What can my 6 month old eat?

[Katieemilyxo]

My son is just coming up 6 months old and I was wondering when he does hit 6 months what I can feed him my family nurse tells me he can eat literally anything cooked broccoli and carrots bits of meat rice pasta skips watsits potatoe,a 6 month old can eat pasta? But some books say from 6 months you should still blend there food im so confused as my family nurse says I could literally boil some vegetables and he could just eat them like fingers food no need to blend I have no idea whats right can anyone give me a clue on what I could feed him

[PennyHasNoSurname]

You can feed him anything except honey and whole nuts (honey has some sort of risk to babies respiratory system and whole nuts in case of choking). Id also recommend cutting grapes (lengthways rather than round the middle)

At six moths we started weaning dcs on finger foods - steamed brocoli, chicken strips, yorkshire puds, omelette cooked firmly and cut into strips, fingers of fruit, toast with different toppings, quesedillas.

Essentially whatever you eat they can eat (hold the salt though).

[dementedpixie]

Honey can cause infant botulism (very bad food poisoning) and whole nuts are a choking risk. You can give a mix of finger foods and mashed/puréed foods. Avoid salty foods like skips and wotsits for the moment! You can get more kiddy friendly versions of them if you really want to give that sort of thing.

Meats, pasta, bread, toast, cereals, fruits, veg, yoghurt, cheese are all ok from 6 months

[Katieemilyxo]

Do I have to blend them? Or can I give him like a small finger slice of cheese or toast by itself its all so confusing for me this family nurse saids I can give him a big bit of meat for him to suck on can you really do this the thought of him choking scared mee!

[CheeseEMouse]

As dementedpixie say, they can eat most things. Basically there are a couple of schools of thought on weaning - with my second I did something called "baby led weaning" - which is basically giving them finger food and letting them explore/eat it. The advantage I found is that I am not doing something special for the baby, but it is messy. With my daughter I did some spoon feeding too - of pureed veg and fruit etc as well as giving her finger foods.

There are some baby and toddler recipe books which you could borrow from the library and could give you some ideas of what to do. The thing I found helpful to remember is that the baby has never really tasted anything before apart from milk so they pull all sorts of faces - it doesn't mean they don't like it.

[abigail12]

If you want to go down the baby led weaning (finger foods only) route -which I heartily recommend, there is a fantastic book called The Baby Led Weaning Cookbook by Gill Rapley. It has lots of great recipe ideas, explains the do's and don'ts and basically all you need to know. Cant rate it highly enough, made my life so much easier xx

[CheeseEMouse]

No - you don't need to blend everything. So toast, for example, you could give as soldiers. It will often be waved about and not eaten, but that's fine too.

I found the section on choking in the Gill Rapley book on baby led weaning helpful to read and it reassured me about what I was doing.

[CheeseEMouse]

X post!

[Katieemilyxo]

Thank you so much do you know where I can buy this book x

[abigail12]

I got mine on amazon. Worth every penny, I still use some of the recipes and my kids are 4 and 5!

[ODog]

You can give them anything but honey and whole nuts as pps have said. You don't need to blend anything or spoon feed but they won't actually eat much on their own with finger foods at that age. Which is totally fine by the way. Google baby led weaning and decide if it is for you. The decision was made for me as my DS wouldn't take anything off a spoon at that age. Annoyingly at 19mo he often asks for us to feed him when he is quite capable of it himself!

[Sparrowlegs248]

Im doing baby led and bought the book. Ds is 6 months in 3 days but has been reaching out to get food for 3 weeks. 2 weeks ago i started letting him have a few bits. Most successful have been quite soft fruits and Veg. Banana (whole - trim an inch or two of skin back at a time) nectarines slices, pear fingers. Broccoli, cauliflower, avocado.

[Sparrowlegs248]

He did have a bug chunk of pork to suck on too. Cheese on toast finger is the one thing he has almost choked on. Got a soggy bit stuck.

[Sparrowlegs248]

Don't give skips or wotsits though! Get baby specific stuff with no salt.

[ImogenTubbs]

We did a lot of puréed veg at that age, but it's totally a personal choice whether you do that, or go with finger food, or a bit of both. At that age and for several months after most of their nutrition will still come from milk, so it's more about getting them used to the idea of eating and trying lots of different flavours. As PP's have said, avoid honey, whole nuts/grapes or anything too salty/ sugary.