4 months - Doctor Visit

Noah had his 4 month doctor's visit today. His stats are 15 pounds, 15 ounces (69%), 26 inches long (83%), and head circumference of 16 3/4 inches (55%). Don't ask me where the length came from. The doctor was pleased with everything he saw, especially that he sounds better. So glad that Mr. Noah is feeling and sounding better.

Then, we had a discussion about solid foods which I really want to post here because I feel like this question is going to come up a lot in the next few months. The doctor suggested starting rice cereal by spoon. We told him that we would rather wait on solid foods because we don't think Noah is ready. The main reason for this is because he still uses his tongue to push food out of his mouth. He also hasn't shown any interest in our food and he still seems satisfied with just breastmilk. Our second issue is with the cereal itself. We asked what the reason behind the cereal was and our doctor (as many other doctors will say) said it's to give him texture and teach him how to eat off a spoon. But, as I have researched, cereal has NO nutritional value. I guess I shouldn't say it has no value, because it does have extra iron which if needed would be good for formula fed babies but breastfed babies already have an increase in iron. That's the neat thing about breastmilk. It actually "reads" Noah's saliva and interprets it to what he needs and then the milk responds by making that extra vitamin or mineral. That's why my milk increases in caloric value as he gets older and that's why you don't need to increase the amount of milk he is taking in (as you would with formula fed babies). Anyway, getting back to cereal having no value...the doctor agreed with us. We told him we wanted to start him on fruits and veggies and skip the cereal which he was fine with but he wants us to wait until 6 months to make sure his body is able to handle that. This is totally fine with us seeing as though we want to wait until 6 months (or more) for any solid foods regardless. We basically see no reason to force solid foods on him before he is ready and he will definitely let us know when he is ready.

Ok - step down off of soapbox. I'm sure I'm going to have to re-explain that about 400 times, but oh well. I'm still sick, so I think I'm headed off to bed. Night.