What are the best foods to start a baby on
Do's and Don'ts for Baby's First Foods
Breastfeeding has been shown to improve infant, child and maternal health outcomes and help control healthcare costs, but how long should breastfeeding last and when should parents introduce solid foods?
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend exclusive breastfeeding, meaning the infant receives only breast milk, during the first six months of life for optimal nutrition and health benefits.
Once solid foods are introduced, health professionals recommend continuing breastfeeding through 12 months of age and, after that, as desired by mother and baby. Introducing your baby to solid foods is an exciting milestone. When you start introducing children to the world of solid foods, you are helping them shape their relationship with food and establish a healthy eating style. The timing for introducing solid foods will depend on the infant, but it is not recommended before the age of four months or after the age of six months.
Not sure how to get your baby started on solid foods? Consider these helpful tips.
Is Your Baby Ready to Transition?
Each child's readiness for solid food depends on their own rate of development. Signs a baby may be ready to start solid foods include sitting up with minimal support, demonstrating good head control, bringing objects to the mouth or grasping at small objects. Check with your pediatrician before starting solid foods.
Getting Started With Solids
Solid foods may be introduced in any order. However, puréed meats, poultry, beans and iron-fortified cereals are recommended as first foods, especially if your baby has been primarily breastfed, since they provide key nutrients. Only one new single-ingredient food should be introduced at a time.
Softer textures are very important when first introducing foods. Infants usually start with pureed or mashed foods around six months. As infants develop chewing and motor skills, they are able to handle items like soft pieces of fruit and finger foods.
Weaning From Breastfeeding
When deciding if you should wean your baby to a bottle or a cup, consider their developmental readiness. Between 7 and 8 months, most infants will drink small amounts of liquid from a cup or a glass when someone else holds it. Older babies and toddlers often have the coordination to drink fluids from a cup by themselves.
If your baby is under 12 months of age and you are not continuing to breastfeed, wean from breast milk to iron-fortified infant formula. If your baby is 12 months or older, whole cow’s milk is appropriate.
Food Safety Do’s and Don’ts
Food safety concerns for infants and toddlers include food allergies, choking and risks for foodborne illness. Keep the following safety tips in mind:
Do talk with your pediatrician about the risk of food allergies. Introducing one new food at a time, every several days, allows time to monitor for allergic reactions.
Current evidence does not indicate needing to wait beyond 4 to 6 months before introducing potential allergy-causing foods such as eggs, dairy, soy, peanuts and fish. In fact, introducing peanut-containing foods as early as 4 to 6 months of age may help prevent a peanut allergy. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends introducing potentially allergenic foods when other complementary foods are introduced to an infant’s diet. Parents with concerns about food allergies should discuss how to include these foods with their pediatrician.
Don’t feed your baby solid foods from a bottle. It can be a choking hazard and despite a popular misconception, putting cereal in a baby's bottle won't help with sleeping through the night. Other foods that are considered to be choking hazards are listed below.
Do supervise your child while eating. Infants should be able to sit upright and face forward when you first introduce solid foods. This makes swallowing easier and choking less likely.
Don’t feed directly from the jar of food but instead spoon some food into a separate dish first. Feeding directly from the jar may introduce bacteria from your baby's mouth to the spoon and back into the food, creating a food safety issue.
Don’t feed honey to children under 12 months of age due to the risk of foodborne illness.
Examples of appropriate solid foods listed by age:
6 months:
- Well-cooked and pureed meat, poultry or beans
- Ground, cooked, single-grain cereal or infant cereal with breast milk or formula
- Cooked and pureed vegetables
- Mashed banana or avocado
9 months:
- Well-cooked, minced or finely chopped meat, poultry or beans
- A variety of cooked vegetables cut into small, ½ inch pieces, such as squash and green beans
- Sliced and quartered bananas or small pieces of other soft fruits
12 months:
- Soft, shredded meat, poultry or fish
- Small pieces of cooked vegetables
- Small pieces of soft, easy to chew fruits
- Mixed food dishes the family is eating in appropriately sized pieces
Not recommended for those under 4 years of age due to the risk of choking:
- Popcorn and whole kernel corn
- Nuts and seeds
- Large chunks of meat, poultry and cheese
- Candy, gum drops and jelly beans
- Hard, raw fruits or vegetables such as apples, celery and carrots
- Whole grapes and cherry tomatoes, unless cut into quarters
- Hot dogs, unless cut into strips and age appropriate, bite-size pieces
- Sticky foods, such as peanut butter, which can get stuck in the back of the mouth – peanut butter is okay if spread thinly on bread
For toddlers and preschoolers, chop grapes, meat, poultry, hot dogs and raw vegetables and fruits into small pieces (about ½ inch or smaller).
