cereal?

Because the formula satisfied our little man, I put off starting cereal until 5 months (and will most likely wait a bit longer with the next one, as I felt pressured from MIL and hubby to start that early). It gives their little digestive systems time to mature enough to handle the solids. When we did start, we used rice, because it appeared to be the most mild/least likely allergen of the cereals. We eventually worked up to oatmeal and some other grains. Somewhere on the First Year will be some older threads discussing starting solids with some really great advise and some links to pediatric articles to back up the thinking about not starting too soon. But I"m sure you will get more responses soon!

We tried it for the first time at five months and it was just this side of a disaster. DD has acid reflux and boy did that rice cereal come back up in a hurry.We waited a month and tried again at six months and it was smooth sailing. We mixed with formula at first but for the last month or so we've used fruit juice. I think when you start cereal depends a lot on the child. For us we had a picky eater and acid reflux to consider. But my SIL started my nephew (three weeks younger than Eve) on rice cereal just after he was three months. He, however, will eat anything, has a HUGE appetite and hardly ever even spit up. If your baby is always hungry and is getting interested in what you're eating, maybe you could give it a try. I'd probably talk to your ped first though, as ours wanted us to wait as long as possible.

H started it around 4 months at the advice of our pediatrician, and was fine, but he's always been a pretty adventurous eater, has never had any tummy issues, and no evidence of food allergies on either side of his birth family. There's still a lot of controversy about the when to start---some evidence suggests that starting too early can cause food allergies, other research says that is not true. What our pediatrician said seemed to make sense to me---watch him for signs of interest. We found that H was watching us especially closely when we ate, grabbing at spoons, etc., opening his own mouth as we guided our own spoons. Until they're about a year old, their nutritional needs are being met primarily by the formula, and the introduction to food is just that---an introduction.

I've had advice anywhere from 4-6 months. We started Bug at 4 months but waited to after 6 months with Roo.

We started quite early at the advice of my Doc. DS was a small baby but by 3 months was wanting to pack away 10+ ozs of formula at his bedtime bottle and morning bottle, (he was sleeping 10 to 12 hours at night and was hungry). He was also very interested when we were eating. My Doc said that seemed to be too much formula for a sitting when DS still seemed to need something else to satisfy him. So we started rice and he opened up like a champ and ate like a pro.My Doc was very happy, I got lectured by the health nurses. There are alot of opinions and controversy around this issue, but I think each child will let you know when they are ready.Good Luck!

Thanks for the responses. Being a new mommy you get lots of advice from everyone and it is hard to sort it all out. I plan on calling our pediatrician today, but know that I always get helpful advice from people on this forum. Thanks again.