Best food for 6 month old baby boy

The Best First Foods for Babies 6 to 9 Months – Happiest Baby

By Happiest Baby Staff

You've spent the first six months of your baby's life making sure that they are nourished with breastmilk or formula. As they grow and thrive, you might notice that your little sprout shows you some signs that they are ready to graduate from the bottle or breast to solid foods. If your baby can sit up and hold their head up, that's a great first sign! What's more, if they bring objects to their mouth and show an interest in what you are eating, your curious kiddo might be ready to start eating solid foods.

But what should you feed your baby? Here’s a list of perfect starter foods for your baby from ages 6 to 9 months.

Best Baby Foods at 6 Months

At 6 months, babies may be starting to chew. Though this skill won’t be mastered just yet, they are typically ready to get messy with some mushy, pureed eats—helping them learn about flavor and texture. At this age, the goal is not to satiate your baby with full meals of solid foods but rather to get your child curious and excited about their culinary options.

Because babies are growing so fast, their needs for iron are high to prevent iron-deficiency and support their overall health. Offer your little one iron rich foods like—infant cereal (read up on why you may want to skip rice cereal), well-cooked meat, poultry, mashed beans, and lentils. To keep your baby safe from choking, avoid adding solids like cereal to baby bottles.

Here are some great first foods for Baby to try:

Infant oat, grain, or barley cereals mixed with breastmilk or formula and spoon-fed to your baby
Sweet potato puree
Squash puree
Pea puree
Carrot puree
Mashed banana
Mashed avocado
Mashed or pureed beans
Mashed or pureed lentils
Pureed meats (beef, chicken, or turkey)
Soft, falling apart meats (salmon, beef, chicken, turkey)

Check out more of our favorite first food purees. Or, if purees aren’t your thing, read up on how to start baby-led weaning.

Best Baby Foods at 7 Months

By 7 months old, your baby will probably be eating more solids but not enough to replace breastmilk or formula as their primary source of food. The goal for this month is to keep introducing solid foods to your baby. What's fun is by 7 months, you can get more creative with mixing flavors and adding textures.

Here are a few nutritious and delicious food combos to try with your baby:

Peas pureed with breastmilk (or formula), sweet potatoes, or squash
Kale pureed with blueberry, squash, potatoes, sweet potatoes, peas, pears, or bananas
Apples pureed with cauliflower, carrots, pears, prunes, or beets
Beef pureed with broccoli
Chicken pureed with carrots and potatoes
Chickpeas pureed with bananas, apples, or sweet potato
Sweet potatoes pureed with red bell pepper

Seven months is also the perfect age to start giving your baby a plate, bowl, and plastic utensils so they can begin to practice feeding themselves. If your baby is teething, you can place frozen chunks of fruit in a sieve feeder/mesh bag that allows them to gnaw on the fruit without choking. Learn more about helping your baby use a fork and spoon!

Best Baby Foods at 8 Months

By 8 months, your baby is likely eating more solids and relying a little less on milk as a primary meal (though it’s still where they get the bulk of their nutrition!). And they’re probably having lots of fun learning how to use their hands to feed themselves. Something else to consider: Babies should be exposed to potential allergen foods (like peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, and fish) before their first birthdays to help prevent future food allergies. Starting at 6 months of age, peanut butter is safe to introduce as long as you are comfortable giving it to your baby.

In fact, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans says that babies can begin having these foods when they start eating solids. But many families often feel more comfortable waiting to introduce these foods until around this age. Of course, consult with your little one’s pediatrician if you have concerns about potential allergen foods.

Here are some foods to add to your repertoire:

Whole eggs, scrambled
Nut butter thinned out with water and mixed with cereal (nut butters are sticky and can cause choking)
Fully cooked fish, like salmon or tuna
Full-fat yogurt

Here are some preparation ideas:

Well-cooked (think over-cooked until falling apart) pasta such as elbows or alphabet shapes
Mashed meat with mashed or ground vegetables such as peas and potatoes or kale and squash
Rainbow on a plate: Using tiny pieces of soft, strained, pureed, and mashed food options, look for a variety of colors to offer. Some fun options could include banana, avocado, sweet potato, peas, blueberry, raspberry, cheese, and chicken.

Best Baby Foods at 9 Months

Though there’s a greater variety of foods babies eat now, formula or breastmilk continues to be their primary source of nutrition until age 1. At 9 months old, babies get more comfortable with self-feeding and eating the foods their families enjoy. After all, eating solid foods is a sensory wonderland of texture, smells, and tastes. Not to mention all that fun making messes with those adorably curious fingers.

