Solid foods and reflux

[Loriella]

Hello,

Just wondering what other people's experience's were when starting solid foods with a reflux baby.

My daughter is on rice in her bottles and two spoon fed feedings of oats and/or mixed cereals right now. Once I am done the 5 days of the mixed cereals I can start on the vegies. I was planning on starting with carrots as my first vegetable.

I am wondering if there is certain vegies/fruits etc. that can aggravate the reflux??? And how did other babies react to the introduction of vegies to their diet.

So far, so good for us right now on the cereals, all is going well.

[Crystal B]

my doctor gave me the go ahead to mix bananna's in his cereal and he is taking the cereal much better but that is all i have tried.
crystal B

[Blessed]

Thomas' pediatrician recommended avoiding fruits until he grows out of his reflux, because they tend to be too acidic. I've been told that apples are one of the worst offenders. Thomas loves all his vegetables -- carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, green beans and peas. Bananas are okay too. I usually put bananas in his morning cereal. I've heard a lot of moms say that they did okay with pears, but I've noticed when I give them to Thomas he starts rubbing his face, so I think they must be aggravating the reflux. So I'm going to stick with just cereal, veggies and bananas.

[Crystal B]

before we put bananna's in his cereal he could not tollerate the cereal but my doctor said to put bananna's in it and know he can take it fine.its weird but it worked
crystal B

[Jan]

Jade's first solid was baby rice. Her first vegetable was carrot.

We could never get a fruit apart from banana anywhere near Jade and still can't except on very rare occasions. (she's 13mnths now)

The vegetables to avoid are ones that are notorious for causing bad wind. But even then, sometimes it really is a case of trial and error.

Be assured, you'll soon know if that is a food to avoid, be it vegetable or fruit.

One tip if you really want to get a new food into your babies is this. Make up some rice with their milk and add a little bit of another food to it. e.g. banana, carrot, apple, pear Then the food isn't totally foreign to their taste buds and nor is the texture.

Many babies, even without problems will gag a lot when you start solids, just make them a little bit more runny and thicken them as your baby becomes more able to cope.

Jan

[Loriella]

Carol,

Have you tried various fruits with your baby???
This solid food thing is so confusing to me, especially with a refluxer. She does good on rice and oats, then the other day I tried the 'mixed' cereal and she was miserable. She ate it and she liked it, but then she was really cranky. So I stopped the mixed. So today I thought I would start the carrots and she was miserable again.

She is almost 27 weeks old, just over 6 months and I feel like I have to get these vegies on the go.

I am also confused about the ceral. They say to do rice, oats, barley separately, and then go to the mixed. I use the Nestle cereals. They only have rice, oats and then the next one is mixed! Do I just go with that?? I cannot find other cereals that are not mixed. Is it maybe she is too young for the mixed and I should start the veggies and then try the other mixed cereals? The mixed has wheat in it which I know can be very allergenic. So I really don't know what to do.

Do you think carrots could bother a refluxer?????

[Loriella]

Carol,

Sorry for all the questions!

How often and how much do you feed vegetables and cereal and when?

Did you go through all the single grain cereals first?

Right now we are doing 2 tablespoons of oatmeal 2x a day. That is on top of the 1 1/2 tablespoons of rice she gets in her 7 ounce bottles of forumula. So that is alot of cereal. We just started on carrots today.

She gets the spoon fed oatmeal with her second and last feeding of the day (she has 4 x 7 ounce bottles). Today I gave her her carrots with her second feeding.

In what order do you feed? I do the solids first and then the formula because the doctor said so and also because I figure if she is spitting up, it is better to have the veggies at the bottom of her stomach because they are probably the most acidic. I am not really sure if it makes a difference or not.

Thanks!
Lori

[Blessed]

Hi Lori,

Our babies are really close in age! :) Thomas will be 29 weeks on Thursday.

Thomas hasn't had trouble with any of the vegetables, just fruits. But I've heard other people (reflux moms) say that they had trouble with <i>solids</i> period. Thomas eats carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, green beans, peas and bananas without any trouble. I've given him pears, but they seem to bother him, so I'm swearing off all fruits (except bananas) for a while.

We haven't done mixed cereal yet. We started with rice then moved on to oat, which he seems to like much better. And just recently I switched to a brand called Earth's Best (http://www.earthsbest.com). Their products are all organic, and they have whole grain rice, oatmeal and multi-grain cereals. (And the multi-grain does not contain wheat!) I first read about this brand in the Super Baby Food book and searched them out when I was looking for teething biscuits that Thomas can have since he's allergic to milk. And they make teething biscuits that don't contain wheat <i>or</i> milk! Okay, you didn't ask about that, but I just had to share my excitement! :D Anyway, Earth's Best is kind of hard to find in stores. The Kroger down the street from us doesn't carry it, but the one in the next town does. And it's in their natural foods section, not on the baby food aisle.

OK now, back to your questions...

If I had to guess, I would think that the problem you had with the mixed cereals was probably the wheat since it is a common allergen. :confused: I'm pretty sure both Gerber and Beechnut make a barley cereal if you want to try it alone, but you might have to look around for it. Also how many days after trying the multi-grain cereal did you wait until trying the carrots? Some people say you only have to wait 3 days, but where you had trouble with the cereal, you might want to give it more time just to make sure it's completely out of her system before you try something else. And maybe try one of the other vegetables and see how she does before trying the carrots again.

Another thought is you might want to try giving her just a tiny bit at a time at first (like maybe just stir a spoonful into her cereal). When we had to switch formulas, Thomas' allergist explained to me how the intestines produce different enzymes to digest different types of food, and if the food isn't present then the enzyme used to digest it isn't produced. So you introduce new foods gradually so that the intestines can start producing the enzyme before you give them a whole lot of the new food. It worked with the formula switch for us, maybe you need to do veggies the same way? :confused: Just an idea.

I feed Thomas 3 meals a day. About an hour after he has a bottle:

Breakfast - 2 Tbl. whole grain oat cereal mixed with about 1.5 oz. formula and 1/2 stage 1 jar of bananas.

Lunch - 1 green and 1 yellow vegetable (1/2 stage 1 jar each)

Dinner - 1 green and 1 yellow vegetable (1/2 stage 1 jar each) plus 1 Tbl whole grain oat cereal mixed with about 3/4 oz. formula

He doesn't get cereal in his bottles, so 3 Tbl. is his total for the day. I have no idea if what I'm giving him is "right". His 6 month check-up is this morning, so I plan to talk to his doctor about it then. I'll let you know what she says.

[Loriella]

Carol,

I had to laugh when you said your 6 month check up is this morning, ours is this afternooon!!

Thanks ALOT for the response. I will try just mixing a tiny amount of carrots in with the cereal and we will see how this goes. Getting through all of these vegetables could take forever!

Thanks
Lori

[jessica]

Thomas' pediatrician recommended avoiding fruits until he grows out of his reflux, because they tend to be too acidic. I've been told that apples are one of the worst offenders. Thomas loves all his vegetables -- carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, green beans and peas. Bananas are okay too. I usually put bananas in his morning cereal. I've heard a lot of moms say that they did okay with pears, but I've noticed when I give them to Thomas he starts rubbing his face, so I think they must be aggravating the reflux. So I'm going to stick with just cereal, veggies and bananas.

He may just be allergic to pears. :puh