6-month-old food ideas: first foods and simple meals

What can a 6-month-old eat?

A baby can begin solid foods at about 6 months, according to the CDC, and the best place to start is with foods that contain iron.¹² In practice that means smooth, mashed or puréed meat, poultry, egg, beans, lentils, tofu or iron-fortified infant cereal, with vegetables and fruit alongside.²³

Babies are usually ready when they open their mouth as you offer food and swallow it instead of pushing it back out onto their chin.¹ If yours isn’t there yet, it’s fine to wait a little; breast milk or formula is still doing the heavy lifting. The AAP recommends breast milk alone for about the first 6 months.³

How to start: texture and pace

At 6 months, the goal is practice, not a full stomach.

Start very smooth. The CDC says mashed, puréed or strained foods are easiest at first, and that foods should be soft enough to dissolve with saliva and not need chewing.¹ If a food is too thick, the AAP suggests thinning it, then gradually thickening the texture.³

Keep the first tastes tiny. The AAP suggests starting with half a spoonful or less and building up slowly.³ Offer one single-ingredient food at a time, and wait 3 to 5 days before the next new one so you can spot a reaction.¹³ Once a food has gone well, it can be mixed with others.

Our guide to purées versus baby-led weaning covers the self-feeding route, and how much solid food a baby should eat explains amounts.

Best first foods for a 6-month-old

Iron comes in two forms. Heme iron, in meat, poultry and eggs, is absorbed more easily; non-heme iron, in fortified infant cereal, tofu, beans, lentils and dark green leafy vegetables, is less easily absorbed.² Pairing non-heme sources with vitamin C-rich foods such as berries, broccoli, tomatoes, papaya or sweet potato helps.²

Don’t put infant cereal in a bottle, because your baby could choke.³ And vary the cereal: the CDC suggests oat, barley and multigrain rather than only rice, since feeding only rice cereal can increase the risk of arsenic exposure.¹

What the first few weeks can look like

Because new foods go in one at a time, a sensible start is slow and a little repetitive. That’s by design, not a sign you’re behind.

• Week 1: one iron-rich food, such as puréed beef or oat cereal, for 3 to 5 days, then a second.¹³
• Week 2: add a vegetable or fruit, again one at a time, and start pairing it with the foods that went well.
• Week 3 onward: mix familiar foods into simple meals, and add allergenic foods like egg alongside the others.¹

Texture changes gradually too. The CDC notes that by 7 or 8 months, babies can eat a variety of foods from different food groups.¹ Until then, a spoonful that gets spat out is just practice. Offer it again another day.

Six simple meal ideas

Each of these uses foods your baby has already tried on their own. Serve a spoonful or two at a calm moment, when your baby is alert and not overtired, then offer breast milk or formula. Cook everything without salt or sugar, and warm it only until it’s comfortably lukewarm; stir well and test it on your wrist.

Yogurt without added sugars is fine before 12 months, so a spoonful of plain yogurt with mashed fruit works too.¹

For more iron ideas, see iron-rich foods for babies, and protein for babies for the other building block. When your baby is a few months in, 9-month-old food ideas covers soft finger foods, and 10-month-old meal ideas has a full sample day with finger foods.

What about allergens?

The CDC advises introducing potentially allergenic foods, such as egg, nut butters and wheat, when you introduce other foods.¹ Peanut should be thinned into a purée or a thin spread; the AAP warns against thick chunks of nut butter and whole nuts.⁶ If your baby has severe eczema or an egg allergy, talk to your pediatrician before introducing peanut.¹ Our guide to introducing allergens to baby has the details.

Foods and drinks to skip before 12 months

• Honey, in any form — don’t give it before 12 months.⁴ It carries a risk of botulism, a serious illness; here’s why honey waits until 12 months.
• Cow’s milk as a drink — it isn’t recommended until after 12 months and can risk intestinal bleeding.¹⁴
• Juice — no fruit or vegetable juice before 12 months.⁴
• Added sugars and salty foods — infants shouldn’t have added sugars, and high-salt foods like canned foods and processed meats should be avoided.⁴
• Choking hazards — whole nuts and seeds, whole grapes, popcorn, hot dogs, meat sticks, chunks of cheese, marshmallows and hard or sticky candy.⁵⁶

Have your baby sit up to eat, never in a car or stroller, and watch them the whole time.⁵ As foods get chunkier, the AAP says to cut them into pieces no larger than half an inch.⁶

When to talk to your pediatrician

Never give vitamin or iron drops on your own; your pediatrician will tell you whether and how much. If your baby keeps turning away from the spoon, see why babies refuse solids.

Common questions