By KidsDirect Editorial Team

Feeding Solid Foods

Is your baby ready to taste cereal or banana? It’s one of the most exciting milestones of the first year, and it’s also one that comes with a lot of opinions. Grandparents have advice. Friends have advice. The calendar has advice. The best guide, though, is your baby. Here’s how to tell when they’re ready, how to begin, and what to skip.

When to Start Solid Foods

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends feeding only breast milk or formula for about the first 6 months, then adding solid foods. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agrees. It also advises against starting before 4 months. Babies can’t chew and swallow solid foods properly before then, and their digestive systems are still maturing. Breast milk or formula covers everything your baby needs until about 6 months, so there’s no rush.

You may have heard that starting solids early raises the odds of an allergy, or that waiting protects against one. Neither is true. Doctors now say that delaying common allergy foods doesn’t help, and offering them once your baby is eating solids may even lower the risk. You can read more in our guide to foods that can cause allergic reactions in babies.

Signs Your Baby Is Ready

Instead of counting ounces or checking a scale, look for what your baby can do. Can they sit up alone or with a little support? Do they hold their head steady, and turn it away when they’ve had enough? When you offer a spoon, do they open their mouth, and do they swallow the food instead of pushing it back out with their tongue? You can try a dab of thinned baby cereal to see. If it stays in and goes down, the tongue thrust reflex has faded.

Other clues are more fun to watch. Ready babies grab objects and bring them to their mouths. They watch you eat with real interest, and some lean forward and open wide as if to ask for a bite. Many babies have about doubled their birth weight by this point, but that’s not a rule. If you’re unsure, ask your pediatrician at your next checkup.

Keep one thing in mind once you start. Until about age one, breast milk or iron fortified formula is still your baby’s main source of nutrition. Solid foods start out as practice and add to it. If you’re still weighing your options, our breast milk vs. formula chart can help.

How to Start

Take it slowly so your baby has time to adjust. Start with just a spoonful or two of one new food, and work up from there. If your baby turns it down, don’t push. It can take many tries, so offer it again another day. Wait three to five days between new foods so you can pinpoint the cause if something doesn’t agree with your baby. One exception is the common allergy foods, such as egg, peanut products, and wheat. Doctors say not to hold those back, so work them into the mix along with other foods.

Watch for changes after each new food. Behavior can shift, with fussiness, trouble sleeping, or unusual sleepiness. Digestion can change, with diarrhea or extra gas. Skin can break out in a rash, eczema, hives, or a stubborn diaper rash, and our Diaper Rash Decoder can help you sort out what you’re seeing. Some babies get a cough, congestion, or a runny nose. Call your pediatrician if you notice any of these. If your baby has swelling of the face, many hives, or trouble breathing, call 911.

As new foods join the menu, keep offering the old favorites. Once your baby handles two foods well on their own, you can mix and match them. Little by little, increase both how often you offer solids and how many foods you serve at a meal.

An Eating Guide for Your Growing Baby

There’s no required order for first foods, according to the CDC. Many families start with iron fortified cereal, since a baby’s iron stores run low around 6 months. The CDC suggests rotating oat, barley, and multigrain cereals instead of relying only on rice cereal. Iron rich foods matter a lot at this stage, and they include finely minced or pureed chicken, turkey, beef, and fish, plus beans, lentils, and eggs. You don’t need to hold off on meat until 9 months, as the old advice said.

For vegetables, serve them cooked until soft and mashed or pureed. Orange vegetables like carrots, sweet potatoes, and squash are popular first picks, and green beans, peas, and beets are great too. For fruit, bananas and avocado are easy, and cooked apples and pears, peaches, and plums all work well. Choose fruit that’s fresh, frozen, or canned in water or its own juice with no added sugar. Peel and pit it first.

Citrus fruit used to be off limits until a first birthday. That’s no longer a rule, and a bit of orange can even help your baby absorb iron from other foods. The acid can redden the skin around your baby’s mouth, which looks like a rash but is just irritation. A few other foods really do need to wait, and you’ll find them next.

What to Skip in the First Year

Never give honey before age one, because it can carry bacteria that cause infant botulism. Skip fruit and vegetable juice too. The CDC says babies under 12 months shouldn’t have any, and after the first birthday the American Academy of Pediatrics suggests no more than 4 ounces of 100 percent juice a day. Plain cow’s milk as a drink should wait until after the first birthday as well, although yogurt and cheese are fine earlier. Avoid added sugar and salty foods, including processed meats and packaged snacks. Check the CDC’s list of foods and drinks to avoid or limit for the full picture.

Some foods are choking hazards, not nutrition problems. Whole grapes, nuts, popcorn, raw hard vegetables, and chunks of hot dog top that list. For safe shapes and sizes, see our guide to finger foods for babies. Our page on foods babies should avoid explains why some foods stay risky well past the first birthday.

Worth knowing. Every baby moves at their own pace, and your pediatrician knows your baby best. For more on feeding and everyday baby care, browse our BabiesDirect section.