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How to put baby food in a bottle


Feeding Your 4- to 7-Month-Old (for Parents)

Most babies this age are ready to try solid foods. Experts recommend starting solid foods when a baby is about 6 months old, depending on the baby's readiness and nutritional needs.

Be sure to check with your doctor before giving any solid foods.

Is My Baby Ready to Eat Solid Foods?

How can you tell if your baby is ready for solids? Here are a few hints:

  • Does your baby swallow food or push it out of their mouth? Babies have a natural tongue-thrust reflex that pushes food back out. Wait until this reflex disappears (typically when babies are 4–6 months old). 
  • Can your baby support their own head? To eat solid food, an infant needs good head and neck control and should be able to sit up.
  • Is your baby interested in food? Babies who stare, reach and grab, and open their mouths for food are ready to try solid foods.

If your doctor gives the go-ahead but your baby seems frustrated or uninterested in solid foods, try waiting a few days before trying again. Breast milk and formula will still meet nutritional needs as your baby learns to eat solid foods. But after 6 months, babies need the added nutrition — like iron and zinc — that solid foods provide.

Do not add cereal or other food to your baby's bottle because it can lead to too much weight gain.

Watch for signs that your child is hungry or full. Respond to these cues and let your child stop when full. A child who is full may suck with less enthusiasm, stop, or turn away from the breast or the bottle. With solid foods, they may turn away, refuse to open their mouth, or spit the food out.

How Should I Start Feeding My Baby Solid Foods?

When your baby is ready and the doctor says it’s OK to try solid foods, pick a time of day when your baby is not tired or cranky. You want your baby to be a little hungry, but not so hungry that they’re upset. So you might want to give your baby a little breast milk or formula first.

Have your baby sit supported in your lap or in a high chair with a safety strap.

Most babies' first food is iron-fortified infant single-grain cereal mixed with breast milk or formula. Place the spoon near your baby's lips, and let the baby smell and taste it. Don't be surprised if this first spoonful is rejected. Wait a minute and try again. Most food offered to your baby at this age will end up on the baby's chin, bib, or high-chair tray. Again, this is just an introduction.

When your little one gets the hang of eating cereal off a spoon, it may be time to try single-ingredient puréed meat, vegetables, or fruit. The order in which you give them doesn't matter, but go slow. Offer foods that are high in iron and zinc — such as meat, poultry, eggs, and beans — especially if your baby is breastfeeding. Try one food at a time and wait several days before trying something else new. This will let you identify any foods that your baby may be allergic to.

Which Foods Should I Avoid?

Foods that are more likely to cause allergies can be among the foods you introduce to your baby. These include peanuts, eggs, cow’s milk, seafood, nuts, wheat, and soy. Waiting to start these foods does not prevent food allergies. Talk to your doctor if you’re concerned about food allergies, especially if any close family members have allergies, food allergies, or allergy-related conditions, like eczema or asthma.

Infants with severe eczema or egg allergies are more likely to have allergies to peanuts. Talk to your doctor about how and when to introduce these foods to your child. 

Possible signs of food allergy or allergic reactions include:

  • rash
  • bloating or an increase in gassiness
  • diarrhea
  • vomiting

Get medical care right away if your baby has a more severe allergic reaction, like hives, drooling, wheezing, or trouble breathing.

If your child has any type of reaction to a food, don't offer that food again until you talk with your doctor.

Babies shouldn't have:

  • foods with added sugars and no-calorie sweeteners
  • high-sodium foods
  • honey, until after the first birthday. It can cause botulism in babies.
  • unpasteurized juice, milk, yogurt, or cheese 
  • regular cow's milk or soy beverages before 12 months instead of breast milk or formula. It’s OK to offer pasteurized yogurt and cheese.
  • foods that may cause choking, such as hot dogs, raw carrots, grapes, popcorn, and nuts

Tips for Feeding Your Baby Solid Foods

With the hectic pace of family life, most parents try commercially prepared baby foods at first. They come in small, convenient containers, and manufacturers must meet strict safety and nutrition guidelines.

If you prepare your own baby foods at home, here are some things to keep in mind:

  • Follow the rules for food safety, including washing your hands well and often.
  • To preserve the nutrients in your baby's food, cook it in ways that keep the most vitamins and minerals. Try steaming or baking fruits and vegetables instead of boiling, which washes away the nutrients.
  • Freeze portions that you aren't going to use right away.
  • Whether you buy the baby food or make it yourself, texture and consistency are important. At first, babies should have finely puréed single-ingredient foods. (Just applesauce, for example, not apples and pears mixed together.)
  • After your baby is eating individual foods, it's OK to offer a puréed mix of two foods. As babies get older, they will learn to eat a greater variety of tastes and textures. 
  • If you use prepared baby food in jars, spoon some of the food into a bowl to feed your baby. Do not feed your baby right from the jar — bacteria from the baby's mouth can contaminate the remaining food. If you refrigerate opened jars of baby food, it's best to throw away anything not eaten within a day or two.
  • Around 6 months of age is a good time for your baby to try a cup. You might need to try a few cups to find one that works for your child. Use water at first to avoid messy clean-ups. Do not give juice to infants younger than 12 months.