As you begin to focus on meal planning for your baby, there are few things to keep in mind:

Babies need four to five servings of fruits and vegetables a day. A serving size for a 9-month-old is less than a quarter cup.
"Eat the rainbow" is excellent advice because it gives your baby exposure to lots of different fruits, vegetables, grains, and starches.

Here are a few menu ideas to help meal plan for your baby…

Breakfast Ideas for Babies

These morning meals pack a nutritional punch—and don’t forget to check out all of our favorite breakfast ideas for babies:

Soft fresh fruit cut up in small pieces (think: banana, raspberries, or blueberries)
Whole-grain waffles or pancakes
Unsweetened oatmeal made with breastmilk or formula combined with cut-up and cooked apples and pears or banana slices. (It is essential to steam the apples or pears to make them soft enough for your baby to mash with their gums.)
Full-fat yogurt mixed with mashed or pureed berries such as blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, or raspberries
Soft scrambled eggs
Veggie frittata

Lunch Ideas for Babies

Spread hummus on soft crackers or bread
Grilled cheese sandwich with cooled tomato soup
Macaroni and cheese with cooked veggies like peas and carrots mixed in
Pizza bites with chopped bits of spinach in the sauce and melted shredded cheese
Quesadilla made with pureed spinach, squash, or beans

Snack Ideas for Babies

Babies this young won’t likely need to snack too much (remember, breastmilk or formula will provide the majority of your little one’s nutrition). Still, it’s not a bad idea to have snacks on hand for when your mini muncher needs something to eat that’s not quite a meal. A few baby snack ideas:

Apple and carrot slaw
Cheese slices
Full-fat plain yogurt
Hard-boiled egg
Avocado slices
Muffins made with fruits, veggies, and/or whole grains
Fruit and veggie pouches
Sugar-free, whole-grain cereal, like plain Cheerios

Dinner Ideas for Babies

To help your baby get and stay excited about eating solid foods, serve a version of whatever the family is having for dinner. Remember to steam or mash, grind or chop foods into appropriate softness and sizes to prevent choking. Some baby dinner ideas:

Pasta with softened vegetables
Well-cooked rice, soft veggies, and chicken
Baked sweet potato with butter or cheese
Beans or lentils served with rice and veggies
Flaky fish served with steamed zucchini

There are endless variations on what you can serve your baby for dinner. As long as your baby is safe and happy, try to encourage lots of food exploration!

You must not feed any child under the age of 1 year honey, cow’s milk, juice, hard foods like candy, raw vegetables, popcorn, or sticky foods like peanut butter, as these each present choking hazards.

Learn more about feeding your baby:

The Happiest Baby Feeding Guide
The Benefits of Homemade Baby Food
The Best Store-Bought Baby Food

***

REFERENCES

Unlocking Opportunities in Food Design for Infants, Children, and the Elderly: Understanding Milestones in Chewing and Swallowing Across the Lifespan for New Innovations. Journal of Texture Studies, August 2017
Complementary Feeding: A Position Paper by the European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition (ESPGHAN) Committee on Nutrition, Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, January 2017
Infant Formula Feeding Practices Associated With Rapid Weight Gain: A Systematic Review, Maternal & Child Nutrition, July 2018
Solid Food Introduction and the Development of Food Allergies, Nutrients, November 2018
US Department of Agriculture: Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020-2025

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Have questions about a Happiest Baby product? Our consultants would be happy to help! Connect with us at [email protected].

Disclaimer: The information on our site is NOT medical advice for any specific person or condition. It is only meant as general information. If you have any medical questions and concerns about your child or yourself, please contact your health provider.

What It Is and How to Do It – Happiest Baby

By Happiest Baby Staff

After months of a steady breastmilk and/or formula diet, there will come a time when your little one is ready to graduate to real food (hooray!). But with this big milestone comes the big question: What do you feed your baby now?

Though purees have long been a baby-food staple, since 2008 Baby-Led Weaning (or BLW for short) has exploded in popularity thanks largely to a book called Baby-Led Weaning by Gill Rapley and Tracey Murkett. The BLW approach gives babies a leading role in what they eat. Instead of you spoon-feeding pureed foods to your child, your tot will eat soft, finger-sized pieces of whole food. Basically, you provide the gastronomic opportunities…then stand back while your baby explores what’s on their plate.

