What age do babies eat table food

When, What, and How to Introduce Solid Foods | Nutrition

For more information about how to know if your baby is ready to starting eating foods, what first foods to offer, and what to expect, watch these videos from 1,000 Days.

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend children be introduced to foods other than breast milk or infant formula when they are about 6 months old. Introducing foods before 4 months old is not recommended. Every child is different. How do you know if your child is ready for foods other than breast milk or infant formula? You can look for these signs that your child is developmentally ready.

Your child:

Sits up alone or with support.
Is able to control head and neck.
Opens the mouth when food is offered.
Swallows food rather than pushes it back out onto the chin.
Brings objects to the mouth.
Tries to grasp small objects, such as toys or food.
Transfers food from the front to the back of the tongue to swallow.

What Foods Should I Introduce to My Child First?

The American Academy of Pediatrics says that for most children, you do not need to give foods in a certain order. Your child can begin eating solid foods at about 6 months old. By the time he or she is 7 or 8 months old, your child can eat a variety of foods from different food groups. These foods include infant cereals, meat or other proteins, fruits, vegetables, grains, yogurts and cheeses, and more.

If your child is eating infant cereals, it is important to offer a variety of fortifiedalert icon infant cereals such as oat, barley, and multi-grain instead of only rice cereal. Only providing infant rice cereal is not recommended by the Food and Drug Administration because there is a risk for children to be exposed to arsenic. Visit the U.S. Food & Drug Administrationexternal icon to learn more.

How Should I Introduce My Child to Foods?

Your child needs certain vitamins and minerals to grow healthy and strong.

Now that your child is starting to eat food, be sure to choose foods that give your child all the vitamins and minerals they need.

Click here to learn more about some of these vitamins & minerals.

Let your child try one single-ingredient food at a time at first. This helps you see if your child has any problems with that food, such as food allergies. Wait 3 to 5 days between each new food. Before you know it, your child will be on his or her way to eating and enjoying lots of new foods.

Introduce potentially allergenic foods when other foods are introduced.

Potentially allergenic foods include cow’s milk products, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soy, and sesame. Drinking cow’s milk or fortified soy beverages is not recommended until your child is older than 12 months, but other cow’s milk products, such as yogurt, can be introduced before 12 months. If your child has severe eczema and/or egg allergy, talk with your child’s doctor or nurse about when and how to safely introduce foods with peanuts.

How Should I Prepare Food for My Child to Eat?

At first, it’s easier for your child to eat foods that are mashed, pureed, or strained and very smooth in texture. It can take time for your child to adjust to new food textures. Your child might cough, gag, or spit up. As your baby’s oral skills develop, thicker and lumpier foods can be introduced.

Some foods are potential choking hazards, so it is important to feed your child foods that are the right texture for his or her development. To help prevent choking, prepare foods that can be easily dissolved with saliva and do not require chewing. Feed small portions and encourage your baby to eat slowly. Always watch your child while he or she is eating.

Here are some tips for preparing foods:

Mix cereals and mashed cooked grains with breast milk, formula, or water to make it smooth and easy for your baby to swallow.
Mash or puree vegetables, fruits and other foods until they are smooth.
Hard fruits and vegetables, like apples and carrots, usually need to be cooked so they can be easily mashed or pureed.
Cook food until it is soft enough to easily mash with a fork.
Remove all fat, skin, and bones from poultry, meat, and fish, before cooking.
Remove seeds and hard pits from fruit, and then cut the fruit into small pieces.
Cut soft food into small pieces or thin slices.
Cut cylindrical foods like hot dogs, sausage and string cheese into short thin strips instead of round pieces that could get stuck in the airway.
Cut small spherical foods like grapes, cherries, berries and tomatoes into small pieces.
Cook and finely grind or mash whole-grain kernels of wheat, barley, rice, and other grains.

Learn more about potential choking hazards and how to prevent your child from choking.

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Feeding Your 8- to 12-Month-Old (for Parents)

By 8 months old, most babies are pros at handling the iron-fortified infant cereals and the puréed foods that are part of their diet, along with breast milk or formula.

