Should i start solids at 5 months

Babies have tiny tummies, so start by offering them small amounts of food just a few pieces, or teaspoons of food. Start offering them food before their usual milk feed as they might not be interested if they're full, but do not wait until your baby is too hungry. It can take 10 tries or more before your baby will accept a new food or texture, particularly as they get older. Your baby will still be getting most of their energy and nutrients from breast milk or first infant formula.

Breast milk or infant formula should be their main drink during the first year. Do not give them whole cows' or goats' or sheep's milk as a drink until they're 1 year old.

Introduce a cup from around 6 months and offer sips of water with meals. Using an open cup or a free-flow cup without a valve will help your baby learn to sip and is better for their teeth.

Try mashed or soft cooked sticks of parsnip, broccoli, potato, yam, sweet potato, carrot, apple or pear. This will help your baby get used to a range of flavours rather than just the sweeter ones, like carrots and sweet potato and might help prevent them being fussy eaters as they grow up.

Foods containing allergens such as peanuts, hens' eggs, gluten and fish can be introduced from around 6 months of age, 1 at a time and in small amounts so you can spot any reaction.

Cows' milk can be used in cooking or mixed with food from around 6 months of age, but should not be given as a drink until your baby is 1 year old. Full-fat dairy products, such as pasteurised cheese and plain yoghurt or fromage frais, can be given from around 6 months of age.

Choose products with no added sugar. As soon as your baby starts solid foods, encourage them to be involved in mealtimes and have fun touching, holding and exploring food.

Let them feed themselves with their fingers when they want to. This helps develop fine motor skills and hand-eye co-ordination. Your baby can show you how much they want to eat, and it gets them familiar with different types and textures of food. Finger food is food that's cut up into pieces big enough for your baby to hold in their fist with a bit sticking out. Start off with finger foods that break up easily in their mouth and are long enough for them to grip.

Avoid hard food, such as whole nuts or raw carrots and apples, to reduce the risk of choking. There's no right or wrong way. The most important thing is that your baby eats a wide variety of food and gets all the nutrients they need. There's no more risk of choking when a baby feeds themselves than when they're fed with a spoon. From about 7 months, your baby will gradually move towards eating 3 meals a day breakfast, lunch and tea , in addition to their usual milk feeds, which may be around 4 a day for example, on waking, after lunch, after tea and before bed.

As your baby eats more solid foods, they may want less milk at each feed or even drop a milk feed altogether. If you're breastfeeding, your baby will adapt their feeds according to how much food they're having.

Gradually increase the amount and variety of food your baby is offered to ensure they get the energy and nutrients they need. Try to include food that contains iron, such as meat, fish, fortified breakfast cereals, dark green vegetables, beans and lentils, at each meal.

As your baby becomes a more confident eater, remember to offer them more mashed, lumpy and finger foods. Providing finger foods as part of each meal helps encourage infants to feed themselves, develop hand and eye co-ordination, and learn to bite off, chew and swallow pieces of soft food.

From about 10 months, your baby should now be having 3 meals a day breakfast, lunch and tea , in addition to their usual milk feeds. Around this age, your baby may have about 3 milk feeds a day for instance, after breakfast, after lunch and before bed. Remember that formula-fed babies should take a vitamin D supplement if they're having less than ml of formula a day.

They should be able to manage a wider range of finger foods, and be able to pick up small pieces of food and move them to their mouth. They'll use a cup with more confidence. Lunches and teas can include a main course, and a fruit or unsweetened dairy-based dessert, to move eating patterns closer to those of children over 1 year. From 12 months, your child will be eating 3 meals a day containing a variety of different foods , including:.

The World Health Organization recommends that all babies are breastfed for up to 2 years or longer. You can keep breastfeeding for as long as it suits you both, but your child will need less breast milk to make room for more foods. Once your child is 12 months old, infant formula is not needed and toddler milks, growing-up milks and goodnight milks are also unnecessary. Your baby can now drink whole cows' milk. Choose full-fat dairy products, as children under 2 years old need the vitamins and extra energy found in them.

From 2 years old, if they're a good eater and growing well, they can have semi-skimmed milk. You can give your child unsweetened calcium-fortified milk alternatives, such as soya, oat or almond drinks, from the age of 1 as part of a healthy, balanced diet. Children under 5 years old should not be given rice drinks because of the levels of arsenic in these products.

For information and advice you can trust, sign up for weekly Start4Life pregnancy and baby emails. Page last reviewed: 1 March Next review due: 1 March Your baby's first solid foods. When to start introducing solid foods Introducing your baby to solid foods, sometimes called complementary feeding or weaning, should start when your baby is around 6 months old. For more information about how to know if your baby is ready to starting eating foods, what first foods to offer, and what to expect, watch these videos from 1, Days.

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend children be introduced to foods other than breast milk or infant formula when they are about 6 months old. Introducing foods before 4 months old is not recommended. Every child is different. How do you know if your child is ready for foods other than breast milk or infant formula?

You can look for these signs that your child is developmentally ready. The American Academy of Pediatrics says that for most children, you do not need to give foods in a certain order.

Your child can begin eating solid foods at about 6 months old. By the time he or she is 7 or 8 months old, your child can eat a variety of foods from different food groups. These foods include infant cereals, meat or other proteins, fruits, vegetables, grains, yogurts and cheeses, and more.

If your child is eating infant cereals, it is important to offer a variety of fortified alert icon infant cereals such as oat, barley, and multi-grain instead of only rice cereal. Only providing infant rice cereal is not recommended by the Food and Drug Administration because there is a risk for children to be exposed to arsenic. Visit the U. Now that your child is starting to eat food, be sure to choose foods that give your child all the vitamins and minerals they need.

This includes babies with a family history of food allergies. In the past, they thought that babies should not get such foods like eggs , peanuts , and fish until after the first birthday. But recent studies suggest that waiting that long could make a baby more likely to develop food allergies. Offer these foods to your baby as soon as your little one starts eating solids. Make sure they're served in forms that your baby can easily swallow.

Fruit juices are not recommended for babies. Juice offers no health benefits, even to older babies. Juice can fill them up leaving little room for more nutritious foods , promote obesity, cause diarrhea , and even put a baby at risk for cavities when teeth start coming in. Reviewed by: Madhu Desiraju, MD. Larger text size Large text size Regular text size. Other signs that babies are ready to eat solids foods: They're interested in foods. For example, they may watch others eat, reach for food, and open their mouths when food approaches.