Started 20 wo on baby rice yesterday and got green runny poo today. Coincidence?

[mumtocuddlebundle]

Started 20 wo on baby rice, on advice of hv. He's been excusively breastfed but always a bit of a slow gainer. Born 75th centile. Dropped to 25th by 8 weeks. Then started to follow 9 th centile. Then at last weigh in had dropped to 2nd.
He's quite obviously healthy, if a bit skinny. He's mobile already. Not crawling, but frog hopping forward. Plenty smiles. But I do worry about him falling right off the charts. So started him on a couple of spoons baby rice.

Today he has spat up milk- which he rarely does. And had very watery poo, for the first time. Do you think this is a coincidence or is he trying to tell me he's not ready for solids?

I am a great believer in leaving weaning to 6 months- milk has far more calories than baby rice anyway! If he's well and happy I would(if he was mine- no professional knowledge here) take it as an indicator that he's not ready and try to pack in a bit more milk.

Baby rice is pretty much empty calories. I too would much prefer weaning left till at least six months. I'd go back to ebf on demand if I was you!

Is baby rice really that high in calories? Id be worried that it would fill the baby up, meaning that they'd take less of the calorific breast milk.

Thanks for replies. I was planning to move on from Baby rice fairly quickly and try things like banana and avocado soon, to help him put on weight. I just tried the baby rice first as I thought it would be the most gentle on his tummy, for his first tastes of solids. But now wondering if he isnt ready for solids at all.

I would try a day at home if you can just feeding- if he's very mobile he may need to up your supply a bit! The best and highest calorie food for little babies is milk. And it does sound as if he's not ready for anything else yet.

Think about it this way, if you go in a diet wantng to lose weight, what do you eat? Fruit & veg. If you want to put on weight, what do you eat? Plenty of fat, protein & carbs. What's got the best concentration of those three all neatly bundled in with some immunity, water and electrolytes? Breast milk!

Baby rice is nutritionally empty. It's just ballust. What babies need is milk until they are showing the signs of being ready to start solids (sitting upright without support, picking things up & putting in mouth, has lost tongue thrust reflex), when they are fully capable of eating pretty much what adults eat, while milk is their main source of nutrition until they're one.

Sorry if that comes over as harsh. I shouldn't vent my frustration at the baby 'food' market at the nice folk of MN! You sound like a lovely mama who's in tune with her baby.

Have to agree with Mombojombo, baby rice is filling but not very calorie dense.
Some good info on this blog about baby rice www.analyticalarmadillo.co.uk/search/label/Baby%20Rice

I found around that age that DS was so interested in the world around him he sometimes didnt show the signs for feeding and his weight dropped a little. I made sure to offer on a very regular basis and try to feed him somewhere quiet.

Going on holiday for a week so can't do a day at home feeding. But at least while on holiday dh can look after toddler so I can concentrate on feeding. Think I will give weaning a rest for a while.