Over the next few months, they will start to explore table foods.

Changing Eating Habits

Offer your baby a variety of tastes and textures from all food groups. Start any new food with a trial run (a few days to a week) to look for any allergic reactions. Babies younger than 12 months old should not have:

honey until after a baby's first birthday. It can cause botulism in babies.
unpasteurized juice, milk, yogurt, or cheese
regular cow's milk or soy drinks 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 vegetables, grapes, hard cheese, popcorn, and nuts
foods with added sugars and no-calorie sweeteners
high-sodium foods

Babies this age are likely showing more interest in table foods. You can fork-mash, cut up, blend, or grind whatever foods the rest of the family eats. To prevent choking, cook table foods a little longer, until very soft, and cut or shred them into small pieces that your baby can handle safely.

Around 9 months old, infant usually can pick food up between their finger and thumb so they can try feeding themselves.

If you haven't already, have your baby join the rest of the family at meals. They enjoy being at the table.

After the first birthday, babies are ready to switch to cow's milk. If you're breastfeeding, you can continue beyond 1 year, if desired. If you decide to stop breastfeeding before your baby's first birthday, give iron-fortified formula. If your baby is over 12 months, give whole milk.

Let your baby keep working on drinking from a cup, but do not give juice to infants younger than 12 months. After 12 months, you can serve whole milk in a cup, which will help with the move from the bottle.

Feeding Safety

Always supervise when your child is eating. Make sure your child sits up in a high chair or other safe place. Don't serve foods that your baby could choke on.

If you're unsure about whether a finger food is safe, ask yourself:

Does it melt in the mouth? Some dry cereals will melt in the mouth, and so will light and flaky crackers.
Is it cooked enough so that it mashes easily? Well-cooked vegetables and fruits will mash easily. So will canned fruits and vegetables. (Choose canned foods that don't have added sugar or salt.)
Is it naturally soft? Cottage cheese, shredded cheese, and small pieces of tofu are soft.
Can it be gummed? Pieces of ripe banana and well-cooked pasta can be gummed.

Making Meals Work

Keep your baby's personality in mind when feeding your baby. A child who likes a lot of stimulation may enjoy it when you "play airplane" with the spoon to get the food into their mouth. But a more sensitive tot might need the focus kept on eating with few distractions.

If your baby rejects new tastes and textures, serve new foods in small portions and don’t give up. It can take 8-10 tries before a baby accepts a new food.

How Much Should My Baby Eat?

Infant formula and breast milk continue to provide important nutrients for growing infants. But babies will start to drink less as they learn to eat variety of solid foods.

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.

Let your baby finger feed or hold a spoon while you do the actual feeding. This is good preparation for the toddler years, when kids take charge of feeding themselves. And if you haven't already, set regular meal and snack times.

What time do children start eating on their own?

Many mothers and fathers are often interested in: what time do children start eating on their own? There is no single answer to this question, everyone is individual. But it is important for parents to know: how to discern the first impulses for independence in time, at what age you can give your baby a spoon, how to teach him to eat without outside help, and what accessories will help the baby master this difficult science.

What time do children start eating by themselves with a spoon?

It depends on the character and development of the child, as well as on his parents. Some children already in the year flatly refuse to be fed with a spoon. But there are those who start eating on their own only at the age of 3, when they come to kindergarten (in a team, children involuntarily imitate others and the learning process goes faster). In large families, children learn self-service skills at an earlier age.

But overprotection hinders the development of the baby. If an overly caring mother tries to do everything for the child, then he will not strive to eat himself, even if he can do it. If parents are too much in favor of accuracy, and porridge smeared on the table causes them stress, then the learning process can slow down. After all, the baby feels the mood of adults, and prefers not to experiment at the table. The lack of independence can also be associated with an unwillingness to grow up. For example, another baby has appeared in the family, and the child, feeling that they are paying less attention to him, tries to “stay small”, wants his mother to take him in her arms more often, feed him from a spoon, etc.

