When can babies swallow solid food?

As long as your baby shows signs of readiness, you tin offset solids any time between four and 6 months. Until then, breast milk or formula provides all the calories and nourishment your baby needs – and can handle. Infants don't yet take the concrete skills to swallow solid foods safely, and their digestive arrangement isn't ready for solids until they're at least 4 months old.

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

Fifty-fifty after your infant starts solids, breast milk or formula volition still provide the majority of your baby'south calories and nutrition until they're a year old. Both provide important vitamins, iron, and protein in a form that's easy to assimilate. Run into how much breast milk or formula babies demand afterward starting solids.

How tin I tell when my baby'southward set up for solid nutrient?

Your babe volition requite you clear signs when they're set up. Wait for:

  • Head control . Your baby needs to exist able to go on their caput in a steady, upright position.
  • Sitting well when supported. Your baby needs to be able to sit upright in an infant feeding seat or highchair to swallow well.
  • Losing the "extrusion reflex." Your baby's mouth and tongue develop in sync with the digestive organization. To offset solids, they should be able to motility food to the dorsum of their oral cavity and swallow it, instead of using their tongue to push button food out of their mouth.
  • Significant weight proceeds. Your baby may exist set to eat solids if they've doubled their birth weight, weigh at least thirteen pounds, and is at least four months old.
  • Curiosity about food. Your baby may begin eyeing or reaching for your food or may open their mouth if you offer them a spoonful.

Keep in heed that just because your baby is 6 months one-time, information technology doesn't mean that you have to introduce solids. Some babies may be set up for solids past 6 months, while others may need a little bit more time.

What are the all-time first baby foods?

Start your babe with any pureed single-ingredient nutrient. Although it used to be standard for parents to give baby cereal as a first food, that'southward non necessary. Practiced first baby foods include

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

If your babe is breastfed, the AAP suggests meat as a kickoff food because the iron in beef, chicken, and turkey helps to replace iron stores, which showtime to diminish at virtually six months of age.

What to know about food allergies when starting solid food

Experts recommend that yous introduce one food at a fourth dimension to your infant, and wait 3 to 5 days earlier introducing another nutrient, and so you can watch for any allergic reactions. Information technology's also a proficient idea to write downwards the foods your baby samples. If they have an adverse reaction, a food log will make it easier to pinpoint the cause.

You don't have to put off giving allergenic foods such as eggs or soy. There's no evidence that waiting to introduce certain foods will help your baby avoid allergies. In fact, there'south testify that the reverse is true.

Co-ordinate to the American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI), incorporating unremarkably allergenic foods into your baby'due south diet starting at effectually 4 to 6 months (and continuing through babyhood) may actually aid prevent the development of food allergies.

Start with traditional first foods, such every bit atomic number 26-fortified baby cereal, pureed veggies, fruits, and meats. In one case you lot've tried a few of these foods and your baby seems to be tolerating them well, you can introduce more unremarkably allergenic foods, such every bit soy, eggs, wheat, fish, and peanut products.

Nutrient manufacturers take products on the market designed to help you lot incorporate normally allergenic foods into your child'due south nutrition. These stir-in powders and finger foods may contain i commonly allergenic poly peptide or a blend of several.

Special precautions need to be taken with certain babies. If your child falls into whatsoever of the following categories, consult with your baby's doctor or an allergist to create a customized feeding plan earlier calculation 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 dr.'south treatment plan.
  • Your baby previously had an firsthand allergic reaction to a new food or has been diagnosed with a food allergy.
  • Your baby's blood test was positive for an allergy to a specific food.

cartoon calendar

If your baby is allergic to a new food, you lot'll see signs of a reaction within a few minutes or hours. About children with food allergies have mild reactions. If you notice hives, airsickness, or diarrhea, telephone call your infant's medico for advice.

If y'all notice wheezing, difficulty breathing, or facial swelling (including the tongue and lips), your babe 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 by spoon-feeding your baby babe cereal or purees, but some parents use a dissimilar method chosen baby-led weaning. Using this method, you put large chunks of soft food on the highchair tray or table and let your baby catch the food and feed themself.

See our article on babe-led weaning to find out how it works. To acquire how to first spoon-feeding, read on.

