At around 6 months old, babies start eating solid foods for the first time, while breast milk or formula remains their primary source of nutrition. This is a gradual transition, not a sudden switch. The goal in these early weeks is to introduce your baby to new tastes and textures, building toward a varied diet over the following months.
Why 6 Months Is the Starting Point
For the first 6 months of life, breast milk or formula provides everything a baby needs. Around the 6-month mark, though, nutritional demands shift. Iron stores that babies are born with start to deplete, and breast milk alone can no longer meet those needs. From 7 to 12 months, babies need about 11 milligrams of iron per day, a significant jump that solid foods help cover.
Most babies are also developmentally ready around this age. They can sit upright with support, hold their head steady, and show interest in food by reaching for it or opening their mouth when a spoon comes near. These are the signals that your baby is ready to start solids, not just the calendar date.
What to Offer First
There’s no single “right” first food. The priority is iron-rich options, since that’s the nutrient your baby needs most from solids. Good early choices include pureed or mashed meats (beef, chicken, turkey, lamb), iron-fortified infant cereals, lentils, chickpeas, eggs, and fish. Vegetables like spinach, broccoli, and green peas also contribute iron, though the body absorbs iron from animal sources more efficiently.
Beyond iron-rich foods, you can introduce a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, and grains. Mashed sweet potato, avocado, banana, peas, and cooked carrots are all common early foods. There’s no evidence that vegetables need to come before fruits or that introducing sweet foods first creates a preference for sugar. Variety matters more than order.
Purees vs. Finger Foods
You have two main approaches, and many parents use a combination of both. Traditional spoon-feeding involves pureeing or mashing food so it’s smooth and easy to swallow. The parent controls the spoon and the pace of the meal.
Baby-led weaning skips purees entirely. Instead, you offer soft, finger-sized pieces of food that your baby picks up and feeds themselves. Think a strip of ripe avocado, a soft-cooked broccoli floret, or a stick of steamed sweet potato. The food should be easy to squish between your fingers. Both approaches are safe and effective. Some babies take to one method more readily than the other, and mixing the two is completely fine.
How Much and How Often
Breast milk or formula is still the main event from 6 to 12 months. Solid food supplements it rather than replacing it. In the beginning, you might offer just a tablespoon or two of food once or twice a day. The CDC recommends working toward feeding your baby something every 2 to 3 hours, or about 5 to 6 times a day. That breaks down to roughly 3 meals and 2 to 3 snacks, though it takes weeks to build up to that pattern.
Don’t worry about exact quantities. Your baby will eat different amounts from day to day, and that’s normal. Watch for hunger cues: reaching for food, opening their mouth when offered a spoon, getting excited at the sight of food. Fullness looks like pushing food away, closing their mouth, or turning their head. Following these signals matters more than finishing a set portion.
Introducing Allergenic Foods Early
Current guidelines encourage introducing common allergens around 6 months rather than delaying them. This includes peanuts, eggs, dairy, wheat, soy, tree nuts, fish, and shellfish. Early introduction may actually reduce the risk of developing food allergies.
For peanuts specifically, the guidance is even more targeted. Babies with severe eczema or an existing egg allergy are at higher risk for peanut allergy, and introducing peanut-containing foods as early as 4 to 6 months can lower that risk. This doesn’t mean handing your baby a whole peanut. Thin peanut butter mixed into a puree or infant cereal is an age-appropriate option. If your baby has severe eczema or egg allergy, a blood test or skin prick test may be recommended first to determine the safest way to introduce peanut.
When trying a new allergenic food, offer a small amount and wait a couple of days before introducing another new allergen. This makes it easier to identify the source if a reaction occurs.
Drinks at 6 Months
Breast milk or formula should still make up the majority of your baby’s fluid intake. You can start offering small amounts of water, about 4 to 8 ounces per day, to help your baby get used to drinking from a cup. More than that isn’t necessary and could fill up a tiny stomach that needs calories from milk and food.
Cow’s milk should not replace breast milk or formula before 12 months. It can cause intestinal bleeding in young infants and contains too many proteins and minerals for immature kidneys to process easily. It also lacks the right balance of nutrients babies need. Fruit juice, caffeinated drinks, and anything with added sugar are all off the table before 12 months as well.
Foods to Avoid
A few foods are genuinely unsafe for babies under one year:
- Honey in any form, including baked into foods or added to a pacifier. It can cause infant botulism, a serious form of food poisoning.
- High-mercury fish like shark, swordfish, king mackerel, marlin, orange roughy, bigeye tuna, and tilefish from the Gulf of Mexico. Mercury can damage a developing brain and nervous system over time.
- Unpasteurized foods such as raw milk, certain soft cheeses, and unpasteurized juices, which carry a risk of harmful bacteria.
- Added sugars and excess salt. Babies have no nutritional room for added sugars, and their kidneys aren’t equipped to handle high sodium. Watch for hidden sources like flavored yogurts, canned foods, and processed meats.
Choking Hazards to Watch For
The shape, size, and texture of food matters as much as what the food is. Hard, round, or sticky foods are the biggest risks. The CDC specifically flags raw carrots and apples, whole grapes and cherry tomatoes, whole nuts and seeds, hot dogs and sausages, popcorn, chunks of peanut butter eaten by the spoonful, large chunks of meat or cheese, and whole beans.
The fix for most of these is preparation, not avoidance. Grapes get quartered lengthwise. Meat gets shredded or pureed. Nut butters get thinned and mixed into other foods rather than served in globs. Fruits and vegetables should be cooked until soft enough to mash easily with gentle pressure. Dried fruits like raisins, marshmallows, and snack foods like chips and pretzels should be avoided entirely at this age.
Always have your baby seated upright during meals, and stay with them while they eat. Gagging is common and different from choking. Gagging is loud and involves coughing as babies learn to manage new textures. Choking is silent, and knowing infant CPR before starting solids gives you real peace of mind.