I have twin girls who are 7 weeks old. They eat 3.5-4.0 ounces every 2-3 hours. I had a nutritionist tell me thye want to atart them on cereal at 3 maybe 4 months since they were 5 weeks premature. I will be going back to work in two weeks, and my mom will be watching them during the day and she wants to start them on cereal now. What would be the harm, if any of starting them on cereal now, why would the nutritionist want me to wait until they are 3-4 months old. My mom says that if we start them on cereal now they will fill more full and sleep longer. I was just wondering what any of you have experienced if you did give them cereal in there bottles as early as my mom wants to. Thanks.

I've heard all sorts of reasons why not to give babies cereal unless you have to before 4 months or so. Everything from allergies to constipation and them not continuing to eat enough formula, which they need the most of. We were actually told not to give any to Ds until he was 6 months old by his doc and ped. Their little tummies may not be able to properly digest it yet. Especially if they're preemies.

Also we found the idea that it would fill him up more and he'd sleep better to be completely bogus in his case. Not only did it not work but we found he actually woke up more often in the beginning than he did with straight formula. Dh's mom really pushed us to give him cereal at about 2 months but we decided to wait until 4 when most babies were thought to be ready. Even if it wouldn't have hurt him, there was really no advantage to us doing it.

Putting cereal in bottles is a choking hazard. Your babies were 5 weeks premature. Developmentally they are only two weeks old. The minimum age for cereal is 4 months and should be fed by spoon. The recommendation is 4 to 6 months old. More and more people are waiting until 6 months.

By overfeeding your babies at such a young age you are INCREASING their risk for being overweight as adults. Also limitting thier nutrient intake by filling them up w/ cereal and not formula only. They are too young to take in all the nutrient they need at such a young age that's why they recommend to wait until 6mo.

Recent studies have shown that babies DO NOT sleep longer by being overfed. Your mom's intentiones are good but outdated. Tell your mom that although she means well, lots of new information has become available in the last number of years, and you want to give your girls the best chance possible. Once their tummies are bigger they will eat more and less often.

My mom told me that she gave us milk when we were less than 1yr, b/c there was no formula. Now of course it's a well known fact that milk is a big no no until after 12mo.

Everything these ladies said is right. A baby that young can't digest cereal properly, not to mention diabetes, choking etc. Oh, and the sleeping thing is so not true.

I agree your mom means well but listen to your nutritionist...it's not true for babies to sleep better if they are having cereal. And since they are premies they need their formula much more than cereal.
I wanted to just agree with everyone else!
Good luck and hope your mom listens to you! :)
S :)

I too agree with everyone else...listen to the babies Dr., s/he knows best especially since the babies were premature their little digestive systems aren't as developed as they would be at this age if they were full term. Feeding them cereal earlier could actually do more harm than good. I too have had my mom and older sister preach to me about what they did with their kids and how their kids turned out just fine, but at that day and age they didn't do tests to find out if there was any long term effects to what they did back then. If you ask me I can see lots of problems with their kids, that quite possibly could have been caused by starting solids too soon. I was given the go ahead at almost 4 months to start cereal by spoon only because DS had a refux condition, he didn't sleep any better in fact the fist few days he slept less. They now recommend 6 months before starting cereal or solids...I'd say stick to breastmilk/formula until at least 5 months since your babies were born so early if you chose to start early but in all honesty I would wait until after 6 months just because of the premature issue.