Around 6 months old, babies are ready to start eating solid foods alongside breast milk or formula. Those first meals are less about replacing milk and more about introducing your baby to new tastes, textures, and nutrients, especially iron, which breast milk alone can no longer supply in sufficient amounts. Here’s what to offer, how to offer it, and what to skip.
Signs Your Baby Is Ready
Not every baby hits this milestone at exactly 6 months. Rather than going by the calendar, look for these physical cues: your baby can sit up alone or with support, holds their head and neck steady, opens their mouth when food is offered, and swallows food instead of 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. When most of these signs are present together, your baby’s digestive system and motor skills are ready for solids.
Best First Foods
Iron is the top nutritional priority. Babies between 7 and 12 months need about 11 mg of iron per day, and their stores from birth are running low by this point. Iron-fortified infant cereal is a classic starter, but pureed meat (chicken, turkey, beef) is actually one of the richest and most absorbable sources of iron you can offer. Don’t feel locked into cereals and fruit as “first foods” if your baby takes well to meat.
Beyond iron-rich options, aim to build variety within the first few months of eating solids. Good early foods include:
- Vegetables: pureed sweet potato, squash, peas, carrots, green beans
- Fruits: mashed banana, pureed pears, avocado, applesauce
- Proteins: pureed chicken, turkey, beef, or well-cooked fish (bones removed)
- Grains: iron-fortified infant cereal (oat or rice), soft cooked pasta
- Eggs: scrambled or hard-boiled, about one-third of an egg per serving
All foods should be soft or pureed to prevent choking. Introduce one new food at a time and wait at least a day before adding another, so you can spot any reaction like a rash, vomiting, or diarrhea.
How Much and How Often
Start small: 1 to 2 tablespoons of food per sitting. At first, one meal a day is plenty. Over the next few weeks, you can work up to offering food every 2 to 3 hours, which typically looks like 3 small meals and 2 to 3 snacks spread across the day. Let your baby set the pace. If they turn away, close their mouth, or lose interest, the meal is over.
Breast milk or formula remains the primary source of calories and nutrition throughout this stage. Solid food supplements the milk, not the other way around. Most babies continue drinking 24 to 32 ounces of formula per day, or nursing on demand, even as they eat more solids.
Introducing Common Allergens
Current guidelines have shifted significantly in recent years. There is no evidence that delaying allergenic foods like peanut, egg, dairy, or sesame prevents allergies. In fact, for peanut specifically, studies suggest that waiting longer can increase the chance of developing an allergy. The goal is to introduce these foods early, ideally around 6 months, once your baby has tolerated a few low-risk starter foods like infant cereal or pureed fruit.
A safe way to introduce peanut is to thin a small amount of smooth peanut butter into cereal, pureed fruit, or yogurt. You can also dissolve peanut butter in breast milk or formula and spoon-feed it. Never give whole peanuts or tree nuts to babies. For ongoing exposure, about 2 teaspoons of peanut butter several times a week helps maintain tolerance. Whole milk yogurt or Greek yogurt mixed with a fruit your baby already eats is a good way to introduce dairy, even though plain cow’s milk as a drink isn’t recommended until 12 months.
If your baby has severe or persistent eczema, or has already had an allergic reaction to any food (especially egg), they’re considered high risk for peanut allergy. In that case, talk with your pediatrician about when and how to introduce peanut products safely.
What to Drink
Between 6 and 12 months, your baby can have breast milk or formula as their main beverage, plus small sips of water. The CDC recommends 4 to 8 ounces of water per day in this age range. Water is meant to help your baby get used to drinking from a cup, not to replace milk feeds. Juice, sweetened drinks, and cow’s milk as a beverage should all wait until at least 12 months.
If your baby is breastfed, or getting a combination of breast milk and formula, they need a daily vitamin D supplement of 400 IU, starting from shortly after birth and continuing through this stage.
Spoon-Feeding vs. Baby-Led Weaning
You’ll hear a lot about baby-led weaning, where babies feed themselves soft finger foods from the start instead of being spoon-fed purees. Both approaches work, and many families combine them. Baby-led weaning supports the development of fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and chewing ability. It may also help babies develop a more adventurous palate and reduce picky eating later. The trade-off is more gagging in the early weeks as babies learn to manage textures, which is a normal part of the learning process.
Traditional spoon-feeding gives you more control over how much your baby eats, but it can slow down the development of self-feeding skills. If you start with purees, aim to progress to mashed and soft finger foods over the following weeks rather than staying on smooth textures for months.
Foods to Avoid Before 12 Months
A few foods are off-limits entirely during the first year:
- Honey: can cause infant botulism, a severe form of food poisoning. Don’t add it to food, water, formula, or a pacifier.
- Cow’s milk as a drink: can cause intestinal bleeding and contains too much protein and too many minerals for a baby’s kidneys. Yogurt and cheese are fine; milk in a cup is not until 12 months.
- Added sugars: flavored yogurts, cookies, muffins, and sweetened snacks have no place in an infant’s diet. Babies need every calorie to carry real nutrition.
- High-sodium foods: processed meats like hot dogs and lunch meat, some canned foods, and packaged toddler snacks are often too salty.
Choking Hazards to Watch For
The shape, size, and texture of food matters as much as the food itself. Cut everything into pieces your baby can manage, and cook hard foods until they’re soft enough to mash with gentle pressure. Specific foods to modify or avoid:
- Grapes, cherry tomatoes, berries: must be quartered, never served whole
- Raw carrots, apples, celery: too hard; cook until soft or grate finely
- Whole corn kernels and raisins: small and difficult to chew
- Nut and seed butters: never by the spoonful; thin them into other foods
- Large chunks of meat or cheese: shred or cut into very small pieces
- Hot dogs and sausages: a common choking hazard even when sliced into rounds due to their shape and texture
- Marshmallows, chewing gum, chewy fruit snacks: avoid completely
Always have your baby seated upright during meals, and stay with them while they eat. Gagging (noisy, with coughing) is a normal protective reflex. Choking (silent, with no airflow) is an emergency. Knowing the difference, and knowing infant CPR, gives you confidence to let your baby explore food safely.