Nurturing Healthy Relationships with Food
Establishing a positive feeding relationship during infancy can have lifetime benefits. Keep in mind that children are responsible for how much and whether they eat so always wait for your baby to pay attention to each spoonful before you feed them. Don't be afraid to let your baby touch the food in the dish and on the spoon. You wouldn't want to eat something if you didn't know anything about it, would you? In addition, know the cues that your baby is done eating. A common cue babies are full is head turning.
Whatever happens, don't get discouraged and enjoy the experience. With a little patience and creativity, you can make your baby's first solid food eating experience fun for everyone involved!
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When to Start Baby Food
Starting solids is an exciting and important milestone in baby’s development—one that not only opens them up to a brand-new world of flavors and textures, but also puts them on the right path to growing healthy and strong.
Here’s what you need to know about how and when to start baby food for a smooth transition.
In this article:
When to start baby food
How to start baby on solids
Best first foods for baby
Introducing allergenic foods
When to Start Baby Food
Knowing when to start baby food is both crucial and tricky. Starting baby on solids too early means you might increase the risk of choking, obesity and bellyaches, but introducing solids too late means you might slow baby’s growth and encourage an aversion to solid foods, among other conditions. Fortunately, doctors have zeroed in on a sweet spot for starting baby food, which is sometime between 4 and 6 months of age—though, ideally, baby should be receiving their nutrition exclusively from breast milk until the six-month mark, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). How to tell if it’s time for starting solids for your little one? Baby will give you clues, including:
• Baby can sit in a high chair comfortably on their own.
This is a major sign in terms of when to start baby food, says Lauren Kupersmith, MD, a pediatrician at Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital at NYU Langone in New York City. It means baby can hold their head up and doesn’t need to be propped up to stay in the upright position, which is important to avoid choking.
• Baby looks interested at mealtime. Babies likes to mimic what we do, so if your child likes to sit up like a big kid and watch you eat, then by all means let them try eating too.
• Baby can move food to the back of their throat to swallow. But if baby tends to push the food out of their mouth—not because they don’t like it, but because they can’t seem to get the food to where it needs to go—hold off on starting solids.
How to Start Baby on Solids
At 4 to 6 months, most of baby’s nutrition will still come from breast milk or formula, so don’t worry if baby doesn’t like eating food right away. Introducing solids is a gradual process, and every baby learns in their own time.
Here are some general guidelines for how to start baby on solids:
• Feed baby with a spoon. Letting your child go at it with their hands may seem tempting (and super-cute), but it’s best that they learn the right way from the get-go. (And even then, be prepared to clean up more than a few messes!) Also, never put cereal (or any other food) in baby’s bottle—it’s a choking hazard.
• Start slowly. When introducing solids, a half spoonful will do at first—you may even want to talk baby through it (“Yummy!”). To make it easier for baby to get accustomed to the idea of swallowing solids, start mealtime with a little breast milk or formula, then offer some food (again, no more than a half teaspoon at a time) and finish off with more breast milk or formula. If baby cries or turns away when you present the spoon, try again some other time. Start off with introducing solids at one meal a day, then slowly work your way up. The morning is a good place to start, since baby is often hungriest at that time.
When starting solids, baby typically won’t eat more than an ounce or two in one sitting.
• Try new foods more than once. Since babies’ tastes will evolve, you may need to try a food 20 times before a baby actually likes it, says Kupersmith.
• Stick with the same food for three days before trying another one. This makes it easy to track whether baby is allergic to a particular food.
