It’s important to offer your baby a variety of different foods and textures to encourage good eating habits right from the word go. Here are some tips:
First Foods - around six months (not before four months)
First foods need to be smooth and pureed. A good thing to start with is rice cereal as this is iron enriched. Soft cooked pureed vegetables or fruit are also good first choices. Babies learn to eat by first getting used to taking the food from the spoon, then moving it from side to side in their mouth before swallowing.
Take your time when you start offering solids and don’t worry if your baby doesn’t take much to begin with – it’s a big change from their milk!
From around seven months onwards
If they’re happily taking purees from a spoon, you can start introducing lumps or more interesting mashed textures to your baby’s food. Try soft lumps in thick puree for now, maybe something like a mashed banana. Harder lumps, like whole peas in a sauce will be too much for them and they’ll run the risk of choking. These soft lumps and mashes will help them learn to chew, and encourage tongue flexibility and movement. Most babies can learn to chew soft lumps, even if their teeth have not come through yet. If they experience foods with lumps now, it may make them less likely to reject lumpy food later on.
From around eight months onwards
As your baby gets used to lumpier textures you can move on to minced and soft chopped-up foods with more challenging textures like cooked pasta pieces and minced beef. Even with no teeth, you can still introduce new flavours and textures to encourage jaw development and chewing ability. . At this age it is a good time to offer finger foods which are great for chewing practice and help hand-eye co-ordination.
