What age should I introduce cereal?

6 months is the recommendation for solids

You shouldn't really give her anything until she is 6 months. I gave my little boy the kendamil cereal.

I gave at 4 months idk why people make a big deal of not giving before 6 months. Ofc unless doctor says. Mine gave a thumbs up.

You're not supposed to give solids before 6 months as there digestive system isn't mature enough/developed enough to handle solids and it can lead to digestive issues later in life.

The guidelines for 6 months is because babies need the concentrated nutrients in breast milk/formula. The amount of nutrients they need vs what the would get in 1-2oz of food is not enough. If your child is showing all the signs of readiness your Dr. might okay them for purred food before 6 months. This just means that they can have 1-2 TBSP/1oz maximum per day. You are also not replacing any meals till 6 months. As far as cereal is concerned you don't want to introduce it till they are able to chew or mash food and they are no longer pushing food in and out with their tongue. At 4 months their digestive system is able to accept very small amounts of food without any complications. We started pureed food at 4.5 months as our LO was ready and per our Dr. We started with Avocado as the fats and omegas are healthy for their system. Then we added banana and sweet potato. At 5 months we added all the food allergy foods over the month. Again this was only 1oz of food/day till 6 months.

I live in Canada. At our 4 month check in, my doctor told me to begin puree fruit and veggies. He advised to stick with 1 kind for a week at a time, in case he developed an allergy, we knew what it would be too. I was confused as everything says 6 months, but when I talked to other moms, they all started after 4 months with puree as well, then cereal at 6 months as it’s thicker

@Megan thanks Megan. Good to know..I may just introduce cereal quickly and move straight on to fruits and veggies because cereal is empty calories but an easy first food to introduce (so I've heard). My baby is going to have an allergy test done but good advice. Thanks.

We started With kendamil baby porridge, organix is supposed to be a good brand and hipp organic

Around 6 months is when babies are generally ready for solids. Their insides aren't ready until their outsides are ready, that being when they are sitting and they themselves, grab, bring it to their mouth, chew and swallow. If you have to feed it to them, they are not ready for it. This has been the same advice from WHO for nearly 30 years now, unfortunately there's still a lot of outdated information out there, even given our by health professionals, but they are not working to the most recent guidance! When it comes to cereal/porridge. Just normal porridge oats are fine, there's no need to waste money on special baby porridge, it's literally ground up oats.

To add, we waited until baby was 6 months.

Why do we need introduce cereals? Why can’t be give whole foods? Cereals are not healthy-empty carbs.

@aya if you're actually asking I can tell you. That is true for rice cereal but I spoke with a dietician and she recommends oatmeal cereal. It's an easy first food to introduce because it can be mixed with milk but it will be a small enough portion to not replace the nutrient dense milk and after introducing I will quickly move on to pureed fruits and veggies. To each their own. I think it's important to introduce all foods to limit allergies and some people can also add nut butters to the cereal to give exposure to tree nuts and peanuts (also suggested by the Dietician).

I give our LO normal organic oats now, started with Kendamil, but now do not use a baby porridge anymore. We add almond powder walnut powder Peanut butter chia seeds flax seeds Blueberries and banana dash of milk and lots of water. I make a smoothie with all this and then mix with the porridge, my baby loves it and its full of good fats, protein and fibre. I also add some baby puree sometimes. My LO had just the baby porridge to help them understand the concept of food in the mouth and swallowing. I also find porridge is easier on their little stomachs (rather than rice) as it’s easier to digest and higher in fibre.