Solid foods for babies: When, What, and How to Introduce

Every child is different and has different nutritional needs but before four months solid cannot be introduced so after six-month parents introduce their children to solid food. If you have a question that when to start giving solid foods to the kids for that you need to look for certain signs that your child is ready for this milestone.

Signs to start solid food

Bring food or other objects to mouth
Don’t push food out of their mouth
Opens the mouth when you give food
Swallows food instead of spitting out
Your child is able to sit up without any support
Your child can support and balance his neck and head

How to introduce the child to solid foods?

To introduce your kid to solid food, give one ingredient at a time and ensure to make it puree, mashed, or make a smoothie. Your child might gag, cough, or spit the food out as the Baby needs time to get familiar with the different tastes. By giving one food at one time will also help you to understand what sort of allergies your baby has especially if any one of the parents is Allergic.

Mix cereals and other foods like potatoes with water or formula/ breast milk and boiled hard fruits and vegetables like carrots and apples so that they can be mashed easily even with a fork. Try to cut soft fruit into small cubes or thin slices which are easy to chew as kids might not have teeth at this point.

Foods to avoid

Foods with added sugar
High sodium food
Honey as it can cause botulism
Unpasteurized milk, yogurt, and cheese
Hard vegetables and fruits

Introduce your baby to new things and don’t give up as it might take four or five tries. Make sure you start with simple food and don’t force your baby give your baby time to adjust to new tastes and textures.