Feeding your Baby Solid Foods
Introducing solid foods can be exciting. It also comes with a lot of questions. Every baby is unique when it comes to learning to eat solid foods.
Your baby is ready to start eating solid foods at about six months of age. While breastmilk remains the most important food, extra nutrients, such as iron, are needed from food. At six months (give or take a few weeks), look for all these signs that show your baby is ready for solids. Baby:
- holds their head up
- sits up in a highchair at the family table
- opens their mouth wide when you offer a spoon
- turns their face away when they don’t want food
- closes their lips over the spoon
- keeps food in their mouth and swallows it instead of pushing it out
Do you have questions about feeding your baby solid foods? Contact a Public Health Nurse on our Healthy Growth and Development team at 519-663-5317 (press 5), talk to your healthcare provider, or find a Registered Dietitian.
Baby’s First Foods
At six months, offer iron-rich foods such as:
- cooked beef, chicken, turkey, pork, lamb
- cooked fish
- cooked eggs (poached, boiled, scrambled)
- tofu
- well-cooked legumes such as beans, lentils, and chickpeas
- iron-fortified infant cereal
After your baby has started eating iron-rich foods and has been offered them twice a day, offer other foods such as:
- vegetables and fruits
- food made with whole grains
- milk products, such as yogurt and cheese
- homogenized milk (wait until your baby is 9-12 months)
Foods to wait to introduce until your baby is at least 12 months:
- honey
Iron for Babies and Young Children
Did you know… In the first year of life, babies are growing so fast that they need more iron than a full-grown man.
Iron is a mineral found in many foods and in your blood. Iron in the blood carries oxygen to all parts of the body, helps build red blood cells, is important for healthy brain development, and helps cells work properly. If your child is not getting enough iron, they could develop anemia. Children with anemia can have a poor appetite, poor weight gain, lack of energy, irritability, and learning difficulties.
Where does iron come from?
From birth to about six months of age, full-term babies use the stores of iron that they were born with, and they also receive iron from breastmilk. At about six months of age, your baby’s iron stores will run out, and your baby will need additional iron from food.
Foods contain two forms of iron
- Heme iron: Found in animal foods. Our bodies absorb heme iron the best. Sources include chicken, beef, fish, liver, turkey, and lamb.
- Non-heme iron: Found in plant foods. It is not absorbed as well by the body as heme iron. Sources include whole grain and enriched breads and cereals, lentils, dried peas and beans, dark leafy green vegetables, eggs (whole), dried fruit and iron fortified infant cereals.
How to increase absorption of non-heme iron
Non-heme iron can be better used by the body when you eat food containing heme iron at the same time. Foods rich in vitamin C can help your body use non-heme iron. Eat these at the same time. Vitamin C rich foods include citrus fruits, cantaloupe, strawberries, broccoli, peppers, and tomatoes.
Does my child need an iron supplement?
Full-term, breastfed babies who start eating iron-rich foods at about six months of age usually do not need an iron supplement. Talk to your healthcare provider if you have further questions.
How can I increase my child’s iron intake?
- Breastfeed for as long as possible. The iron in breastmilk is the best absorbed iron.
- Introduce a variety of iron-rich foods at about 6 months of age.
- Do not give your child older than 9 months of age more than 500-750 milliliters of milk per day. Too much milk will make your child feel full and decrease their appetite for iron-rich foods.
- Include at least one iron-rich food and one food rich in vitamin C at each meal.
- Add cooked dried beans or lentils to soups, stews and casseroles.
- Look for iron rich recipes such as this one from BC Healthlink
Family Meals
Include your baby in family meals, as this helps to teach babies better eating habits. Enjoying meals as a family may also help encourage babies and children to try new foods. Do not get discouraged if your baby does not seem to like a food. They often need to try new foods multiple times before they eat it regularly.
Responsive feeding supports children’s self-regulation and fosters a positive relationship with food through consistent meal routines and attention to hunger and fullness cues (Rossiter et al., 2024).
Tips for supporting responsive feeding:
Before Mealtime:
- Ask children if they are hungry. Encourage them to tune into their body.
- Tell children what will be served to build trust and set expectations.
- Involve children in meal preparation or table-setting to build interest and ownership.
- Offer only water between meals and snacks.
- Prepare children for mealtime with handwashing and a calm transition.
- Limit waiting time once children are seated.
During Mealtime:
- Use small dishes to encourage self-serving and promote independence.
- Respect children’s appetite. Trust them to decide what and how much to eat from the foods offered. Appetites and preferences can vary.
- Eat together. Model positive social and eating habits.
- Encourage food exploration using the senses even if they aren’t ready to taste it.
