What Foods Should My Baby Have First?

Infant Cereal

• When your 4- to 6-month-old baby can sit up with only a little assistance, she can begin eating iron-fortified infant rice cereal. Mix the cereal with formula or breast milk. Using formula or breast milk gives the cereal a familiar, pleasant taste, which helps the baby transition to eating solid foods more easily. Feed your baby from a bowl, with a spoon; never put the rice cereal in a bottle. Start with a high ratio of liquid to cereal, and as your baby gets the hang of eating from a spoon, you can gradually thicken the mixture. After she eats rice cereal for a few weeks, try barley and oatmeal infant cereals.

Pureed Fruits and Veggies

• At 5 to 8 months, your baby should be ready to try fruits and vegetables. When he begins to chew, sits up on his own and grabs things in his hands, you can introduce these foods. Vegetables and hard fruits, such as apples, need to be cooked and pureed smoothly; don̵7;t give your child chunky baby food yet. Soft fruits, like pears, bananas, peaches or avocados don̵7;t need to be pureed, but you should mash them up before feeding. Try a broad range of tastes, textures and colors. For example, try peas, then carrots, then potatoes.

Protein

• By 6 to 8 months, once your baby can chew fairly well, you can give her some protein-based foods. She can now eat meat, such as minced or pureed chicken or fish without any bones. She can begin eating other proteins, too, such as mashed beans, cottage cheese, tofu and plain yogurt.

Juice

• At 6 or 7 months, you can give your baby fruit juice. Some experts, however, recommend waiting until your child reaches his first birthday, notes the Florida Department of Health. If you give your baby juice, only use 100 percent juice, and limit it to 4 oz. a day. Only put juice in a cup, never in a bottle. Never let your baby drink juice in bed; it causes him to develop bad habits and endangers his dental health.

Finger Foods

• By 7 or 8 months, your baby will learn to pick up pieces of food, hold food in her hands, take bites and chew effectively. At this point, you can give your baby some appropriate larger, firmer snacks. Try unsalted crackers, pieces of cooked veggies and meat, slices of soft fruit, bagels, toast, soft pasta in small pieces, rice and cubes of soft cheese.