Once your baby has reached about 10 months of age, he or she will likely be ready to move past baby purees and into the exciting world of self-feeding. Although meals can get more creative with thicker solids in the mix, the transition from Stage 2 to Stage 3 baby food can also be a…
At around 9 months, most babies should transition to soft table foods to continue developing their feeding skills, integrate more with family meals, and help avoid difficulties down the road. Whether you're serving purees or table food, starting solids doesn't have to be so messy. (Mentally, anyway!)
Stage 1 (6m+ weaning) When introducing first tastes food needs to be pureed. Blend for 2 minutes to get a smooth consistency. Stage 2 (7m+ training) Here you can start experimenting with a combination of flavours and textures from smooth to chunky. Blend for 20–30 seconds.
At first, babies should have finely puréed single-ingredient foods. (Just applesauce, for example, not apples and pears mixed together.) After your baby is eating individual foods, it's OK to offer a puréed mix of two foods. As babies get older, they will learn to eat a greater variety of tastes and textures.
With baby-led weaning, mealtime can be messy, but it's also a more family-friendly way of introducing a child to solid foods. The basic idea is to skip purées, mashed-up fruit and rice cereal and let babies feed themselves right from the start at about 6 months of age.
Baby-led weaning (BLW) offers safe table foods right from the start, often forgoing spoon-feeding and purees. Babies are encouraged to develop their fine motor skills and independence when they self-feed.
General feeding guidelines
A 1-year-old can eat most table foods and shouldn't need baby foods any longer. You can begin whole or 2% milk from a cup. Continue Vitamin D supplementation of at least 400-600 IU/day for all children.
Remember, you can mix what you offer, going back and forth between purees and blw finger foods, so you can offer the same food two different ways to let baby explore.
Here's the basic premise: Instead of feeding infants purees with a spoon, parents offer them graspable, soft finger foods. The goal is that your little one will feed himself, which promotes hand-eye coordination, independence, and healthy eating habits.
Babies can eat cooked rice from six months of age, as long as they are developmentally ready for solids. So yes, your 9 month old can safely eat cooked rice.
Feeding at 7 to 9 months
Your baby will gradually move towards eating 3 meals a day (breakfast, lunch and tea). Offering a wide variety of different foods is important to ensure they get enough energy and nutrients (such as iron).
Stage 3 (typically 10-12 months old, but may occur sooner): At this stage, you can slowly replace purees with soft, chewable chunks of food, and offer your baby more finger foods that they can pick up and feed themselves.
Baby-Led Weaning or Finger Foods
Rather, you serve baby chunks of cooked food. Whereas Finger Foods, or sometimes referred to as Table Foods, are typically served to your baby after they master Stage 3 baby food purees. In short, finger foods are served at 10+ months and baby-led weaning starts at 6+ months.
Between 6 and 8 months, a baby will typically transition from about 2 to 3 tablespoons of fruit puree a day to 4 to 8 tablespoons (1/4 to 1/2 cup) of mashed or minced fruit.
A combined approach that includes both finger foods for self-feeding and the spoon-feeding of purees is fine when babies are fed responsively, and there is no evidence that a combined approach is detrimental. A misconception about BLW is that purees should be avoided.
Start with menu items like pieces of soft cheese; small pieces of pasta or bread; finely chopped soft vegetables; and fruits like bananas, avocado, and ripe peaches or nectarines. These foods should require minimal chewing, as your baby may not yet have teeth.
Introduce new foods, one food at a time and at a space of 4 days apart. For example, introduce baby to avocado on Monday and then wait until Friday to introduce another food. When you introduce a new food over the course of several days, you are better able to determine exactly how your baby is reacting to that food.
That being said, between nine and 12 months, you can start letting your baby practice self-feeding with a spoon, and by 24 months he or she should be using utensils independently. But until then, occasional spoon-feeding helps baby to have a nice variety of flavours and textures.
Babies can start to use a spoon by themselves at around 10 to 12 months old. Your child will continue to get better at using tools like spoons and forks. Give your child a chance to use spoons and forks—even if it is messy.
If your 2 year old only eats pureed food at this stage, it's definitely time to start the process of transitioning them to table foods, both to help with their skill development and make sure they're getting the right amounts of nutrition for their growing brain and body.
Health organizations recommend introducing solid foods into a baby's diet around the age of 6 months but not before the age of 4 months. The term “solids” includes pureed or mashed solid foods, such as baby food. This information comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) .
Formula, breast milk, toddler drinks, and baby/toddler food (to include puree pouches) are considered medically necessary liquids.
These are all good reasons we should feed our babies fresh, delicious, real food from the moment they first seize a spoon. Homemade baby food is generally more nutritious and tastier than commercially processed food if it is fresh and made from whole foods and nothing else.