When do i give solids to my baby

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Send to: is required Error: This is required Error: Not a valid value. When to change feeds At 6 months, your baby will still be getting most of their nutrition from breast milk or formula. Your baby will take only small amounts of solid foods at first. Start feeding your baby solids once a day, building to 2 or 3 times a day. At 8 to 9 months give your baby solids as part of breakfast, lunch and dinner. Which foods first?

Choose from the 5 food groups. How much? Babies grow at different rates at different times. Their appetite can vary even from day to day. Finger foods and self-feeding By 9 to 12 months, most babies like finger foods. By 12 months, serve the same healthy food you serve your family, but without hot spices.

Encourage infants to feed themselves. Back To Top. If you answer yes to these questions and your baby's health care provider agrees, you can begin supplementing your baby's liquid diet. Babies often reject their first servings of pureed foods because the taste and texture is new. If your baby refuses the feeding, don't force it. Try again in a week. If the problem continues, talk to your baby's health care provider to make sure the resistance isn't a sign of a problem.

It's recommended that you give your baby potentially allergenic foods when you introduce other complementary foods. Potentially allergenic foods include:. There is no evidence that delaying the introduction of these foods can help prevent food allergies. In fact, early introduction of foods containing peanuts might decrease the risk that your baby will develop a food allergy to peanuts.

Still, especially if any close relatives have a food allergy, give your child his or her first taste of a highly allergenic food at home — rather than at a restaurant — with an oral antihistamine available. If there's no reaction, the food can be introduced in gradually increasing amounts. Don't give juice to your baby until after age 1. Juice isn't a necessary part of a baby's diet, and it's not as valuable as whole fruit.

Too much juice might contribute to weight problems and diarrhea. Sipping juice throughout the day can lead to tooth decay. Another reason to avoid giving your baby solid food before age 4 months is the risk associated with certain home-prepared foods.

A baby younger than age 4 months shouldn't be given home-prepared spinach, beets, carrots, green beans or squash. These foods might contain enough nitrates to cause the blood disorder methemoglobinemia. During feedings, talk to your baby and help him or her through the process. To make mealtime enjoyable:. Enjoy your baby's sloppy tray, gooey hands and sticky face. You're building the foundation for a lifetime of healthy eating. There is a problem with information submitted for this request.

Sign up for free, and stay up-to-date on research advancements, health tips and current health topics, like COVID, plus expert advice on managing your health. Error Email field is required. Error Include a valid email address. To provide you with the most relevant and helpful information and to understand which information is beneficial, we may combine your e-mail and website usage information with other information we have about you.

If we combine this information with your PHI, we will treat all of that information as PHI, and will only use or disclose that information as set forth in our notice of privacy practices. You may opt-out of e-mail communications at any time by clicking on the Unsubscribe link in the e-mail. This includes babies with a family history of food allergies. In the past, they thought that babies should not get such foods like eggs , peanuts , and fish until after the first birthday.

But recent studies suggest that waiting that long could make a baby more likely to develop food allergies. Offer these foods to your baby as soon as your little one starts eating solids. Make sure they're served in forms that your baby can easily swallow. Fruit juices are not recommended for babies.

Juice offers no health benefits, even to older babies. Juice can fill them up leaving little room for more nutritious foods , promote obesity, cause diarrhea , and even put a baby at risk for cavities when teeth start coming in.

Reviewed by: Madhu Desiraju, MD. Larger text size Large text size Regular text size. Other signs that babies are ready to eat solids foods: They're interested in foods.

For example, they may watch others eat, reach for food, and open their mouths when food approaches.