Giving Baby Cereal With Breastmilk

Most pediatricians recommend starting rice baby cereal at about 4 6 months old for baby s first food.

Giving baby cereal with breastmilk. Don t serve it from a bottle. Begin with about 1 teaspoon pureed food or cereal. Formula or breast milk thickened with rice cereal is more dense in calories than formula or breast milk alone. When first starting infant cereal check the label to make sure that the cereal is a single ingredient product that is rice cereal or oatmeal and does not contain added fruit milk or yogurt solids or infant formula.

Mix 1 tablespoon of a single grain iron fortified baby cereal with 4 tablespoons 60 milliliters of breast milk or formula. You may want to nurse your baby before their serving of solid food. Feed only a quarter of a teaspoonful of baby cereal or mashed food to begin with increasing the amount very slowly as your baby shows more interest. Mix cereal with 4 to 5 teaspoons breast milk or formula.

Iron fortified infant cereal such as rice cereal or oatmeal is another good solid food to complement breast milk. If you are mixing oatmeal cereal in formula. This means it is a more efficient food to give to babies who may still be under six months but whose appetite seems to be outgrowing a liquid diet alone. Some people mix rice cereal with fruit juice too.

Instead help your baby sit upright and offer the cereal with a small spoon once or twice a day after a bottle or breast feeding. Solids can be offered just once a day in the beginning and then slowly increased as the baby wants. Mom s are urged to add a little rice baby cereal and formula to baby s bottle as a way to keep him full and sleep through the night. Parents can mix 1 to 2 tablespoons of baby oatmeal cereal with about 4 to 5 tablespoons of breast milk or formula.

Start by serving one or two teaspoons. To start the introduction process mix 1 to 2 tablespoons of iron fortified rice cereal with 4 to 6 tablespoons of formula breast milk or water. Increase to 1 tablespoon of pureed food or 1 tablespoon of cereal mixed with breast milk or formula twice a day. Feeding him an iron fortified cereal also helps prevent iron deficiency anemia.

Find more baby food cereal recipes here what is the best oatmeal cereal for babies. If you mix it too early the enzymes in the breast milk will break down the oatmeal making it ineffective.