π₯ Food & home Β· Guide
First Foods
Six weeks from the first spoon to eating what you eat
First Foods
Six weeks from the first spoon to eating what you eat
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A4 Β· this is a layout preview in the βField Notesβ design. When you generate, the studio writes every chapter in full, paints the cover and chapter art, and composes a downloadable A4 PDF with your name, bio and store link on it.
Starting solids is one of the few parenting jobs with a clear beginning and a clear end. For a few weeks it takes over the kitchen, and then one morning your baby is eating what you are eating and you barely notice it happened. This guide sets out six weeks at a sensible pace and says plainly which of the many rules you have been told actually matter.
What's inside
- 1Are they ready, and when to startYou learn the three signs of readiness that matter more than the date on the calendar, and what to do if your baby shows two of them but not the third. After this chapter you know whether to start this week or wait a fortnight, and who to ask if you are unsure.
- 2The kit you actually needYou come away with a short list of things worth buying and a longer list of things that will sit unused in a cupboard. This chapter also covers seating and floor covering, which make more difference to your temper than any gadget.
- 3Weeks one and two: single tastesYou offer one new food at a time at a calm point in the day and keep a two-line record of what happened. By the end of the fortnight you have a handful of foods your baby has met and a rhythm that fits around milk feeds.
- 4Weeks three and four: lumps, fingers and messYou move from smooth puree to soft lumps and finger-sized pieces, the step most families leave later than they should. This chapter shows how to make one pan of family food work in both forms so you are not cooking twice.
- 5Allergens, gagging and chokingYou introduce the common allergen foods deliberately rather than by accident, and learn the difference between gagging, which is normal and noisy, and choking, which is quiet. After this chapter you have an order for allergen foods and a plan for getting trained in infant first aid.
- 6Weeks five and six: eating what you eatYou bring your baby to the family meal, adjust your own cooking so it suits both of you, and stop making separate food. The chapter ends with the three things worth doing when a meal is refused, and the several habits that make refusal worse.
A sample from chapter one
Readiness is three signs, not a birthday
Current UK guidance is to start solid food at around six months, but the date is less useful than what you can see in front of you. Three signs matter, and you want all three. Your baby can sit up and hold their head steady, they can look at food, pick it up and get it to their mouth, and they can swallow it rather than push it straight back out.
Two out of three is not a starting signal. Chewing fists, waking in the night and watching you eat are all things babies do at four months, and none of them means hunger for solids. If you are unsure, or your baby was born early or has a health condition, ask your health visitor or GP before you begin. A fortnight of waiting costs nothing at all.
- Wait for all three signs of readiness rather than acting on any single one.
- Offer the first tastes at a time of day when nobody is rushed, about an hour after a milk feed.
- Keep milk feeds as they are for the first fortnight, since early food is practice rather than replacement.
- Write two lines after each new food: what it was, and what happened.
Key takeaways
- The signs of readiness tell you more than the calendar does.
- For the first few weeks solid food is practice and milk is still the meal.
- If anything about readiness is unclear, a health visitor can usually settle it in one conversation.
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