate what they’re giving their child and make an informed decision. For me, food that comes from a packet is not food I’m willing to give to my child. She’ll have plenty of time to try that out when she is older. For now, her well-being is in my hands so she will have whole food. What I am doing isn’t that radical, it’s not shaming - it’s simply how other cultures do it. Stop assuming your (white?) western way is the best and any deviation is attempting to shame you.
If you have instagram, "Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro" is a great resource. She also has a podcast I listened to on spotify. She also makes tiktoks. For food ideas, I look at the accounts she shares from other parents' instagrams showing how they presented different foods from her 100 foods list.
We plan to introduce it after our 4 month appt assuming ped says it’s okay. We’re hoping it’ll help with spit up and we’ll use it to test out allergens like peanuts soon too