For your first few feedings, give your baby but ane or two teaspoons of pureed solid nutrient or infant cereal after nursing or bottle-feeding (then your babe doesn't become hungry and frustrated).

Apply a soft-tipped plastic spoon to feed your infant to avoid injuring their gums. Put a small amount of food on the tip of the spoon and offer information technology to them. If your baby doesn't seem very interested, just let them smell the food for now and try once more another time.

If yous're feeding your baby set up-to-consume jars or pouches of babe food, put some into a small dish and feed them from that. (If you lot dip the feeding spoon into the jar, it'southward not a good thought to save the leftovers because bacteria from your baby's mouth volition now be in the jar.) Throw away any open up babe food jars within a day or two of opening them.

If you decide to start with cereal, requite your baby 1 to 2 teaspoons of diluted infant cereal. Add breast milk or formula to a tiny pinch of cereal. It volition be very runny at first, only as your baby starts to eat more than solid foods, y'all tin gradually thicken the consistency past using less liquid.

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

Eventually you lot tin can kickoff giving your infant more solid food until they're having a few tablespoons a day, over two feedings. In general, your babe could kickoff with pureed or semi-liquid nutrient, then motility on to strained or mashed food, and finally graduate to small pieces of finger foods.

See our age-by-historic period baby feeding guide to detect out what y'all tin expect next.

How tin I tell when my baby is total?

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

  • Leans back in the chair
  • Turns head abroad from nutrient
  • Starts playing with the spoon
  • Refuses to open up for the adjacent bite (Sometimes a baby volition keep their oral fissure closed because they haven't finished the kickoff mouthful, then requite them fourth dimension to swallow.)

Baby food feeding tips

  • Offer fruits or vegetables in any order. Some parents may tell you to start with vegetables instead of fruits so your infant won't develop a gustatory modality for sweets. But babies are born with a preference for sweets, so y'all don't take to worry about introducing sweet or savory foods in whatever particular order.
  • Feed cereal with a spoon only. Unless your infant's doctor asks you to, don't add cereal to a canteen – your infant could choke or end up gaining too much weight.
  • Encourage adventurous eating. You don't have to stick with bland and boring. See how to use spices and seasonings to brand your babe'south nutrient delicious.
  • Give new foods time. If your baby turns away from a detail food, don't button. Try again in a few days.
  • Check for added sugars and also much salt. Check the Diet Facts label on canned, frozen, or packaged foods for "Added Sugars." If there's ane gram or more listed, consider giving your infant 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 have no more than than ane,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 baby'southward stool sometimes changes when their diet does. Although information technology's usually temporary, your baby may have constipation after introducing solids. If you lot notice that your baby is having less frequent bowel movements, or that their stools have become difficult or dry and seem difficult to pass, allow their doctor know. Some doctors recommend adding high-cobweb fruits such as pears, prunes, and peaches to a baby's diet, or giving a few ounces of prune, apple, or pear juice each day until bowel movements are back to normal.

Likewise, don't exist surprised if your baby'due south stools alter color and olfactory property when y'all add together solids to their diet. If your infant has been exclusively breastfed up to this point, you lot'll probably notice a strong odor to their formerly mild-smelling stools equally soon equally they outset eating even tiny amounts of solids. This is normal.

How many times a day should my baby eat solid nutrient?

At get-go your baby will consume solid food just once a day. By effectually 6 to 7 months, two meals a day is the norm. Starting effectually eight to nine months, they may be eating solid food three times a twenty-four hours. A typical day's diet at viii months might include a combination of:

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

There are some dangerous foods  for babies to picket out for. Love, for example, can cause botulism in babies less than a year one-time. And babies should await until after their showtime birthday to endeavor moo-cow's milk or soy milk.

What equipment practise I demand to feed solids to my infant?

It'south helpful to have:

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

You may also want to introduce your baby to a sippy cup shortly after you lot start solids.

If yous're making your own baby food, you'll demand:

  • A tool to puree the food, similar a blender, food processor, or baby food maker
  • Storage containers for refrigerating and freezing extra portions (Some parents use water ice cube trays – or similar devices made just for babe nutrient – to store and freeze individual portions.)