we started ariana out on rice cereal with the approval of her pediatrician at 6 weeks for her reflux. she was crying an hour after eating and so we were feeding her far too much and she was over eating. what ended up happening is we put rice in her bottle and made it really thick and cut big holes in the top of her nipples. she was eating this EVERY feeding. i know thats a lot, and i made her pediatrician aware how much she was eating, and he said it was fine for the moment as long as it was keeping her happy and helping with her reflux/sleeping. at her 4 month appointment 2 weeks ago, she weighed 14 lbs. 12 oz and was 25.5 inches long. he said she was thriving and growing great, but that she was in the 95th percentile for weight and 90th for length. i found that a bit confusing because other people who had 4 month olds said their's weighed about what she weighed and their pediatrician said they were in the 60 something percentile. anyway, he said she was doing great but that its time to wean her off of the cereal and only feed it to her in the morning and evening. he doesn't want her to have excess calories / weight and be overweight going into her early childhood. and he also wants me to start spoon feeding her when she shows interest and then once she gets the hang of eating from a spoon she can have baby food. and obviously cereal during the day and baby food morning and night is far too much.
well what i did is i bought a formula with rice starch in it. my plan was to feed her that during the day until the can was gone, and then use regular formula. i figured the formula with rice starch was a good in between of what she has been eating and plain formula, and it would help ween her off of rice all together. she was doing great! she wasn't very fussy and was still eating every 4 hours. (her pediatrician said to continue feeding her every 4 hours) well the past few days she has been SO fussy. she SCREAMED bloody murder on friday and i just assumed something else was wrong because it wasn't time for her to eat. finally i decided to try feeding her after i exhausted all other options and that was clearly what she wanted. i was a bit surprised because she hadn't gotten hungry early until then, despite being on less rice. i thought maybe it was just a one time thing and continued following the doctor's advice of formula every 4 hours, and her fussiness and wanting to eat more often hasn't ceased.
last night she was screaming bloody murder for a bottle after 3 hours. we have increased her dosage of zantac. she is now on 1.5 mL morning and evening. part of the reason i think she is getting hungry early is because she's spitting up an uncanny amount. it at least LOOKS to be half of what she eats. i mentioned this to the doctor and he wasn't concerned.
i guess my question is this: should i continue with the formula during the day and just feed her every 3 hours, despite the doctor's orders to continue feeding at 4 hours? OR should i put her back on the thick rice every feeding and feed her every 4 hours? i do not want her gaining excess weight...i am not going to be so selfish as to cause her to have weight problems as a child. only thing is, the regular formula shes eating now really isn't regular at all. it has rice starch in it. when i buy a can of normal formula with no rice starch, i am afraid she is going to scream for a bottle at 2 hours and then what do i do?
a friend of mine has a 4 month old, and he weighed 14 lbs 11 oz at his 4 month checkup, and was told to be in the 60 something percentile i believe. she was only one more ounce and she had been eating cereal every feeding, he was just on normal formula. so with that comparison it doesn't seem to be causing her to gain excess, she seems to be on track with all other babies eating just formula. or maybe boys are supposed to have different weights? UGH this is all so confusing. any advise is very much appreciated because once again i feel at a loss for what to do for her.