Over the next few months, introduce a variety of foods from all the food groups. If your baby doesn't seem to like something, don’t give up. It can take 8 to 10 tries or more before babies learn to like new foods.

Putting Rice Cereal in Your Baby’s Bottle: Is It Safe?

Written by WebMD Editorial Contributors

Reviewed by Dan Brennan, MD on March 02, 2021

In this Article

  • Solid Foods for Babies
  • Is Rice Cereal Safe to Put in a Baby’s Bottle?
  • Arsenic in Rice Cereal
  • How to Feed Your Baby Cereal
  • Other Supplementary Baby Foods

During their first 6 months, most babies’ diets consist of mostly breast milk or baby formula. Sometime between 4 and 6 months, you may decide to start supplementing your baby’s diet with solid foods. Most babies’ digestive systems aren’t ready to process anything but milk or formula prior to 4 months of age, at the very earliest.

For years, many new parents have started their babies out on solid foods by adding rice cereal to their baby’s bottle. However, new research has provided several reasons why parents should avoid this method.

Solid Foods for Babies

Before the age of 4 to 6 months, babies are not yet ready to eat solid foods. It’s around this time that your baby’s digestive system can start to handle certain supplementary foods. They also usually stop using their tongues to push food around or out of their mouths.

Signs that your baby is ready to start eating solid foods as a supplement to breast milk or formula include when they:

  • Can support their head steadily on their own
  • Can sit upright without help
  • Show interest in your food when you eat, at times moving their mouth around while watching
  • Can grab at objects

Is Rice Cereal Safe to Put in a Baby’s Bottle?

Your baby’s first foods should be simple, one-ingredient foods with no added salt or sugar. For this reason, many new parents turn to cereals like rice, oatmeal, or barley.

It was once thought that adding rice cereal to a baby’s bottle at night would help them sleep longer without waking up to feed during the night. Recent studies now show that there is no reason to believe that this is true.

Babies usually can’t sleep more than 5 hours at a time at this stage. They also naturally wake up to feed, whether or not they are full. Not only does adding rice cereal to a baby’s bottle not keep them asleep, but it can also raise their risk of choking.

Adding rice cereal to your baby’s bottle makes the liquid thicker. Babies who get used to drinking thick milk like this might later develop a difficulty telling solid foods apart from liquid foods. This can make it hard for your baby to start eating solid foods.

Arsenic in Rice Cereal

Another risk associated with putting rice cereal in a baby’s bottle is that rice has higher levels of arsenic in it as compared to other cereals and grains. 

Arsenic is a naturally-occurring substance in soil, water, and air. Rice that grows with trace amounts of arsenic in it can have lasting effects on your baby’s health.

Arsenic is a carcinogen that is linked to several different diseases. Even low levels, like those found in rice cereals for babies, can affect their development. Instead, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) now recommends that you introduce oatmeal to your baby instead.

How to Feed Your Baby Cereal

No matter which cereal you decide to give your baby when introducing solid foods, you should never put it directly into the bottle for the reasons mentioned. Instead, you can feed cereal to your baby with a small baby spoon.

To do so, mix 1 tablespoon of single-ingredient, iron-fortified cereal with 4 tablespoons of baby formula or breast milk. Once your baby is sitting upright, offer them about a teaspoon of the cereal. This kind of feeding takes practice, so it might get messy. As your baby learns to swallow and manage the cereal, you can increase the thickness over time.

If your baby enjoys the food, try giving them a little more. If they aren’t interested or don’t like it, don’t force it. You can try it again in a few days.

Other Supplementary Baby Foods

It’s important not to introduce solid foods, like cereal or others, to your baby before they’re ready. Introducing your baby to cereal too early is linked to obesity later on in their life. There is also a higher risk of allergy activation, especially with cereals that contain gluten.

When introducing a new food to your baby, wait a few days to see if they develop symptoms of allergies or diarrhea before introducing another new food. Doctors recommend giving your baby foods with potential allergens when you start giving them supplemental foods. It’s a myth that waiting to introduce foods like peanuts, fish, or eggs can prevent food allergies.

Once your baby has mastered eating cereal, try giving them pureed fruit or veggies with no added ingredients. Only give them one kind of fruit or vegetable at a time. You can also try giving your baby pureed meat. Wait 5 days after introducing each food to check for a reaction.

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