Baby Solid Foods Introduction Guide

Starting solid foods for your baby can seem like a daunting endeavor. For my first daughter, I was excited yet nervous about introducing solid foods. What if she chokes? What if she has an allergic reaction? What if she eats too much? What if she doesn’t eat at all? So I started my research…

Starting with veggies, providing enough variety, and definitely do NOT feed baby honey are just a few of the things I wasn’t aware of as a first time mom. This baby’s first solids introduction guide is everything you’d want to know for new parents starting solids journey from the beginning to baby’s 1st birthday.

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Signs of Readiness for Solids

• Can sit upright with minimal assistance (5.5 – 6 months).
• Can hold head upright and steady while seated for at least 10-15 minutes.
• High interest for foods when you eat: like opening her mouth when you offer food, looking at what you are eating, reaching out for your food.

Remember that solids is a supplement (namely for iron) to their main source of nutrients which should still mainly be breastmilk or formula until 12 months of age. Do NOT fret if your baby is “not eating enough solids”.

Note that even if your baby displays all of of these signs, it is NOT recommended to start when baby is younger than 4 months of age.

Things I Wish I Knew Starting Solids

• It is normal for babies to eat a lot one day, and almost not at all the next. It is more important to track their weekly intake, not their daily intake.
• It is normal for babies to gag (when eating age appropriate foods) as they are learning to swallow and build oral motor skills. Remember they are going from drinking liquid only to solids. This is a big change.
• It is normal for babies to like to eat a food one day, then completely disregard it the next day.
• Babies are developing their grasping and hand-eye coordination. They are learning about gravity. They will be messy eaters and will likely throw, smoosh, smash, and drop food all over the place. It is all part of their exploration. Make feeding time fun and not stressful so your baby does not stress during meal times.
• Babies are always trying to communicate with you. Watch and learn their hunger and full cues.

When to Offer Solids During the Day

6 months – 7 months: starting solids

To start the solid foods journey, I found it easiest to offer solids about 30 – 60 minutes after breastfeeding or formula. This ensures your baby is not overly hungry, therefore hangry, and not interested in exploring new skills and foods.

It is easiest to start with lunch, then incorporate breakfast, and lastly dinner.

The important thing to keep in mind here is that both you and your baby are relaxed and ready to explore. When either of you are tense, rushed or having other needs, it is very difficult to focus on the task of exploring solids.

9 months onwards: breakfast, lunch and dinner

A typical schedule would look like:

• Milk upon wake
• Breakfast 30 – 60 minutes after milk
• Milk
• Lunch 30 – 60 minutes after milk
• Afternoon Snack
• Milk
• Dinner 30 – 60 minutes after milk
• Milk before bed

How and What Solid Foods to Give Baby

101 Foods Before One

I offered just about 100 foods before both my daughters turned one. At the time, I put together my own list on an excel sheet and tracked it there. I wish I had a First Food Log (101 foods before one) like this one that I can track but also get inspirations from what to give my baby when I was going through this process.

Veggies before Fruit

I started with an avocado, and progressed through a few vegetables before venturing into fruits. The earlier you introduce fruits (especially those that are very sweet), the less likely your baby will like to eat the veggies offered. I have tried this approach with both of my daughters and it has worked out for us.

1, 2, 3 of Introducing Food Types

You don’t know what kind of allergies your baby might have, or what foods your baby might be sensitive to. It’s important that when you start the solids journey, you start slow and offer only ONE kind of food per meal to rule out any allergens.

I offered the same food item TWO days in a row to observe any abnormal reactions, and moved on to the next. I then offered the “safe foods” together in a meal, and eventually having more combinations as my daughter grew.

If your child does not seem interested in the food (ahem, vegetables) you’re offering that day, try again another day. As my daughter grew older, I would have THREE different kinds of food items on her plate: 1 new, 1 safe and she likes to eat, and often, 1 safe but she doesn’t like to eat. Exposure creates consistency and you just never know when their growing palate may change to love this item.

How to Prepare and Serve Baby’s Solids

I started with purees by spoon feeding, then moved into steamed foods that are cut into finger sizes for baby to eat herself, a method called Baby Led Weaning (BLW). A good rule of thumb to see if the food item is too hard to eat for babies with no teeth, is to smush it between your fingers. If it does not smush, then it is too hard.

As baby has more teeth or is around 9 months of age, you can size down to bite-sized pieces.

I did both purees and BLW, and there is no need to choose one over the other. You can read more about the methods from the Solid Starts blog post here.

Whenever I was unsure if a food item was safe to introduce at a certain age or how to prepare the food, I used the Solid Start’s First Food Database (there’s an app, too) to search it up. It’s a free database (but requires sign up).

Overfeeding and Bad Eating Habits

Babies are very intuitive. Before babies can communicate verbally, she will communicate via physical cues to let you know when she is full (head turning away, pushing food away, physically leaving the eating area), or hungry (crying). If you ignore or turn a blind eye to these cues, you risk a very frustrated and stressed-out baby, as well as developing issues for self-regulating food intake later in life.

If your baby seems to be eating a lot, that’s great! If your baby wants to eat, let her eat. Watch her so she doesn’t eat too quickly and choke on the food, but know that babies do not overeat. Obesity is linked to the type of foods eaten, drinking sugary beverages, lack of exercise, or the pressure to eat from a young age disrupting self-regulation later in life.

