Formula and new Warnings about starting solids....

FORMULA & Starting SOLIDS

A recent study of thousands of babies and toddlers in England revealed a startling fact:  babies who were formula-fed and began eating rice cereal by age 4 months, were SIX TIMES MORE LIKELY TO BECOME OVERWEIGHT OR OBESE BY AGE 3 years!  Wow!

For those mothers who may not be able to breast feed, then giving infant formula is your only choice.  Some mothers do not make enough breast milk, despite drinking plenty of liquid and attempting to breast-feed every two hours.  Formulas are designed as closely to breast milk as possible, but they are all a little different, so you may have to try a few before you find one that settles well on the baby’s stomach and doesn’t result in gas or colic.

Remember NOT to give a baby any goat's milk, even if pasteurized.  It lacks many essential ingredients that babies need to develop healthy brains and grow in a healthy manner.  There is only one powdered goat's milk formula I have found that equates to cow's milk or soy formula and it is imported from Australia by way of England and is very expensive.  It is called "Nanny Care" and should only be used as an absolute last resort if no other formula (and there are many to try) is found to be tolerated by the baby.

Even if you are feeding with formula, you should try to stick to giving the baby 2 ounces every 2 hours at first to help him gain weight after birth.  Then, as he grows, your baby may take more formula with each feeding and spread the feedings out a little more.  He will let you know when He is hungry!

Generally speaking, a baby’s stomach can’t hold more than about 2 ounces at birth.  If they drink more than that, they will probably spit up the extra formula that they may have consumed, but their little tummy just wasn’t big enough to hold.

As long as your baby continues to gain weight and grow, you shouldn't worry about the spitting up...unless you're overfeeding him.  We will cover spitting up a little later.

By age 4 months, most babies can hold down 3-6 ounces of formula every 3-4 hours.   By age 6 months, they will take anywhere from 6-8 ounces at a time.

It is STRONGLY RECOMMENDED that you WAIT to start Cereal or Solids until 6 months of age.   Grandmothers and the WIC program (Women, Infants, and Children food program) may still offer you rice cereal and solids at 4 months....but WAIT!

The study I mentioned above also made the following recommendations when starting solids to help keep your baby from becoming overweight or obese:

• Avoid white rice cereal.  Instead, give a whole grain oatmeal or some other whole grain cereal
• Once baby is doing well on cereal, start VEGGIES NEXT!  keep them on veggies for several weeks.
• If baby refuses certain veggies at first, KEEP TRYING up to 10 times over several weeks to give the baby a chance to develop a "palate" or "taste buds" for the taste.  Some veggies refused at first, might be enjoyed if tried a little later.  Don't give up!  
• After veggies for a couple of months, start meats.
• Save fruits for last so baby doesn't get a "sweet tooth" too soon!  

Following these guidelines will help reduce the risk of having an overweight or obese baby.  It is possible that some children’s intestines are not mature enough to get all the nutrition out of solid foods until this age.  Starting solids earlier than 6 months may give them extra calories, but not the extra nutrition!  So baby is getting fatter but NOT HEALTHIER!  I know this is not what you want!

Your baby can have all the breast milk or formula he wants until 6 months of age.  Do your best to wait as long as you can to start solids!