Rice cereal at 4 mos??

[ATLFTM]

Not sure if this is the right place to post. Please feel free to move. My 4 mo old had her well baby appointment today. She is exclusively breastfed on demand and has plenty of wet and poopy diapers. She has become very active over the last few weeks, kicking a lot and not napping as much, and is also teething. She is meeting all of her milestones. Her height and weight have hovered at 10th percentile until today when her weight dipped to just below the 5th percentile. My husband and I are both on the small side. Our regular ped was not able to see us today, so we saw her fill-in, who wants us to start rice cereal to see if we can get some weight on her. Is there anything I can do up the caloric value of my milk? I don't think I can feed her anymore than I already do. I thought solids weren't supposed to be started until 6 mos?? What are you thoughts? Should I be concerned about her weight? I plan to call our regular ped tomorrow, but wanted other mamas' input. TIA!!

[UberMama]

She didn't drop that much (percentage wise). She is more active, as you said. And as you also said, you and your husband are both on the small side anyway.

I absolutely wouldn't start her on rice cereal (well, I'd never start that actually) if she were my child. I'd continue to wait until six months AT LEAST before starting any solids. Due to food allergies on my side of the family, we waited until 9-10 months to start our children on solids. And only then was it veggies and then fruits.

Rice cereal has very little in the way of nutritional value anyway.

[nycmom18]

please don't give her solids yet, their digestive systems are still just beginning to mature, they wont fully mature for years. so it's important for them to take it slowly and just get the good stuff-breastmilk. besides, breastmilk has all the nutrients your baby needs to grow and develop, any solids will just fill them with unnecessary food and then she wont fill up on the good stuff.

and look at the percentiles like this: someone has to be at the bottom, just as someone has to be at the top. your baby is probably tiny like you and your husband. there are families out there who are larger than you and her father and their babies are probably larger than yours. i wouldnt worry if she seems to be growing and developing fine in your eyes.

you might check out www.hpakids.org i've been listening to some radio archives and it has a couple on starting solids you might want to check out. it's 2 well known pediatricians. good luck!

[PassionateWriter]

i wouldnt be that concerned w/ the increased activity level...but i would in no way give her rice cereal. that stuff is crap..no nutritional value at all.

increase the protein/fat in your diet and it will go to your milk...but honestly, i wouldnt worry at this point. she is meeting her milestones, etc. etc.

[ATLFTM]

Thanks all for making me feel better! I was pretty shocked when the ped suggested the cereal, and wanted to make sure I wasn't overreacting. We haven't even thought about solids until she mentioned it today. I guess I just got concerned when the percentile dropped.

[caro113]

Thanks for posting this. My mother has been on my case to start giving my 5 month old rice cereal and just won't believe me when I say she can't have anything until at least 6 months. All I get is "we gave you rice cereal at 2 wks and you slept through the night. no problems" ... ugh ..
So thanks for posting this. It's definitely reassuring.

[kiara7]

If she's more active, happy, peeing and pooping - I wouldn't worry.

As everyone else said, rice cereal is crap. It has not put weight on anyone. There is no other food that is comparable to breast milk in nutritional value. Offer frequently, eat good and stay hydrated yourself and everything should be fine.

Oh and that ped is a UA violation.

[listipton]

arg!! rice cereal!! we keep getting the same advice from EVERYONE (at least it seems like it anyway), even though I have the chunkiest child alive and he's meeting all the milestones. As previous posts have said, skip the cereal

[mysticmomma]

I will never understand why people recommend giving a food with less calories than bm to put weight on a baby.

[PatioGardener]

Originally Posted by mysticmomma

I will never understand why people recommend giving a food with less calories than bm to put weight on a baby.

:

Plus, solids before 6 month are associated with increased risk of illness in a breastfed baby. That's why all the medical associations recommend solids after 6 months not after 4.

If a breastfed baby isn't gaining well then the first response should be 'how can we increase breastmilk intake?"

[Dahlea]

I would not give her cereal. We're not giving it to ours at all. No solid has more calories than bm. Make sure you're eating lots of good fats, like avocados, that will make sure baby's getting the good fats from you.

[GAmomto5]

Some more reassurance, my 4th child was 9 pounds when she was born and slowly fell off the "growth chart" (which are by the way, for formula-fed babies and not breastfed babies) until she was in the 5th percentile. The ped tried and tried to get me to put her on formula and also tried to do blood tests to see what was "wrong" with her. She was as active as could be, happy as could be and meeting all milestones. No way was I putting my baby through that. I stuck to my guns, kept nursing on demand, and she did fine. She is now 9 years old, tall for her age and weighs only 52 pounds. She's a little stick, but not a thing wrong with her. Her dad and I are both tall and skinny (well, he still is, not me ) so we knew there was nothing to worry about. You have maternal instincts for a reason and it sounds like you are using them

[paquerette]

Is your ped using those old standard charts for everyone, or the new WHO charts for breastfed babies? The old charts are meaningless to an EBF baby and can lead to harmful advice like this.

