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 William J. Klish, M.D., is Professor of Pediatrics, Head of Pediatric
Gastroenterology at Baylor College of Medicine and Chief of the Nutrition
and Gastroenterology Department at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston.
Dr. Klish has served as chair of the Committee on Nutrition of the American
Academy of Pediatrics.
Q: My 11-week-old baby has been feeding a lot for the past few weeks. She takes 8 ounces every hour and sometimes 10-12 ounces, at times bringing a lot of it back up. Can babies at this age have a spoonful of baby rice?
A: Babies who have gastroesophageal reflux compensate for the calories lost through spitting by eating larger amounts of formula. This unfortunately has the effect of enhancing the spitting. Smaller more frequent feedings are better. Rice cereal is OK; however, most physicians recommend that it go into the bottle to "thicken the feeding" and therefore decrease the spitting. When you do this, never put more in the bottle than what would make the formula assume the consistency of light cream. Otherwise your baby will have difficulty pulling it through the nipple.
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