my baby is almost 5.5 months old… and i have started giving her wheat cereal when she was 4 months (1tbsp), she was ok with it… and now the dose is almost 4 tbsp per day mixed with 3 oz of mineral water… her diet is : 4-5 tbsp rice/ wheat cereal mixed with mineral water and sometimes formula in early morning… and like 1/5 of mashed banana in evening… occasionally i alter the things with baby food avaliable in the stores and baby juice along with the milk i fed her myself.
Now i have few things to ask..
She is normally a constipated baby. Is it because of rice cereal I gave her?
When is is constipated for more than 2 days i mix a bit more than dot of butter in her formula milk, and she got her bowel movements normal. Is it ok?
She dont like vegetables ( i gave her processed ones). Should one have to give veggies before fruits?
At what time you gave your child oat meat? And i couldnt find any oat meat CEREAL in the stores? Is there anything like it?
And if you have child of this age? what is his/her daily plan???
Rice cereal does constipate. So do bananas. I think wheat and oatmeal are okay. Foods that help with constipation are prunes, pears, peas, etc.
She's having quite a bit as well. Make sure she's getting enough milk. At that age, babies should be getting at least 25oz of milk a day (or an average of about 6 nursings). At her age, solids are only supposed to be a supplement. Her main source of nutrition is still milk.
At 5.5 months my daughter was only having a little cereal in a day (1 tablespoon mixed in one ounce of formula or breast milk). She was nursed five times a day and given about 8oz of formula (two 4oz feedings). No other solids, but sometimes I used to mix a little banana into her cereal. When I noticed constipation around 6 months, I switched to oatmeal cereal, and slowly added rice back later on. Oatmeal cereal by gerber is easily available here, along with rice cereal.
Now my daughter is almost nine months. Her schedule:
Nurse
Cereal (4 tablespoons oatmeal cereal in 2 oz of formula)
Nurse
Lunch of veggies and fruits
3oz formula
Nurse
Dinner of cereal (2 tablespoons rice in 1oz of formula) and veggies, or kichri, sometimes fruit too
3oz formula
Nurse
My daughter likes veggies, freshly made or from SOME store brands. Earth's Best is a really good fresh, organic brand available here. She loves squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, retc. She likes fruits a little better now, particularly bananas and pears.
i think she's still young for too much experimenting. don't rush into solids too fast and don't try new foods too often. going slow is the key to keep check on allergies and other probs
to find out if her constipation is because of rice cereal, don't give her any thing but milk for few days and see if it makes any difference. u'll get ur answer. one more thing, is she bottle fed or on breast milk? if bottle fed then may be its the milk. if not may be its you and what u eat. if u r constipated she can get it too.