When parents introduce babies to solid foods at around age 6 months, they give their kiddos a non-pureed—but baby-friendly—version of whatever the grown-ups are eating. The key is that the food has to be big enough for the baby to grip it—and for it not to be a choking risk—and soft enough for them to bite it. From here, little ones can learn to pick up food with their hands and experience its smells, tastes, and textures.

The idea is that kids who learn to appreciate foods at the very beginning of learning to eat solids will eventually grow up to be good eaters with an appreciation for a wide variety of food types. There is some anecdotal evidence that kids who learn to eat solids through the BLW method will be less likely to become picky later.

What are the benefits of baby-led weaning?

Some possible benefits of baby-led weaning include:

Bonding: Babies who eat at the table with their family will not only learn about foods and eating, but they will also learn table manners and spend quality time with their loved ones over food.
Fine motor skills: In BLW, babies use their hands to eat. This means that they will have to work on hand-to-eye and hand-to-mouth coordination, as well as gripping and picking up with fingertips.
Self-regulation: Babies who eat with their families and who feed themselves get a chance to recognize the feeling of being full. They have more control over how and when to stop eating, which is an important and often overlooked aspect of teaching kids to eat solids.
Positive food habits: Babies who are given whole foods with a variety of colors, flavors, and textures, might have more open palates in the future.

When can you start baby-led weaning?

Babies are usually developmentally ready to start solid foods around 6 months of age. Typically, first foods include pureed veggies and fruits or infant cereals. But with baby-led weaning, babies tend to start eating single-ingredient whole foods (think: melon slices, avocado spears, or roast sweet potato wedges) and then move on to mixed foods (a version of whatever’s on the family’s dinner table).

Signs that your baby is ready to eat solid foods include:

Your baby can sit up unassisted.
Your baby can hold their head up unaided.
Your baby shows interest in eating.
Your baby opens their mouth to eat.

What are the best foods for baby-led weaning?

With minimal preparation, just about any food can be given to a baby who is using the BLW method. That said, there are some safety tips to keep in mind.

Babies have not yet mastered picking up small objects with their fingers. Make sure you cut food up into big enough piece that they can grab it with their whole hand.
Do not offer choking hazards, such as grapes, hot dog pieces, nuts, popcorn, etc.
Make sure that anything you serve your child is soft. Most vegetables can be steamed to soften them.
Meats should be poached or boiled to a safe temperature and then shredded.
Do not add salt, sugars, or artificial sweeteners to your child's food. They need to get to know natural flavors and textures.

Is baby-led weaning risky?

Parents’ biggest hesitation with BLW is that a baby will choke—which is understandable! However, babies come hard-wired to learn how to eat. It is typical and expected that babies may gag, make choking sounds, or cough from time to time when encountering new foods. The important thing is to stay calm and not show fear because your child will learn to become afraid of the natural gagging reflex.

The reality is that while kids will probably gag and spit up, they are not likely to choke. A study in the United Kingdom found that out of 155 babies fed by BLW or by spoon, parents reported that 93.5% never had a choking experience. Research also shows the risk of choking is the same for both babies fed BLW style and by spoon. That said, it's wise for all parents to take a CPR class to learn the signs of choking and the life-saving steps to intervene.

How to start baby led weaning:

Since food plays such a rich part in family culture, introducing your baby to solid foods can feel like a significant and exciting milestone for the whole family. Here are some tips to help your little one succeed:

Patience: It is so important to be patient and understand that your baby won't love every dish you serve. Additionally, it helps to keep your reactions to how they eat as neutral as possible. Don't get upset if they refuse to eat—and equally, don't praise when they eat everything on their plate. Babies need to learn how to sense fullness and hunger as well as listen to their developing tastes.

Variety: It's okay to let your baby play with their food. And they will definitely play! Give them baby spoons and forks, small bowls, and cups, and let them experiment. Give them variety with their food choices as well. Some kids will find softer purees to be a helpful bridge, while others will want smashed beans or veggies. Be patient and experiment.

Make eating a family event: Get the whole family involved and have your baby take a seat at the table. Talk to them, share stories, and give them lots of opportunities to try different flavors and textures.

Fans of baby-led weaning tend to be very enthusiastic, but when it comes to feeding your family, don’t feel like you have to take an all-or-nothing approach. You might find that a mix of purees and baby-led-weaning-style foods is best for your bub. There are plenty of ways to nourish your child and teach healthy eating habits outside of baby-led-weaning, too. The important part is that you’re introducing lots of flavors and textures and nutrient-dense foods.

This article has been reviewed by Gabrielle McPherson, MS, RDN, LDN.

