How do you feed a baby rice cereal? (Holy Poop, Batman!) And Pics!

First -- Cooper had some rice cereal last night !!  (Daddy stayed home last night so we tried it out.)

I have some questions. 

1.  How do I know how much got INTO him?  He seems to spit a lot out and smear it around. 
2.  Is he supposed to be thrilled and happy and enjoy this process??? 
3.  I Googled how to feed rice cereal and kept getting answers about NOT feeding rice cereal because it's a "filler" and not nutritious.  So did you feed your baby rice cereal?  Go right to veggies?  Go to oatmeal? 
4.  OMG did Cooper have a GREEN loose poop this morning.  Was the the result of rice cereal or vaccines? 

Pictures:

My "virgin" baby.... no longer a baby !



Hey mom - this stuff is kinda funny!



Oh My GOSH what are you giving me???



Maybe I can give this stuff to the dog ??? 




Thank you, Ladies!

Cindy

we attempted rice cereal with jordan around 5 months. didn't work out well so we tried again around 6 months and then at 8 months.  he didn't dig it so we went to veggies at 8 months with him.

didn't even bother with rice cereal with Kaida.  she didn't get into food until she was close to a year old.

its all a personal mommy thing.  you could hold off and try again soon or try again later today.  babies are so different and each has different needs.

good luck.

When my boys were that young and needed to have rice cereal (one due to needing more and one due to reflux), I added it to their formula in the bottle.  Their doc just had me thickening their formula basically.  At Coopers age, feeding with a spoon is messy and it is soo hard to tell if they even ate any!  You sure have a cutie!!!  Keep up the good work!

Tami

Cindy,
OUr first cereal feeding was a lot like that! My daughter never really liked cereal. We just kept doing the formula thing until she was about nine months old- then she no longer wanted any formula and turned to baby foods. If he really doesn't take to it, don't worry. It has a long shelf life. Also, we tried putting it in the bottle and she wouldn't take it that way either. I know doctors recommend it, but I think sometimes it is better to pay attention to baby cues instead. If he continues with formula, I think that would be fine for now too. Good luck! 

Carrie

We started the twins on rice cereal at 6 months.   At first, they only ate maybe a TBLSPN or two at a time.   We fed them the rice cereal for about a wee****il we were sure they had no allergies towards it.  We then moved on to oatmeal after that.  Same routine. 

We moved onto veggies first and then fruits.   I would say my son was eating about 2 ounces of food by 7 months per meal and my daughter was eating about an ounce.  She's picky and hated food.  

They just started getting table food at a year and my daughter is still very picky, but they both do ok at meal times.   I don't really pay attention to the amounts at this point, but they tell me when they are full and I don't over feed them.  At least I don't think I do, lol.   I mean lunch today will be a piece of turkey bologna for each of them, a piece of string cheese, and a half of a banana.  Most likely they will eat it all.  

Hey Cindy & Cooper,

I have yet to have my own baby, but I have tons of experience with babies of all ages.  What I did to help train them in the sense of eating of a spoon, was they need to learn to swallow this new substance so if Cooper has and uses a soother, binkie, whatever you want to call it, put some cereal in his mouth followed by the soother so that he will suck and swallow.  This doesn't take that long to get the idea, maybe a couple of days at the most.  You may want to also ditch the bumbo chair for a couple of days and have him slightly reclined so that the food will stay where it needs to be....LOL.  I did this with the wee one I take care of and now she eats fine and sitting up (7 months now) We (her mom & I) started her on solids at about 5 months.  Again it did not take long for her to grasp the idea of eating, once she had that down we moved her back to her bumbo for feedings.  Now we just can't seem to steam shovel fast enough without getting yelled at between spoonfuls....LOL  Hope this helps with your journey.

Good Luck and Cooper you are gonna love food!!!

The way we did it will both my nephews is add it to the bottle. First we started with a tbs to see if they would take it, then kept adding until the mixture was thick. After that (around 7 months) we just switched to oatmeal or cream of wheat thinned out and blended...straight into the bottle. The youngest who is now 9 months still has his cereal out of the bottle but eats food also (from a baby spoon).

ETA: Cooper is such a cutie pie.

Simone

If he is sticking his tongue out after you put the food in his mouth (which it looks like he is in the second picture) then he is not ready for solids and you should give it a bit more time.

Here is what Dr. Sears says about it -

2. Young babies have a tongue-thrust reflex . In the first four months the tongue thrust reflex protects the infant against choking. When any unusual substance is placed on the tongue, it automatically protrudes outward rather than back. Between four and six months this reflex gradually diminishes, giving the glob of cereal a fighting chance of making it from the tongue to the tummy. Not only is the mouth-end of baby's digestive tract not ready for early solids, neither is the lower end.

your prob wont get any into him the first few times until he figures out how he has to use his tounge to swallow it... rice cereal is a poop blocker so i doubt his new poop is from that...just keep trying it...

Cindy & Cooper

Zander is 10 months old now and he still will spit things back out if he doesn't like the texture of it... Try adding more milk/formula to it so its a little on the runny side... I've also always heated his cereal just a bit (10 secs in micro)... He won't eat it cold... All babies are different so you just gotta try different ways of doing things til you find what Cooper likes most... You could probably also try using Stage 1 fruits to mix with his cereal if the doc agrees to some jar food at this point... I started Zander at 3 months on Stage 1 foods... He's done well with it, but then again he's on the small side...

As far as the poop, I would say it might be a side effect of the vaccines... Zander usually has a looser bowel movement shortly after he gets vaccinated....

P.S. Cooper, YOU ARE SO CUTE!! I love your dimples!!