Home › Forums › Feeding Issues › General Feeding Issues › Questions – Thickening Alimentum
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November 3, 2008 at 7:32 pm #58327
Anonymous
InactiveMy pediatric GI specialist recommended that I try adding a small bit of rice cereal to my daughter’s bottles (1 tsp to 1tbsp per bottle, which is about 5 oz). I’m not sure about it but will give it a try. My question is – how exactly do I do this? I pre-make a bunch of bottles of Alimentum RTF, so do I add the rice when I make the bottles and just keep them in the fridge like normal, or do I have to add the rice right before feeding her? Also, should the bottles be warmed with or without the rice in them?
And on a side note, is Alimentum not as “good” for babies as regular formula for some reason? My GI guy seems determined to get my daughter back on regular formula, but I’m resisting that for as long as possible since the Alimentum has been about the best formula we’ve tried for her and the one she’s lasted on the longest now (about 2 months). Just wondering why he’s so anxious to make the switch – does the Alimentum not have as many calories or nutrients or something?Thanks for the help!November 5, 2008 at 1:44 pm #58358InactiveWe were on alimentum and rice cereal as well. I would make the bottles..and then warm them.. and then add the cereal right before feeding. And no it has the same calories and nutrients as “normal” formula. I think he may be trying to see if she has outgrown it .. or maybe he knows the cost of it and is trying to save you the extra expense if you dont need to be buying it? Not sure?!
November 5, 2008 at 4:26 pm #58363InactiveDefinitely add the rice right before serving… otherwise, it will be a goopy mess.
November 7, 2008 at 11:48 am #58432InactiveWe did alimentum and rice cereal for awhile.
The trick with rice cereal thickening is actually to grind up the cereal flakes in a coffee grinder (buy a new one or make sure your regular grinder is VERY clean.)
Grind them to a powder and then mix with a few ounces (shake) then once this thickens properly add the additional ounces and voila. No icky lumpy mess and it runs well through most nipples (I didn’t even really need the “Y”s until we tried Oatmeal thickening – but that’s another story.
In the end because my DD is so young we switched to simply thick. The drawbacks are it lightens the caloric load so we have to enrich her formula but it doesn’t constipate her like the rice did.
Another tip – rice backs them up. Oatmeal loosens the bowels.
Good luck 🙂
February 15, 2009 at 5:58 pm #61042InactiveWe are starting rice cereal (choking/gulping/gasping during feeds) for our second child. I’d never heard of using a coffee grinder (even though we thickened with rice for our first child for 18 months!), but it makes sense. Can I use my food processor; will it make it small enough? I’m actually going to go with simply thick to aviod allergy/gas/constipation issues, but will have to wait until the order comes in. I want to thicken until then. I’d rather not buy the coffee grinder if the food processor will work in the mean time.
Thanks.February 16, 2009 at 7:11 am #61054InactiveWe did rice with horrible results so now we use simply thick. With the rice Grant took more at first( about a week) but than started screaming during feeds and acting very uncomfortable so we tried oatmeal and same thing. We just the simply thick in every bottle verses some with rice and some with the simply thick and yesterday we had a great day with easy feeds. I’m keeping my fingures crossed that it was the simply thick but we will see how today goes. I don’t like giving him the ST because it’s not “food” but if it works than we will keep using it. Grant just can’t drink thin formula w/o choking and if he chokes than he’s done eating for the rest of the day so thickening is a must for us.
But, when we used the rice I would heat the bottle and add the rice. I also chopped up the rice in a small food processor and did 1tspn per ounce with the DR. Browns size 4 nipple. now we do ST 4.5 ozs which makes 5 ozs with the size 3 nipple.
February 16, 2009 at 11:25 am #61058InactiveThank you so much for the nipple size information. Knowing that stuff helps to avoid a frustrated baby.
We tried rice yesterday. HORRIBLE! In just one feed, she became fussy and had the worst gas. We pumped her full of mylanta for the rest of the day and she was fine by evening. We’ll just have to wait until the Simply Thick comes in.Thanks again for the quick response and info. -
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