Food starts small
Milk is still the meal. The spoon is practice, iron, and a new texture. Do not rush it because someone else's baby is already on finger food.
Raising Children says solids matter because older babies need nutrients, including iron and zinc, that milk alone will not cover forever. For the first 6 months they use iron stored from the womb, plus some from breastmilk or formula. Those stores fall as they grow.
Around 6 months, iron-rich food joins in. Solids also teach eating. New tastes, textures, jaw and tooth work, muscles that later help speech.
Ready is a body, not a birthday. Good head and neck control. Sits upright when you support them.
Looks at your food. Reaches. Opens the mouth when the spoon comes.
Most babies do this around 6 months. It varies. Before 4 months, no.
The gut is immature and they cannot chew or swallow well enough. If you are heading for 7 months and nothing has started, ask the nurse or GP rather than waiting for a sign you might have missed.
Timing on the day is when you are both in a decent mood. Often after a breast or bottle, so there is still room and they are not desperate. A starving baby does not want a lesson.
They want the milk they already trust. Hunger later looks like excitement when the bowl appears, leaning in, mouth open. Finished looks like a turned head, a lost interest, a pushed spoon, a clamped mouth.
Appetite swings. Believe the no.
Amount at the start is 1 to 2 teaspoons, once a day. They may taste and spit. That is the session.
Increase with appetite, not with your pride. By 12 months the picture is about 3 small meals a day, still with breastmilk or formula. First textures can be smooth puree or fine mash, loosened with milk if you need.
Then rougher mash, mince, soft pieces. All soft. Variety of texture teaches chewing, and chewing feeds speech and self-feeding.
Teeth are not a prerequisite. You can chew with gums. By 12 months they should be on family food, with some things still chopped and vegetables cooked soft.
You can run this meal. She feeds or pumps or rests. You hold the chair, you offer the spoon, you stop when the mouth shuts.
You do not scrape the puree back in to finish the two teaspoons. The two teaspoons were an offer. Wipe the floor later.
Iron-rich is the aim of what you cook, not a sweet pouch because it is quiet. If you are unsure what counts as iron-rich this week, ask the nurse instead of inventing a superfood. Sit with them.
Choking is a separate risk you already treat by sitting, watching, and keeping pieces small and soft. The first foods are a daily five minutes that slowly become dinner.
Source: Raising Children Network