Rice Cereal

Tanner had rice cereal on Saturday for the first time. I really was not excited about it because I am slightly addicted to nursing. Before we had Tanner I was planning on pumping and giving him a bottle every now and then so that he was OK if I ever left. Once I had him I decided two things, first I was never leaving and second he was not going to have a bottle. However, since I had told Brad that I was going to try it I made 2 bottles and had him give the first. The next day I was going to have Brad give him the second, but when it came time I was crying and so Brad let me give him the bottle-I cannot even remember if I ended up giving him the whole bottle before I started to nurse him. Needless to say Tanner will be nursing for some time. So back to the rice, I was just not ready for this kind of separation from him and I thought that my milk was perfectly nutritious however my pediatrician felt differently. As soon as he told me that I needed to start giving him rice cereal I was so mad and considered changing doctors, until I did some research of my own (I know I research too much when it comes to these things-don't worry my sister is making sure that I am teased for it). Here is the scoop...the Academy of Pediatrics is divided on the topic into the nursing and nutrition sides. The nursing side believes that babies should nurse exclusively for 6 months. The nutrition side thinks that there is not enough iron in the mothers milk and so they need to have rice cereal at 4 months. I decided that I would go in the middle and try it at 5 months, but then curiosity got the best of me and we tried it out. We were happy to find our that he loved it and I could not get the spoon in his mouth fast enough. By the end every time I gave him a bite he would grab my arm with his hands and feet and hold it there trying to keep the spoon in his mouth. It always surprises me how strong little babies can be. The only problem was that about 10 min after he finished eating he spit it all up. I knew that he didn't need cereal yet- we will try again at about 5 months. Stay tuned....