Purees and Spoon Feeding: Moving to Lumps, Textures and Safer Baby Food

Spoon feeding, done responsively

• Start around 6 months, when your baby sits with little support and no longer pushes food out with the tongue (see the starting solids guide).
• Sit face to face, baby upright in a high chair with feet supported.
• Hold the spoon in front of their mouth and wait for them to open and lean in. Don't slip food in while they're distracted or crying.
• Let them grab the spoon or a second spoon. Preloaded spoons they bring to their own mouth build skill.
• Stop when they turn away, close their mouth, push the spoon off or get fussy. A few teaspoons is a fine first meal. Appetite varies day to day.
• Whoever feeds the baby - parent, grandparent, child care - can follow the same cues.

Moving through textures

Purees are a starting point, not a stage to stay in. A rough path: - About 6 months: smooth or thin purees and soft mashes. Soft finger foods can start now too. - About 7-8 months: thicker, fork-mashed foods with soft lumps (mashed banana, lentils, scrambled egg, flaked fish), plus soft finger foods to hold. - About 8-9 months: minced and chopped soft foods, and more self-feeding. - About 12 months: most soft family foods, cut small. - Research suggests babies who don't get lumpy foods until after about 9 to 10 months are more likely to have feeding difficulties and pickiness later. Move on even if the first lumpy meals bring gagging; gagging is how babies learn to manage texture. - Many families mix spoon feeding and baby-led weaning. See the baby-led weaning guide.

Homemade or store-bought

• Both are fine. Homemade lets you use family foods and adjust texture; store-bought is handy for travel or busy weeks.
• Homemade tips: steam or roast, then blend or mash with water, breast milk or formula. Refrigerate up to about 2 to 3 days, or freeze in small portions. Feed from a bowl, not the jar, so saliva doesn't spoil leftovers.
• Pouches are handy, but spoon or cup feeding from them builds more eating skill than sucking from the spout. Use them now and then, not as the main way your baby eats.

Heavy metals, calmly

• Trace amounts of lead, arsenic and cadmium are found in many foods, homemade and store-bought, because they are in soil and water. Through its Closer to Zero program, the FDA sets guidance levels for some of these elements in foods for babies and young children and works to lower exposure over time.
• The single most useful step is variety: rotate grains, fruits and vegetables instead of serving the same few foods every day.
• Rice tends to carry more arsenic. Use oat, barley or multigrain cereals instead of only rice cereal, go easy on rice cakes and puffs, and cook rice in plenty of water and drain it.
• Skip rice-based teethers, and offer whole fruit over juice.
• Root vegetables like sweet potato and carrot are nutritious; just not at every meal.

Sugar, salt and honey

• No honey under 12 months, raw or cooked, because of infant botulism.
• No added sugar under 2 years. Fruit is a fine sweetener.
• Keep salt low: set the baby's portion aside before salting family food, and limit salty processed foods like deli meats and instant noodles.
• Herbs and spices are welcome. Early exposure to your family's flavors helps later acceptance.

When to check in

• Mention it at the next checkup if your baby still can't manage anything thicker than a smooth puree by about 9 to 10 months.
• Bring up repeated coughing or a wet, gurgly voice during meals, or meals that are a struggle most days.
• A feeding therapist (often a speech or occupational therapist) can help, and children under 3 can be evaluated through Early Intervention.