Weaning: What foods to start with

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Mashed avocadoes or bananas are great first foods to try. In addition, try your baby with sweet potatoes, carrots, sweet apples or pears. Just cook until soft and then puree in a blender. Baby rice mixed with expressed breast milk or formula can also be a good starter food.

With all the best intentions in the world, it will not always be possible to whip up incredible, well-prepared, organic food for your precious infant, at the drop of a hat. There may be times when you are caught short somewhere, and you need to use some prepared baby food. This is not the end of the world, and like anything, moderation is the key!

However, the more you can manage to make at home yourself, the better. Using fresh ingredients will have a higher nutritional value than food from a packet and is probably going to taste better too.

If you're considering which first foods to try your baby on, you may find the following guideline helpful, as it tells you which foods are appropriate for your baby at each stage of his development. 

Before Six Months:

Whether breastfeeding or otherwise you'll need to be aware that certain foods can cause an allergic reaction in babies and therefore should not be given before the age of six months, after which point the immune system is a little more established.

Foods that may cause an allergic reaction in young children include;

• Eggs
• Fish and Shellfish
• Nuts and Seeds
• Wheat, Barley, Rye and Oats which contain gluten. 
• Citrus Fruits
• Dairy Products

Foods to try after Six Months:

• Cereals like baby rice, millet and maize (all gluten-free).
• Pureed fruit and vegetables. Try: sweet potato, avocado pears, carrot, swede, butternut squash, apples, pears or banana
• Cooled, boiled water.
• Breast (or formula) milk.

Seven to Nine Months:

• Cereals like the gluten-free ones above.
• Introduce wheat-based products slowly: wheat biscuits, porridge, rusks etc.
• Leafy green vegetables as well as other fruit and vegetables.
• Lentil purees.
• Mashed potato.
• Pureed meats mixed with vegetables.
• Pureed fish mixed with vegetables. (Watch out for bones!)

Nine to Twelve Months:

Your baby will be developing a real appetite for solid food now and it will be likely that you will have progressed from the initial one meal a day. Probably, your baby will be eating breakfast, lunch and dinner. She will enjoy holding her food in her hands and will particularly delight in making an enormous mess everywhere. Teeth might help with the foods that are less pureed now and as well as all the other delicious foods you have been experimenting with, and now you can try some new things:

• Well-cooked eggs.
• Finger food, like baby rice cakes and breadsticks.
• Bread.
• Fromage frais.
• Yoghurt.
• Red Meat.
• Oranges.
• Strawberries and Kiwis (although monitor carefully as some babies are allergic)