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Have questions about a Happiest Baby product? Our consultants would be happy to help! Connect with us at [email protected].

diet for a 6-month-old baby with breast and artificial feeding, an approximate menu for a week in the table, a diet for a day

Published: 02/10/2021

Reading time: 4 min.

Number of reads: 222701

Author of the article: Ponomareva Yulia Vladimirovna

Pediatrician, Candidate of Medical Sciences, Allergist-Immunologist

Changes in a child in the first year of life are very rapid, and each month is not like another. The 6-month milestone is very important, it is largely evaluative and transitional. By this age, most babies have doubled their birth weight, are about 15 cm tall, and some babies have already erupted their teeth. The age of 6 months is also transitional in terms of nutrition. Breast milk or an adapted formula is still the basis of the diet, but with the beginning of the second half of life, all children, without exception, should begin to receive complementary foods. Despite the general graph of growth and weight gain and indicators of psychomotor development, the status and diet of children at 6 months can be very different.

Content: Hide

The first feeding of 6 months
The start of complementary foods in 4-5 months
The second half of life
for a week for a child at 6 months

The first lure of 6 months

If the baby is healthy and breastfed, and his mother eats a full and varied diet, exclusive breastfeeding is possible until this age. Cereal complementary foods in this case are preferable to start. This is due to the high energy and nutritional value of cereals, the ability to significantly enrich the baby's diet with a delayed start of the introduction of complementary foods.

However, the rate of expansion of the child's diet in this situation will be accelerated. Before the 8th month of life, it is necessary to introduce all basic food groups into the baby’s menu, since in the second half of the year the need for additional intake of nutrients and micronutrients is very high. Another reason explaining the importance of the rapid introduction of complementary foods is the formation of immunity of the immune cells of the intestine to ordinary food. If a child is introduced to these foods at the age of 4-8 months, the risk of developing food allergies has been proven to be reduced.

Complementary feeding starts at 4-5 months

In today's life, the nutrition of a nursing mother, unfortunately, is not always complete. Therefore, for most breastfed babies, complementary foods already need to be introduced from 5 months in order to prevent deficient conditions.

If a child is bottle-fed, then by the 4th month of life, the baby will not have enough adapted formula alone, and in this group of children, the timing of the introduction of complementary foods usually shifts a month earlier than in breast-fed babies. Accordingly, by 6 months, children will have vegetable puree and gluten-free porridge (buckwheat, corn and rice) in their diet. In the first half of life, monocomponent meals are used (that is, from one type of grain and vegetables), prepared on the basis of water, breast milk or an adapted mixture.

Fruit puree and juice can be another possible complementary food for children under 6 months of age without allergy symptoms. In a child with a risk of developing or manifesting allergies, the timing of the introduction of fruit complementary foods is shifted to the 8th month.

Second six months of life

Children over 6 months of age can supplement their diet with cereals containing gluten. First of all, these are oatmeal and wheat porridge, and then multi-cereal dishes with the addition of other cereals (millet, barley, rye). If the child does not have any manifestations of allergies, milk porridge can be included in the menu at this age. Bebi Premium industrial baby food products include specially prepared milk that is safe to use in healthy babies in the first year of life.

From the age of 6 months, the baby's diet is expanded with such important products as meat and cottage cheese. These products are a source of high-quality protein, fats, and are also rich in minerals such as iron, calcium, and phosphorus. Pediatricians and nutritionists recommend introducing meat and cottage cheese as part of combined dishes based on a fruit and vegetable and / or grain component in a ratio of 1 (cottage cheese / meat): 4–5 (fruits / vegetables / cereals).

To enrich the diet with polyunsaturated fatty acids in the second half of the year, the menu includes vegetable oil in the amount of 3–5 grams per day, which can be added to the complementary food dish. The volume of each feeding is approximately 150-170 ml, and the child can already stand up to 3.5 hours between meals.

In the table below, we offer a menu of 6 months for a week for a child who started receiving complementary foods at the age of 4-5 months, and by the time the second half of life begins, dairy-free gluten-free cereals, vegetable and fruit purees have already been introduced into his diet.

