oatmeal vs rice cereal?

[catmom]

DD is going to be starting solids soon, and I was wondering if anyone has started with baby oatmeal instead of rice cereal. I know rice is supposed to be non-allergenic, but I have never heard of anyone with an oat allergy, either, and the oatmeal has more protein and fat than the rice cereal. Plus, I would imagine that oatmeal would be less potentially constipating than rice cereal. Any reason not to use the oatmeal instead?

[gelfnrach]

No reason to start rice first. I would go ahead with the oatmeal. And yeah, its definately less constipating. We never give DS rice anymore. Just oatmeal and barley.

[Lizzie Beth]

Ditto gelfnrach. Rice made DD extremely uncomfortable... But she LOVES her oatmeal!!

[HGMorgann]

We do oatmeal and never have done rice. My daughter has done wonderfully with it.

Rice cereal is a HUGE pet peave of mine. It has minimal nutritional value. My philosophy is I will try to never make my child eat something I would not (besides breastmilk...but I ate that as a baby too;-) The oatmeal tastes good! I eat her leftovers;-)

[catmom]

Thanks, ladies! Just the threat of constipation makes me want to try the oatmeal instead. Plus, I like oatmealm, so I can eat whatever's leftover.

[Mrs. M.]

You can also try millet cereal. The advantage is that millet is gluten-free and has lots of iron.

[dal]

We started our oldest daughter with rice cereal and it constipated her so we switched to oatmeal and she did much better. We skipped over rice and went straight to oatmeal with our youngest.

[2labradogs]

My boys' first cereal was oatmeal and at 18 months they still love it and eat it every day for breakfast. Never tried rice or any others since oatmeal has worked so well.