Rice cereal alternatives

[LeafGirl77]

Hi everone,

Our doctor has suggested rice cereal for our daughter as she has dropped in weight a bit (50th percentile to 38th). I was hoping to do baby led weaning with her, and avoid the entire pureed diet.

Does anyone have suggestions for alternatives? High calorie food that she can feed herself? I don't like the idea of processed foods. So far we have given her - well, attempted to give her! - only fruits and veggies (avocado, yam, squash, broccoli, apple, banana). She is 6 months and a week and was breastfed until the six month mark.

I'm sure this has been posted a few times, but I didn't want to search through the posts. Thanks!!

[tanyalynn]

Have you gotten ahold of the infant growth charts that are based on breastfed babies? They grow in a different pattern than formula fed babies, it's pretty common for EBF babies to drop on the standard chart around the 6-month mark. It's possible there's really no problem at all--I say that since it doesn't sound like _you_ think there's a problem, and hey, about 4 in 10 kids will be about the size of your child or smaller.

[birdword]

My dd is 6 months and exclusively breastfed except for a few tastes of things and her growth has definitely slowed down lately but I'm not worried about it because I heard that this is normal for breastfed babies. I don't want to do any cereals until about a year because they're hard to digest and babies really need protein and fat at that age. Have you tried some mashed up egg yolkes thinned down with some breast milk? I gave that to my daughter once and she really liked it.

[KristyDi]

I wasn't sure from you post if you're still breastfeeding or not. If you are then nurse more. Breast milk has more fat and calories per oz than most other foods you'd feed a baby, including rice cereal.

Here's a chart listing the fat and calorie content of breast milk, formula, and lots of other foods you'd feed a baby.

I also echo the advise to chart your baby's weights on the WHO's chart for breastfed babies. At a year my ped was concerned because my DD dropped from the mid 50%tile at 6 months to the 10%tile on his charts. I looked up the WHO's charts and found my dd had been right around the 50%tile her whole life. Here's a link to those charts available for download.