GERBER^® Single Grain Cereals

Around the middle of your baby’s first year, she should be ready to start solid foods. This coincides with her having reached the Supported Sitter developmental stage. To learn more about nutrition and feeding at this stage, please refer to our Nutrition Guide for Supported Sitters.

Before starting solid foods, be sure to discuss it with your pediatrician.

Rice cereal (such as GERBER® Rice Cereal) is typically the first complementary food introduced to infants. It is made with gentle ingredients and its smooth, fine texture is developmentally appropriate for your baby’s first solid food.

Oatmeal (such as GERBER® Oatmeal Cereal) is usually the second cereal offered. Wait about 3 days in between each cereal to see how your baby tolerates them. Watch for signs of allergic responses such as diarrhea, a rash or vomiting. If any of these occur, stop feeding that variety and contact your pediatrician.

Once your baby is eating cereal, you can also try pureed baby foods like GERBER® 1ST FOODS® fruits and vegetables.

To learn more about feeding your baby at this stage of development, read our Nutrition Guide for Supported Sitters.

Your baby’s first bite of “solids” should look more like thin milk. Mix 1 tablespoon of cereal with 4 to 5 tablespoons of breastmilk or formula until it has a souplike consistency.

Store cereal in a cool, dry area away from sources of heat. It should also be kept away from products that may have strong odors or flavors. Cereal may be stored in the refrigerator or freezer.

An opened container of cereal may be kept up to two months in your kitchen cabinet.

Most pediatricians recommend starting with an iron-fortified cereal. GERBER® Infant Cereals provide an excellent source of this important nutrient and will help rebuild your baby’s naturally decreasing iron stores.

Iron is important for physical growth and mental development. It also helps prevent iron deficiency anemia and is part of hemoglobin that carries oxygen in the blood from the lungs to every cell in the body.

VitaBlocks® is Gerber’s blend of essential vitamins and minerals, including:

• Iron – to support healthy mental development;
• Zinc – a major building block of your baby’s healthy immune system;
• 6 B vitamins – to help convert food to energy.

We recommend that you do not feed cereal from a bottle, as babies can choke. Feed healthy babies only liquid from a bottle and solid foods, including cereal, with a spoon.

GERBER® products - Each product is stamped with a “use by” date in the format dd MON yy. For example, a use-by date of August 25, 2010 would be indicated as “25 AUG 10”. The numbers before or after the use by date contain information about when and where the product was made.