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Begin solids around 6 months old. Some babies are ready as early as 4 months. Always check with pediatrician before starting solids.
Wash hands prior to starting!
Solids will start in a puree form. Begin with purees when your baby is ready. Around 6 months, introduce iron-rich foods first — such as iron-fortified cereals, pureed meats, or beans. After baby cereal, move on to vegetables to build healthy taste preferences. Save fruits for later, since their natural sweetness can make babies less interested in veggies if offered too soon.
You can make your own baby food (see below for details) or you can start with Gerber’s 1st Vegetables Starter Kit. After going through all the vegetables start on fruit either making you own or getting Gerber’s 1st Fruit Starter Kit. To learn more about the 3 baby food stages click on the image below.
Feeding Solids
To learn more about foods to start off with at different ages click on the image to the left.
Serve solids twice a day (ex. Morning & Evening) about 1 hour after drinking milk to give time for the body to digest the milk and to prep the solids. This is subject to change as the baby gets older, based upon bowel movements, and possible allergic reactions. Check out and click on the image to the left to see more information about how much to feed your baby in one sitting based upon age.
Using store bought jar of baby food: Serve only half the jar per feeding (you must use your judgment). Put the remaining half of the jar in the refrigerator. Food lasts in the refrigerator for 2 days. Make sure to label the jar with the date using masking or scotch tape and a permanent marker.
CAREFULLY put baby in a high chair with seat belts then put table top on you should hear a click (depending on high chair). You can also use a bumbo seat. Make sure to have a bib on! If you don’t have a high chair you can always just hold your baby (I recommend having a shirt on you don’t care about because it will get messy!)
Use a spoon and make it fun! Airplane the spoon into the baby's mouth. It is also great for your lil one to see you trying the food as well so grab your own spoon and show them how it is done. Make happy faces and talk about how good the puree solid is after tasting it. Lil one may refuse, but just keep trying. The transition to solids is a long journey, but don’t give up! Try to get food on the lips so they can lick their lips to get a taste. Don’t force feed. Be patient. When it is the right time they will eventually take to solids, but routine and consistency is the key.
Finish the vegetable or fruit in fridge by the following:
-Put in bottle warmer. Warm up to desired temperature.
-Stir around with spoon. I recommend using white hot baby safety spoons that turn white when too hot otherwise test temperature by taste testing with a separate spoon to make sure it is not too hot, and serve.
Use fruit or vegetable from freezer if none in the refrigerator. Thaw the fruit or vegetable by putting it in a bowl of warm water until thawed. Feed by the directions above.
If unable to finish food within 1 hour after feeding then discard remaining food.
Wait 3 days between each new food to make sure there are no allergic reactions. For instance, if you started with avocado, you will serve 1 oz for 3 days. Then introduce a new item, let us say for instance, sweet potatoes. Give it for 3 days, but you can continue to offer the safe food, the apple puree as well. Watch out for any kind of allergic reaction. If you do not see any, from the fourth day, you can give both avocado and sweet potato purees to the baby. You can offer avocado puree for lunch and sweet potato puree for dinner.
Check out Being The Parent for this and more information about the 3-day wait rule. Check out the CDC for additional information on introducing solids.
Make Your Own Baby Food
Once baby is used to solids you can buy a back up supply to store in your cabinet or make your own to store in your freezer using ice trays, silicone tray, or containers. This method is better and low cost. If you are traveling then store bought food is most convenient to have. If your not traveling for long you can also put your frozen homemade baby food in a cooler with ice. According to How Long Will Frozen Food Stay Frozen in a Cooler? – OneHappyLemon it can last 3 to 4 days.
To make your own fruit or vegetable baby food it is quite easy as long as you have the right tools!
You will steam then blend the food.
Using a stove and mixer/blender: To start you will need to peel off skin to the fruit or vegetable and cut it into smaller chunks. To steam you will put your chunks of fruit or vegetable into a pot, add water to cover the top of the fruit or vegetable, cover with a lid, and turn on high heat to boil for 15 minutes. Carefully remove steamed fruit or vegetable from pot using a big ladle spoon so you get some of the water and put the fruit or vegetable in a blender to blend. The amount of water added will change the level of puree for example, if you add a lot of water it will be very runny and if you have less water it will be chunkier. Once fruit or vegetable is blended (can use handheld mixer or blender) taste test or use a white hot baby safety spoon to make sure it is not hot. If it is hot put it in the refrigerator to cool down before serving.
Using a baby food maker: Saves so much time and dishes! They have many different styles and brands but ultimately you are looking for a steamer and blender combined. I have EVLA’s Baby Food Maker and although the price has gone up since I purchased this it is amazing, easy to use by following instructions or watching their video, and they have excellent customer service.
Starting Foods
My lil one regressed on puree solids around 10 months. He refused to try them, even ones he loved previously.
I introduced him to to the following foods:
Cheerios
Teething wafers
Puffs
I introduced cheerios by breaking one in half to make sure he did not choke on it. It was amazing to watch him use a pincher grasp and put the cheerio in his mouth and chew it. He learned on his own how to chew a cheerio!
I introduced teething wafers by also breaking them into smaller pieces for him to pick up and chew. These dissolve in your mouth so they are easier to digest. He loved these and these helped with him teething.
I introduced puffs just as they are because they are the perfect finger size food and dissolve in your mouth so they are very easy to digest. Puffs became my lil one’s favorite!
In order to get my lil one back interested in solids like yogurt and baby cereal I read and showed him board boards of babies eating and showed him YouTube videos of other babies eating. These provided some motivation, but it took a lot of persistence and patience in order to get him to even re-try the solids.
I then added puffs to each solid. For example, multigrain cereal and puffs or pears and puffs. He would pick out the puffs from the solids and eat them getting a taste of the solid. Overtime he ate the solids and puffs!
After he was about 14-15 months I then tried foods without puffs and he ate the food provided so I was able to transition him off puffs.
Food Record Keeping
The journey on food is a lifelong journey. Making decisions on what to feed your lil one can be challenging.
After starting solids in order to keep up with meals offered I started writing down each meal using a Weekly Menu Plan that provides serving sizes. I would then put the food data into a Google Sheet at the end of each month. Check out the Google sheet Food Options: 6-12 Months to get your own record sheet and to see different foods you can offer/feed your lil one. I had to write very small in order to fit the meals on this chart. I even tried to enlarge the columns. Every printed copy I tried did not improve the width. You can print, laminate, and hang this chart to also keep track of your lil one’s food using an expo marker.
Recording the meals using a food chart with serving sizes allowed me to become comfortable with offering the right balance and serving size of meals.
Check out Yummy Toddler Food for recipes and meals you can try with your lil one(s)!
Once my lil one got older and meals became larger I needed more space to write so I created a more convenient Food Options (Toddler) that allowed me to record meals and bowel movements. This food chart includes a blank chart you can print, laminate, and hang to also keep track of your lil one’s food and bowel movements using an expo marker. My lil one was 21 months when I took this picture below that shows the system I had in place.
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