Family Forum / Parenting / Twins / November 2009

Not a problem. Most early solids have fewer calories and nutrition than formula
anyway. There's no reason not to just give them as much formula as they like.
It's probably a lot more convenient anyway -- spooning solids into mouths and
getting it off faces and bibs and such is a pain. I much preferred putting off
solids until the babies could very nearly feed themselves and the training
period was extremely short.

The current thinking is that six months is plenty soon enough to start, and
that four months is *okay* (if there is no tendency to allergies in the family
-- any allergies, doesn't have to be food ones) but not necessary. Since
they're on formula you've no need to worry about iron-fortified foods, either,
which is really the only big nutritional issue with preemies that I know of
(they don't get the same load of iron that full-term babies get).

I should think four months corrected, six months since birth, would be a
reasonable compromise, but that's a guess. My three were all full-term, and two
were very keen to start solids right at six months, and the other (my
singleton) just toyed with them for a few months, a Cheerio here, a Cheerio
there, and didn't start really chowing down until more like nine months.

--Helen

I think you just gave yourself the current medical thinking in a nutshell
and I can only endorse what you clearly know -- wait til 6 months adjusted
if at all possible.

In some cases (e.g. reflux), rice cereal can be a benefit early on, but as
you know the current advice is no solids before 6 months, and with 32
weekers I would be super cautious.  Preemies, esp. if they were gavaged,
often have eating problems (basically as they encounter thicker and lumpier
foods they throw up a lot sometimes for months before they get the
swallowing trick down properly).  Personally with mine I waited til about 5
months adjusted for the boys and Hanna was still not ready so she was
probably 6 months adjusted before she got started.  But that was when they
were recommending *4* months not the current six, so I was very
conservative -- and they all three later experienced the swallowing/vomiting
problem and had trouble with textures for years -- they still don't like
lumpy soup or stews or anything in a sauce ....

So in a nutshell, I'd back off the rice, give them extra formula and wait it
out.  This might be just a growth spurt anyway -- but I certainly know that
mine were often on 260 cc (8 2/3 oz) per meal every meal 4x a day at this
age -- that being basically an over-full 8oz bottle topped up to the rim.
And sometimes we went back and got them a couple more ounces if they still
seemed interested at the end of the bottle.

--Janet
Elliot, Hanna, Connor  (10/21/96)
and Holly  (4/4/01) -- who also got nothing solid til 5.5 months and was
fine despite being a bruiser (8-8 at birth)

Karen

My children are 5 months (were born 7 weeks early)  they have been eating
rice cereal since they were a month old.  We like you had insatiable babies,
and our doctor was horrified that we let them eat so much.  He gave us
permission to add some cereal to their formula.  So that's what we have been
doing.  For every 4 oz of formula, we put in one scoop of rice cereal.  It
has done wonders for our children.  At 4 months of age, our doctor told us
to start introducing yellow/orange vegetables and fruit to their diet.  They
have so far done very well.  They haven't spit up more than they usually do,
and only one of them seem to have a problem with the food.  Don't know if
it's the taste or the texture, she's just not sure that she likes it or not.

Gayle
Mom to Andrew, Ben, and Elena (9/24/03)

My daughter was 12 weeks early and 2.9 pounds.  She was a VERY picky eater
and also suffered from moderate acid reflux which is very common as you
probably know.  The hospital started her on rice cereal before we even got
out of the hospital to assist her with the acid reflux along with medicine.
After she got home we waited almost six months to begin solids.  She is now 9
months old and is JUST beginning to eat solids and she is ready for it.  I
would speak to your pediatrian, listen to what she has to say but more
importantly to the nutrionist and the speech therapist.  If you don't have
the last two - get them.  They have been such a valuable asset to have and
most preemies get these services for free.

My advice to you in the meantime is begin the cereal and let her digest that
for a month or so.  She will let you know when she is ready to start
introducing/eating solids.  I thought we were too late to start solids and
began them a few times with no luck.  It wasn't until the nutrionist came in
and showed me that my daughter would let me know when she is ready to get
introduced to them happily that we had success.  And now it shows!  The first
sign was she would watch me very closely when I would eat in front of her.
She started to mimick how I opened my mouth and when she was ready I placed
the spoon in front of her and she opened her mouth like a big girl.  Now we
are up to two meals a day AFTER the bottle.  It is very important to remember
that she gets all of her nutrients from the bottle so make sure that she eats
that first.  Anything else afterwards is gravy so to speak.  We don't want
them loosing any weight after all!

Good luck!  Hope this helps!  Email me anytime if you want to discuss more.