1st day

early morning 9

9006 900 66 9 9007 1 0062

9006 30

Meeting	menu	ml/g
Breast milk/mixture	150
50

Lunch (12. 30)	Vegetable soup with beef, olive oil	100/30/3

Afternoon snack (16.00)	Plum puree with cottage cheese	60/40
	Breast milk/formula	60 066
Lunch (12.30)	soup puree made of cauliflower and broccoli, olive oil	80/3
	souffle from meat of rabbits

Afternoon snack (16.00)	Milk porridge “Delicious afternoon snack with Bebi Premium biscuits and pears”	100
food intake	menu	ml/g
Early morning	breast milk/mixture	150
	COMLACE (09) cherry Bebi Premium»	100
	0065 Breast milk/mixture	150
	children's soluble cookies "BEBIKI" Classic

	Bebi Premium Kids Instant Herbal Tea	50

Bedtime 065 Breast milk/formula	150

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Menu for 6 month old baby

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The author of the menu for a child of 6 months pediatrician Marina Turupaeva Marina. Experience 11 years. Twice mother. Graduated from the Yaroslavl State Medical Academy. District pediatrician of the children's polyclinic, chief district pediatrician, neonatologist of the maternity ward. She teaches at the “School of Motherhood” and works with expectant mothers on children's health issues.

Today, probably, only the lazy one does not give advice on how to feed a child and what should be on the menu of a six-month-old baby. It is interesting that there are a lot of opinions on this topic and, perhaps, it is sad that even medical professionals often give different nutritional recommendations from each other. What is a young mother to do?

What should be on the menu of a 6 month old baby?

How to choose the right option and, most importantly, how not to harm your baby?

I am a pediatrician and mother of two children. When my eldest daughter was born, I had no time to think about what to feed her, I then listened to my mother and, despite my medical education, relied only on her experience. After all, she raised her children and knows better. As a result, I got digestive problems and allergies in my baby. Which only added to the difficulty for me.

When I was pregnant with my son, even then I began to think about how to avoid most of the problems in the first year of his life. After all, as they say in a well-known advertisement, when the baby is comfortable, then his mother is happy and calm. I'll tell you honestly, having a medical education interferes with my life in many ways, because you know less - you sleep better. However, it also certainly helps by the fact that I can delve into the essence of the process taking place in the child’s body literally at the cellular level. Now it will not be enough for me only someone's experience. Exact explanations and justifications are needed. And friends, I figured it out. As you know, science is moving and what was considered useful 5-10 years ago has now turned out to be unhelpful, and some even harmful. Today I really want to share with you my observations and modern aspects in the nutrition of children at the age of 6 months.

I really hope that until 6 months your baby had only breast milk on the menu. If so, then get your grade, you are “five plus”. If you are feeding your baby only an adapted milk formula because for some reason you had to stop breastfeeding, you also get a high five. I imagine and have experienced in my own skin what it is like to resist the pressure of all close and not very close relatives, girlfriends, neighbors and just acquaintances. "What, you're not giving the baby juice yet?" or “Have you tried egg yolks yet? Poor child!".

I want to praise you and say that you did absolutely the right thing, that you did not succumb to their provocations and did not cause problems with the chair and sleep in your own child.

Rule #1.

Until the age of 6 months, the baby does not need any food, except breast milk or adapted formula.

Withstood, withstood. What's next? It is necessary to decide on the product of the first complementary foods. Considering all modern research and observations, porridge is the ideal first complementary food product. They are easily absorbed by his immature children's body and cause the least number of allergies.

Rule #2. We start with porridge.

Which porridge to choose? Pediatricians around the world advise starting with gluten-free cereals, these are buckwheat, rice and corn porridge. Why is gluten dangerous? In a nutshell, these are abdominal pains, bloating, diarrhea, as well as an allergic reaction in the form of a skin rash and many other various unpleasant symptoms. I hope I convinced you, we will postpone gluten cereals for later.
What does complementary feeding look like? We start giving any new product with 1 teaspoon to assess the child's reaction to it. If the stool and sleep are not disturbed, and the skin remains clean, gradually increase the amount of porridge eaten and bring it to a full serving, replacing one breastfeeding or formula, that is, up to 200 ml.

Rule #3. Start with 1 teaspoon and increase gradually!

In our shops there is a great variety of different boxes with cereals. There are dairy and dairy-free, from one cereal and several, with and without fruits. You can get confused, so which one to choose? We always start with monocomponent porridge without milk and fruits. And why spend money on these new-fangled boxes, if you can cook porridge yourself. Then you will be 100% sure of its composition. Just take the selected cereal and grind it in a coffee grinder. You will get flour, which you will then cook.
Recipe for buckwheat porridge.
Take 2 tsp. buckwheat flour, dissolve in 2 tbsp. warm boiled water, stir so that there are no lumps, and pour into 120 ml of boiling milk.