• Try foods in different forms. If baby doesn’t like pureed food, try it mashed. After all, baby is learning about new textures as well as new tastes. It may be a case of trial and error until you find a winner.
Best First Foods for Baby
Got baby safely strapped into the high chair and bib? You’re ready to finally start feeding baby solids! There aren’t any official food rules for babies starting solids, and there’s no scientific evidence suggesting you should introduce one type of food before another, assuming the foods aren’t choking hazards.
Nevertheless, baby cereal (such as oatmeal, rice and barley) is an “easy training food,” says Kupersmith, which is why it’s often recommended as baby’s first food; you can always mix it with more milk to build up to a thicker consistency. Many doctors also recommend starting vegetables before fruits, but there’s no evidence that this would make babies like vegetables more when they grow up—babies innately love sweets, and the order of introducing solids to baby doesn’t change that.
So why not simply start introducing solids with something you think baby will like? Here are a few common first foods for baby that are healthy and easy to eat (and, in the case sweet potato and banana, also easy to digest). Whatever you decide to feed baby, mash it with a fork or puree before serving whenever introducing solids.
- Baby cereal, such as oatmeal, rice, barley
- Sweet potato
- Banana
- Avocado
- Apples
- Pears
- Green beans
- Butternut squash
If your child has been breastfeeding, check with your pediatrician about getting a jump on pureed chicken or beef when you’re starting solids.
These foods contain easily absorbable forms of iron and zinc, which baby needs by 4 to 6 months, according to the AAP.
At around 9 months, baby should have already worked their way up to a variety of foods, including cereal, vegetables, fruits, meats, eggs and fish (see below regarding the last two). (Keep in mind, though, that baby will still get the majority of their nutrients from breast milk or formula until age one.) By now, baby will probably settle on three meals a day along with two snacks. Let them consume about 4 ounces of solids at each meal (equivalent to a small jar of strained baby food) and about half that amount for each snack.
Save honey and cow’s milk for after baby’s first birthday—there’s a risk for infant botulism with honey (a type of bacterial poisoning), and baby’s tummy isn’t prepared to digest large amounts of cow’s milk until they’re about one year old. Avoid adult processed foods and foods that are choking hazards (such as sticky foods, like large gobs of peanut butter; hard foods that are difficult to gum, like raw vegetables, nuts, seeds and popcorn; and round, slippery foods that haven’t been cut up, like grapes and cherry tomatoes).
Instead, the first foods for baby, and those in the months that follow, should be soft and served mashed, pureed or (once baby seems ready to move up from the really mushy stuff) cut up into really little bits. “There’s pretty much free reign at that point,” Kupersmith says.
Introducing Solids Chart
Hesitant about improvising your first foods for baby? That’s okay too. If you prefer an “introducing solids chart” to help you plan out baby’s path, the guide below can come in handy.
Image: The Bump
Introducing Allergenic Foods
Much of the confusion around when to start baby food stems from questions concerning allergenic foods. These are foods that babies are most often allergic to. The major culprits include dairy, eggs, fish, peanuts and tree nuts. In the past, parents were advised to hold off on exposing baby to these foods, but now doctors recommend introducing them early, often and in age-appropriate format, which means starting off with purees and soft textures.
“Dairy is an easy starting point, given options such as yogurt and cheese,” says David Stukus, MD, director of the Food Allergy Treatment Center at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and a spokesperson for the American College of Allergy, Asthma, & Immunology. You can also try scrambled eggs in small amounts, although baby may not be too pleased with the texture at first.
As far as peanut products go, the National Institutes of Health issued new guidelines in 2017 that encourage parents of children at high risk for peanut allergies to incorporate them into baby’s diet at 4 to 6 months of age. Giving these babies peanut products before the age of one actually decreases their risk of developing a peanut allergy before age 5 by 81 percent, compared to kids who are introduced to peanuts later in life. Parents of kids without the food allergy risk can start peanut products whenever they’d like, as long as the nuts are in an age-appropriate form: Peanut butter can be thinned out with water or mixed into a fruit or vegetable puree, and peanut powder can also be mixed into cereal and fruits.
