The best food for baby in 6 months

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

View more posts tagged, feeding

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.

6 months baby food chart with baby food recipes

By Swasthi on August 6, 2022, Comments,

6 months baby food chart with baby food recipes. The best time to start solids for babies is after 6 months. There are many sources suggesting introduction of solids from 3 to 4 months. But an early introduction of solids can lead to more colic, digestive troubles and allergies.

A baby develops digestive enzymes in between 4 to 6 months which are crucial for digestion of foods. It is a good choice to wait until the baby develops these enzymes completely.

A baby typically begins to develop head control from 3 to 4 months and gains strong head to neck muscles by 6 months. A strong head to neck control helps the baby to accept solids well and can easily swallow.

So by 6 months a baby has a better digestive system and a good head control which are needed before the introduction of solids.

Breast milk is the best bet for the overall growth of a baby. It is recommended to exclusively breast feed a baby for the first 6 months.

As an exception, formula milk is an alternate for women who cannot breast feed baby due to professional, personal or medical reasons.

If you have a baby older than 7 months, you can follow this complete
baby food chart for 8 months old and above

How do you know your baby is ready for solids?

1. The baby’s head & neck are stable. This means baby can accept food and swallow.
2. Baby must be able to sit stable with or without support.
3. Shows interest in food when others are eating.
4. Baby must be able to open the mouth when food is offered.
5. Baby is still hungry after breastfeeding or formula feed.

Tips on how to start solids for baby

First consult your pediatrician to confirm if your baby is ready for solids. It is very important to plan well before you introduce any other foods apart from breast milk.

Make your own feeding schedule along with the foods you intend you try and get an approval from your pediatrician. Most clinics and hospitals also provide a diet chart or at least a guide.

I have made this from the guidelines I got from the Clinics here in Singapore. I have followed the same for both my babies.

1. Always start with a single food. Either a fruit, vegetable or grain. Avoid a mixture of foods. You can start with mashed fruit first. The presence of digestive enzymes in fruits helps the baby to digest them better.

2. After a week, while you continue feeding fruit, you can start rice water (kanji), after a week clear dal soup or boiled vegetable broth / water.

3. Always follow the 3 day wait rule for every food you introduce. Wait for the results until the 4th day. Please see the doctor immediately if your baby develops rashes, runny nose, watery eyes, colic etc.

4. Introduce new foods to your baby during breakfast or lunch. Avoid trying new foods during the later time of the day as it is easy to get a control over the problems.

5. A 7 month old baby can eat only a tsp of mashed food initially. Slowly by 4 weeks increase the quantity to a tbsp and then more.

Helpful tips – introducing solids for baby

1. Use stainless steel or glass bowls and cups for preparation of baby foods. Avoid plastic ware even made of any superior material, including virgin plastic or graded as BPA free. Any kind of plastic ware consists of plasticizers that are used to make the containers flexible.

Plasticizers are similar to BPA and are an endocrine disruptor. Even BPA free plastic and virgin plastic ware have chemical plasticizers. Please use google search for more info.

2. Always feed the baby in a calm, quite environment and in a steady place like – on the lap, in a high chair or on the floor.

3. While feeding, refrain the baby from activities like watching a TV show, playing with a hand held gadget like mobile, and tablet or game devices. Some of these emit radiation that is not good for the baby.

4. Meal time has to be a learning for the baby, speaking to your baby about the food – its texture, taste and color helps the baby to develop a liking for the food. Or narrate a good story to the baby, do not encourage the baby to talk while eating. This may seem to be over disciplined but this is the only way i have found to grow fuss free kids. They will begin to love any food that is served.

5. Introduce water from a steel cup or a glass not from a feeding bottle or sipper. A 90 ml cup is best suited. This makes the transition from teat to cup easy when the baby grows up.

6 months baby food chart

To follow this baby chart please ensure your baby has completed 6 months and you have an approval from your pediatrician for the same.

A baby usually consumes milk every 2 to 3 hours. Solids should be served in between the feeds. Use plain boiled and cooled water to puree the fruits if needed. Avoid mixing milk or any other ingredient with fruit.

The combination of fruit and milk products results in indigestion, loss of appetite, no weight gain and accumulation of toxins.

Clear soups can be used to make pureed rice, oats or ragi cereal. Feeding only clear soups regularly is not a good idea as they lack the nutrition that is provided by a semi solid food or milk.

I have shared a sample baby food chart below which shows the quantities of fruits and vegetables. From the chart (day 13 to day 20), you can replace potato with rice porridge (kanji) or dal soup or ragi porridge.

This is an alternate table which you can follow if your baby is in between 6 and 7 months.

Wake up

Breastfeed or formula milk. What ever time your baby wakes up.

breakfast
7.30 to 8 am fruit puree

One of the following: (only after 1½ to 2 hours of milk).

You can use boiled cooled water to thin down the puree.
1. Banana- mash with a fork or run in a blender.
2. Apple- peel,core,steam for about 5 to 6 minutes. Puree in a blender
3. Chickoo (sapota)- mash with a fork and spoon
4. Pear- peel and core, steam for 5 to 6 minutes
5. Papaya – mash with a fork or blend
6. Ripe avocado – add it to a blender and puree

lunch
11.30 to 12.30 pm

After introducing fruits, you can try these. Continue to feed fruits for breakfast.
first 1 week – rice cereal
2nd week apple rice or rice cereal with boiled carrot
3rd week ragi porridge Or apple ragi or oats porridge Or apple oats Or clear moong dal soup
4th week – Repeat the foods mentioned above. You can also introduce soupy khichdi. You will have to make it following the same method I mentioned for rice cereal above.

rest of the day

Breast feed or formula (only after 1.

