A new moms questions

Congrats and welcome to MM.com...there are a lot of helpful mommies on here with great advice, so please ask away anytime.

Okay, here's my input even if it's been a little while since I've had a newborn(my youngest of three, is 2)

Cereal: I'm pretty certain it's not recommended that you add cereal to a bottle of formula or breastmilk, even if your mom tells you different :) Between 4-6 months is when our doc recommended us to mix a little rice cereal, with formula/breastmilk and feed it to our kids with a spoon. It was a pain at first because it was more milk than anything, and it would dribble everywhere, but our kids got accustomed to eating from a spoon. We would then just increase the amount of cereal to the milk... we followed the directions on the box of cereal. Then we moved on to baby oatmeal.

Baby food: Our doc recommended starting baby food veggies around 6 months. We used the stage one jarred stuff and made our own...it's pretty simple. Sweet potatoes or carrots are good starters. Once you move up the scale of the veggies, then on to fruits, then by about 7-8 months, some solids can be introduced, like cherrios, puffs, pieces of crackers/bread. I think by about 10-12 months our kids were eating more "big people" food...spagetti, yogurt, cheese, etc..

Formula: All my kids were breastfed, but some weaned earlier than others and we used Similac with Iron. It's milk based, and our kids never really had any issues so I'm not much help in that area.

Gas drops: We used the gas drops with our first two, because they had "colic", but they didn't work very well. Our doc basically told us that their intestinal tracts just needed to work out all the kinks so we learned some other non-medicating soothing methods that worked wonders(some of the time)... and by about 4 months, they were sweet as could be!

Hope this helps!

I am a first time mom as well, going on second. I'm only 25, so I know how you feel. My doctor always told me to never put cereal in their bottle. I've also read that. It can cause them to over eat and therefore when you give them a bottle that doesn't have cereal, they're not going to be satisfied. Her formula intake skyrocketed almost immediately. She went from 2 oz to 6 oz in almost no time. She never really went over 6 oz. We started her on cereal and slowly into foods at 4 months. Your doctor will tell you when you should start it.

My daughter picked her head up pretty early as well. I don't know what's "normal." As far as an allergic reaction goes, I would probably listen to what the doctor has to say. As long as it's not serious, they'd probably give her a dose of benadryl and send you home.

My daughter was on Similac Sensitive. It's the orange can. It's lactose free and she never had a problem with it. If you choose to give her the gas drops you can either put them in her bottle or you can give them to her right in her mouth. My daughter never has a problem taking them either way.

I hope this helps you a little bit. I'm more than happy to share my experiences with you if you wanted to PM me about any other questions you may have.

It seems only yesterday my little 19 month old was brand new and i had all the same questions, then all of a sudden hes almost two and i cant remember how we survived it! time really flies. With my second due in october i have been thinking about the beginning all over again.
first off, as a new mom 23 or 43 everyone has tons of questions, its totally normal. i still have questions. mine, unlike some other of heard of did not come with a manual!
as far as the formula, i would stick to what the doc says, i havent had to deal with allergies so i cant say for sure what to give her. i do know that my doc only said that they were all pretty much the same generic or not. if she has to be on something special maybe you can find a store brand that a little cheaper but the same thing.
cereal is a big no in the bottle. i know everyone says it helps but my doc is very against it. first off, babies are calorie counters, unlike us who eat till we are full. babies cant tell when they are full and the cereal has very little calories, no they are hungry sooner and it can cause more stomach problems by causing them to over eat to satisfy the empty calories. i hope that makes sense, my doc explains it better then me.
start cereal at about 4 months, then baby food solids at 6, puffs, and then big people food from there. you will get to know when eating habits and be able to gage her from there. your doc will help along the way.
if she is gassy or has a sensitive stomach try gripe water. its by little tummies and you can get it a babies r us. it worked wonders for my son who was gassy all the time ! the drops didnt do much for him.
sounds like everything she is doing is normal and you are right on top of it. more questions will come as she gets older and as soon as you think you got her figured out she will change on ya. best of luck and dont worry too much.

We experienced a very similar situation with formula with our first daughter.She ended up on Isomil as well, and we did use the gas drops on a regular basis. The peditrician actually had us using 4 times the recommended amounts to help her situation. There are generics available too. Walmart is very reasonable.

As to your daughters allergic reaction, it would have depended on what my doctor would want in that situation. If he would have wanted to observe her in er then thats where we would have been at that age--depending on her medical condition at the time. Her little airway could have closed very fast. We are at the point with our children 12, 9, 7 that we will observe and talk with the doc and then make reasonable decisions. But our doctors office has a doctor on call all the time for help when the office is closed and have after hours apts as well as weekend hours, which elimates visits to the er.

Your doctor should be able to guide you and give you suggestions without making you feel stupid. If your doctor is not willing to take the time to answer your questions then find another. Sometimes some of them forget that new parents are just that new, and just because they have delt with infants for many years not everyone has.

Your cereal issue is somewhat of your choice and your doctors reccomendations. This is what ours has been. Babies only need formula or breastmilk for the first 4-6 months, and only after the formula or breastmilk cosumption is at about 28-32 ozs. a day and after 4 months you can introduce cereal. THey tend to believe that the tummy is not ready to handle anything until that point and if you intoduce cereal sooner you will decrease your milk consumption and loose vitiams/mineral/calorie intake and not get the required daily amounts. The same goes if you feed just because the baby seems cranky, sometimes they just need a change of activity and not to have a bottle shoved in thier face.

Good luck with your little one and enjoy the times go so fast and you will overcome each obsticle just to face the next!

Congrats on the new baby!
After breastfeeding I had the same problem with my son and the milk, we had to changed him to soy milk and everything was ok. For the gas we did the drops but my doctor suggest to changed of bottle and we tried the doctor Brown bottles and we had no more gas. Those bottles are little more expansive but worked the best for him.
For the cereals well most of the moms answered it already but it depends a lot of your baby size, the doctor will let you know when (approx 4-6months). Baby food not until 6months- I did a lots of research (I made my homemade baby food)for my son and did the list of food for each month up to 5years old that is appropriate so if you want I can e-mail it to you. Good luck and let us know if you have more questions : )

Hey Girl I am a new mom too and am 25yrs old! My baby is 6 weeks old and I have had alot of the same questions. As far as the cereal in the bottle I have tried it a couple times bc of friends and sisters telling me it was ok. I barely used a baby spoon full and mixed it with my breast milk. I was trying it bc my baby wasn't sleeping at night at all. They told me that would help. It didn't help and he has started sleeping alot better without having to use it.

Isaiah(my baby) is lifting his head and moving around alot too. I have read in some books that some babies start doing this earlier than others. Because he does this I have been putting him on his belly to sleep and he loves it.

What I am coming to realize is that EVERYONE is gonna have an opinion and think theres is the right one. Thats why this website is great bc you can listen to what everyone has to say but only do what you feel is right. So I would go with what your gut tells you, and the doc of course!

I use Milicon gas drops just 3ml when he is acting fussy or gassy and they work pretty good. You can use them with every feeding too!

I wanted to tell you that we were having the problem with the leaky diapers too. It was usually when my husband wwas putting the diapers on and he wouldn't fasten them tight enough. That might not be your problem but just a thought!

Well thanks for everyones help and advice! I am too scared to try new things without someone telling me that its okay, or that they've done it and it worked!