Introducing Solid Foods To Baby - Cereal Issues?

[RiceFiend]

I'm a gluten intolerant individual (may or may not be celiac since I haven't had the biopsy but am 400% healther on a gluten-free diet) and have a 6 mo. old who is just starting solid foods. When I spoke with my doc about this she didn't seem to have much/any(?) advice for me. She only agreed with me that 'time will tell' with respect to the baby.

Well, I don't like this answer, i.e. time will tell, and wonder if there is a way I can deal with introducing foods to see if the baby is gluten intolerant/celiac.

So far I did try to start with fortified rice cereal and introduced it on three separate occasions a few days apart and each time got major shrieking belly pains and constipation. Through a few searches I see this can be a common reaction and individuals recommend that oatmeal might be a better choice. However, I don't have oatmeal or barley or any gluten-bearing things in my diet so I'm leary of moving him to oatmeal if he can't even tolerate rice yet. The baby is successfully getting lots of good veggies (and still has breastmilk) without a problem.

Any advice on introducing cereals? Anything I should be looking for in terms of reactions?

BTW, as soon as I introduced any solid food at all, he now has dark circles under his eyes which my older son also has had since the introduction of foods (he's now 8). I'm just very leary of food in general since IBS and other gastrointestinal disorders/illnesses seem to plague my whole extended family and especially me.

Like every parent wanting the best and healthiest for her child,

RiceFiend

[2kids4me]

both my children were on breastmilk til 20 months old, never started cereal til after a year old. Starting around 10 months I introduced new foods a few weeks apart - fed them cooked/mashed carrots, sweet potatoe, applesauce, pears, potatoe, banana - all of which were home prepared. When I started with meats - I cooked chicken or beef and whipped it in the blender with some broth.

Started with rice cereal and oatmeal - I ground the oatmeal in the blender so it was a smoother end product.

That's all I can remember cause they are 12 and 14 now!

There are lots of moms on board here and you will get helpful replies - I'm certain!

Sandy

[Ursa Major]

RiceFiend, dark circles under eyes ALWAYS indicates allergies/intolerances, especially in children. Meaning, they are both consuming foods they are intolerant to.

A baby as young as six months doesn't need any cereal at all. In fact, NOBODY needs any grain products, ever, to be healthy. They seem to cause a lot of problems in a lot of people.

My suggestion is, to go back to square one with your baby. Start with one food, and feed only that one food for a week to see if he has a reaction. Week two introduce another food for a week........etc. With reaction I mean anything, rashes, dark circles under eyes, fussiness, colic, diarrhea, extreme sleepiness or sleeplessness, or other unusual changes from his normal self.

Breast milk should still be his main source of nutrition. Four of my five kids didn't have any solids at all until they were eight months old (and with the oldest I didn't know any better because I had an ignorant doctor, and she paid with having the most intolerances of all my children).

It might also be a good idea to put your older son on a very basic diet for a week (rice maybe, potatoes, vegetables, meat, fruit), and then slowly reintroduce other foods again, one at a time a week apart, to catch his intolerances. If after a week of a basic diet he still has the dark circles, then rice might be a problem as well, and you need to see if taking it out will help.

This is an elimination diet, which is the best way to find out about food intolerances, because there are no reliable tests to figure those out.

[luvs2eat]

I never gave my babies cereal either, as it seemed to me the ground up box w/ vitamin drops on it probably had the same nutritional value as the refined crap they sell as cereal. I gave them smashed up fruits and veggies at about 6 months while still breast feeding and later some tofu and yogurt.

I stayed away from "allergy prone" foods like eggs and citrus and wheat till they were at least a year old.

[gfgypsyqueen]

I have celiacs (biopsied positive). My first child has a nut allergy - so we don't have the best gene pool

With the second baby I knew I was a celiac and had problems with the baby everytime I got glutened while pregnant, which happened at least 5 times. She was born and had colic and never tolerated formula well. Nursing didn't work so hot with the first - of course I was sick with undiagnosed celiacs so who knows. So that is where my info is coming from.

I read up on everything about babies and Celiacs and heard that you should introduce all the grains between 4 and 6 mths. So we did. She was fine (once the colic was under control and on soy formula and nursing). about 11 mths old she got a really bad diaper rash, then diarrhea and the problems just started getting better now (she is 2yrs old). She has recently been tested for Celiacs. Negative blood and negative biopsy, but has one gene. So she still eats gluten for now. Allergy testing is coming soon. Once the milk/casein was removed from her diet she started to show signs of improvement.

My doctor knew NOTHING about celiacs. They tried to learn and would listen to me, but really it is hard to gauge. We tried every diaper rash product and nothing helped. As it turns out, the rash is her main sign of an allergy reaction. Who knew???

For your child, read up on grains and get opinions here. I don't think introducing the grains in the 4-6 mth window did us any favors. (We are looking at several food allergies for this child in addition to possible celiacs later.)

As for signs, track your baby in every way. Height and weight should be consistent or going up in percentages. (My opinion is you keep you own log of dr appts and weights etc.) My daughters height and weight % went down for over a year and no dr found it alarming!!!! Another issue for another day.

Track the baby's sleep and fussyness patterns. That is always a key indicator to a problem for us.

As for new foods, try in extremely small amounts. One spoonful of rice cereal might be enough for the first day. If something starts making the stools harder too fast, the baby will be miserable for a few days. In our case it was good news after a year of diarrhea.

I am actually curious how many of us confirmed celiacs give birth to non-celiac non-food allergic kids??

Best of luck with your little one

[shan]

my two year old was just diagnosed as a celiac 2 months ago, and while in the hospital for her biopsy, i asked the gi when i should introduce my (then) 4 month ols son to gluten. he told me that current research says that keeping your child off gluten will lessen their chances of them having it, as in, with me nursing my baby for as long as possible it can prevent celiac from developing. (having said that if its in the genes, how can nursing prevent it?!) any way that's what he said!!

i gave my son just now cornflour baby cereal (gluten free) and he hated it but had no reaction... (but he doesn't like anything except his mom!! and at night the most!!)

good luck

[2boysmama]

DH and I carry genes for gluten sensitivity. We don't know if either of us has celiac or celiac genes, but our older son has two gluten sensitive genes. We're just keeping the whole fam damily gluten-free and may or may not have our 9 month old gene tested at some point.

Really - cereal isn't necessary. I haven't given my 9 month old any cereal, and haven't fully decided yet if we'll skip it altogether, or if I'll make him some from brown rice at home.