Weaning usually starts when your baby is six months old and is the process where you begin introducing solid foods.
To start with, your baby only needs a small amount of solid food, once a day, at a time that suits you both.
You can start weaning with single vegetables and fruits – try blended, mashed, or soft cooked sticks of parsnip, broccoli, potato, yam, sweet potato, carrot, apple or pear.
But make sure any cooked food has cooled right down before offering it to your baby.
Foods to avoid when weaning
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It is very important to remember that not all foods are suitable for your little one in the beginning.
Before 12 months old, you should avoid:
- Lightly cooked or raw eggs
- Honey
- Mould-ripened soft cheese or unpasteurised cheese
- Marlin, shark and swordfish
- Raw shellfish
- Tea and coffee
- Salt
- Sugar
- Low-fat foods
Foods that can lead to choking
To reduce the risk of choking, avoid offering these foods to your baby:
- Sticky foods: marshmallows, gummies, candy, large amounts of thick nut butter
- Round or coin-shaped foods: grapes, cherry tomatoes, hot dogs, hard candy
- Raw foods: broccoli or cauliflower stems, carrots, raw apple (unless shredded for older infants)
- Hard-to-chew foods: popcorn, hard-crusted bread, whole nuts
How to make your own baby food safely
- Make sure your work surfaces, equipment and hands are clean before every meal
- Wash and peel your fruit or veggies, remove any stones or pips, then give them a good scrub
- Make sure you prepare meat and fish properly, removing bones, skin and excess fat
- Cook all meat and fish thoroughly, and avoid raw fish and shellfish until your little one’s a year old
- Avoid processed meat like sausages and burgers – they’re high in salt!
- Always heat food until it’s steaming
- Check that your food is hot all the way through by testing it with a spoon. Then stir it to remove any hot spots, leave it to cool a little and check its temperature before offering it to your baby
- If you’re heating food in advance, don’t leave it to cool at room temperature for too long; bacteria start developing within two hours.