At 6 months, most babies are ready to start eating solid foods alongside breast milk or formula. The list of what they can eat is broader than many parents expect: soft fruits, cooked vegetables, meats, iron-fortified cereals, eggs, fish, yogurt, and even common allergens like peanut butter are all on the table. The key is preparing everything in the right texture and size for a baby who is just learning to chew and swallow.
Signs Your Baby Is Ready
Before you start offering food, check that your baby can do most of the following: sit up with support, hold their head and neck steady, open their mouth when food is offered, and swallow food rather than pushing it back out with their tongue. You might also notice them reaching for your plate, bringing objects to their mouth, or trying to grab small items. These are all signals that their body and brain are coordinated enough to handle solids safely.
Why Iron Matters Right Now
Babies are born with iron stores that start running low around 6 months. Iron supports brain development, immune function, and the ability to learn and pay attention. Without enough of it, infants can develop iron deficiency anemia, which has been linked to learning difficulties. That’s why iron-rich foods should be among the very first things you offer, not an afterthought once your baby has tried a few fruits.
Good iron sources for a 6-month-old include pureed or finely shredded meat (beef, chicken, turkey), iron-fortified baby cereal, and well-cooked eggs. Pairing these with vitamin C-rich foods like mashed sweet potato or pureed strawberries helps the body absorb more iron from each meal.
Best First Foods to Start With
There’s no required order for introducing foods. The old advice to start with rice cereal and work through vegetables before fruits has largely been replaced by a simpler principle: offer a variety of nutrient-dense foods early and often. Within the first few months of eating solids, your baby’s diet should include meats, cereals, vegetables, fruits, eggs, and fish.
Here are practical options that work well at 6 months:
- Vegetables: sweet potato, butternut squash, peas, carrots, zucchini, and avocado, all cooked soft and mashed or pureed
- Fruits: mashed banana (can be served raw), cooked and pureed pears, apples, peaches, and mangoes
- Proteins: pureed or finely shredded chicken, beef, turkey, fish (bones removed), scrambled eggs, and mashed beans
- Grains: iron-fortified baby cereal, well-cooked pasta in small pieces, and soft toast strips
- Dairy: plain whole-milk yogurt and cottage cheese (these are fine even though straight cow’s milk as a drink is not)
Most fruits and vegetables need to be cooked until soft before serving. Bananas are one of the few exceptions that can be mashed and served raw.
Introducing Allergens Early
Current guidance encourages introducing common allergens at around 6 months rather than delaying them. There is no evidence that waiting reduces allergy risk, and for peanuts specifically, early introduction may actually help prevent a peanut allergy from developing.
Start with a small taste of the allergenic food. If your baby shows no signs of a reaction, gradually increase the amount over subsequent feedings and keep it in their diet regularly. Practical portions to work toward include about 2 teaspoons of peanut butter (thinned with breast milk or mixed into a puree, never as a thick glob), a third of a well-cooked egg, and small amounts of sesame tahini or tree nut butters.
If your baby has severe or persistent eczema, or has already had an allergic reaction to any food, they’re considered higher risk for peanut allergy. In that case, talk to your pediatrician about how to introduce peanut products safely.
How Much and How Often
Start small. One or two tablespoons of food per sitting is plenty in the beginning. Watch your baby for cues: turning toward the spoon and opening their mouth means they want more, while turning away, closing their mouth, or pushing food out means they’re done. Over time, you’ll work toward offering food every 2 to 3 hours, which adds up to roughly 3 meals and 2 to 3 snacks per day.
Breast milk or formula remains the primary source of nutrition throughout this stage. Solids are a complement, not a replacement. Continue offering breast milk or formula between meals or alongside them to fill any nutritional gaps while your baby is still learning to eat meaningful amounts.
Water and Drinks
Once your baby starts solids, you can begin offering small sips of water. The recommended range for babies between 6 and 12 months is 4 to 8 ounces per day. That’s roughly half a cup to one cup total, spread across the day. More than that isn’t necessary and could interfere with their intake of breast milk or formula, which still provides most of their hydration and calories.
Purees vs. Baby-Led Weaning
You can start with spoon-fed purees, soft finger foods your baby picks up themselves (often called baby-led weaning), or a mix of both. There’s no single correct approach.
Baby-led weaning has some appealing benefits. It promotes independence, builds motor skills from grasping and chewing, exposes babies to more textures early on (which may reduce picky eating later), and lets them stop eating when they’re satisfied rather than being spooned food past the point of fullness. On the other hand, self-feeding diets can end up heavy on fruits and vegetables but light on iron and other essential nutrients if parents aren’t intentional about offering meats and fortified foods.
Choking is a concern with any approach, and some studies suggest baby-led weaning doesn’t pose a higher choking risk than traditional spoon-feeding when done properly. If you go the finger food route, cut pieces into finger-shaped strips, roughly the length and width of a small baby carrot, so your baby can grab one end and chew the other. For soft foods like yogurt, cottage cheese, or mashed potatoes, offer a baby-safe spoon and show your baby how to use it. Always buckle your baby into a highchair while eating.
Foods to Avoid Before Age 1
A few foods are off-limits for babies under 12 months for specific biological reasons:
- Honey: can contain spores that cause infant botulism, a serious form of food poisoning
- Cow’s milk as a drink: can cause intestinal bleeding and contains too much protein and too many minerals for a baby’s kidneys to process easily (cooked into foods or as yogurt is fine)
- Added sugars: babies have limited caloric “room” and every bite needs to be nutrient-dense
- High-sodium foods: a baby’s kidneys can’t handle excess salt
Choking Hazards to Modify or Skip
The shape, size, and texture of food matters as much as what food you choose. These common items are choking hazards for babies and need to be cut, cooked, or avoided entirely:
- Round foods: whole grapes, cherries, cherry tomatoes, blueberries, and melon balls all need to be quartered or smashed
- Hard raw produce: raw carrots, raw apples, and similar firm fruits or vegetables should be cooked until soft
- Nuts and seeds: whole or chopped nuts are not safe; use smooth nut butters thinned into purees instead
- Nut butter by the spoonful: thick globs of peanut butter can stick in the throat; always thin it or spread a very thin layer
- Hot dogs and sausages: their shape and texture make them a leading choking risk for young children
- Tough or large chunks of meat: shred finely or puree
- Popcorn, chips, pretzels: too hard and too easy to lodge in the airway
- Dried fruit like raisins: sticky and hard to chew
- Marshmallows and chewy fruit snacks: compressible shapes that can block the airway
The general rule is to cook food until soft, cut it smaller than you think necessary, and avoid anything round, hard, sticky, or chewy that a baby can’t mash between their gums.