Weaning

Food is one of life’s greatest pleasures and weaning (which is gradually introducing your baby to solid foods) can also be a wonderful experience.

It’s recommended that weaning starts at 6 months old. The reason is that before this age the baby’s gut is still developing and breast milk or formula milk will give them all the nutrition they need. At 6 months babies may be

• sitting up
• wanting to chew and/or putting toys in their mouths
• reaching out and grabbing well

These are all signs that the baby is ready to wean.

Babies younger than 6 months may show these signs also. The advice is to start weaning after 6 months as starting any earlier may increase the risk of allergies and infections. If your baby is showing these signs along with signs of hunger after feeding then you may want to speak to your health visitor.

As your baby is gradually introduced to more and more solid foods the amount of breast or formula milk that you need to give them will reduce. Eventually they can eat minced and chopped foods that the rest of the family are eating. This will be at around the age of 12 months.

How should you wean your baby?

Think simple and small. Try a small amount of mashed vegetable, fruit or cereal mixed with a little formula or breast milk. You can feed this to your baby after a milk feed or in the middle of one if that works better for you.

Great first foods

• mashed up banana, avocado, cooked apple or pear
• mashed cooked vegetables such as parsnip, potato, sweet potato or carrot
• cereals such as baby rice mixed with milk

Once your baby is used to eating mashed up fruit and vegetables you can slowly start to introduce them to other foods such as

• mashed rice, noodles or pasta
• lentils or pulses
• full-fat dairy products, such as yoghurt and fromage frais
• puréed or mashed-up meat, fish and chicken

It’s also important to offer your baby finger foods such as things like carrot sticks, cubes of cheese, toast, bread, peeled apple and banana. Finger foods are good your baby to practice chewing and it also helps babies learn to feed themselves.

Watching your baby and then responding to his or her appetite is the best way to increase the amount of solid food they eat. You can start off by giving your little one solid food once a day and then increase this to twice and then three times a day. You can add different foods and tastes gradually and you can use a lot of the foods you already cook for yourself. Just mash up a small amount but don’t add any salt or sugar.

A general guide to the types of food babies from 6 months should be eating and what foods to avoid.

The types of foods to introduce from the age of 6 months are

• fruit
• vegetables
• potatoes, including sweet potatoes
• cereals – firstly rice, oats, semolina, then finger foods such as bread, toast, pasta
• poultry (e.g. turkey, chicken) and meat (beef, pork, lamb)
• fish (e.g. cod, tuna, salmon)
• eggs
• pulses (e.g. lentils, peas, beans)
• yoghurts and fromage frais (full fat)
• custard

Foods to avoid

• added salt to foods
• added sugar
• honey (safe after 1 years old)
• whole nuts
• low- fat, low- calorie, high- fibre
• raw eggs
• some fish for e.g. shark, swordfish, marlin and shellfish

Go to Feeding Toddlers