Your baby should drink breast milk or formula exclusively for at least the first four to six months of his life. At that point, the pediatrician might give you the go-ahead to start introducing solid foods into his diet, starting with rice cereal. From a nutritional standpoint, this cereal is beneficial because it's fortified with iron, which your baby needs. From a safety standpoint, rice is least likely to cause an allergic reaction, so it's an ideal starting point. If your baby does have a reaction to the grain, however, it could be in the form of painful gas.
Potential Reaction
Gas is a symptom of an adverse reaction to baby rice cereal; other symptoms include bloating, diarrhea, vomiting, a rash around the baby's mouth, watery eyes or wheezing. If this occurs, the editors of "Parents" magazine recommend stopping rice cereal temporarily, as it indicates her system isn't able to handle it yet. The gas, however, could also be a symptom of constipation, another potential side effect of baby rice cereal. Talk to your pediatrician and, if necessary, switch to iron-fortified oatmeal or barley cereal instead.