My baby's weaning - 6+ months

Moving to solids from milk is a big, exciting change for your baby – and for you too! As well as meeting their growing nutritional needs, the first stage of weaning helps your baby learn how to take food from a spoon and accept simple new tastes.

When to get started

Weaning is a big change for your baby and they’ve got a lot to learn. It’s important to wait until you’ve noticed the signs that they’re ready for weaning. The Department of Health recommends weaning should start from 6 months.  If you’re thinking of starting to wean because they’ve got a bigger appetite than usual, try our suggestions for what to do when your baby is still hungry after a milk feed. They may just be going through a growth spurt!

How to get started

Baby rice is a great first weaning food because you can make it with their usual milk for a familiar taste. This makes the transition easier and your baby will be more accepting of the unfamiliar feeling.

To begin with, try your baby with a teaspoonful or two to ease them in gently. Then build this up gradually with more feeds a day. It’s a good idea not to try and introduce food to your baby when they are too hungry - as they will get frustrated, or too full when they won’t have room for the extra feed. The ideal time is when your baby has had half their usual milk.

Nutrition

No single food can give your baby all the goodness they need. Once they’ve started weaning, you can gradually start to give them more variety to make sure they get a good balance of nutrients, including vitamins and minerals that will help them grow up healthy and happy!

A good way to give your baby a balanced diet is to start their day with a breakfast cereal suitable for babies – low in salt and sugar.  Include lots of different vegetables in their main meal, and give your baby a dessert packed with fruit and dairy.

Texture

Smooth purées, roughly the consistency of double cream, are ideal for learning how to swallow solid foods. Apples, pears, carrots and sweet potato are all easy to cook and blend. Be sure to peel them first though to get rid of any tough skin.

Taste

You can introduce your baby to new, gentle tastes, such as pumpkin, carrot and other vegetables before moving onto meals. Just cook them as you normally would but without any sugar or salt.

Foods to avoid

At this early stage, there are a few foods to avoid – ones they may develop an allergy to. Until your baby is 6 months old, it’s best to steer clear of gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye, barley and oats. Eggs and fish should also be avoided until a year. Peanuts should be avoided until 3 years of age if there’s a history of peanut allergy in your family.

A nutritious start

Milupa cereals and Cow and Gate jars are our range of nutritious baby foods, made specially for each important stage of your baby’s development. They are made with gentle tastes and a smooth texture to get your baby started with weaning.

8+ months

You and your baby have already taken the first exciting step in your weaning journey. Now your baby is ready to explore a wider range of healthy new foods including a wider variety of flavours and lumpier textures!

Mixing up the menu

If your baby is accepting gentle tastes and smooth textures quite easily, now’s the time to start moving on to the next stage, beginning to introduce more adventurous tastes and mashed textures.

Nutrition

No single food can give your baby all the nutrients they need so variety is the name of the game to make sure they get the right balance of vitamins and minerals, as well as the energy they need for all that growing and exploring. It’s especially important to make sure their food and milk contains a healthy amount of iron, as the natural stores they were born with begin to run low after about 6 months.

Start their day with a breakfast cereal, with no added sugar and salt, and fortified with key vitamins and minerals.  Use lots of different vegetables in their main meal, and fruit for dessert. At this stage they are willing to try new flavours so it’s a great time to introduce foods such as aubergine, mushrooms and pineapple.

Milk is still an important part of your baby’s diet and they’ll need around 500 – 600ml (about a pint) a day, including the milk you use to make their food.

Texture

Before your baby can eat mini pieces of food, they’ll need to start learning how to chew. It’s more about mashed textures, rather than chunks, at the moment for their first lessons in chewing.

Your baby’s coordination may also be improving, so now’s the time to begin introducing finger foods. Small pieces of cooked, mixed vegetables and little cubes of fruit are ideal to start with.

Taste

It’s important to excite their curious taste buds at this stage and help them learn to love even more foods. That’s because by the age of 2 your baby’s tastes can become relatively fixed until they’re around 8 years old.

Important Notice - Breastfeeding is best for your baby. Follow-on milk should only be used as part of a mixed diet and not as a breastmilk substitute before 6 months. Use on the advice of your healthcare professional.

Getting bigger…

Your baby is probably more active and adventurous than ever, so you need to give them a balanced diet that provides the nutrients they need to develop, as well as the energy they need for their crawling and exploring. At this stage, as well as helping your baby discover new tastes, it’s important to give them food with textured chunks and lumps to help them learn to chew.

Getting more adventurous!

As your baby moves a few steps closer to enjoying family meals, you can start to mix up the menu but bear in mind that your baby’s needs are very different to an adult’s.

Nutrition

Even though your baby’s tastes might be getting a little more grown-up and they can now cope with quite chunky food, most adult foods aren’t appropriate for them as they contain too much salt, sugar or fibre. Offer a wide variety of foods - cereal and dairy at breakfast, plenty of protein and vegetables for their main meal and fruit and dairy for dessert.  This will help provide a good balance of the vitamins and minerals, proteins and fats they need to help them grow. Avoid high levels of salt as babies should only have 1g of salt per day (one average digestive biscuit contains 0.3g of salt, or just under one third of your baby’s daily allowance).

Texture

Introducing more chopped textures and bigger pieces will help continue the development of their chewing skills and speech muscles.

Breakfast cereals and meals in lumps are a great way to start as your baby moves onto a proper chewing movement, rather than just squishing their food around their mouth. Giving them finger foods like fresh fruit pieces, strips of vegetables or cubes of cheese will also help them continue to develop their hand and eye co-ordination.

Taste

At this stage, it’s important to introduce your baby to more complex recipes that combine different flavours, as well as herbs and spices. It can be as simple as adding a sprinkle of oregano to their spaghetti.

Foods like spaghetti bolognaise, vegetable casseroles, mixed fruit desserts, and fruity breakfasts will encourage them to grow to love a healthy variety of food in the future.

The right balance

Milupa cereals and Cow and Gate jars are our range of nutritionally tailored baby foods, with a wide variety of taste and the right texture for every stage.  These foods encourage your baby to learn to chew, while mixing up the menu with exciting new tastes.

Search: