Cereal

Karis's nutritional goal was to have nothing but breast milk until 6 months.  Before she was even 2 months, many people suggested that we try feeding her rice cereal at night to help her sleep longer.  Karis's doctor did not agree with the theory.  He was confident that she'd be sleeping better soon.  Plus, since her weight was right on track, there was no reason for an alternative form of nourishment.

At her 4 month appointment, Karis's pediatrician was surprised that Karis was not sleeping at least 8 hours at night.  He said we could go ahead and try rice cereal if we wanted to.  I definitely wanted to try it if it meant we could get some uninterrupted sleep.

We tried feeding her rice cereal from a spoon.  She happily sucked on the spoon, but did not swallow any of the cereal.  Then, we put the cereal in a bottle.  She did great with that.  The main reason we wanted to start rice cereal was to help Karis sleep through the night.  It worked for two nights, then she was back to her old routine.  I felt like the cereal was useless, plus it was creating extra work for me, having to pump every day to add liquid to Karis's cereal.  Back to plan A: solids at 6 months.  It was clear that Karis was not ready for solid foods, and when she is ready, I want her to eat from a spoon, not a bottle.

A message from Karis: (she literally did this while sitting in her Bumbo as I was proofreading)

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