When can babies eat solid food?

As long equally your baby shows signs of readiness, you can first solids any time between iv and half-dozen months. Until then, breast milk or formula provides all the calories and nourishment your baby needs – and can handle. Infants don't withal accept the physical skills to swallow solid foods safely, and their digestive arrangement isn't ready for solids until they're at least 4 months onetime.

If you're exclusively breastfeeding, the American University of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends waiting until 6 months old to showtime solids. That's considering exclusive breastfeeding is so beneficial for your baby.

Even afterward your baby starts solids, breast milk or formula will still provide the majority of your baby's calories and diet until they're a year old. Both provide important vitamins, atomic number 26, and protein in a class that's easy to assimilate. See how much chest milk or formula babies need afterwards starting solids.

How can I tell when my infant'south ready for solid food?

Your baby will give you articulate signs when they're ready. Wait for:

  • Head control . Your baby needs to exist able to keep their caput in a steady, upright position.
  • Sitting well when supported. Your babe needs to exist able to sit down upright in an baby feeding seat or highchair to swallow well.
  • Losing the "extrusion reflex." Your baby's oral cavity and tongue develop in sync with the digestive system. To start solids, they should be able to motion food to the back of their mouth and swallow it, instead of using their tongue to push food out of their mouth.
  • Pregnant weight proceeds. Your babe may be ready to eat solids if they've doubled their birth weight, weigh at least 13 pounds, and is at least iv months old.
  • Curiosity about nutrient. Your baby may begin eyeing or reaching for your food or may open their mouth if you offer them a spoonful.

Proceed in mind that just because your baby is 6 months onetime, it doesn't mean that you lot take to introduce solids. Some babies may be ready for solids past 6 months, while others may demand a lilliputian chip more fourth dimension.

What are the best showtime baby foods?

Start your baby with any pureed unmarried-ingredient food. Although it used to be standard for parents to give baby cereal as a first food, that'south non necessary. Good outset infant foods include

  • pureed squash
  • applesauce
  • mashed bananas
  • mashed avocado
  • pureed peaches
  • pureed pears
  • pureed meats
  • whole-grain, fe-enriched baby cereal

If your infant is breastfed, the AAP suggests meat as a first food because the atomic number 26 in beef, craven, and turkey helps to replace iron stores, which outset to diminish at most 6 months of age.

What to know about food allergies when starting solid nutrient

Experts recommend that you introduce one nutrient at a time to your baby, and wait 3 to 5 days before introducing another food, so you can picket for whatever allergic reactions. It's also a good idea to write downwards the foods your baby samples. If they have an agin reaction, a food log will make information technology easier to pinpoint the cause.

You don't accept to put off giving allergenic foods such every bit eggs or soy. In that location'due south no evidence that waiting to innovate certain foods will help your baby avoid allergies. In fact, there's evidence that the opposite is true.

According to the American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI), incorporating commonly allergenic foods into your babe'south diet starting at around 4 to 6 months (and continuing through babyhood) may actually help prevent the development of food allergies.

Outset with traditional showtime foods, such every bit iron-fortified infant cereal, pureed veggies, fruits, and meats. One time yous've tried a few of these foods and your babe seems to be tolerating them well, you lot tin introduce more commonly allergenic foods, such as soy, eggs, wheat, fish, and peanut products.

Food manufacturers have products on the market designed to help you comprise usually allergenic foods into your child'due south diet. These stir-in powders and finger foods may contain 1 commonly allergenic poly peptide or a blend of several.

Special precautions need to exist taken with sure babies. If your child falls into any of the following categories, consult with your baby'south medico or an allergist to create a customized feeding programme before adding solids to your infant's diet:

  • Your infant has a sibling with a peanut allergy.
  • Your baby has moderate to severe eczema despite following a doctor's treatment plan.
  • Your babe previously had an immediate allergic reaction to a new food or has been diagnosed with a food allergy.
  • Your babe's blood test was positive for an allergy to a specific nutrient.

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If your baby is allergic to a new nutrient, you'll see signs of a reaction within a few minutes or hours. Near children with food allergies have mild reactions. If you notice hives, airsickness, or diarrhea, call your baby'south dr. for advice.

If you detect wheezing, difficulty breathing, or facial swelling (including the tongue and lips), your baby may be having a life-threatening reaction called anaphylaxis.Call 911 or your local emergency number immediately.

How to introduce solid nutrient to your baby

The traditional way to start solids is past spoon-feeding your baby infant cereal or purees, but some parents apply a different method called baby-led weaning. Using this method, you put large chunks of soft nutrient on the highchair tray or table and let your infant grab the food and feed themself.

See our article on baby-led weaning to observe out how information technology works. To larn how to outset spoon-feeding, read on.

For your first few feedings, give your infant just 1 or 2 teaspoons of pureed solid nutrient or infant cereal after nursing or bottle-feeding (then your infant doesn't get hungry and frustrated).

