cereal introduction

I have been battling Waylon over his feeding schedule for about a week and a half now, and it's just came to mind that maybe he's needing something more substantial. We had always been on a 3-hr eating schedule but lately it's been 2, MAYBE 2 1/2 hrs between feedings. This of course is messing up his nap times too, bc just as he is getting to sleep good he's hungry and ready to eat again. The only time he'll sleep good is at night, he's still doing the 11-ish feeding then sleeping about 5-6 hrs. After that though it's constant, all day and evening.
His ped. recommends waiting until they're 4m to start cereal, but I plan on calling her this week to get her opinion on this. He'll be 3 months Tuesday.
Any ideas/advice/etc?
Thanks!!

Madison was started on cereal early - at about 2 1/2 month - for the exact same reason. She was so hungry that she was wanting to eat at least every 2 hours and wasn't getting good naps in so she fell into a pattern of eat, sleep for 1/2 hour or so, up for an hour, repeat, repeat, all day long. We started giving her a little dish of cereal in the morning and late afternoon and she was back on a good sleeping schedule within a week or so.

He could just be going through a growth spurt too. I think I'd wait another week or so and see if he settles back into every 3 hours. When mine went through growth spurts they'd eat every hour or two for a couple weeks sometimes.

Really? I thought growth spurts only lasted a few days, maybe a week. I may give him a few more days then and see what happens. It'll be 2 weeks as of Thursday that this has been going on.
Thanks for the help ladies!

talk to your pediatrician, giving babies cereal too early has a LOT of risks.

All the nurse told me was that his ped said it's ok for him to eat every 2 hours.... not exactly the kind of help I was looking for....
I guess I'll see if I can up my supply somehow, maybe that will help?

Some babies just like to eat more frequently, too. It doesn't necessarily mean he's not getting enough. Allie was very much an every 2 hour baby, day and night. When she went through her growth spurts I thought I would go insane feeding her every hour. Andrew usually went anywhere from 3 to 6 hours between feedings (even during the day) and only needed to eat every 2 hours or so during a growth spurt. But Allie ate every two hours for a loooong time. It was frustrating sometimes but once I got used to the idea that that was just how much she needed to eat I was ok with it - most of the time.

I'm wondering if maybe a growth spurt is what got him into this pattern. He had always been a 3-hr eater until recently. I think I"m going to try stretching out his eating times a little at a time, though I'm not sure exactly how I'll do that, seeing as how he won't take a paci.
Any ideas?
Thanks!!!

There is a lot of info out there of course for both starting early and then not starting before 6 months..
but I do believe about the open gut theory..that a babys gut isnt ready for solids until at least 6 months..
I think I would just do the research and ask the ped. and do what you feel comfortable with ..
and maybe for a while he does just need to feed often.....

Same with mine. And sometimes they never went back to that "schedule" after growth spurts. Your breastmilk (or formula) is substantial enough for him at this stage.

The open gut issue mentioned in earlier posts is very true and very serious, IMO. You don't want to introduce foods too early and deal with possible allergies.

No ideas, but if he's hungry why not feed him? We, as adults, eat when we are hungry, right? Babies have no clue that there are "set" times to eat. We know there are possible "set" times to eat, but do WE even always abide by that when we are hungry?

Point taken. I just don't want him to end up being a snacker, as opposed to eating full meals is all. I think maybe I'll just let nature take it's course and see what happens over the next few weeks. Who knows, he may go back to longer times on his own.
Thanks so much... it really helps to bounce ideas off other people.

I KWYM. I have done that too - slowly stretching out the times between feedings, even if it's only 5 or 10 minutes at a time. It doesn't hurt to try, he might just have gotten into the habit. If he won't have anything to do with it and it is really just that his needs have changed you can always just go back to feeding him when he wants to eat.

I think when I'd start trying to go longer between feedings I would just try to distract them by playing with them or cuddling or taking a walk around the house - sometimes they were just bored too and didn't really need to eat, but that's what they want to do when they're bored.

This post has been edited by ~Roo'sMama~ on Feb 10 2009, 08:42 AM

Understandable. Everyone is different in their approach. I know in my case I let them eat when they wanted and maybe they did "snack" but that didn't continue as they got older - well not Kylie. Megan is a different issue with her problems.