Cereal at 4.5 months?

[MaddieMay]

Took DS in for a follow up doctor's visit-he has GERD and isn't gaining much weight. The reflux is not improving at all. His doctor mentioned that she could put him on medication, but would prefer not to. She mentioned introducing him to rice cereal as a way to possibly help with the reflux.

BUT-I've done the research and it says that since DS is breastfed that we should wait until 6 months before introducing solids, make sure he's developmentally ready, etc. I was hoping to do baby led solids with him as well. As I read a bit more on GERD, it mentions introducing cereal several times as a way to help with the reflux.

Any thoughts?

[April Dawn]

Why does the doctor want to avoid medicine? My son also has reflux and meds made a world of difference for him. How do you feel about putting your baby on medicine - ok, or would you rather avoid it?

Edited by April Dawn - 7/5/11 at 7:45pm

[pixiekisses]

http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/so...ay-solids.html

Besides from that, I was wondering about the no-meds too, put it depends on the grade of reflux, it can certainly do serious damage untreated if it's bad. But if it's just a little, it's different.
I have one with serious reflux, and I've never heard about cereal that early to ease it, and it doesn't totally make sense, why would it be any better? If the idea is that it gets thicker or something, there is a powder out there that you can mix in the milk to make it thicker, I think I'd rather pump breastmilk and bottlefeed bm with that powder than do cereal that early. But, on a different note, have you heard about Gaviscon? It's not meds, and it has no side affects as far as I know (natural), it's often used in reflux kids/babies, it kinda puts a "lid" on the stomach contents and makes it stay down. Preggo women use it, even.

[Penny4Them]

Originally Posted by MaddieMay

Took DS in for a follow up doctor's visit-he has GERD and isn't gaining much weight. The reflux is not improving at all. His doctor mentioned that she could put him on medication, but would prefer not to. She mentioned introducing him to rice cereal as a way to possibly help with the reflux.

I would think reflux would be worse with rice cereal, as it sounds like DS's esophagus is not completely developed yet. My Dd (now 7) had severe reflux. Zantac helped with the pain, but not the spitting up. In fact, I remember that her spitting up seemed to worsen around 4 months. As an infant she was slower grower (by ped standards), but by 10 mos it seemed her esophagus grew (or developed or whatever it does from newborn thru 1st year) and she outgrew the spitting up. She then grew "normally". She still had a weak stomach for textures for several years but if she enjoyed something she kept it down unless she got really upset after eating.

Additional thought; I remember reading that BM has more calories than rice cereal (I think somewhere on Kellymom.com), so I don't think if your DS had rice this would increase caloric intake, unless of course he was able to keep it down better than BM.

If you try DS on food, maybe you could begin with something other than grains. I enjoyed this link on kellymom
http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/index.html
and http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/so...rst-foods.html

HTH