From the age of 7 months a child usually learns to pick up and hold objects between thumb and forefinger, such as a dryer or a piece of bread. The child can be offered a spoon when he is already receiving complementary foods and sits well in the highchair. At first, the baby will only try to take the spoon in his hands and play with it, but later he will try to use it for its intended purpose. For drinking to a baby up to a year, a drinking mug is convenient.

At 12 months the child still does not hold the spoon correctly, but he knows how to bring it to his mouth, and part of the contents can reach the goal. Closer to two years, coordination improves significantly, the baby is capable of more precise movements and misses less and less. The kid can already hold a regular mug, but only with two hands.

From the age of 2 years a child can eat by himself with a spoon, although he does not always do it sloppy. He already holds a mug with one hand and knows how to use a fork.

From the age of 3 the baby becomes more dexterous and accurate, his fingers are getting stronger, and his movements are more confident. It is quite possible to give him a non-sharp children's knife, having previously shown how to use it.

Accessories to help children learn to eat on their own

Buy a baby plate with a suction cup so that the dishes do not “run away” from the child. It’s good if the child’s favorite character is drawn at the bottom of the plate. To see the picture, the baby will try quickly and eat all the food to the end.

The non-spill cup is the best option when switching to adult dishes. Choose a model with two handles, it is more convenient for your baby to hold. An additional advantage is the presence of a rubber stand, which gives the cup stability.

A special anatomically shaped spoon with a rounded non-slip handle and a curved fork with rounded teeth are best suited for babies up to a year old.

Paper napkins or towels should always be at hand. This teaches you to be careful, helps to avoid the temptation to wipe your hands on clothes.

It's good if a grown child eats at a common table. He will be able to watch adults, copy their actions. To do this, the baby will need a special chair that can be attached to a large table (for example, high chairs from IKEA, “growing” Stokke Tripp Trapp, Kotokota, KidFix, etc.)

Buy your baby a soft silicone bib, oilcloth or apron. This will help parents save their nerves and spend less time on laundry and cleaning.

How to teach a baby to eat without the help of adults?

If, during feeding, the baby tries to take away the mother's spoon and tries to eat by himself, then “the time has come”. Use this moment!

At first, it is difficult for the baby to eat liquid food on his own, such as soup. And he probably wants to take pieces of fruit or pasta with his hands. Therefore, the ideal food for the first workouts is porridge or vegetables, which must first be kneaded with a fork.

The game will be a good help in learning. You can train the skill in the sandbox. Help the baby to scoop up the sand with a spatula, carefully pour it into the mold, make a cake. Buy a set of toy dishes, let the child feed dolls and teddy bears with a small spoon. This improves coordination, develops fine motor skills and will help him handle real cutlery.

At the beginning of training, one spoon should be in the hands of the mother, and the second - in the child. She feeds the baby, and the baby is only trying to collect food himself and send it to her mouth. Thus, the baby will not remain hungry and at the same time will gradually improve his skills.

Support the child at this stage of growing up, do not scold for mistakes and praise for successes. The main thing is patience and confidence that everything will work out.

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How to introduce complementary foods to the baby?

The introduction of complementary foods is an important and integral part of the process of feeding a child. New parents inevitably have a lot of questions about complementary foods: when to introduce, what to introduce, how to introduce, etc. In this article, we will try to answer the most common questions related to this topic. You can also contact your pediatrician to help you understand the intricacies of introducing complementary foods.

At what age should we start introducing complementary foods?

The World Health Organization recommends introducing complementary foods to children at 6 months of age.

Can complementary foods be started before 6 months?

Since all children develop at different rates, there are children who are ready to be introduced to complementary foods at an earlier age. If there are signs of readiness to introduce complementary foods, it can be introduced to children older than 4 months. The child is ready to feed if:

shows interest in food (looks at parents with interest when they eat, reaches for food and cutlery)
confidently holds his head, sits with support
opens his mouth when a spoonful of food is brought to him, does not push food out with his tongue

What if the child is bottle-fed?

The recommended time for introducing complementary foods is the same for both breastfed and formula-fed babies.

Should I continue to breastfeed after introducing complementary foods?

The World Health Organization recommends that breastfeeding be continued until 2 years of age or beyond. American Academy of Pediatrics - up to 1 year or more.

How to start weaning?

Start with half a teaspoon or even less. At the same time, talk to the child during feeding (“try it, see how delicious it is”, etc.). At first, the child does not understand what he needs to do. He may wrinkle or even refuse to participate in this process. In this case, you can offer the child a breast or milk formula, and then try again to give half a spoonful of complementary foods, then breast or formula again. At the first feeding, most of the food will most likely be on the face and arms of the baby. You need to be prepared for this and not be nervous if this happens.

Note that when introducing complementary foods, it is not recommended to force the child to eat if he turns away from food or cries. The process of introducing complementary foods is gradual, and if it didn’t work out today, it can work out tomorrow.

What is the best way to eat?

Children eat much better together with the whole family than when they are fed separately. Regular joint family meals have a positive effect on the development of children. Offer your child a variety of healthy foods. As for the amount of food - let the baby decide for himself how much food he will eat at a time.

What kind of food should be given?

For children under 8 months of age, complementary foods are usually given in the form of mashed potatoes. From 8 to 10 months it is enough to knead food with a fork. And children older than 10 months can cut food into thin strips.

What type of complementary foods is better to choose for the first time?

In fact, it doesn’t matter what exactly complementary foods are started with. Traditionally, porridge is introduced first, then vegetables, fruits, and lastly meat. In practice, you can follow this scheme, or you can choose any other sequence.

If you start complementary foods with fruits, what if the child will not eat vegetables later?

Pediatricians often recommend introducing vegetables before introducing fruit, because after the child has tasted fruit, he will not want to eat vegetables. In fact, such assumptions are unfounded. Almost all children love sweets, and the order of introduction of complementary foods cannot change this.

Is it possible to start complementary foods with meat?

Yes, you can. Meat is especially useful for children who feed exclusively on breast milk. Meat contains a large number of important elements for the child - iron and zinc.

What is the best porridge to start with?

With almost any - buckwheat, rice, corn, oatmeal, etc. It is better to opt for cereals enriched with iron.

Is it possible to give semolina?

Semolina porridge contains a huge amount of carbohydrates with a low content of fiber and vitamins. You can give it, but there is no need to use it.

When can I introduce the next type of complementary foods?

Gradually increase the volume of complementary foods and if it is well tolerated, start introducing the next type of complementary foods in 3-4 days. New food can be given along with the already introduced. Introduce one food at a time.

When to introduce fish, eggs, nuts, berries, citrus and legumes?

These types of food are somewhat more likely (compared to others) to cause allergic reactions in children. However, there is no need to delay the introduction of these products to a later date. Research results show that early introduction of these foods may reduce the risk of developing allergies in children.

How do you know if a child has a food allergy?

Food allergies can be suspected by the following symptoms: vomiting, diarrhea, blood in the stool, rash after the introduction of complementary foods. If these symptoms occur, it is necessary to show the child to the doctor.

How to give nuts?

Nuts can be given as a powder or paste. You can add them, for example, to porridge.

Isn't there too much to feed?

About a couple of months after the start of the introduction of complementary foods, it is desirable that the child's diet includes food with a variety of tastes, smells and textures: cereals, vegetables, fruits, meat, eggs, fish, cottage cheese, etc.

Can children have honey?

It is not recommended to give honey to children under one year old, as it may contain spores of bacteria dangerous for babies that can cause botulism.

What changes will occur after the introduction of complementary foods?

After the introduction of complementary foods, the baby's stools usually become more dense, may change their color and acquire a more pronounced smell. Green vegetables and peas can turn stools greenish, while beets can turn red. If pieces of undigested food appear in the stool, this is normal and is not a cause for concern.