Introducing solids is an exciting milestone for you and your baby! Around six months of age, most babies are ready to explore new tastes and textures alongside breastmilk or formula. At Little Scholars, we support families through this journey, whether you choose purees or baby-led weaning with soft whole foods.

When to start solids

Most babies show signs of readiness for solids around six months. Look for these cues:

• Sitting up with minimal support

• Showing interest in your food

• Opening their mouth for a spoon or reaching for food

• Losing the tongue-thrust reflex (pushing food out of their mouth automatically) Though as babies begin to take in food, this instinct may remain until they get used to it.

How to begin

Whatever way you approach the first tastes, go slow and offer just a couple of teaspoon-sized portions at first. Hand them a spoon to let them hold, though they’ll likely just eat (squish) with their fingers

You can start by offering food once a day alongside their normal amount of breast milk or formula, then work your way up over the coming weeks to three or more feedings a day.

To help babies adjust to the unique tastes of foods, one approach we like starting with vegetables for the first 14 days, one new, iron-rich vegetable each day. This helps develop a taste for nutritious foods before introducing fruit or other sweet flavours, as they’re already accustomed to sweet flavours through formula or breast milk.

Queensland Health recommends including iron-rich foods every day to help baby grow well, such as lean meat and legumes, baby cereal with iron, and green leafy vegetables. Of course, you’ll need to work up to these denser foods. It’s also recommended to introduce nuts into diets soon, as this can help reduce allergies. However please note we do not offer nut products at our campuses.

Purees versus baby-led weaning

We support both traditional purees and baby-led weaning (BLW). Here’s how they differ:

• Purees: Smooth textures, spoon-fed by a parent or educator, with gradually thicker consistencies over time.

• Baby-led weaning: Soft, whole foods in safe shapes that babies can pick up and feed themselves, encouraging independence and coordination.

Regardless of your approach, always supervise your baby while they eat and offer soft, easy-to-swallow foods. At our campuses, babies are closely supervised during meals and snacks, but we also use these as opportunities to bond, having lots of fun interactions and conversations with our little ones while they eat!