Don’t give whole peanuts or pieces of peanuts, since they’re a choking risk.
Allergic reactions to food are never just a fluke; they will happen with every exposure. Symptoms can range from mild (such as a rash or vomiting) to severe (such as trouble breathing). If baby has a food allergy, you’ll notice a reaction within minutes or up to two hours after eating the problematic food, Stukus says. If the symptoms are severe, call 911 right away. Otherwise, talk to your pediatrician; she can help confirm whether it’s an allergy or some other type of condition (such as a viral illness).
Expert bios:*
Lauren Kupersmith, MD, IBCLC, is a pediatrician and clinical instructor at Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital at NYU Langone in New York City, as well as a certified lactation consultant. She earned her medical degree from New York Medical College in 2005.
David Stukus, MD, is the director of the Food Allergy Treatment Center at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, an associate professor of pediatrics in the division of allergy and immunology and a spokesperson for the American College of Allergy, Asthma, & Immunology.
He earned his medical degree from University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 2002.
Updated January 2020
Please note: The Bump and the materials and information it contains are not intended to, and do not constitute, medical or other health advice or diagnosis and should not be used as such. You should always consult with a qualified physician or health professional about your specific circumstances.
Complementary feeding scheme for children under one year old
Article author: Ovchinnikova Evgeniya Vadimovna , pediatric gastroenterologist, pediatrician
The introduction of complementary foods to a baby is quite an important event. Finally, a child who has previously only tried mother's milk or formula will get acquainted with new tastes, the list of which will constantly expand.
Complementary foods are not only food, they are also new experiences. According to what scheme to introduce complementary foods to a child under one year old? Says pediatrician Evgenia Vadimovna Ovchinnikova.
In a newborn baby, the intestines are practically sterile, and the digestive system is in an immature state, so it can only absorb breast milk or adapted formulas. But gradually the gastrointestinal tract matures, and by 4-6 months, enzymes are already being produced that contribute to the absorption of other types of food. The optimal time for the introduction of complementary foods (in terms of both the maturity of the gastrointestinal tract and the formation of food tolerance) is the age from 4 to 6 months. Early introduction of complementary foods, as well as the introduction after 6 months, increases the risk of developing allergic diseases.
In addition to reaching a certain age and developing tolerance to the adoption of new food components, you need to pay attention to such indicators as weight (it should more than double from the moment of birth), the absence of tongue movements and the presence of food interest (the baby should become interested in other foods besides milk).
Before starting to introduce new foods, you should consult with your pediatrician.
At 5 months - vegetables
You need to start introducing complementary foods gradually and carefully, the amount of the first sample is at the tip of a teaspoon. When introducing a product, carefully monitor the reaction of the child's body: are there any allergies, are there any problems with the stomach, stool, etc. The first complementary food, as a rule, is vegetable and monocomponent. It is administered during lunch, after which the baby needs to be supplemented with milk. You can start with squash or zucchini, then add cauliflower, broccoli, and lastly pumpkin and carrots.
The very first additions should be fairly thin, but the consistency should be gradually increased until the consistency of puree is obtained. For a week, if everything is fine, you can bring the amount of one product from a teaspoon on the first day to 150 grams on the seventh. Having introduced one type of vegetable in this way (for example, zucchini), next week you can introduce cauliflower in a similar way.
It is advisable to take a month to get acquainted with vegetables. Bringing each product to the age norm, different types of vegetables can be mixed.
At 6 months - porridge
At 6 months, when several types of vegetables have already been introduced, you can try porridge. The first cereals of the baby should not contain milk and gluten. These products are practically not absorbed by the gastrointestinal tract and have a bad effect on its mucosa. Alternatively, you can add a little breast milk or formula to the porridge if the child is reluctant to eat porridge on the water. Recommended rice, corn and buckwheat porridge. The scheme for introducing cereals is exactly the same as in the case of vegetables. It is important to gradually increase the amount, and in one week to introduce only one type of cereal. It makes sense to give porridge in the second morning feeding. Closer to 8 months, in addition to cereals, you can give your child a taste of applesauce.
After 8 months
After 8 months you can start introducing meat puree, yolk and potatoes.
It is preferable to give quail yolk, but chicken yolk is also possible if the child does not have a negative reaction. As for meat, the first product of the baby can be rabbit fillet, as the most low-fat and hypoallergenic product. After it, you can give a turkey. You need to start with 3 grams, gradually bringing up to 50 grams per day. So the child will have a breakfast consisting of porridge and fruit, and a lunch of vegetables and meat. The further diet will gradually increase: after an apple, you can introduce mashed prunes, then pear, etc. As for potatoes, its maximum amount should not exceed 50 grams per day.
After 9 months
It's time to get acquainted with fermented milk products, the introduction of which has its own peculiarity: they should enter the diet especially smoothly and slowly. The first is children's cottage cheese, starting with one teaspoon, then kefir, only 5-10 ml. From these products you can eventually make an afternoon snack. Dairy products for children should not contain sugar or other additives.
After 10 months, if the child already has teeth, you can give him pieces of familiar fruit to chew on. If there are no teeth or very few, then before they appear, the food should be puree.
Important to know:
- Complementary foods for up to a year are not yet full-fledged feeding, this is only an acquaintance of the baby with different products;
- If the child does not want to eat complementary foods, do not force him, and do not add sugar or salt to the proposed product. You just need to postpone the introduction of this food for a week or two;
- In some cases, for example, with a small weight gain, you can start complementary foods not with vegetables, but with porridge;
- If the child has allergies, indigestion, other health problems, the product that caused the negative reaction should be discontinued;
- Complementary foods should not be introduced if the child is sick;
- For allergy sufferers, children with any diseases, the complementary feeding scheme may differ from the generally accepted one, a pediatrician's consultation is necessary;
- Do not give juices, fresh vegetables, cereals with gluten, sweet foods, cow's and goat's milk until the age of one.
Make an appointment with a pediatrician
Be sure to consult a qualified specialist in the field of childhood diseases at the Semeynaya clinic.
To find out the prices for a pediatrician's appointment or other questions, follow the link below
when and how to start the first feeding of a child?
Complementary feeding is the gradual transition of an infant from mother's milk or formula to more solid foods. Despite its naturalness, this process has some nuances. We will tell you when and where to start complementary foods so that this stage is as comfortable as possible for the baby.
Children develop in different ways: some are faster and some are slower. Therefore, at the beginning of complementary feeding of an infant, first of all, it is worth focusing not on his age, but on the presence of a number of skills. First of all, there should be food interest: the child usually “announces” this himself, starting to put his hands in his mouth, showing a desire to try food from his mother’s plate.
It is also important that the baby confidently holds his head and sits, albeit with support, on the parent's lap or in a special chair. Of course, you need to make a decision about the start of complementary foods together with your doctor.
When to start complementary foods? The "golden window" is an interval of four to six months. If you believe the statistics, most often the start of complementary foods for a baby falls on the age of five to six months. We emphasize once again that everything is individual, but it is also not recommended to delay the introduction of complementary foods too much. Starting complementary foods after seven months is fraught with a delay in the development of habits for eating thicker and denser foods, and then chewing skills. In addition, late feeding can negatively affect the formation of taste sensations and lead to a lack of a number of substances in the body: iron, zinc, calcium, copper, vitamin D and others. If closer to seven months the child does not have the skills necessary to start the first complementary foods, this must be reported to the pediatrician.
Where to start complementary foods
Of course, not every food is suitable for this. You need to move on to solid food gradually, and milk porridges (especially buckwheat, rice and corn) and vegetable purees are optimal as a “link”. This is stated in the National program for optimizing the feeding of children in the first year of life in the Russian Federation, approved by the Union of Pediatricians of Russia (hereinafter referred to as the National Program) [1].
It is important to remember that the first food should be monocomponent, that is, contain only one product. Conventionally: mashed potatoes to start complementary foods can be squash or potato, but not a mix of these vegetables. By the way, babies with allergies are recommended mashed white or green vegetables. Complementary foods are better to start with microdoses, literally from a quarter of a teaspoon. Every day the volume should be increased. For convenience, you can keep a food diary and note all the dynamics in it.
