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How to start moving your baby to solid foods

Moving to solid foods is best approached as a four-step process:

Step 1: Begin introducing the spoon

• You need to start to get your baby used to the idea of taking food from a spoon.
• He’ll still be getting most of his nourishment from breast or formula milk – so start mixing a teaspoon of food with the milk.
• This ensures that the food will be soft and runny enough for him to eat easily.
• Health Care Professionals recommend pure baby rice cereal as a first taste, but not wheat, rye, barley or oat-based cereals yet.
• Move onto smooth vegetable purée like carrot, parsnip, avocado or a fruit purée using banana, pear, apricot or mango.
• If you heat the food make sure you stir, cool and test the temperature on your tongue before giving it to your baby.
• You can either offer this food before, after or in the middle of one of your baby’s normal feeds.
• Remember it will take time to introduce your baby to the new skill of taking food from a spoon, so be prepared for a few messes.
• If your baby’s not interested this time, don’t worry, try again another day.
• Milupa provides a range of cereals ideal for your baby's first tastes

Step 2: Increase the amount of food gradually

• Although feeds will still be mostly breastmilk or formula you can now start to increase the amount of solid food you give your baby.
• Move gradually from solid food at one feed in the day to solid food at two feeds, and then three feeds.
• Introduce some new foods, flavours and tastes, but still only give cereals to your baby once a day.
• You can use lots of the foods you already cook for yourself and just mash, sieve, or purée a small amount.
• However, it’s important you don’t add any salt, honey or sugar to the food as these flavourings can be dangerous for your baby’s health.
• To save yourself time you can prepare more than you actually need and freeze small portions for later, using an ice cube tray.
• You can now add purées of pulses such as lentils, chickpeas and hummus and purées of meat, fish and poultry.
• You can also introduce full-fat milk products like yogurt or fromage frais, unless your Public Health Nurse or GP has advised you otherwise.
• You can also introduce full-fat milk to your cooking, for example in a cheese sauce, but don’t give it to your baby as a drink until after they are a year old.

Step 3: Develop a wider range of foods

• Once your baby’s got used to solid foods it’s important to start introducing a wider range of different foods to help provide all the essential nutrients he needs.
• Include servings of starchy foods like bread, rice and potatoes and include fruit and vegetables.
• Provide cooked meat, fish, tofu or pulses such as beans or lentils each day to provide proteins.
• Eggs are a quick and nutritious source of protein from six months, but both yolk and white must be hard to be safe for your baby.
• Red meat such as beef, lamb and pork provides a great source of iron.
• You can also start to introduce foods with a thicker consistency and a lumpier texture.
• These foods will encourage your baby to learn how to manage food in pieces even though he may not yet have any teeth.
• Use savoury finger foods like cheese cubes, toast, bread, breadsticks, pitta bread, bananas, carrot sticks.
• To help your baby to avoid developing a sweet tooth, don’t introduce too many sweet snacks.
• Stay near by and watch your baby eat to prevent any choking risks and also to give plenty of encouragement.
• Remember, your baby should also still be having a minimum of 500-600ml of breast or formula milk a day.

Step 4: Your baby starts to fit with the family’s routine

• Your baby has now become increasingly used to eating solid food and he can now start to fit in with the family meals by eating three minced or chopped meals per day.
• Provide daily servings of foods such as cereals, breads, potatoes, fruit and vegetables.
• Also include full-fat dairy products – babies and young children need these kind of fats to give them enough energy to grow.
• Breast or formula milk should still be the main drink. 500-600ml should be provided per day.
• You can also give your baby fruit as a healthy snack in between meals.

Use the food pyramid below to guide you in providing a balanced daily diet for your baby: