Jude's First Cereal

This past Friday, we went ahead and gave Jude his first rice cereal. He was 4 months and 2 weeks. Originally, we were going to wait until 5 months even though the doctor gave us the go ahead. We figured since there's no proof it helps him sleep through the night, who cares. (And it did not help him sleep through the night. Still up at 4 thank you.)

The past week though he has just wanted to eat for 40+ minutes each time. It doesn't feel like a growth spurt because he isn't fussy. His growth spurts mean he will scream and cry if you make him stop eating. It hasn't been like that. He's just hungrier. I figured we would give it a try.

So Friday night, Michael and I went on our big weekend outing to Target and bought bowls, spoons, and baby cereal. We opted for the organic brown rice. Brown rice is healthier and if he is going to have anything that is not breast milk, I'd prefer it to be as healthy as possible. And can I take a moment to vent about the lack of 1) strictly gender neutral and 2) boy/girl specific dinnerware. Everything at Target was a combo of both boy and girl colors. How annoying is that! I do not want pink and purple bowls for my son.

So we decided to give Jude his cereal after his bath in case he would sleep through the night. That was a mistake. He was a mess! I really didn't think he'd go for it because I've heard that the first cereal can take some getting used to for babies. Not for Jude. He went to town on it. Crazy enough he had eaten a full 20 minutes before the cereal. He made a huge mess with the whole spoon thing. Amazingly though, the next night he was a near pro. I can't believe how fast babies learn!

He likes it though. He prefers to breastfeed 20 minutes before the cereal though. And he wants to breastfeed 20 minutes after the cereal. That's a lot of food before bed, and you'd think he wouldn't be hungry the rest of the night. That hasn't happened yet though. It has however helped him with his day feedings. His 5-6 ounces of breastmilk per feeding seems to be enough again.

Based on what my doctor said, we can start adding another feeding every week or so. I don't think we necessarily will. We are just trying to follow Jude's clues as to when he needs more. There's no sense in overfeeding him just because we feel the need to introduce solids. Plus, the American Pediatric Association or whatever it is actually recommends solely breastfeeding for the first 6 months. If he didn't eat a full feeding along with the rice cereal, I don't think I'd be ok with it.

It's amazing all the decisions you have to make while parenting. How do you ever know what's right? The scary thing is we haven't even gotten to the tough decisions yet....

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