(Source: “Bad eating habits as main cause of obesity among children“)

I highly recommend to start teaching your baby sign language at the same time you are introducing solids to communicate more effectively with your baby and minimize the frustration for both parties.

[Related Post: “Baby Sign Language Basics“]

Other common bad eating habits include chasing down your baby so he will eat that last bite, giving incentives to eat more, or eating in front of a screen (TV or tablet). I do not recommend these approaches. Starting the solids journey with healthy eating habits and healthy foods with no distraction will teach your baby that mealtime is for eating and communicating with family, and to listen to their body cues.

As your baby becomes more mobile, it is important to teach him that you eat food in a specified area. When he leaves this area, it is a sign that he is done. You should remove the food and clearly tell him, “you are leaving the dinner table, that means you are done.”

Following through is very important, and having routines is crucial so your baby knows what to expect. See my blog post below for my approach to discipline:

[Related Post: “10 Toddler Discipline Methods for Happier Kids and Happier Parents“]

Water During the Meal

Once baby starts solids, I offer water (boiled then cooled to room temperature) in an open cup or a cup with straw during mealtimes. This is not essential but it helps to practice from drinking from a cup.

I don’t recommend providing a sippy cup because it is a transitional product that does little to teach any lasting skills. If you are out and about and don’t want to have water spills everywhere, you can consider this Munchkin 360 Trainer Cup with Handles. Teaching your baby to drink from a straw is a lifelong skill (more on this below).

Feeding Must Haves

Do I Need a Baby Food Maker?

The short answer is no.

If you have a steamer pot (or even a steamer rack inside a regular pot), a food processor, or even just a magic bullet, you really don’t NEED a baby food maker.

With my first daughter, I used my instant pot and magic bullet for all of my baby food cooking. The quantities are usually bigger and clean up is more labor intensive, but if you batch cook, it’s really not too bad.

However, when I was pregnant with my second daughter, I knew I needed to free up my time and hands as much as possible since I’m likely to have my hands full.

My criteria:

• Glass material
• Larger capacity above 4 cups
• Easily cleaned without too many parts
• Separate steaming with blending (I want to control the amount of water for blending)
• Quiet operation, especially for blending

The only one that really fit all of my criteria is this one:

Foods and Ingredients to AVOID Until Baby Turns One

• Honey (can lead to infant botulism)
• Sugar (try avoid fruit juice and any other drinks outside of milk and water. If you must, dilute with water)
• Foods high in salt
• Processed foods (sausage, chips, ready meals)

Common Allergens

If your family has a history of allergies and are sensitive to certain foods, it’s always better to be safe than sorry. I know some parents try these common allergens at a doctor’s office or even in the parking lot of the hospital to be safe.

The Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS) and the Canadian Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (CSACI) recommends “early and often” introduction of common allergens (6 months onwards) to help prevent development of food allergy in babies.

Source: Food Allergy Canada

If you are currently pregnant and not allergic to the common allergens, I highly recommend you consume these in your third trimester when your baby’s taste buds are developing (around 30 weeks). There is no direct research supporting this, but anecdotally I have many friends who did this and it seemed to have paid off. It also worked for me, although my family does not have a history of food allergies.

• cow’s milk
• eggs
• foods that contain gluten including wheat
• peanuts
• tree nuts
• sesame
• soy
• tofu
• shellfish
• fish

Healthy and Yummy Snacks

Below are our household favorites, tried and true. I usually only give snacks between lunch and dinner to hold my kids over.

• Baby Mum Mum (6 Months+)- You can get this from your nearest grocery stores with some lesser known name alternatives for much cheaper with similar ingredients.
• Gerber Puffs (8 Months+) – Cheaper on Amazon in bulk rather than individually in stores unless they have sales!
• Little Bellies (10 Months+) – Puffed corn is our family favourite. It’s cheapest to bulk buy via Amazon than in individually from brick and mortar stores.
• Yogurt Melts (says 12 Months+ but it melts in the mouth, less of a choking hazard than the Gerber Puffs in my opinion, so monitoring intake one at a time for a self feeder is safe) or Baby Gourmet Organic Meltable Mushies (says for “self-feeders)

Additional Resources

Baby Books and Flashcards

• “Mealtime” by Elizabeth Verdick – I really enjoy this series, and this book in particular has a ton of great phrases and sayings that can help reinforce good habits with your baby.
• “(Sign About) Meal Time” – wonderful resource to teach baby sign language about meal time and food specific signs.
• Fruits/Vegetable/Foods flashcards with real images (not cartoon) – great way to teach baby new words, show her what it looks like, and get her curious to try new foods.
• My First 100 Food We Eat with real images (not cartoon)
• “The Very Hungry Caterpillar Eats Dinner” by Eric Carle – another favourite in my house to teach babies about eating and foods.

This post was all about starting baby’s solid foods journey with a comprehensive Baby Solid Foods Introduction Guide.

The when, what and how to introduce solid foods to your baby is all in this blog post. Starting solids for your baby is an exciting time and you’ll likely be cleaning up more than baby’s eating, but it’s such an important milestone and journey so enjoy the ride! Remember to make mealtimes fun, stress-free, and never pressure or force your baby to eat.

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