I wouldn't take accounting advice from my mechanic and I wouldn't take nutritional info from a doctor with ZERO training and all the info they bother to read comes from the baby food industry.
http://www.drspock.com/faq/0,1511,3764,0鈥?/a>
ANSWER
August 3, 2001
Dear Dad,
Yes, it is possible to overfeed a four-week-old infant since it's easy to misinterpret a baby's hunger and satiety (fullness) signals. When full, babies will stop sucking, turn their heads or push the nipple out of their mouths as a signal. Babies who are overfed often are uncomfortable and irritable. More importantly, they sometimes loose the ability to recognize when they are hungry. Parents will want to start out from the beginning to allow their baby to signal hunger and have it responded to appropriately.
http://www.lpch.org/HealthLibrary/Parent鈥?/a>
# The maximal amount of formula recommended per day is 32 ounces (1 liter).
# Overfeeding can cause vomiting, diarrhea or excessive weight gain.
[...]
# The average amount of formula (in ounces) that babies take per feeding usually equals the baby's weight (in pounds) divided in half (or equal to the weight in kg).
# The average ounces of formula the baby takes in 24 hours is the baby's weight in pounds multiplied by 2 (or kg multiplied by 4).
# A baby's appetite varies throughout the day. If the infant stops feeding or loses interest, the feeding should be stopped.
http://www.drgreene.com/21_861.html
Most children seemed to thrive. A small number of children, though, did not tolerate the addition, because their sucking and swallowing actions were not yet fully coordinated. They inhaled small amounts of the rice cereal into their lungs, which led to pulmonary problems.
I鈥檓 much more concerned about a subtler issue. Babies are born with a wonderful mechanism for knowing how much food they need. During the early months, they take their cues from the volume of what they drink. Adding cereal derails this mechanism. It forces them to take in deceptively large amounts of calories. It teaches them to overeat.
By starting with a spoon, resting between bites, and stopping when your child lets you know he鈥檚 full, you will be laying an excellent foundation for good eating habits throughout his life.
A major study looking for the causes of obesity found that short-circuiting young children鈥檚 self-regulation of how much they eat is a major cause of later obesity.1 Cereal in the bottle does just that.
Babies that are fed this way may appear to be unaffected 鈥?but those few weeks of added convenience may result in a lifetime of struggles with weight. This common practice may have contributed to our being the most obese generation in history.
Why not cereal?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9646449/page鈥?/a>
Take rice cereal, for example. Under conventional American wisdom, it's the best first food. But Butte says iron-rich meat 鈥?often one of the last foods American parents introduce 鈥?would be a better choice.
Dr. David Ludwig of Children's Hospital Boston, a specialist in pediatric nutrition, says some studies suggest rice and other highly processed grain cereals actually could be among the worst foods for infants.
"These foods are in a certain sense no different from adding sugar to formula. They digest very rapidly in the body into sugar, raising blood sugar and insulin levels" and could contribute to later health problems, including obesity, he says.
The lack of variety in the American approach also could be a problem. Exposing infants to more foods may help them adapt to different foods later, which Ludwig says may be key to getting older children to eat healthier.
http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids鈥?/a>
Cereal is not at all necessary, particularly the baby cereals. Regular (whole grain) oatmeal is more nutritious for your baby.
http://www.askdrsears.com/faq/ci2.asp
The truth is, there is nothing special about these foods that makes them better to start out with. Babies don't actually even need rice cereal
http://www.llli.org/llleaderweb/LV/LVDec鈥?/a>
Meat provides additional protein, zinc, B-vitamins, and other nutrients which may be in short supply when the decrease in breast milk occurs. A recent study from Sweden suggests that when infants are given substantial amounts of cereal, it may lead to low concentrations of zinc and reduced calcium absorption (Persson 1998). Dr. Nancy Krebs has shared preliminary results from a large infant growth study suggesting that breastfed infants who received pureed or strained meat as a primary weaning food beginning at four to five months, grow at a slightly faster rate. Dr. Krebs' premise is that inadequate protein or zinc from complementary foods may limit the growth of some breastfed infants during the weaning period. Both protein and zinc levels were consistently higher in the diets of the infants who received meat (Krebs 1998). Thus the custom of providing large amounts of cereal products and excluding meat products before seven months of age may not meet the nutritional needs of all breastfed infants.
