First Foods & Baby Weaning UK
A practical NHS-aligned guide to readiness, early meals, texture progression, allergens, milk, water and safe food preparation without a rigid feeding timetable.
Start solids from around six months when the readiness signs appear together. Current NHS guidance does not use a rigid “17–26 week window” for healthy term babies. If your baby was premature, ask your health visitor or GP for individual advice on timing.
Around six months, ready for food, and still getting most nutrition from milk.
At the beginning, solids are a new skill as much as a calorie source. Offer small amounts, go at your baby’s pace and keep breast milk or first infant formula as the main drink during the first year.
Look for all three NHS readiness signs together
Extra night waking, fist chewing or wanting more milk are common baby behaviours — not reliable proof that solids should start.
Stay sitting with a steady head
Your baby can remain in a sitting position and hold their head steady.
Coordinate eyes, hands and mouth
They can look at food, pick it up and bring it to their mouth.
Swallow food
They can swallow rather than automatically pushing food back out with the tongue.
Start small enough that nobody needs a timetable
You do not need three meals, a freezer full of cubes or a complicated 30-day plan on day one.
Choose a time when your baby is alert and neither of you is rushed. Offer a small amount of one or two simple foods and let the baby guide how much they want. NHS advice is responsive: stop when they close their mouth, turn away or otherwise show they have had enough.
Good early foods can include soft vegetables, fruit, plain full-fat yoghurt, well-cooked egg, beans or lentils, meat, fish without bones, soft starchy foods and iron-rich options. There is no requirement to begin with sweet purée or to avoid a preloaded spoon because you also want to encourage self-feeding.
Variety becomes more important than finding the perfect “first food”
Over the following weeks, widen tastes and food groups rather than endlessly repeating a tiny list of safe favourites.
| Food group | Examples from around 6 months | Practical role |
|---|---|---|
| Vegetables | Broccoli, carrot, courgette, cauliflower, peas | Offer a range including less-sweet/bitter vegetables. |
| Fruit | Pear, banana, berries, melon, peach | Serve ripe/soft and prepare shapes safely. |
| Protein + iron | Meat, fish, egg, beans, lentils, tofu | Useful sources of protein, iron and zinc. |
| Starchy foods | Potato, bread, pasta, rice, oats | Energy and texture variety. |
| Dairy foods | Full-fat plain yoghurt, pasteurised cheese | Can be used as foods from around six months. |
Do not let “starting with purée” become “staying on purée”
The NHS encourages moving on to mashed, lumpy and finger foods as soon as your baby is ready.
Some babies begin with smooth or blended food; others can manage mashed foods and soft finger foods immediately. Either route can work. The important part is progressing texture rather than treating a smooth pouch consistency as the endpoint.
NHS guidance recommends continuing to offer lumpy textures from around 6–7 months and giving babies opportunities to use a spoon and feed themselves. A mixed approach — some spoon-fed food, some finger food — is entirely compatible with current guidance.
Introduce allergens deliberately, not dramatically
Current guidance supports introduction from around six months in age-appropriate forms, one at a time and in very small amounts.
Egg, peanut, cow’s milk in foods, wheat/gluten, fish, shellfish, sesame, soya and nuts can be introduced as part of a varied diet in forms that are safe for a baby to eat. Once tolerated, NHS guidance advises keeping allergenic foods in the usual diet.
If your baby already has eczema, a diagnosed food allergy or other higher-risk circumstances, get individual advice before introduction. Whole nuts are a choking hazard; peanut can be offered in an age-appropriate form such as smooth nut butter thinned or spread thinly on suitable food.
Change the size, shape and texture of the food
Safe weaning is not a list of foods that are either universally safe or universally dangerous.
NHS guidance advises sitting babies safely upright and supervising them while eating. Firm and small round foods are higher risk: cut narrow batons where appropriate, quarter small round fruits such as grapes and cherry tomatoes, remove stones and bones, and soften hard fruit or vegetables.
Gagging is a normal reflex and is usually noisy. Choking is dangerous and can be quiet. Parents and carers should know what choking looks like and what immediate first-aid action to take.
Do not add salt or sugar. Avoid whole nuts in young children, honey before 12 months and high-risk choking foods in unsafe forms. Check current NHS foods-to-avoid guidance rather than relying on old family rules or packaging marketed for babies.
Milk does not disappear when solids arrive
At first, most energy and nutrients are still coming from breast milk or first infant formula.
Continue usual milk feeds. NHS guidance says breast milk or first infant formula should remain the main drink during the first year. At mealtimes from around six months, offer sips of water from an open cup or a free-flow cup without a valve.
Babies under 12 months do not need snacks. If they seem hungry between early meals, NHS guidance suggests offering extra milk feeds instead.
The useful weaning kit is surprisingly small
You need safe seating and something to serve food with; most specialist kitchen equipment is optional.
A supportive high chair
Stable upright seating is central to safe eating and useful for both spoon-feeding and finger foods.
Spoon + open/free-flow cup
A couple of baby spoons and a suitable cup cover the basics without a large set.
Bib + wipeable floor strategy
Not medically important, extremely important to whether meals feel manageable.
Baby food maker
Useful for a repeat steam/blend workflow, but ordinary kitchen equipment can do the same core jobs.
Start with readiness and food — not a weaning ideology or shopping list.
Around six months, look for the three readiness signs together. Begin with manageable amounts, widen variety, progress textures, keep milk central and learn the food-preparation rules that reduce choking risk.
Whether the spoon is in your hand, your baby’s hand or both is secondary to those fundamentals.
Frequently asked questions
A cleaner answer to the questions that make starting solids feel more complicated than it is.
