OK or dangerous?

The AAP recommends against doing it. B/c our parents did it, isn't a good reason to me, we've come a LONG way since then. Dr. Greene and other medical professionals suggest a link between it and obesity:

Babies are born with a wonderful mechanism for knowing how much food they need. During the early months, they take their cues from the volume of what they drink. Adding cereal derails this mechanism. It forces them to take in deceptively large amounts of calories. It teaches them to overeat.

By starting with a spoon, resting between bites, and stopping when your child lets you know he’s full, you will be laying an excellent foundation for good eating habits throughout his life.

A major study looking for the causes of obesity found that short-circuiting young children’s self-regulation of how much they eat is a major cause of later obesity.1 Cereal in the bottle does just that.

Babies that are fed this way may appear to be unaffected – but those few weeks of added convenience may result in a lifetime of struggles with weight. This common practice may have contributed to our being the most obese generation in history.
http://www.drgreene.com/21_861.html

It has been shown to be dangerous with the possibility of getting into a baby's lungs and cause pulmonary problems. There is no scientific evidence proving that it helps a baby sleep at night.

So with all that in mind, aside from the possibility it helps with reflux which for me personaly is a debatable issue, what's the benefit to putting cereal in an infant's bottle?

I did it with my first son when he was 4 months old. It was something my mom/grandma said wouldn't hurt him, so I listened to them. They were right it didn't hurt him, but I didn't do it with the other boys. It was a little over 5 years between ds1 and ds2, so at the time ds2 was ready for cereal, I was told it wasn't necassary to put cereal in a bottle and that it COULD possibly harm baby, so I chose not to feed him or the other 2 that way.

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I never did, DS1 was a month old and my great aunt was telling me to do it "so he would sleep better" Heck I didn't even bother feeding them cereal at all. I say if they cant pick it up themselves then they aren't eating it haha.

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I was told my Sebby's ped. as well as his gastroenterologist (sp?) to put 1 tablespoon of rice cereal in a 6 ounce bottle to help with reflux. I tried it..didn't notice a difference and stopped giving it to him. I would spoon feeed him a bit of cereal before his bottles and that seemed to help the liquids stay down.

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