There are however, some problems with thickening feedings with cereal. It is not possible to thicken feedings if the baby is largely breast fed. Also, many infants with reflux are very vigorous or voracious feeders. When the milk is thickened with cereal, the baby has to suck harder to get the milk through the nipple. This may cause the baby to fill their stomach with air which can actually worsen the symptoms of reflux.
Many parents find that their babies keep solid foods down more effectively than liquids.
This may simply be because solid foods are heavier and thus less likely to come back up, but also, solid foods are emptied out the stomach differently than liquids are. In any case, there is no evidence to suggest that feeding young infants solid foods with a spoon or from an infant feeder is harmful. In many cultures around the world, infants have been fed solid foods in the first month of life for centuries without any problems. There is no evidence to suggest that early introduction of solid foods predisposes to allergies later in life. Changing Feeding Schedules Parents are sometimes instructed to feed their babies smaller amounts more often with the idea that over-feeding tends to make reflux worse.