My mom said the same thing..and 30+ plus years later I turned out fine!! I see/read about things that were done back when I was a wee lass and 5 yrs ago they said that shouldn't be done anymore and this year they say to do it.  I think you should do what you feel comfortable (mothers intuition) and sometimes moms advice is the best advice.

Sorry - don't know what happened there.

Just goes to show how different things are accross the world. In Britian, you are adviced to try and wait to 6 months, but if your baby is showing signs of being ready then you can start no earlier than 17 weeks.

In answer to the question, I have actually spoken to my health visitor about this as my mum kept telling me I should try it and apart from the allergy thing and the fact that it can be dangerous as a baby doesn't have the reflex to cope with any lumps - it will also not make any difference to how long your baby will sleep.

Suggestions would be to try and introduce a feed right before bed and if your baby is still quite young then possibly a dream feed at about 10:30/11.  You will need to make sure your baby is pretty awake for this feed otherwise they don't really register that they have had it.  Lots of people I know have done this and they are getting a full night from 11 to 6 (even though their babies are only 2/3/4 months old).  Unfortunately, this didn't work for Chloe but then she is only three months old so hopefully this last feed will be dropped in the next two or three months.

Your baby will let you know when she is ready for solids by doing things like watching you intently when you are eating, possibly trying to steel food from your plate, she may start to wake up earlier looking for a feed and will not go the full four hours (or whatever she normally goes between feeds).  I am also at the stage that I am starting to look for signs and this is what I have been told to look out for.  Hope this helps. 

Just goes to show that the advice is all dependant on where you live.

In Britian, we are adviced that you should try to wait until 6 months, but if your baby is showing signs of being ready then you can start from 17 weeks.

In answer to the question

Not sure on the actual health issues surrounding adding rice cereal but my parents did it for us and we turned out fine.   We started feeding solids to our daughter at 3 1/2 months and although she didn't dramatically change any sleeping patterns as a result she was certainly alot happier.  It gave her new challenges every day to conquer and she loved nothing more than making a big mess at meal time.

It is not a good idea to put cereal in baby's bottle because 1) it can be a choking hazard 2) people who chose to put cereal in the bottle usually do it too early, 3) if it's really time for baby to eat cereal, why not just do it with a spoon?

It is recommended for babies to start on solid food about 6 months because before then, it is really not necessary. Babies get all their calorie needs from the milk. Once baby start to become mobile, then it is about time to introduce solids because that is the time for more calories.

when i was getting my daughter her shots at 2 months of age, the health nurse said not to start until they are 5-6 months of age. i tried my daughter at 2.5 months of age but she didnt really like it. the reason i started is because it was really hot out and she wasn't drinking her formula, so i had to try something on her. i have never added the rice cereal to her formula, i found that she never liked it when i gave it to her.

Adding cereal, especially for a baby that young is DANGEROUS. Not only does it increase their risk of allergies, it increases their risk of SIDS.

In the US, the "recomendation" for starting solids is 6 months, but my children were much closer to 9 months.

9mths Really???  I was told with my girls that it was fine at 4mths, as long as I started very slow like rice cereal very watered down.   I was told not to add any more foods until she had been on the rice cereal for two weeks so i could watch for allergic reaction, and continue to wait two weeks as each new food was introduced.  I too gave the girls cereal before bed in their 3rd month but only about a teaspoon, and they also did fine.  Good luck.

I used a really good book when I was starting to feed my son baby food.  It had recipes in it and it told you when you could introduce Certin food.  I will find out what it is  called and get back to you.

I dont know anything about adding rice to formula, but I think my mom did it too.  (Maybe there related).  I think 9 months is to old but 3 months is to young.  I think between 5-6 months.  I tried to give my on baby food when he was 4 months and he wanted nothign to do with it.  I introduced it to him again at 5 months and he still wanted nothing to do with it.  I tried again for the third time when he was 5 and 1/2 months and he was all over it.  I think it depends on the baby, but I would force it on them, they will let you know when they are ready like my son did.

If I'm not wrong, in the old days they introduced solid when baby was 4 months. But now to avoid early allergic reactions we suggested to introduce solid when the baby is 6 months old, and suggested with fruit puree (i.e. mash banana, apple puree). Specially if your breast milk production is really good, it's better just let the baby takes it untill 6 months. Cause the nutrion from the breast milk is really good.
I never done any rice cereal thing. I'm sure each baby has different appetite, but if the baby feels full from breast milk (if not yet introduce solid) he/she should sleeps alright. Otherwise she/he might expects another feed. I used to give another night feed to my baby before I introduced solid. When I had introduced solid, I tried to ease down the night time feed (the last feed would be before bed time) and my baby got used to it.