When to start giving solid foods

It is recommended to start your baby on solid foods when they are around six months old. All babies are different so you might want to ask your health visitor or GP for advice about when is best for your baby (some babies may be ready to start earlier or even later than this).

Tips on getting started

• Start giving solid foods when you and your baby are calm and your baby is alert.
• Remember your baby will need to learn how to eat solid foods.
• Start by offering just a couple of teaspoons once a day.
• If your baby doesn’t seem to want to eat, stop and try again the next day.
• Build up to offering food twice, then three times a day.
• Give more if they want more.

Remember all babies are different — don’t worry if they don’t want much to start with.

First foods — from about 6 months

• Offer a few spoons of puréed fruit, vegetables or baby rice once a day, building up at their pace to eventually offer twice and then three times a day.
• Avoid foods that contain wheat, gluten, egg, fish, shellfish, liver, soft and unpasteurised cheeses and foods high in salt and sugar. (Foods with high salt content include baked beans, tinned soups and packet sauces and should be avoided.

Exploring new tastes and textures — from about 6 — 9 months

• Once a baby has learned how to take soft food from a spoon, you can start to introduce mashed food with soft lumps.
• At this age babies will also begin to pick up finger foods, so offer these too (see list below).
• Offer foods rich in vitamins and minerals such as meat, fish, eggs, fruit and vegetables. Make sure that eggs are thoroughly cooked until both the white and yolk are solid.
• Use some starchy foods as well, such as potatoes, rice, pasta, couscous, plantain.
• Keep introducing new foods, so your baby gets used to different tastes and to widen the range of different foods they eat.

Finger Foods

These encourage babies to chew, even if they have no teeth, and this helps speech muscles to develop. Some babies don’t like being spoon-fed and are happier with food they can hold themselves.

Examples include:

•     Fingers of toast, bread, pitta bread or chapatti;
•     Slices of peeled soft ripe fruits such as pear, peach, melon, banana;
•     Cooked and cooled green beans, carrot sticks, small florets of cauliflower and broccoli.
•     Bread sticks or rice cakes (choose lower salt varieties.)
•     Cooked and cooled pasta shapes.

Moving on to family meals — from about 9 months onwards

• Babies should be getting used to chewing minced and chopped family foods (check the list of foods below to avoid).
• They should also be starting to learn to use a spoon to feed themselves.
• By the time a baby is a year old, you should be in a routine of giving three or four meals a day. You might also want to offer a healthy snack between meals.

Foods to avoid up to one year old

• Salt, sugar, honey, nuts, raw shellfish, raw or lightly cooked eggs, low fat, low calorie and high fibre foods.

Crockery and cutlery

• For first foods use a soft plastic weaning spoon.
• Move onto a fork and spoon set, either plastic or for older babies ones which are metal tipped.
• Use flip and sip tyre cups for water at mealtimes, moving on to open cups and beakers when they are ready.
• Bowls are easier for babies to feed themselves from.

Supervision