First Foods for 6 Month Olds
The first 4-6 months of a baby’s life is called their perceptual developmental stage, this is when a baby is developing all of their primary senses: vision, hearing, touch and tastes are all being developed during the first 6 months of life at rapid speed. With sense of taste and touch now greatly developed it’s the perfect time to experiment with new foods while establishing the fundamentals of healthy food choices.
The first thing you may be wondering is how much food should a child this age be eating and in what quantities? A baby of 6 months of age should still have the bulk of their meal in breastmilk or formula however; at this age solid food is just as important because it aids in exploration. It is mostly just for fun for the baby. Solid foods should satisfy not just their sense of hunger but their sensory needs as well. This is why you often hear of babies dumping big bowls of spaghetti on their head and smearing the tomato sauce all over their face. A 6 month old baby is not able to chew food; they will swish the foods around in their mouth, suck on it and eventually swallow. All babies are different and you should take cues from your own child as to when to start solids.
Here is some foods that you can start feeding your 6 month old baby. These foods meet the delicate sensory needs of this age.
Baby food – both jarred pureed and solids. You can also make your own baby food by blending ingredients until it is a puree. You may feed both fruit and vegetable purees. I have always started with a green veggie, then orange veggie then tried fruit.
Cereals with or without fruit mixed into it – babies at this age can have rice, oat and barley cereal with most fruit mixed in. I have always added breastmilk to mine and completely skipped the rice cereal.
and when they get a little older they can have:
Protein – pureed chicken, tofu and turkey are good choices and as the baby gets accustomed to the pureed version you can add in chunky baby foods. You can also find these in the grocery store.
