Introduce Cereal?

[Anonymous]

Just when I thought it was safe to go back in the water!!!

It appears the honeymoon phase we’d been having of giving Max doses of Maalox is over already. We just spent the night pacing the floors trying to console him – this after a couple of days of blissful solitude. His Pediatrician told us he guesses that the relief really came in the form of the Barium Max took on Monday before the Upper GI and not the Maalox as we suspected. He theorizes that the added weight in his stomach minimized the reflux action and now that it’s passed the reflux is back again. Ugh!!!. Anyway, now begins the great Debate between my wife and me on whether or not we should spike Max’s breast milk with cereal to thicken it up. Max’s Pediatrician recommended it; however, the GI nurse said we shouldn’t because it could cause food allergies later in life. So, we decided to use one of our life lines and poll the audience…lol.

Has anyone here experienced any issues of introducing cereal at only six weeks old?

Has anyone used it and then regretted it because of allergies or other issues?

As always…we are grateful for finding this forum and for the people in it that take the time to share their wisdom.

Thanks,

Bill

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I found this in Laura’s intro. Scroll down a little to find the part about thickening breast milk.

http://www.kellymom.com/babyconcerns/reflux.html

I personally don’t think it helps UNLESS the baby cannot keep anything down without thickening. Or, if the baby chokes so badly on thin feeds that he has to have it thickened in order to get it down without choking. Does your son choke or aspirate during feedings? Does he have any respiratory symptoms? If not, thickening probably is not necessary.

Also, a very bad down side to thickening breast milk is that your poor wife will have to pump all day long to keep her milk supply up and then feed the EBM. I did the pump and feed thing (not because I needed to thicken but because for a variety of reasons my children could not or would not nurse). Pumping does not stimulate milk production as well as an actual baby nursing, so a woman has to pump almost constantly in order to keep her supply up. This pumping, feeding and taking care of baby all day long can be exhausting to say the least.

Another factor to consider is that very young babies’ systems usually are not mature enough to digest grains and you end up with additional problems and more digestive discomforts in the baby. The allergy issue is also a concern. I’ve heard this too, that introducing grains too early can cause allergies later on.

So, if he’s nursing well, not choking or aspirating, and keeping enough of his feedings down to grow and gain weight normally, then in my opinion it would be much better to just get his meds right to make him more comfortable, and to continue nursing him.

Have you checked to see that his prevacid dose is adequate? Many doctors under dose our babies because they are not aware of the research that shows that babies metabolize and eliminate these drugs three times faster than adults. My son was miserable on Prevacid for WEEKS until I finally convinced my doctor by showing her the marci-kids info to increase his dose to the proper level. Then things turned around and he’s been fine since. He did continue to throw up, but that’s because these meds do not stop the vomitting…they just have to outgrow that which my son seems to have done now at 9 months of age.

And BTW…I did try thickening since I was pumping anyway, and he threw up just as much when his food was thickened.

Here’s the marci-kids link. http://www.marci-kids.com/

Good luck. I hope you get this all sorted out soon and have a happier baby soon.

[hellbennt]

I am VERY OPINIONATED about this matter!

I however never even tried it, so I do not speak from personal experience.

there are those who SWEAR by thickening.

first, the enzymes in breastmilk break down what you use to thicken.

next, these baby’s digestive systems seem to be really immature and my opinion is why mess with that?

next, thickening means more bottles and it messes w/ mom’s milk supply.

again, some people SWEAR by it.

I think it has its place!! if a baby is ftt & needs the calories and/or if the baby has a very specific test done to dtermine if s/he is aspirating milk into the lungs- a swallow study- then thickening is necessary

I am sitting here w/ contractions(!) and taking the time to type this to you, so this should tell you how strongly I feel (I don’t think I’m in labour, but ya never know– you all will know when I disappear for a while ,LOL!)

personally, i think it’s high time to try a full 2wks pf a PPI at a ‘proper’ dose…I see it’s listed as a ‘past’ med?

ok, I’m off my soapbox

~laura

[Anonymous]

Oh yeah…I forgot to add that. Laura’s right about the enzymes in breast milk breaking the cereal down making it difficult to thicken breast milk. You have to use LOTS of cereal and then your baby is getting more cereal than milk. And the milk gets thinner and thinner as the feeding progresses.

[Anonymous]

I will just tell you what my experience was with my oldest as he was the only one who we thickened feeds with and breastfeed. Justin only weight 5 lbs 12 ozs and was very tiny. Along with that he just couldn’t gain any weight so we were willing to try anything. This was 16 years ago and I wouldn’t do it again. Its too hard to maintain the milk supply. When I was told that my youngest only weighed 5 lbs 10 ozs we knew that formula was going to be the way to go. Needless to say he needed Neocate formula anyways so he would have needed to be on formula one way or another.

[Anonymous]

We used cereal to thicken Kaelyn’s bottles from the time that she was 3 weeks old until she stopped taking bottles at 15 months. When we first started, it was with expressed breast milk and we didn’t see much improvement for the enzyme reasons that others have mentioned. At 4 weeks old, we realized that Kaelyn was allergic to something that I was eating, so we switched to Nutramigen thickened with rice cereal. Kaelyn was a huge spitter, and thickening lessened the spit up considerably. So, in our case, I think that it was the best decision. I don’t think that she would ever have gained weight any other way. However, I have read several articles stating that introducing cereals before 4 months (and before 6 months with allergy-prone babies) significantly increases their chances of having food allergies later in life. I will always wonder if introducing cereal so early is part of the reason for her allergies. So, I don’t think that I would do it with a baby that has silent reflux. While the cereal definitely decreased Kaelyn’s spitting, I never saw an improvement with her silent reflux.

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