5 to 2 hours of lunch)

Baby food recipes for 6 months old along with ingredients and instructions to prepare

These are the quantities i followed for my kids i got from the Health Promotion Board,Singapore.Use any one
Quantity of fruits for 6 months to 9 months
½ small apple
½ small pear
½ cup sapota
½ cup papaya
½ medium banana

How many times can the same fruit be given in a week?

Including a variety of fruits will provide different kinds of nutrients to the baby.
Banana – 3 to 4 times
Apple – daily
Chickoo- daily
Pear- 3 to 4 times
Papaya – 4 to 5 times
Avocado- 3 to 4 times or daily

Do read the complete post before you attempt any of these recipes
More tips on preparing Lunch

from 3 rd week – Rice, ragi or oats. Clear dal soup with veggie.
first 7 days (from 3rd week) -Single grain with milk (formula or breast milk). You can also use gluten free or baby oats or ragi to make porridge.
next 7 days – Rice with a single veggie or apple. You can use steamed or boiled carrots.

VEGETABLES to prefer
1. carrots
2. pumpkin

LENTIL/ DAL to prefer
1. moong dal
2. toor dal

About Swasthi

I’m Swasthi Shreekanth, the recipe developer, food photographer & food writer behind Swasthi’s Recipes. My aim is to help you cook great Indian food with my time-tested recipes. After 2 decades of experience in practical Indian cooking I started this blog to help people cook better & more often at home. Whether you are a novice or an experienced cook I am sure Swasthi’s Recipes will assist you to enhance your cooking skills.

Follow Swasthi’s Recipes

Popular Recipes

Featured Recipes

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: 173522

Author of the article: Ponomareva Yuliya 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 at 4-5 months
The second half of the life
for a week for a child at 6 months

The first feeding of

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

0065 50

Seeing

Lunch (12.30)	vegetable soup with beef, olive oil	100/30/3
	compot of drocked 9006, 9006 9
Afternoon snack (16.00)	Plum puree with cottage cheese	60/40
	Breast milk/formula	60 062
food reception	menu	ml/g
Early morning	breast milk/mixture	150

Milki	& Bashas Breakfast (09 cherry Bebi Premium»	100
	0065 Breast milk/mixture	150
	children's soluble cookies "BEBIKI" Classic

		GRUSHERS with rice and Claus	GRUSHIOUS WITH RISE and CRETURE 30
	Bebi Premium Kids Instant Herbal Tea	50

Bedtime 065 Breast milk/formula	150

Rate the article

(Number of votes: 20, average 4. 8)

Share with friends:

From 4 to 6 months

Breast milk is the best food for your baby.
It is very important that the baby consumes breast milk for as long as possible.

The right age to start complementary foods

It is recommended to start introducing complementary foods into the baby's diet no earlier than 4 months, but no later than 6 months*. At this age, the baby is in the active phase of development and reacts with curiosity to everything new! Some babies at 4 to 5 months of age can no longer satisfy their appetite with breast milk alone and need complementary foods for healthy growth. Other children have enough breast milk, and they are ready for the introduction of complementary foods only after 6 months. The decision to start complementary foods should always be made according to your baby's development. Do you feel like your baby is not getting enough breast milk? Does your baby hold his head on his own, show interest in new foods or a spoon? Then it's time to start feeding. If in doubt, consult your pediatrician.

If your baby spits out the first spoonfuls of puree, be patient. After all, he must first learn to swallow it. Start with a few scoops and give your child time to get used to the new form of feeding.

*Recommendation of the Nutrition Committee of the European Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (ESPGHAN)

Why is complementary food so important for the baby?

After 4-6 months of life, mother's milk or milk formula alone is not enough to supply the child's body with all the nutrients and energy it needs. In addition, the transition to solid food trains the muscles of the mouth. And finally, with the introduction of complementary foods, the child will get acquainted with the variety of taste directions, which is also important for his development.

When to start complementary foods?

Gradually replace one breastfeed with complementary foods. First for lunch, then for dinner and finally for lunch. The mouse eats breakfast with the usual dairy food.

Starting complementary foods with HiPP products is easy. The first spoons will be vegetable or fruit purees HiPP:

First step: lunch

We recommend that you start complementary foods at lunchtime with HiPP vegetable puree (for example, "Zucchini. My first puree", "Cauliflower. My first puree" or "Broccoli .My first puree"). Then, for satiety, feed your baby as always: breast or bottle. The amount of vegetable puree can be increased daily by 1 spoon. Be patient if your baby does not immediately love vegetables. Try repeating the vegetable puree in the following days. Next week, you can expand your diet with other varieties of HiPP vegetables (for example, "Carrots. My first puree" or "Potatoes. My first puree").

If your baby tolerates vegetables well, in the third week you can introduce cereal porridge into the diet, and as a dessert, offer a few spoons of fruit puree enriched with vitamin C. Vitamin C helps to better absorb iron in the body.