Babies (6-12 months) 

When babies reach 6 months old they begin to need nutrients from solid foods, especially iron. Babies may show signs of wanting to eat solid foods by watching and copying their parents’ eating behaviours. For example, babies might start opening their mouths wide for a spoon, or reaching for food on their parents’ plates. Below are tips for introducing solid foods to babies.

About First Foods

Before starting to feed babies solid food, it’s important to know what foods are best for babies and what foods and food additives can be harmful to them. Make sure to check labels so you know what is in the foods you are buying and feeding babies.
Some nutritious and easy to prepare first foods are:

• Rice cereal
• Peaches
• Barley cereal
• Applesauce
• Bananas
• Carrots
• Pears
• Squash
• Avocados

Tips for Starting Babies on Solid Food

• Try mashing simple foods up, like a banana, and letting your baby try them. These foods can be offered to babies on a parents’ clean finger or on a smooth edged plastic baby spoon.
• Start by offering babies small amounts of food 2 to 3 times per day and then increase this amount to 3 to 4 times per day.
• Give them 1 new food at a time and wait a few days before giving them another new food. Introducing new foods to them in this way helps you figure out how your baby reacts to different kinds of food.
• Don’t add sugar, salt or other spices to the foods you give your baby.

Safety Tips

• Mash foods well to prevent choking.
• Always make sure your baby’s food is not hot! Test the temperature of food yourself first before giving it to your baby.
• Feed babies when they are calm and alert.

For more information on child safety visit the Child Safety at Home and on the Move sections of this site.

Weaning

Weaning babies means to stop breastfeeding them and start feeding them in other ways. Many experts recommend that babies to breastfed until they are at least 1 year old, but this may not be possible for some mothers. Babies that are weaned before they are 1 year old can be fed breast milk in bottles (pumped in advance), or iron-fortified formula (not cow’s milk or goat’s milk) as well as a little bit of baby food.

Tips for Stress-Free Weaning

• Wean babies gradually. For example, if you have to go back to work and your job starts in the morning and ends before dinner time, wean your baby by dropping one afternoon breastfeeding first. Someone else can then bottle feed your baby in the afternoon while you are gone. This way you can still breastfeed first thing in the morning before leaving for work, and in the evening when you come home.
• Give yourself and your baby a few days or 1 week to get use to each breastfeeding time that you drop. Amazingly, your breasts will produce milk at the times you want to breastfeed, and stop producing milk at times when you can’t or don’t want to.

For more information on starting babies on solid foods and/or weaning them, visit the following websites:

Health Canada
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/pubs/infant-nourrisson/nut_infant_nourrisson_term_6-eng.php

BC Health Guide – Starting Solid Foods
http://www.healthlinkbc.ca/healthfiles/hfile69c.stm

BC Health Guide – Weaning
http://www.healthlinkbc.ca/kbase/topic/special/hw97699/sec1.htm

Ask Dr. Sears .com
www.askdrsears.com/html/3/t032000.asp

Baby Center
www.babycenter.ca/baby/startingsolids/introducing/

Parents Canada .com
www.parentscanada.com/eating/articles.aspx?listingid=87

Sources:

BC Health Files. Baby’s First Foods. Child Nutrition Series – HealthFile # 69c, May 2007.http://www.healthlinkbc.ca/healthfiles/hfile69c.stm
Feeding Infants & Toddlers: Starting Solid Foods www.askdrsears.com
BC Health Files. Weaning. http://www.healthlinkbc.ca/kbase/topic/special/hw97699/sec1.htm