How to Introduce Solid Foods to Your Baby (2024)

FAQs

How to Introduce Solid Foods to Your Baby? ›

Start simple.

Let your child try one single-ingredient food at a time at first. This helps you see if your child has any problems with that food, such as food allergies. Wait 3 to 5 days between each new food. Before you know it, your child will be on his or her way to eating and enjoying lots of new foods.

Start feeding your baby solids once a day. Your baby will take only small amounts of solid foods at first. Try one teaspoon at first of pureed vegetable, fruit, or rice cereal, in between milk feeds. From 6 to 9 months of age, continue to give your baby breastmilk or formula first, then try solids after the milk.

Increase the amount of food gradually, with just a teaspoonful or two to start. This allows your baby time to learn how to swallow solids. If your baby cries or turns away when you feed them, do not make them eat. Go back to breastfeeding or bottle-feeding exclusively for a time before trying again.

Most experts agree that solid foods should be incorporated around the first 6 months of life, beginning with single-grain cereals followed by fruits, vegetables, and proteins in later months. Ultimately, an infant's developmental readiness should determine when to introduce semi-solid foods to the diet.

Get answers to these questions, along with simple guidelines for setting up a general baby feeding schedule. How to introduce solids: Begin with one solid meal a day for your baby, eventually moving to two, then three meals as they grow, with the addition of snacks.

You'll want to give the same food every day for about three days to ensure baby doesn't have a reaction like diarrhea, a rash or vomiting. “I always recommend starting with vegetables first and then introducing fruits that can be a bit sweeter,” Dawkins says.

Solid foods may be introduced in any order. However, puréed meats, poultry, beans and iron-fortified cereals are recommended as first foods, especially if your baby has been primarily breastfed, since they provide key nutrients.

There is no clear recommendation about the best time of day to offer first solids. It can be helpful to give your baby solids after a milk feed in the mid-morning. If they become unsettled, it's less likely to disrupt their night-time sleep.

Key points when feeding your baby

Offer food 2-3 times a day and work towards 3-5 times a day. Start with iron-rich foods like meat and fish, well-cooked chopped eggs, tofu and iron fortified cereals. After iron-rich foods introduce vegetables, fruit, other cereals and grains, full fat cheese and yogurt.

How do I start a solids eating plan? ›

From around 6 months – offer coarsely pureed/mashed foods, progressing to lumpy and finely chopped options. By 8 months – offer chopped and finger foods to encourage children to start feeding themselves. By 12 months – offer foods from the regular menu with a variety of tastes and textures in children's size portions.

But what happens when your baby starts eating solid food: is it possible to overfeed him? The short answer is: yes, if you ignore his cues and are not offering the right foods. Here's some advice on how to prevent overfeeding your baby: Look out for cues and stop feeding your baby when he is full.

Introducing solid foods to your child's diet too early may actually be putting him or her at an increased risk for developing food allergies, says John Markovich MD, a pediatrician with Group Health, a TriHealth Physician Partner.

Baby-led weaning means that instead of spoon-feeding your baby cereal and purees, you'll skip straight to finger foods and let your baby dig in.

Most parents use rice cereal for their little ones first date with solids, however, providing only infant rice cereal is not recommended by the Food and Drug Administration. Instead, offer a variety of grains such as oat, barley, and multigrain. It's okay to go against the “grain” on this one!

From 6–8 months old, feed your baby half a cup of soft food two to three times a day. Your baby can eat anything except honey, which they shouldn't eat until they reach 12 months old. You can start to add a healthy snack, like mashed fruit, between meals.

Fruit: banana, pear (peeled), paw paw, watermelon, kiwi fruit, oranges, stewed apple. Grains and cereals: rice, plain noodles, pasta, bread, damper, wraps, oats, polenta, baby cereal with iron. Yoghurt and cheese. Start with soft and smooth foods.

Dip dissolvables in a puree as a way to introduce mixed textures. Offer soft foods that have been mashed with a fork, mashing less as tolerated. Offer pieces of overcooked table foods that are soft and easy to chew.