My daughter is 4.5 months old & just started daycare 3 weeks ago. The first week she was there they asked about feeding her rice cereal. I said we had just had her 4 month old pediatrician appointment & the doctor encouraged us to try it with her so we would try it on the weekend & if it went well then we could have her eating it at daycare too. Well...it went horribly. Daughter seemed to like eating it but that night she screamed every 10-30 minutes throughout the night; we couldn’t even console her by rocking and holding her. It was the kind of screams she had when she was very young with colic like her tummy was hurting. Before trying the rice cereal she was sleeping pretty good through the night for her age. So needless to say after that we decided she needed to be older to try food again.

This past week daycare asked again when they can feed her solids & now they are telling me “she fusses every two hours because she’s hungry”. When I asked how long that’s been happening, they said “several weeks”......which doesn’t make sense because she’s only been there 3 weeks. Also just last week they joked with me that she must be able to tell time because she fusses exactly every three hours on the dot because that’s her feeding time. So I feel like I’m getting inconsistent messages. Also when she’s home with me on the weekends she doesn’t seem to fuss every two hours like they’re saying; that’s why it confused me when they said that and I asked how long.

I’m fine starting solids soon but we will not be going back to rice cereal. But I want to start solids on my own terms and at my own pace. I don’t want to be pressured into it. How do I communicate this to them while maintaining a respectful and positive relationship with her daycare providers?