Meat has also been recommended as an excellent source of iron in infancy. Heme iron (the form of iron found in meat) is better absorbed than iron from plant sources. In addition, the protein in meat helps the baby more easily absorb the iron from other foods. Two recent studies (Makrides 1998; Engelmann 1998) have examined iron status in breastfed infants who received meat earlier in the weaning period. These studies indicate that while there is not a measurable change in breastfed babies' iron stores when they receive an increased amount of meat (or iron), the levels of hemoglobin circulating in the blood stream do increase when babies receive meat as one of their first foods.
http://www.westonaprice.org/children/nou鈥?/a>
Finally, respect the tiny, still-developing digestive system of your infant. Babies have limited enzyme production, which is necessary for the digestion of foods. In fact, it takes up to 28 months, just around the time when molar teeth are fully developed, for the big-gun carbohydrate enzymes (namely amylase) to fully kick into gear. Foods like cereals, grains and breads are very challenging for little ones to digest. Thus, these foods should be some of the last to be introduced. (One carbohydrate enzyme a baby's small intestine does produce is lactase, for the digestion of lactose in milk.1)
[...]
Babies do produce functional enzymes (pepsin and proteolytic enzymes) and digestive juices (hydrochloric acid in the stomach) that work on proteins and fats.12 This makes perfect sense since the milk from a healthy mother has 50-60 percent of its energy as fat, which is critical for growth, energy and development.13 In addition, the cholesterol in human milk supplies an infant with close to six times the amount most adults consume from food.13 In some cultures, a new mother is encouraged to eat six to ten eggs a day and almost ten ounces of chicken and pork for at least a month after birth. This fat-rich diet ensures her breast milk will contain adequate healthy fats.14
Thus, a baby's earliest solid foods should be mostly animal foods since his digestive system, although immature, is better equipped to supply enzymes for digestion of fats and proteins rather than carbohydrates.1 This explains why current research is pointing to meat (including nutrient-dense organ meat) as being a nourishing early weaning food.
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content鈥?/a>
The results indicate that in a group of healthy, well growing 12-month-old Swedish infants one-quarter is iron-depleted, although iron deficiency anaemia is rare, and one-third may be zinc-depleted. The high cereal intake of Swedish infants from 6 months of age may have limited the bioavailability of both iron and zinc from the diet.
http://www.jpgn.org/pt/re/jpgn/abstract.鈥?/a>
Conclusions: These results confirm that meat as a complementary food for breast-fed infants can provide a rich source of dietary zinc that is well absorbed. The significant positive correlation between zinc intake and exchangeable zinc pool size suggests that increasing zinc intake positively affects metabolically available zinc.|||Usually doctors dont tell you anything about when to feed what. You kind of have to ask your own mother for advice or other mothers for advice. When your child cries a lot and seems hungry and when your child has teeth you can start giving rice cereal. 4-6 months old is usually ok.
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|||Actually, my pediatrician does not recommend rice cereal at all....not as a first food and not as a medical cure for reflux or excessive hunger. The cure for hunger is feeding more breast milk/formula.
The soonest a baby should be started on solids is six months. What you are probably experiencing with your baby right now is a growth spurt, not a cue that he is ready for solids. Signs that a baby is ready for solids include loss of tongue thrust reflex, interest in your food, and sitting without support. I have never know even a very advanced baby to be sitting up at 7 weeks.|||I know years ago they use to do this. My mom had suggested it for my daughter, however, recent research says babies do not have the proper enzymes to digest cereal. They also don't suggest putting it in a bottle because baby could choke. You must have an old fashioned doctor.sometimes doctors opinions are just personal too. Maybe your baby is going through a growth spurt. I personally would not add cereal.
Best of luck.|||Doctor???
