Tips for Purees and Baby Led Weaning
For general information around starting solids (when to start, how much to feed, safety guidelines), visit Starting Solids, and for the best highchair/bibs/utensils brands, check out Feeding Gear Recs
Purees
Start with 1-2 tablespoons of single-ingredient purees and later on you can combine multiple flavors
Some great first flavors are: peas, carrot, broccoli, sweet potato, pear, mango, banana, avocado
For homemade purees:
Save time/money using frozen veggies/fruit, since they don’t require as much prep work
You’ll need to cook any hard fruits or veggies to soften them before mashing/blending
Use water or formula/breastmilk to make it less thick, and add some olive oil or whole milk yogurt (once you’ve tested for dairy allergy) to veggie purees for some extra fat
Since babies eat such small portions at a time, I recommend making a big batch of a particular puree and then freezing it into portions using an ice cube tray (a normal one is great, or you could by this one). After the cubes are frozen, you can pop them out and keep them in a big ziplock in the freezer, just grabbing and thawing one at a time as needed.
For store-bought purees:
Look for brands that don’t have added sugars and other additives, and beware that sometimes the “fruit and veggie blends” are mostly just fruit
My favorites are Cerebelly and Serenity Kids (available at lots of healthy grocery stores).
Serenity makes “meat” pouches (chicken, beef, turkey, salmon) - sounds gross I know, but it’s a great way to get your baby some protein, which is especially useful at night for making sure they go to sleep with full tummies. A plant-based protein option is Noka - I actually enjoy these myself.
Toddlers love to directly suck from these pouches. But for babies, I recommend squeezing it onto a spoon, and if they don’t finish the whole pouch you can refrigerate and reuse for 24-48 hours (depending on the instructions for that brand).
For cereal, I like Earth's Best Whole Grain Oatmeal which is fortified with iron
You can also consider a delivery service: Tiny Organics and Little Spoon are good options. The advantage is it takes the guesswork out and ensures variety, but I personally found I was wasting a lot of it and it took up lots of freezer/fridge space.
Remember, just like you can do a combo of Purees and BLW, you can also do a combo of homemade and store-bought purees - the pouches are especially useful for outings
Baby Led Weaning
Cut food into grabbable strips/sticks
While it may sound a little counterintuitive, bigger pieces (about the size of your finger) are both safer and easier than small pieces
Your baby can hold the large strip and take nibbles, rather than trying to put the whole thing in their mouth at once
Bigger pieces are also less likely to frustrate your baby than small ones, since at this age babies use their whole palm to pick things up, and only later develop the “pincer grasp” where they can grab food between their pointer finger and thumb
The website/app Solid Starts has tips for how to safely cut and serve different foods by age
Some examples:
Mango spear
Banana spear (keep a bit of skin on to make easier to grip)
Avocado spear (roll in chia seeds to make it easier to grip, and for extra nutrients)
Omelet strip
Whole steamed broccoli floret
Whole strawberry
Tofu strip
Drumstick that baby can hold and suck on
Corn on the cob
Mini pancakes (with fruits/veggie added to mix)
Soft, but not too mushy
You definitely want to cook hard vegetables and fruits, rather than serving them raw (especially things like apple, carrots), and make sure fruits like pear or avocado are ripe
However, if you make it too mushy, it will be difficult for your baby to grab and may also stick to the roof of their mouth and lead to gagging.
Some examples:
A strip of toasted bread is easier to grip and won’t crumble compared to soft bread (and you can spread avocado or hummus on it!). Pizza crust was a fan favorite for our babies.
Slightly firm sweet potato stick won’t stick to the roof of baby’s mouth compared to mashed up sweet potato
Give them practice with a spoon
Learning to use utensils in addition to fingers is an important part of the process, and it is necessary for certain foods
Examples include:
Yogurt
Oatmeal
Thinned peanut butter (using water/breastmilk/formula)
Combinations of the above!
You can “preload” a spoon and put it in their hand so they can practice bringing it to their mouth themselves
It can be useful to have two spoons going at a time, so they can hold one while you load up the second one
Be careful with round foods
For certain round foods, you can make them safe by flattening. For example, squish blueberries, peas and beans before serving (baby might not be able to grab these foods until they’ve developed their “pincer grasp”)
Avoid cherry tomatoes and grapes until baby is 9+months (at which point you can quarter them)
Cheerios are okay! Despite being round, they are safe because they dissolve easily in the mouth (and they’re great practice for that pincer grasp). Check out Three Wishes - a lower sugar, higher protein version.
For the same reason, round yogurt melts are also safe and a great travel snack - my favorite brand is Amara, though Happy Baby Yogis are also good and easier to find in regular stores
Completely avoid hazardous foods
More detail on safety in the section below, but know that while it’s possible for a baby to choke on any food, the ones that pose the greatest risk are nuts, dried fruits, popcorn, hot dogs, crackers, pretzels, unthinned nut butters, raw veggies, string cheese
It is also important to hold off on tuna and other high-mercury fish (shark, mackerel, swordfish), and honey which has been linked to infant botulism, a serious disease that affects breathing.
But don’t freak out if you accidentally gave your baby something that turned out to have honey as an ingredient - while botulism can be dangerous if untreated, it is quite rare, highly treatable, and mostly affects babies under 6 months
Share your own food
A major benefit of the BLW approach is you can involve your baby in family meals, rather than preparing special meals just for them
Many people caution against giving your baby any salt, which would mean having to make separate portions of many dishes for baby and adults, kind of defeating the whole purpose. But a closer look at the data shows this fear is mostly overblown - as long as you are using salt in moderation, you don’t have to worry. Adults can always shake on some extra afterwards.
You do want to avoid adding any spiciness (e.g. cayenne, black pepper, paprika), though aromatic non-spicy spices can be included for baby (e.g. cumin, cinnamon, ginger, garlic)
Be prepared for mess and waste
Bibs and splat mats are your friend (see gear recs)!
Serve the food directly on the highchair tray - skip plates and bowls for now, it’s just more to clean
Put a very small amount on the tray to begin with (like one or two pieces)- you can always add more later. Babies are sometimes overwhelmed by too much at once, and more prone to just making a mess of it.
Avoid wiping baby’s face/hands throughout the meal, which will only annoy them - just wait until the end
Part of the philosophy of BLW is that the baby determines how much or little he eats (rather than you spoon feeding him), so you’ll have to relinquish control and just trust them!
