Adding Cereal to Formula

[Anonymous]

My daughter is 2 months and has bad reflux. She was on zantac but that did not help. She is now on prevacid. She has been on prevacid 4 days and is still refluxing (even gagging more than before). She is also on Alimentum formula because of a concern that she has a milk allergy. Our doctor has told us to try adding rice cereal to her formula to help. We have tried to do this but I cannot find a good bottle and nipple that will allow the rice cereal and formula to get through… Any advice???

[Anonymous]

Hello and welcome,

I’ve had two reflux babies so I sure know how hard it is. I tried thickening and it didn’t really help my babies at all. For some babies thickening helps, for others it makes things worse because rice can cause gas and consitpation, so watch for that. As for bottles, some brands have Y cut nipples that work for some babies. Which bottle are you using now? Sometimes you can snip the nipple a little with a sharp scissor to make the hole a little bigger. I tried that and it worked for a while but with time the hole would stretch and become too big.

If your baby is in pain the most important thing to do is make sure her Prevacid is being administered properly and that her dose is high enough. If she’s taking the solutabls, packets, or capsules the Prevacid must be given on an empty stomach and then followed up by a feeding 30 minutes later. Most doctors underdose PPI meds for infants because they are not aware of the current research at http://www.marci-kids.com that shows infants need higher doses given three times daily because babies metablolize these meds 3-4 times faster than adults.

Prevacid won’t stop the actual reflux episodes, but it stops acid production so that the baby is not in pain. Is she gagging while feeding? You may want to ask for a swallow study if she is choking and or gagging while feeding.

Many reflux babies are also MSPI (milk / soy protein intolerant). How long has she been on Alimentum? It can take a few weeks for milk proteins to be eliminated from the baby’s body so it may take that long to see if the Alimentum is going to work or not. If she doesn’t improve she may need an elemental formula like Neocate.

Be sure to look at Laura’s intro link. (Stickied in the Introduce Yourself Forum). It has lots of valuable information which may help you.

Well, I’m glad you found us and I hope we can help.

[Anonymous]

In many cases, adding cereal to formula does not work and can make things worse especially in babies who already are having problems with intolerances or allergies to milk. In my opinion, adding cereal is not very helpful and I would not recommend it.

Like Christine said, check out marci-kids.com to make sure your lo is on the right dosage and is getting meds 3 times per day (since babies metabolize meds so much faster than adults).

Good luck and I hope your lo gets relief soon!

[Anonymous]

Christian could not tolerate the thickened bottles too. We went through rice and then on to oatmeal – he took the oat better. We took our playtex nipples and cut an “x” into the tip and that helped get the formula out.

I know when we transitioned onto the prevacid it did take a while for it to “kick” in. He did much better after a couple of weeks. It was like the pain was taken away. He still refluxes now – but it is not as severe and he is definitely not in pain.

Hope your little one feels better soon.

[Anonymous]

We were told by our ped GI not to so rice cereal in bottles or period until the milk intolerance is gone as the protein in the rice cereal mimics the protein in milk which is where the intolerance is. You may not want to thicken as it may make matters worse and not better.

[Anonymous]

How much cereal are you adding? We used a lot per GI (one tablespoon of rice cereal to 1 ounce of Alimentum) and had the Avent bottles with the variable flow nipples. They worked great!!

I do remember a lot of frustration in the beginning though (initially told by ped. to thicken with one teaspoon per ounce) – I can’t remember what we ended up using with that ratio (we switched to the tablespoon pretty quick after this) but do remember it was a lot of trial and error (and many late night trips to Target!).

Others have had success thickening with the Dr. Brown’s bottles but I don’t recall what they used. Hopefully, someone will chime in or maybe you could do a search.

Good luck.

Mom2Seth2007-6-26 16:24:57

[Anonymous]

ok, I remembered what worked for us with the one teaspoon of rice- the munchkin tri flow wide mouth bottles. I would just buy the replacement nipples and they fit on the Avent bottles. They look like this:

http://www.munchkin.com/products/detail.html?section=devStag es&ID=10009&pID=5

The whole bottle would work, I just preferred to use my Avent bottles with their nipples since we had the Avent bottle heater.

Mom2Seth2007-6-26 16:30:55

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