Baby's First Foods: A Complete Guide to Nutrition and Safe Eating

When your little one hits the six-month mark and starts eyeing your dinner plate with curiosity, it's time to expand their diet. Introducing solid foods is like opening the door to a world of new flavors, textures, and adorably messy moments. Their earliest bites are called complementary foods because they’re offered alongside, but not instead of, breast milk or formula.

Harbor’s team of infant care experts is here to set you up for success when serving up solids!

Download our one page guide here.


Baby’s first foods 101

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, there's no need to follow a strict order when introducing new foods to baby. Start with single-ingredient options and wait 3–5 days between introducing another new food. This will give you time to see if something triggers an allergic reaction or just doesn’t sit well with their stomach.

By seven or eight months, you can expect your little one to be sampling grains, fruits, vegetables, yogurt, cheeses, and even animal proteins.

How to prepare baby-friendly foods

Texture is key when introducing baby to solid foods. Here are Harbor’s food preparation tips to ensure safe eating:

Grains and cereals

  • Mix cereals and mashed grains with breast milk, formula, or water to make them easier to swallow.
  • When cooking whole grains like rice and barley, grind or mash the kernels for easier consumption.

Fruits and vegetables

  • Mash or purée fruits and generals until they’re smooth. Harder foods, like apples or carrots, should be cooked first to make puréeing easier.
  • Remove seeds and hard pits from fruit and cut the fruit into small pieces. Soft fruits should be cut into small cubes or thin slices.
  • Spherical foods like grapes, berries, and tomatoes should be cut in half or into quarters.

Animal proteins

  • Remove all skin, fat, and bones from animal protein before cooking it (and especially before serving!).
  • For cylindrical foods like hot dogs and string cheese, cut them into short, thin strips. Round pieces can obstruct baby’s airway.

As baby’s oral skills develop, you can begin to introduce thicker and lumpier foods. Always serve small portions and encourage baby to eat slowly. 


How much is enough?

The CDC provides recommendations for daily fruit and vegetable intake by age as follows:


Source: CDC

Knowing what to avoid

While it makes sense that you’d want to expose your little one to as many flavors as possible, there are a few foods you’ll want to avoid while their immune and digestive systems are still gaining strength:

Honey and added sweeteners

Feeding baby honey before 12 months is a no-go because it carries a risk of botulism. Keep honey out of their food, water, formula, and pacifier. Additionally, it’s a good idea to avoid foods with added sugars and low- or no-calorie sweeteners until baby hits the two-year mark. This applies to juices, too! Look for options without any added sugar.

Salty snacks

Many snack foods and store-bought toddler foods can be high in sodium, which can be overwhelming for your little one’s digestive system.

Mercury-rich fish

Before serving fish to your little one, be aware of any regional advisories and mercury warnings. Fish like king mackerel, marlin, swordfish, and bigeye tuna can contain high levels of mercury, which can harm baby’s brain and nervous system. This doesn’t mean you should avoid all fish, however. Many types of fish are lower in mercury and can provide essential nutrients that support brain development!

Unpasteurized juices and dairy

Unpasteurized juices and dairy products, including milk and cheese, can expose your little one to harmful bacteria, which can upset their stomach.

Caffeine

There’s no safe quantity of caffeine for children under the age of two, so it’s best to avoid it entirely.


Navigating pickiness

Your child might not like every food on the first try, so give them multiple opportunities to sample foods. Kids often need to taste something a few times to warm up to it. To save your sanity, consider freezing small bites of different foods and warming them up to feed to baby and reduce waste. Mixing new foods with something baby already loves, like milk, can also help.

As your child grows, they may start refusing foods they once ate freely. You might also notice picky behaviors, like not wanting different foods on their plate to touch. This is normal and will typically disappear by age five.

To help your little one navigate these phases, try waiting a few days before reintroducing a food, mix new foods into their favorite foods, eat the food first to show that you like it, and offer choices to let your child decide which new food to try.


Final reminders

Know what to do in the event of choking

Familiarize yourself and any of your child’s caregivers with the CDC’s list of choking hazards. The American Red Cross offers online courses to help you navigate common infant emergencies. Staying prepared can allow you to respond with confidence!

Keep an eye out for allergens

Introduce potentially allergenic foods while introducing other foods and look for any potential reactions. Common infant allergens include cow’s milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soy, and sesame.

When to introduce cow’s milk

When your baby reaches the 12-month mark, it's time to introduce full-fat cow’s milk, fortified milk substitutes, or toddler formula. Other cow’s milk products, like yogurt, can be introduced earlier, however! You’ll want to talk to your pediatrician about making the switch at baby’s 12-month well visit.


Let’s recap

Good nutrition during baby’s first two years will support healthy growth and development. Model good eating habits early to nurture a lifelong love of healthy foods, and don’t worry if they get more on the floor than in their mouth—that’s part of the process! Harbor is here to help you navigate the bumps in the road and get your little one eating solids like a pro.