Could my pediatrician be this wrong?

I rebelled against common knowledge before I even found the information that I'm sharing today. Like I said before, being responsible for everything my baby eats really hits me hard so I think about everything before I give it to him. And giving him standard rice cereal instead of nursing him didn't make sense. Mother's milk has so many nutrients- it's really the perfect food for infants. Now, I know that eventually babies are going to need more than a liquid diet so it's fine to give them food when they're ready. I don't go for the mindset that babies should have absolutely nothing but mother's milk for the first year- not that most kids would even let you not give them real food! My little guy would go nuts when he saw us eating, reaching for our food and refusing to nurse when I tried nursing him instead of giving him food. Back to the rice cereal then, what reason is there for choosing rice cereal as baby's first food?

Well, it's pretty tasteless so baby might go for that since it's less unfamiliar than something more flavorful, right? Why? Mother's milk has flavor! Not only is it sweet, but it takes on the flavors of what mom eats! Hello, remember the first time you ate garlic when nursing, only to have your baby fuss at you because the milk tastes funny? Or, how about cabbage? As a matter of fact, it's speculated that the more diverse foods that mom eats, the more willing baby will be to try different types of foods. (http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Parenting/story?id=5432989&page=1. I know that ABC news isn't exactly where you go to find nursing data, but this article has interviews from several scientists and professors so it's not simple opinion or news slant.) My baby wouldn't eat rice cereal until I put cinnamon in it because he didn't like the tastelessness. So, giving rice because it's tasteless doesn't make sense to me.

But, what if you don't feed your baby mother's milk? A lot of moms use formula for many different reasons. Formula doesn't acquaint baby with other flavors so giving rice cereal would make more sense- starting bland would probably work better in these cases. I will admit that may be true. But, taste isn't the only reason to give your baby something other than rice.

Most boxed rice cereal has no nutritional value in itself. (http://www.westonaprice.org/childrens-health/317-nourishing-a-growing-baby. ). White rice is a simple starch- your body just converts it straight to sugar. It's fairly common knowledge that foods like white bread aren't good for you; even the government has programs going to promote eating whole grains. Why would you stop feeding your baby mother's milk to replace it with something that has absolutely no nutritional value? Ah, but the better informed among us may come back with an argument something like this, "But brown rice actually has vitamins and fiber! So I'll just make my own rice cereal." That was my plan, actually. I was going to feed my baby brown rice b/c I researched it and found that it has good fat, protein, and vitamins. (http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/health&id=7930723) But I am going to go further and say that even the vitamins in brown rice don't make it a good first food.

I'll start with a mild reason on why not to give rice as a first food. It can cause constipation. (http://www.askdrsears.com/content/my-6-month-old-constipated-what-do) In fact, it's extremely common for babies starting on rice cereal to become constipated. My doctor told me to expect constipation when I started cereal. My friends and my mom all told me that it was fine that my baby was in pain and fussing and grunting trying to digest the rice- "It's just something he needs to get over. All babies have digestion problems when they start eating real food instead of mother's milk." Well, if we accept the premise that starting real food constipates babies, why would we choose a food that is used to help bind stools in adults? The BRAT diet is specifically designed to help stop diarrhea. Guess what the R stands for- Rice! If for no other reason, I would have a hard time choosing rice as my baby's first food simply because it causes constipation, but that is personal opinion. So, let's move on to more scientific reasons.

One of the major reasons we give babies rice cereal as a first food is that it is supposed to be non-allergenic so we can feed it to our children without fear. Come to find out, it's not true! I was completely floored when I found out there actually is a rice allergy. I will grant you that it's not too common, but it exists.(http://www.ehow.com/about_5316240_rice-allergy-symptoms.html, http://allergy-tips.net/rice-allergy.html) You can also have FPIES- Food Protein Induced Entercolitis Syndrome which is not actually a food allergy, but behaves in much the same way. If you research this, especially if you read the comments from moms whose children have these problems, you'll see it's really not something you want to mess around with! These children have it hard, dealing with these food sensitivities.

Another reason we give babies rice cereal is because it's easy to digest, right? Well, not so much apparently. I heard this claim and gave it no credence whatsoever until I researched it and found the evidence in a medical journal. Babies literally do not have the proper digestive enzymes to digest grains. Whaaat? No, for real. Grain digestion requires amylase and babies may not get the full level of amylase until two (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1013368/?page=1). The only way you can know if they have full levels is by getting an expensive test done- not for me. So, I wait on giving grains. My first born- Stark- had some grains before he turned 1 because I did not know. My second born- Banner- has had none in his 9 months and I plan to keep it that way til he's at least 1. I don't plan on waiting til 2 years because the way my boys eat, I'd go broke not giving any carbs to fill those bellies! And they do start getting some levels of it before 2. So, I take the middle road. I will say that I'm going to go much slower with Banner because he's not as advanced in his ability to eat as Stark was. His little digestive system is sensitive.

So, all of these reasons together have me convinced that rice cereal just isn't the best first food. Since avocado and sweet potato have so very many vitamins and good fats, I'll just stick with those. Have you heard all of these facts before? I certainly hadn't! I'd mostly heard a lot of hype and "It's not natural to eat rice cereal!" going on, and frankly, that doesn't really change my opinion. I'd love to hear from you on what you think of my opinions.

Why I'm Blogging

I'm a failure. I caved! Look at this- I'm writing a blog. I've resisted creating a blog not only because I didn't really have anything to blog about, but mainly because I didn't want to just do it because blogging is the new 'thing.' Leading is not my thing, but neither is following. I kinda just do whatever comes into my head- which I suppose is why my mom called me a butterfly. I kinda flit around. Hmm, does that mean that this blog will be more random than I'd anticipated? Of course, that would require that I have the planning capabilities to anticipate where this blog will go. Which I don't. So it's all irrelevant!
Truly though, I am the shopper/cooker/feeder in our home. I'm responsible for every piece of food that goes into my child's mouth, and responsible for most of the food that goes into my husband's body. (Which happens to be quite an amazing body and worth taking care of, imo. But you probably didn't want to hear that.) Being completely responsible for the food my child eats and how that affects his body and therefore his future kinda freaks me out. God entrusted this amazing little man to me and is requiring of me to do the best I can. And messing up his health now so that for the rest of his life he has to deal with the fall-out from my irresponsibility is so not something I want to do.
I, in total ignorance of the quagmire I was about to leap into, decided to do some internet research on good food that would fit into my budget. Oh my stars, apparently I'm standing on the brink of death because I eat cold cereal for breakfast. Or because the whole wheat flour that I use hasn't been sprouted before it was ground. I'm not discounting the validity of sprouted grain or breakfast options besides cold cereal, I just think that a bowl of Cheerios isn't going to push you into obesity or autism. But, at this point, I don't really know where I stand on most food issues! So, to maybe spare any readers that happen across this blog some of the time, frustration, and confusion that I'm currently going through, and also to give myself a place to look back at where I cataloged what I've found, I thought I'd document my findings and dole out my opinion. If nothing else, it's like my own random unique food diary. Feel free to sneak a look inside it any time!