Honey the doctor never told me when to switch my kids or to start adding cereal that was a Mommy decision all the way. In fact I dont ever recall the doctor giving any kind of advice reguarding food for the kids. So, get a bottle with a larger nipple hole and make a "formula/cereal mix" make sure it can come out of the nipple but not to fast or too slow. See if your little one loikes it!
If memory serves me right, my girls were about this same age when I started adding some cereal into their diet.|||The only reason the Dr ordered cereal for my boys early was because they had really bad refulx so by 3 months i was suppose to introduce cereal. I tried putting it in the bottles and they would gag and choke on it so i started spoon feeding it and they did fine. They usually will only give the ok before 4 months if they aren't gaining weight (as the cereal makes them gain weight and fast) or if they have really bad reflux.|||There is a Similac formula called Sensitive RS. It already has rice starch in it and prevents spit-up. I would talk to your doctor about switching your son to this formula. It fills up his stomach more, as well. It's really too early to start your son on cereal, but a formula like the RS is safe because it's already partially broken down. Introducing rice cereal too soon could lead to allergies and other digestive problems. Trust me...I introduced it to my son at 4 months, and I'm so sorry that I didn't wait until 6 months. Good luck!|||My son was put on rice cereal at 4 weeks, but only because of Acid Reflux. I would not suggest adding it for any other reason but if your doctor thinks it's ok, then go ahead. I wouldn't say he is drinking way to much, Babies will not eat if they aren't hungry. Babies are constantly growing and constatnly need the formula to grow. If he seems to want more, give him more, A baby will stop when they are full.|||He is too young for rice cereal. And babies don't have a lot of bowel movments when they are very young. He is taking as much formula as HIS body needs and 7-8 ounces really isn't too much. Besides one does NOT put rice cereal into a bottle of formula. If you're going to FEED rice cereal you mix up a coupld of ounce and SPOON feed it. But as I said child is too young yet...digestive system isn't developed enough. Usually a doctor will recommend around 3 months.|||I would be very surprised if your doctor recommended that. It should just be milk only for 5/6 months. Your newborn is most likely just very hungry and still settling into a feeding routine. I think you are acting hastily very quickly. Lots of mothers feel that there babies eat alot - surely that is a good thing - it would be more concerning if they ate hardly anything.|||My son has been eating rice cereal in his bottle since he has been 1.5 months old. He would spit up constantly and the doctor said he had a slight case of reflux. The rice helped enormously and my son loves those bottles. I only give him 2 a day with the rice. You must keep him upright after they eat so they get it down alright.
Good Luck!!|||6 months. Starting solids any earlier puts your baby at risk for obesity, type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes and food allergies. So not worth the risk.
If your pedi recommends starting cereal now RUN away...he's obviously an idiot.|||You do what you think is best. My son will be 4 mos next week, but my dr told me it's ok to start giving him cereal now. I started giving cereal to my other 2 children when they were 4 mos and they were fine (now 14 and 4).|||I was told to put cereal in my daughter's formula when she was 2 weeks old, but she has acid reflux. He helps hold them over longer also. That's how I got my daughter to start sleeping through the night.|||i dont think a baby should generally start cereal until 6 mos. in the olden days they use to start cereal alot sooner but today it is not recommended and your baby might gain too much weight.|||my pediatrician started my baby at 5.5 months for practice and then told me to give her 1/8 cup twice daily as soon as she hit 6 months.|||My doctor doesn't dictate my childrens eating schedules...my children and I do that.
My kids showed signs of wanting solids at very different times. #1 started at a few months due to bad advice about solids helpng reflux. I know better now.
#2 got solids around 6 months when he gave the readiness signs.
#3 started at 4 months on veggies.
#4 started at 9 months and then only had them every few days as she really wansn't interested. She was BF on demand, so she got all her nutrition from me.
Docs cannot order you to beging solids. They can suggest, but throw it out the door. They are there to give medical advice, not parenting advice, and feeding solids before a year old is just that...parenting advice. Solids are not even needed until a year, as breastmilk or formula should be the main source of nutritio until then. ANY doc that tells the parent of a 7 week old that is gowin g into a growth spurt to give solids instead of the liquid nutrition it needs is a bad doc and should be replaced!
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