Weaning: What Foods To Introduce To Your Baby And When

Some babies become interested in food very early – you may suspect they’re keen to start supplementing your milk long before the text books advise. Others just aren’t interested, no matter how tasty and organic your purees.

Guidelines from the NHS are that you should start weaning at around six months, and up to this point the best diet is simply breast milk if possible, or formula.

The best thing to do is judge it yourself, from your own child’s behavior. It’s usually fairly obvious when they’re ready.

If your tot can stay in a sitting position and hold her head steady, co-ordinate her eyes, hands and mouth – i.e. can focus on food and reach out and gran it, and swallow, then you’re good to go.

If you’re unsure, speak to your health visitor and don’t worry about comparing your little one with others, as they differ so widely.

What to start with?

When you and your baby are ready to start weaning, the best first foods to start off with are gooey purees and things that are simple and easy to digest. Try baby rice, basic fruit, vegetable and pulse purees.

Ingredients such as apricots, carrots and sweet potato are easier than green vegetables for your baby to digest. Thing orangey-brown to start off with.

At this point your baby’s digestive system is very new and delicate so avoid carbs wheat-based carbs such as bread, pasta, cereals, rusks, oats and rye. Also leave out proteins including fish, shellfish, eggs, chicken, meat and cheese.

There is some evidence that certain foods should be avoided early on to prevent allergies and eczema. These include nuts, honey, cows milk and sesame-based products. You also don’t need to add any salt or sugar at this stage – your baby’s taste buds don’t need it.

Introducing more complex flavours and textures

After a few weeks you’ll be getting a good idea of how your baby’s enjoying her food. If you notice any reactions or have any difficulties, talk to your health visitor and keep track of particular ingredients in case you notice a pattern.

Between six and nine months you can start introducing a wide variety of foods, slowly, a few at a time. Oats and gluten-based foods can be brought in slowly, though avoid anything with lots of fibre in at this stage. Well-cooked eggs, chicken, fish and meat can all be tried, as well as cow’s milk cheeses.

You’ll probably find that milder tastes such as white fish and chicken are easier for your baby to handle initially, before moving on to stronger tasting red meat.

To help introduce more solid foods, make your purees thicker and chunkier as your baby grows. You’ll soon know about any tastes she doesn’t like.

If there is no history of nut allergy in your family, nuts are fine to introduce now but don’t off your baby whole ones as these pose a choking hazard. Try them within purees.

There are still plenty of things best left out at this stage. Honey isn’t safe for the first year and salt is still unnecessary. Lightly-cooked eggs, swordfish, tuna and marlin and blue cheeses should all be avoided at this stage and don’t get your child into bad habits by introducing cakes, biscuits or sugary drinks at this stage.

Finger food and toddler dishes

When your baby becomes a toddler, food can be both great fun and exciting and a complete chore – as we enter the age of fussy eating. It’s very common for toddlers to suddenly turn their nose up at foods that were perfectly good a few weeks before and however long you spend making them a healthy, delicious dish, it can go to waste.

But don’t lose hope!

From nine months up, your little one’s tastes are still developing and changing and it’s a phase we all go through. The best you can do is keep at it, try and make food fun (make it look good, call the dishes funny names, incorporate games or favourite toys into meal times).

And let them do as much as possible for themselves. There’s no denying that a child who gets to peel her own banana, is far more likely to want to eat it.

Finger food is important at this stage as it helps your child learn to feed herself and start to chew and appreciate flavours and textures.

Most main foods can be introduced from a year and it’s a case of trial and error to help your little one discover new foods and her own tastes. Following a healthy diet is just as important – if not more so – for children as for adults, so they need to be getting at least five fruit and vegetables a day, and foods rich in protein, carbohydrates, calcium and other essential vitamins and minerals.

The best way to do this is to offer a varied diet, full of colours and textures to keep things interesting.

Avoid processed food and don’t add salt or sugar to the meals you make. Children aren’t born with these tastes, and loving sweet or salty foods is something that we grow into as we are exposed to them.

Weaning is a messy, frustrating process but one that brings parents some of the funniest, most memorable and joyful moments of their children’s babyhood. So however much food is on the floor, ceiling and your little one’s face, try to savour the experience.

[My top 10 tips for baby-led weaning]
[My life parenting a gluten-free child]