Rice Cereal

Okay, so Abe turned four months old a month ago, and I started feeding him rice cereal. After a few days, it was getting to be kind of a pain cooking such a small amount. Abe didn't like it that well, but I wanted him to get used to it, of course, so I started fixing a little bit bigger of a portion, refrigerating it, then heating up a little tiny bit as I needed it. It got all over him, and all over his clothes, hands, face, head, legs...not to mention me! When that cereal gets on ANYTHING, it sticks like glue!! I had been feeding it to Abe for a couple of weeks. He wasn't getting any better at eating it, and I was dumbfounded that this was the food solid of choice to start infants eating. However, because I figured that this was the norm, I didn't think a lot of it until I read somewhere else that all baby food should be smooth. Smooth? How was I supposed to get this food smooth? Then I read further, and it said that the liquid that is added could be hot or cold. Hot or cold? What about cooking it? It finally occurred to me that there had to be a rice cereal specifically for babies. What an epiphany!