- Keep mealtimes free from screens, toys, and pressure.
- Ensure conversations are positive. Talk about food in neutral, non-judgmental ways. Avoid labeling food as 'good' or 'bad'.
- Check in by asking if they are hungry for more or if their belly feels full.
After Mealtime:
- Limit waiting time at the table after children are done eating.
- Let children know when and what the next meal or snack will be.
- Support the transition to the next activity by involving children in simple tasks, such as clearing dishes or washing hands.
Learn more at Celebrate Feeding.
Texture
Offer a variety of soft textures, such as finely minced, mashed, ground, lumpy foods, and finger foods to your baby starting at six months of age. This helps your baby develop chewing and swallowing skills. By one year of age, very few pureed foods should be offered.
Family foods can be mashed with a fork and served on a spoon, cut into pieces the size of a green pea or cut into soft “strips”. Most babies will not learn to use a fork or spoon well until after one year of age. Some families follow baby-led weaning, an approach that allows a baby to feed themselves soft-cooked cut-up finger foods right away.
Making homemade baby food can be an easy and economical choice. Choose nutritious ingredients, cook and store food safely, and be careful about cleanliness.
Changes in Bowel Habits
Introducing solid foods to your baby may change their bowel habits. Different babies will have different bowel habits - some babies may have more than one bowel movement per day, while other babies might skip some days. Many parents become concerned that their baby might become constipated after introducing solid foods. True constipation is rare, and can cause stomach pain, bloating, gas, poor appetite and crankiness. Learn about the signs and treatment of infant constipation.
Food Allergies
An allergy is an abnormal reaction of the immune system to a protein in food. Food allergies are more common when a baby’s sibling or parent has allergies, asthma or eczema.
While some foods are more likely to cause allergies than others, it is recommended to offer these foods at six months. Introduce only one of these foods every two days (if there is a reaction, it will likely appear within 48 hours):
- whole eggs
- milk
- mustard
- fish and shellfish
- sesame
- soy
- tree nut butters (e.g., almond butter, cashew butter, peanut butter)
- wheat products, including wheat-based infant cereals.
During this two-day waiting period, look for signs and symptoms of a food allergy in your baby, such as diarrhea, vomiting, skin rash, hives, and breathing problems. If you think your baby has an allergy, contact your healthcare provider.
When introducing foods not found in the list above, you do not need to wait before introducing another new food. Help prevent food allergy in your baby.
Introducing Milk
You can introduce 3.25% homogenized cow’s milk at 9 to 12 months of age once your baby is eating iron-rich foods at least twice a day. Offer milk in an open cup.
If you want to offer a plant-based beverage to your baby instead of cow’s milk, wait until 24 months of age. Many plant-based beverages do not have enough fat and protein to support a young child’s growth. Before 24 months of age, soy formula is the best plant-based option.
For more information, check out Nutritional Content of Plant-Based Beverages.
Feeding Your Vegetarian Baby
A vegetarian diet that includes a variety of foods from Canada’s Food Guide will help your baby grow well and be healthy. However, a vegetarian diet that lacks too many nutrients may put your baby’s growth and health at risk.
Starting at six months, introduce iron-rich infant cereal, whole cooked eggs. and pureed or mashed plant-based proteins, such as tofu, dried peas, beans and lentils. Once your baby is eating iron-rich foods twice a day, offer vegetables, fruit, whole grains and milk or soy products.
Downloadable PDFs
- Feeding Your Baby: A Guide to Help You Introduce Solid Foods (Nutrition Connections) English, French
- Feeding Your Baby from 6-8 Months English, French, Arabic, Spanish
- Feeding Your Baby From About 9 Months English, French, Arabic, Spanish
- Help Prevent Food Allergy in Your Baby (Food Allergy Canada)
UnlockFood.ca
Health Canada. (2025). Nutrition for healthy term infants. Recommendations from birth to six months. Retrieved from
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/nutrition/infant-nourisson/recom/index-eng.php
Health Canada. (2024). Nutrition for healthy term infants. Recommendations from six to 24 months. Retrieved from
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/nutrition/infant-nourisson/recom/recom-6-24-months-6-24-mois-eng.php
Celebrate Feeding (n.d.). An Educator's Quick Guide to Responsive Feeding. Retrieved from
Rossiter, M. D., Young, M., Dickson, E., Campbell, J. E., Caldwell, S., & Mcisaac, J.-L. (2024). CELEBRATE Feeding: A Responsive Approach to Food and Feeding in Early Learning Settings. Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research, 85(3), 169–173. https://doi.org/10.3148/cjdpr-2024-009