If you go to Kellymom I think they have a widget where you can input your baby's measurements over time and do the chart for yourself.

[PatioGardener]

WHO growth standards: http://www.who.int/childgrowth/stand...irls_p_0_6.pdf
and after 6 months: http://www.who.int/childgrowth/stand...irls_p_0_2.pdf

These curves are based on typical growth of what the WHO determined were term, singleton babies under optimal conditions - mom didn't smoke in pregnancy or after, babies breastfed exclusively until 6 months then continue to breastfeed with introduction of nutritious solids etc.

[ATLFTM]

Thanks again for all the support and resources! I spoke to our regular ped this morning and she said no rice cereal! YEA! She told me to keep feeding on demand, at least every two hours (which we were doing) and wake up DD every four hours at night (she had been sleeping through the night). I'm going to keep eating my oatmeal and drinking my tea, so hopefully things will look up at our two week weight check.

[foreverinbluejeans]

One of my sons had problems with failure to thrive due to a medical condition and had to be weighed a lot. There are many things that can affect a weight reading. What if the baby just peed, pooped and hadn't nursed for 4 hours? Now what if the baby just nursed, had a full bladder, and was full of poop? These things can affect weight enough to make a difference.

There is a powder that can be added to food that increases weight gain. It's like what weight lifters use and it can be added to things we would recommend as first foods like bananas if the situation gets to the point that the doctors think your baby needs help gaining. You don't have to resort to "horrible" rice cereal.

When you are breastfeeding you want to make sure your baby gets lots of the high fat milk at the end of the feeding. Some babies fall asleep and don't get enough.

[MamaRabbit]

Yes definitely check out the WHO charts. My 1st DD was shown as failure to thrive on the regular charts. And now if I plot her weights from then on the new WHO charts, she's on the chart and not below.

Also, you said

I don't think I can feed her anymore than I already do.

Maybe you can't "more often" but as her demands grow your body will adapt and produce more. Besides, the older they get, the faster they suck it out!

This time around my twins have been charted on the WHO charts at my insistence with the ped, and they are tiny like their sister. Not diagnosed as failure to thrive as they are on the charts. I think the ped finally believes that some kids are just genetically programmed to be small.

[pinky]

There is good evidence showing that solids before 6 months replace an equal volume of breast milk, so that's the worst thing to do if your baby isn't getting enough calories. For a 4 month old, *if* they need a supplement (and I'm not saying yours does!), the only appropriate supplement is formula, not solid food.

[PatioGardener]

Just a reminder that breastmilk is the first line supplemental milk. If mom can't supplement with her own milk, and there is no appropriate donor milk available, then formula is appropriate.

ETA: I want to make sure this doesn't sound like I am being snarky! We often forget that breastmilk is the first line supplement (health care providers are known for this too) so if a mama who needs to supplement searches this thread I want to be sure she knows that there are other options to explore before formula supplementation in a 4 month old.

[buttercupmama]

The charts were becoming an issue for us. My DD was always small, both sides of her family consist of petite people. That being said, I've read a lot about weight, how much is normal, amount of excretion to look out for, everything you can imagine on the issue. I find that the only thing the 'professionals' care about is their beloved charts. I've got a friend with a small baby. Her gains were slow and steady just as my DD's and she just recently shot up like a weed. So much for 'following the curve' or 'setting her own curve.' Not every baby is a 'curve' baby. Funny how when I was a child there wasn't any such thing as growth charts and everyone I ever knew of obviously thrived.

Anyway, aside from one odd month, my baby has gained just above the lower limit of what's considered 'normal' in EBF babies. That odd month, she gained almost double the lower limit. Growth spurt, I'm guessing. Well, she fell off the formula feeding chart, obviously. All the 'professionals' I go to refuse to look at the EBF chart where she's pretty steadily been in the 10th-25th percentile without the plateau seen on the formula feeding chart. I don't agree with using charts at all, honestly, but since they insist on it, I have to deal with it. At least the only truly relevant chart shows nothing alarming, but they completely ignore it.

In the end, I've had to deal with numerous people trying to force rice cereal on us. This will happen over my dead body. Excuse me for being melodramatic, but rice? Where's the nutritional value? I see rice as nothing but filler. If my baby isn't thriving, it isn't because she's not getting enough meaningless calories.

Well, to make a long story short, I started taking 3 tablespoons of virgin coconut oil everyday. The fat content is almost identical to breast milk, so it's a good complement to it. Perhaps I was being overzealous with the amount because my girl is getting chubby and her weight gain has shot up to the upper limit now. I hate that it has come to this, but apparently only being fat is healthy. Yet they whine when older children are overweight. They need to make up their minds.

I'm playing with the amount of coconut oil we use now to try to find a good balance. I think nutritionally it was a great choice, but I don't want my baby to end up fat just to please the 'authorities.'