At 6 months, most babies are ready to start eating solid foods alongside breast milk or formula. The best first foods are soft, single-ingredient options like pureed vegetables, fruits, meats, and iron-fortified infant cereals. Breast milk or formula remains the primary source of nutrition, but solids fill growing gaps in iron and other nutrients that milk alone can no longer provide.
Signs Your Baby Is Ready
Not every baby is ready at exactly 6 months. Before offering solids, look for these developmental milestones: your baby can sit up with support, has steady head and neck control, opens their mouth when food is offered, and swallows food rather than pushing it back out with their tongue. You’ll also notice them reaching for objects, bringing things to their mouth, and showing interest in what you’re eating. If your baby still pushes food out consistently, give it another week or two and try again.
Best First Foods to Start With
Iron-rich foods are the top priority at 6 months. Babies are born with iron stores that begin to deplete around this age, and breast milk alone doesn’t supply enough. Iron-fortified infant cereal (rice, oat, or barley) mixed with breast milk or formula is a classic starter. Pureed meats like chicken, turkey, and beef are also excellent early choices because they provide both iron and zinc in forms the body absorbs easily.
Beyond iron-rich foods, you can introduce a wide range of fruits and vegetables:
- Vegetables: sweet potato, butternut squash, peas, green beans, carrots, zucchini (all cooked and pureed or mashed)
- Fruits: banana, avocado, peaches, pears, applesauce, prunes
- Grains: iron-fortified infant oatmeal, barley cereal
- Proteins: pureed chicken, turkey, beef, beans, lentils
Introduce one new single-ingredient food every 3 to 5 days. This spacing makes it easy to identify the culprit if your baby develops diarrhea, a rash, or vomiting after trying something new.
How Much and How Often
Start small. One or two tablespoons of food per sitting is plenty in the beginning. Your baby is learning to move food around their mouth and swallow, not trying to fill up on solids. Watch for hunger and fullness cues: leaning toward the spoon means more, turning away or clamping their mouth shut means done.
Over the first few weeks, you can gradually work up to offering solids two or three times a day. Breast milk or formula feedings continue on their usual schedule. Think of solid food as practice and supplemental nutrition, not a replacement for milk feeds. Between meals and milk, your baby should be eating or drinking roughly every 2 to 3 hours across the day.
Introducing Common Allergens
Current guidelines encourage introducing allergenic foods early, around 6 months, rather than delaying them. Once your baby has tolerated a few basic first foods without issues, you can start offering common allergens like egg, peanut products, yogurt, wheat, soy, sesame, fish, and shellfish. There is no evidence that waiting until a baby is older prevents allergies, and early introduction may actually reduce the risk.
Start with small tastes. For peanuts, mix a thin layer of smooth peanut butter into warm water or breast milk to create a runny paste, or stir it into a puree your baby already likes. Never give whole peanuts or tree nuts to babies. For eggs, offer a small amount of well-cooked scrambled egg. Whole milk yogurt or Greek yogurt mixed with a familiar fruit is a good way to introduce dairy.
If your baby has severe or persistent eczema, or has already had an allergic reaction to any food, they’re considered higher risk for peanut allergy. In that case, talk to your pediatrician about the best approach before introducing peanut products at home.
Purees vs. Baby-Led Weaning
There are two main approaches to starting solids, and both work well. Traditional spoon-feeding uses smooth purees and mashed foods, gradually increasing texture over time. Baby-led weaning skips purees and offers soft, finger-sized pieces of food that the baby picks up and feeds themselves.
Baby-led weaning supports fine motor development, hand-eye coordination, and chewing skills. Babies who self-feed also tend to eat according to their own hunger cues, which can help prevent overfeeding. Exposure to different textures and flavors early on may lead to less picky eating later. On the other hand, spoon-feeding gives parents more control over portions and can feel more comfortable in the early days. Many families use a combination of both, offering purees on a spoon while also putting soft finger foods on the tray for the baby to explore.
Textures and Choking Prevention
All foods should be soft enough to mash between your fingers. For purees, aim for a smooth, thin consistency at first, then gradually thicken it as your baby gets more comfortable. For finger foods, cut them into long, thin strips that a baby can grip in their fist, roughly the size of an adult finger.
These foods are choking hazards and should be avoided or carefully modified:
- Raw hard fruits and vegetables: raw carrot sticks, raw apple slices (cook until soft instead)
- Round or small foods: whole grapes, cherry tomatoes, whole blueberries, whole corn kernels (cut in half or quarter, or smash)
- Sticky or tough proteins: hot dogs, sausages, chunks of meat, spoonfuls of nut butter
- Hard or small items: whole nuts, seeds, popcorn, hard candy, marshmallows, chewing gum
- Dried fruit: raisins and other uncooked dried fruits
Always have your baby seated upright during meals, and stay with them the entire time they’re eating.
Foods to Avoid Before 12 Months
Honey is off-limits until your baby’s first birthday. It can contain spores that cause infant botulism, a serious form of food poisoning. This applies to honey in any form: don’t add it to food, water, formula, or a pacifier.
Cow’s milk should not be used as a drink before 12 months. It contains too many proteins and minerals for a baby’s kidneys to process easily. However, dairy products like whole milk yogurt and small amounts of cheese are fine to offer as foods.
Skip added sugars and high-sodium foods. Babies don’t need salt or sugar, and their small bodies aren’t equipped to handle excess amounts. Avoid seasoning their food with salt and steer clear of processed foods designed for adults. Unpasteurized juices, milk, yogurt, and cheeses also pose a risk of harmful bacteria and should not be given to infants.
Water and Hydration
Once your baby starts solids at 6 months, you can begin offering small sips of water with meals. Between 6 and 12 months, 4 to 8 ounces of water per day is appropriate. Breast milk or formula still provides the bulk of their hydration. There’s no need to offer juice, and sugary drinks should be avoided entirely.