Mar 17, 2025
A practical guide to introducing solid foods, helping your baby explore textures, flavors, and healthy eating habits from the start.
To start with, your baby only needs a small amount of solid food, once a day, at a time that suits you both.
Start weaning with vegetables that aren’t so sweet, such as broccoli, cauliflower and spinach.
This will help your baby get used to a range of tastes (rather than just the sweeter ones like carrots and sweet potato), and can help prevent them being fussy eaters as they grow up.
Finger foods also help get your baby used to different textures. They love picking bits of food up and feeding themselves. It’s also good for developing their hand-eye co-ordination.
As you introduce you baby to solid foods, you should gradually increase the amount and variety of the following food groups week-by-week, including giving them finger foods.
Trust your baby to eat as much or as little as they want.
Make sure any cooked food has cooled right down before offering it to your baby and watch out for signs of choking and gagging on food.
Remember, babies do not need salt or sugar added to their food (or cooking water). Babies should not eat salty foods as it is not good for their kidneys, and sugar can cause tooth decay.
To help your baby get used to different textures and tastes quickly, try moving on to mashed and finger foods (from purées or blended) as soon as they’re ready. This helps them learn how to chew, move solid food around their mouth and swallow solid foods.
Give your baby a spoon and let them try feeding themselves – you might need to stick a mat under the highchair though!
Babies take different amounts of time to get used to lumps, but it’s an important skill they need to learn. Just keep offering them lumpy textures from around 6 to 7 months, and stay with them so you can be sure they are swallowing it safely.
Your baby will gradually move towards eating 3 meals a day (breakfast, lunch and tea). Offering a wide variety of different foods is important to ensure they get enough energy and nutrients (such as iron).
Babies do not need salt or sugar added to their food (or cooking water) – salty food is not good for their kidneys, and sugar can cause tooth decay.
Remember, it may take 10 tries or even more for your baby to get used to new foods, flavours and textures.
There’ll be days when they eat more, some when they eat less, and then days when they reject everything! Don’t worry – this is perfectly normal.
Just be patient, keep offering a variety of foods, even the ones they do not seem to like, and let them get used to it in their own time.
Babies under 12 months do not need snacks. If you think your baby is hungry in between meals, offer extra milk feeds instead.
Your baby should now be used to having 3 meals a day – breakfast, lunch and tea – in addition to their milk feeds.
Lunch and tea can include a main course and a pudding (such as fruit or unsweetened yoghurt). Try to eat together as much as possible, babies learn from watching you eat.
Remember, your baby does not need salt or sugar added to their food or cooking water. Babies should not eat salt as it isn’t good for their kidneys and sugar can cause tooth decay.
Feeding at 12 months and over
Now your toddler is 12 months old, they should be having 3 meals a day.
They may also need 2 healthy weaning snacks in between (for example fruit, vegetable sticks, toast, bread or plain yoghurt).
Remember, your child does not need salt or sugar added to their food or cooking water. Children should not eat salty foods as it is not good for their kidneys, and sugar can cause tooth decay.