Use a soft-tipped plastic spoon to feed your babe to avert injuring their gums. Put a small-scale amount of food on the tip of the spoon and offer it to them. If your babe doesn't seem very interested, simply let them smell the food for now and endeavour again another time.

If you're feeding your baby ready-to-eat jars or pouches of infant nutrient, put some into a small dish and feed them from that. (If you lot dip the feeding spoon into the jar, it's not a good idea to salve the leftovers because bacteria from your baby's mouth volition now exist in the jar.) Throw away any open baby nutrient jars inside a twenty-four hours or two of opening them.

If you decide to start with cereal, requite your baby 1 to 2 teaspoons of diluted baby cereal. Add together chest milk or formula to a tiny pinch of cereal. Information technology will be very runny at first, but every bit your baby starts to eat more solid foods, you can gradually thicken the consistency by using less liquid.

Begin with one daily feeding whenever your baby isn't likewise tired, hungry, or cranky. Your baby may not eat much at first, but requite them time to get used to the feel. Don't be surprised if your baby is confused or rejects solid food at beginning. Some babies need practice keeping food in their mouths and swallowing.

Eventually yous can start giving your babe more than solid nutrient until they're having a few tablespoons a twenty-four hours, over two feedings. In general, your baby could commencement with pureed or semi-liquid nutrient, then movement on to strained or mashed food, and finally graduate to small pieces of finger foods.

Run into our age-by-historic period babe feeding guide to find out what you can wait side by side.

How tin I tell when my baby is full?

Your baby's ambition will vary from one feeding to the adjacent, so a strict bookkeeping of how much they've eaten isn't a reliable way to tell when they've had plenty. Look for these signs that your baby is probably done:

  • Leans dorsum in the chair
  • Turns caput away from food
  • Starts playing with the spoon
  • Refuses to open up for the next bite (Sometimes a infant will go on their oral fissure closed because they haven't finished the offset mouthful, and so give them fourth dimension to consume.)

Baby food feeding tips

  • Offer fruits or vegetables in any order. Some parents may tell you to showtime with vegetables instead of fruits and so your baby won't develop a sense of taste for sweets. Merely babies are born with a preference for sweets, so you lot don't accept to worry about introducing sweet or savory foods in any detail club.
  • Feed cereal with a spoon just. Unless your babe'southward doc asks yous to, don't add together cereal to a bottle – your infant could choke or end up gaining likewise much weight.
  • Encourage adventurous eating. You don't take to stick with bland and boring. See how to use spices and seasonings to make your infant'due south nutrient delicious.
  • Give new foods time. If your infant turns away from a particular food, don't push. Try again in a few days.
  • Check for added sugars and too much salt. Cheque the Nutrition Facts characterization on canned, frozen, or packaged foods for "Added Sugars." If in that location'due south 1 gram or more listed, consider giving your baby something else, since these sugars and syrups added during the processing of the food aren't recommended for children under 24 months. Also look at sodium amounts. Babies should accept no more i,200 mg of sodium per day.
  • Know the choking hazards. Don't give your infant foods that might make them choke.
  • Watch for constipation. A babe'due south stool sometimes changes when their diet does. Although information technology's commonly temporary, your baby may accept constipation afterward introducing solids. If you notice that your baby is having less frequent bowel movements, or that their stools accept become hard or dry and seem hard to pass, let their dr. know. Some doctors recommend adding high-fiber fruits such equally pears, prunes, and peaches to a baby's diet, or giving a few ounces of prune, apple tree, or pear juice each day until bowel movements are dorsum to normal.

Also, don't exist surprised if your baby'due south stools change colour and odor when y'all add solids to their diet. If your baby has been exclusively breastfed upward to this signal, you'll probably discover a strong olfactory property to their formerly balmy-smelling stools as before long equally they first eating even tiny amounts of solids. This is normal.

How many times a day should my infant eat solid food?

At first your infant will eat solid nutrient just once a day. By effectually 6 to seven months, two meals a twenty-four hour period is the norm. Starting effectually 8 to 9 months, they may be eating solid food three times a day. A typical mean solar day's diet at 8 months might include a combination of:

  • Breast milk or iron-fortified formula
  • Fe-fortified cereal
  • Vegetables
  • Fruit
  • Minor amounts of protein, such as eggs, cheese, yogurt, poultry, lentils, tofu, and meat

There are some dangerous foods  for babies to lookout out for. Love, for example, can cause botulism in babies less than a year one-time. And babies should wait until after their outset birthday to endeavor cow'due south milk or soy milk.

What equipment do I need to feed solids to my infant?

It's helpful to accept:

  • A highchair
  • Baby bowls and plates
  • Babe spoons
  • Bibs
  • A splat mat on the floor

Y'all may also desire to introduce your babe to a sippy cup soon after you start solids.

If y'all're making your own baby nutrient, you'll need:

  • A tool to puree the food, like a blender, food processor, or baby food maker
  • Storage containers for refrigerating and freezing extra portions (Some parents utilise ice cube trays – or similar devices fabricated simply for babe food – to shop and freeze individual portions.)