The National Program recommends starting complementary foods with vegetables or cereals. Usually cereals are administered first if the child is underweight. After the baby is a little accustomed to porridge, you can add vegetables to his diet. If complementary foods begin with vegetables, the next, respectively, will be porridge. After two or three weeks, you can try giving your baby fruit puree made from apples, pears, or peaches. Later, you can add berry purees to the diet.
After the baby has become accustomed to mono-component complementary foods, two-component complementary foods can be introduced. For example, it can be porridge with fruit or vegetable puree. An important nuance: both components must first be “tested” separately to make sure that the child tolerates them well. You can not immediately feed the baby rice porridge with broccoli: first he needs to try rice, and the next time - broccoli. There is no need to draw hasty conclusions: for each new type of complementary foods, doctors advise taking five to ten days.
The next stage is the transition to semi-solid food. Of course, not all products are suitable here either. Cream soup, chopped pieces of boiled vegetables, meat and fish will be optimal. By the way, about meat - it should also be added carefully to the baby's diet, starting with monocomponent meat purees. At first, it is recommended to feed the baby with mashed rabbit and turkey and only then switch to beef, veal and chicken. It's the same with juices: we start with a clarified mono-fruit, apple or pear drink, and then you can expand the menu to carrot, pumpkin, plum, apricot and peach. It is worth remembering that the last three have a slight laxative effect. Closer to the year, you can try to give the child solid food - for example, small meatballs or the same cereals, only with unground cereals [2].
An equally important product in the complementary food menu is cottage cheese. Natural curds contain calcium and phosphorus, which positively affect the functioning of the heart.
In addition, the calcium contained in the cottage cheese strengthens the bones and teeth of the baby, which is very important at a “tender” age. The composition of cottage cheese also includes albumin, a protein that produces antibodies that positively affect the development of the nervous system. In addition, the use of cottage cheese helps to normalize the work of the digestive tract and liver. Experts advise introducing curd complementary foods after vegetable puree and canned meat. It is worth starting with a small dose - half a teaspoon - once a day. It is important to remember that cottage cheese is allowed in the diet of babies only from six to eight months. It is not recommended to give such a product before, because the protein contained in it puts a strain on the kidneys.
A few tips for mothers: how to introduce complementary foods without stress for the baby
If the baby does not like the product, do not refuse it categorically. It is better to remove it for four to eight weeks and then try to introduce it into the diet again, a little bit, like the first time.
It is likely that the second experience will be successful: the main thing is to carefully monitor the reaction of the baby's body.
Many young mothers are also faced with a choice: cook it yourself or buy canned food? Making your own meals for your baby is usually cheaper, but it can be quite a hassle. First, you need to carefully choose the ingredients: store-bought vegetables can contain nitrates. Secondly, it is better not to cook with a margin: it is difficult to maintain sterility in the home kitchen, so it is undesirable to store baby food. It is best to cook before eating so that the food is fresh. When buying mashed potatoes in the store, you should pay attention to the expiration date and compliance with storage conditions [3].
As for cereals to start feeding a child, they can be divided into dairy-free (recommended for children with lactase deficiency and allergies) and dairy. The latter, in turn, are based on an adapted milk formula, goat's or cow's milk. Compared to cow's, goat's milk is closer to human breast milk in terms of protein and fat composition.
What's more, it contains a high dose of A2 protein (β-casein), which is easy to digest and improves the intestinal microflora. But the complex protein α-s1-casein, which is found in cow's milk, is practically absent in goat's milk. That is why goat milk baby food is digested five to six times faster. Another important feature of it is small evenly distributed fat globules. They are rich in medium chain triglycerides, which are quickly absorbed in the intestines and provide the baby with energy[4].
In order for the baby to easily switch to "adult food", it is very important to start complementary foods correctly. How to start depends on the individual characteristics of the baby's body. It is important for mothers to know that industrial complementary foods are safe and contain all the necessary components for the normal development of the baby. The introduction of complementary foods is clearly not a question where you need to listen to the advice of friends and relatives.
