When can babies start solid foods?

Most babies are ready for solid food at about 6 months, and the CDC advises against starting before 4 months. Readiness has less to do with the date than with what your baby can do: hold their head and neck steady, sit up alone or with support, open their mouth when food comes toward them, and swallow food instead of pushing it back out onto their chin.

Breast milk or formula stays the main thing they live on for a while yet. The first months of solid food are practice.

Around this age

The CDC’s wording is plain: a child can begin eating solid foods at about 6 months, and introducing foods before 4 months is not recommended. Babies get there in their own weeks, and 5 months and 7 months are both ordinary places to land.

Alongside the four signs above, the CDC lists two more worth watching for: bringing objects to the mouth, and trying to grasp small objects. The American Academy of Pediatrics adds a rough physical marker — many babies are ready around the time they have doubled their birth weight and weigh about 13 pounds — and a social one, which is that they watch you eat, reach for your food and seem eager to be fed.

Pushing the first few spoonfuls straight back out is normal. The AAP describes that tongue-thrust as part of learning, not a verdict on the food. A baby who wants nothing to do with a spoon at 5 months can take it happily two weeks later.

By 7 or 8 months, the CDC says, most children are eating a variety of foods from all the food groups.

What families usually do

Begin with a very small amount. The AAP suggests half a spoonful or less at first, and one way it describes making the first attempts easier is to give a little breast milk or formula, then switch to very small half-spoonfuls of food, then finish with more milk. A hungry baby and a new texture are a difficult combination.

Offer one single-ingredient food at a time, and wait 3 to 5 days before adding the next one. The CDC gives that spacing so that if something disagrees with your baby, you can see which food it was.

Start smooth. Mashed, pureed or strained foods are easier to manage, and thicker and lumpier textures come as your baby’s ability to eat develops. Infant cereal is often mixed with breast milk, formula or water to get there.

Aim some of it at iron and zinc. The AAP names foods made with meat and iron-fortified cereals, because the iron a baby is born with is running down around this point.

Common allergens go in with everything else. The CDC’s advice is to introduce potentially allergenic foods — eggs, shellfish, nut butters, wheat and the rest — when you introduce other foods, and the AAP states there is no evidence that waiting prevents food allergy. The AAP puts the start of that at around 6 months, and adds one caveat: if your baby has eczema or allergies run in the family, check with your pediatrician first.

Cow’s milk waits. The CDC does not recommend cow’s milk or fortified dairy alternatives as a drink until a child is older than 12 months.

Most families end up doing this at whatever hour the kitchen is calm, in a high chair, with a bib that catches roughly a third of what falls. Six months of that is normal.

When to call your pediatrician

The AAP describes the symptoms of a food allergic reaction: hives, rashes or swelling on the skin, wheezing or throat tightness, nausea, vomiting or diarrhea, and circulation signs such as unusual paleness, light-headedness or fainting. Breathing trouble, fainting or loss of consciousness after food needs emergency help: call 911 and follow your child’s prescribed emergency plan, if they have one.

Anything milder that follows a new food is worth a call to your pediatrician, who can tell you whether to stop that food, try it again, or test for something.

Your pediatrician is also the person to ask about starting before 6 months, about babies born early, and about a baby who is not interested in any of it by 7 or 8 months.

Sources

• When, What, and How to Introduce Solid Foods — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• When Can Babies Start Solid Foods? Readiness & Feeding Tips — HealthyChildren.org (American Academy of Pediatrics)
• Food Allergies in Children: Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis & Treatment — HealthyChildren.org (American Academy of Pediatrics)

This is educational information from public sources, not a replacement for advice from your child’s healthcare professional.

In Withya, the guide for this age sits under Guides, ordered for your child’s age and where you live.