6-9 Months: Ready for Food - Beginning Weaning

For one thing, babies who start later often find it difficult to manage lumps, and may be more reluctant to try new tastes and textures. Also, if you wait to introduce fruits and vegetables, you’ll delay moving on to protein-rich foods, such as oily fish, which contain essential fatty acids that are vital for your baby’s development. Also, a baby’s iron supply, inherited from his mother, runs out at six months, so it’s important not to wait too long before introducing iron-rich foods such as red meat and lentils. With regards to food allergies, there is no evidence that delaying the introduction of allergenic foods (such as cow’s milk, egg, wheat, fish, and soy) after the six-month mark makes your child less likely to have food allergies.

It’s perfectly fine to introduce new foods to your baby each day. If there is a history of allergy in the family , you may like to offer a new food every two or three days, so you can watch out for any signs of a reaction. Reactions that can indicate a potential problem include skin rashes, vomiting, diarrhea, and even breathing difficulties.

To begin with, offer food halfway through a milk feed, so your baby isn’t frantically hungry. At first, the purées need to be semi-liquid, and as much like milk in consistency as possible so that they are easy to swallow—add breast milk, formula, or a little water from the bottom of the steamer or saucepan, to thin the purée.

Many feeding difficulties can start when babies make the transition from purées to lumpier foods, to which they are often resistant. Instead, babies are encouraged to chew from the outset, eating what they want from a selection of foods that can be picked up and held . Your baby may play with or suck the food, but eventually she’ll eat more and develop healthy eating habits.

There is, of course, a risk of choking, as babies may bite off a chunk of food that they are then unable to chew and swallow, so you should never leave your baby unattended. Your baby may also choose to eat the same few foods, avoiding foods that don’t appeal, unlike when you choose your baby’s purées and you’re in the driving seat.

Ultimately it’s up to you. Personally, I like the idea of introducing different tastes and textures in the form of purées, which babies can easily master and digest. You can then make a gradual transition to lumpier foods and finger foods, over a few weeks.

Baby rice is also a good start, but I prefer to mix it with fruit or vegetable purées, as it is very bland on its own. At first, mix it with very runny purées, such as pear.

Mashed avocados are sweet and extremely nutritious, and as your baby becomes accustomed to different vegetables, you can start to introduce fruit. Sometimes it’s a good idea to blend fruit with vegetables at the outset, as clever babies will work out that fruit is sweeter, and reject their favorite vegetable purées in favor of fruit. Always start a meal with a vegetable purée, or fruit and vegetable blend, and then move on to fruit, so that your baby gets a good balance of vitamins and minerals, and doesn’t turn her nose up at the veggies once she’s had a taste of the sweeter fruit.

Parents may be tempted to offer a little “extra” in their baby’s bottle, in the hope that they will get a little more sleep by keeping tummies full; however, food in the bottle can pose a choking hazard.

While it’s OK to offer cereal as a first taste, it’s better to introduce a variety of nutritious fresh purées as your baby grows. Babies tend to eat pretty well in the first year, so it’s a great opportunity to offer as much variety as possible.

It’s worth buying a multi-layered steamer, because steaming or microwaving is the best way to preserve the nutrients in vegetables, and a multi-layered steamer allows you to cook several vegetables at one time. If you use a microwave, a dish with a valve in the lid that opens to release steam is ideal for cooking fish or vegetables. A baby food grinder, which is a hand-turned food mill, can be very useful, especially in the early weeks when you’ll be making very smooth purées. It is great for foods with tough skins, such as peas or dried apricots, since it discards the bits that are indigestible. It’s also good for potatoes, as puréeing potato in a food processor tends to break down the starches and produces a sticky, glutinous pulp.

Another useful addition is an electric hand blender. This is ideal for making baby purées, as it can handle very small quantities.

Store purées in an ice cube tray with a lid, if possible, to keep food covered for maximum freshness. One that is flexible, too, makes decanting the frozen purées that much easier. As your baby gets older, it’s a good idea to purchase some mini pots with lids, to freeze larger quantities of food.

A mini-masher and bowl can be useful too, since it’s ideal for mashing small quantities like one banana or a mix of potato, broccoli, and cheese, for example, and you can feed your baby from the same bowl.

Finally, look out for a mini-thermos so that you can take warm, homemade purées with you when you are out and about.

Microwaving is also a good way of cooking vegetables. It requires very little water and the soluble vitamins B and C aren’t leached out into the water (as they are when boiled). It’s a very quick way of cooking too—and is an ideal way to cook fish, which takes just a few minutes. Don’t be put off by microwaving—it is a safe way to cook as long as you follow the manufacturer’s instructions.

Leaving a purée sitting around in the fridge means that its nutritional content will be slowly compromised, and freezing it at this stage will certainly not make it more nutritious.

Freezing does effectively preserve nutrients, so if you know that you won’t be using all of the purée you have just made, it’s a good idea to freeze it as soon as it has cooled and use it when it’s needed, at which point it will be perfectly fresh and nutritious. Label the food with the contents and expiration date.

Thaw foods by defrosting them in the fridge overnight, or by taking them out of the freezer several hours before a meal. Sometimes you may need to add a little liquid when reheating frozen food, because freezing can cause it to dry out.