Baby Food Introduction, Purées, Solids and Meal Time Practices

Baby food introductions
I have been asked about baby food introduction more than anything else and all I can share is what we did, and what has worked for us. Nourishing your child is, in my opinion, the second most important place to put your energy. In my world, it falls immediately after the unconditional love and affection bit. Nourishing my baby is one of the scariest, biggest and widest unknowns I have ever encountered. Even knowing what I know about health and nutrition, determining what to feed my son had me hitting the books and asking for advice from all the holistic mamas I know. Every child is different and every child’s needs will vary as will every parent’s comfort level in defying what seems to have been the way things have ‘always been done’. I have outlined below what we have done for our son and for our family that works and makes sense for us. You are encouraged to take what you want, leave what you don’t and define a lifestyle and diet that works for you!

Key Resources for baby food introduction

I don’t have the time to get into why we have chosen what we have chosen below. But if you believe you would like to follow a similar path, I highly recommend picking up these two books that goes into in-depth detail: I also love the  Facebook Group Superfood Babies and Little Warrior Nutrition

Birth to 5 Months

From birth to the 5 month mark, I exclusively nursed our son. There were times when my milk was plentiful and times when I struggled. I made nursing my son a priority and it wasn’t always easy. He would wake to feed anywhere from two to four times at night, from birth until he was six months old, after which time this dropped down to once or twice. (He stopped waking up to eat on his own around eight months, the same time he started eating with a lot more gusto). Committing to nursing 100% was not easy. As I have my own business I was going into work three days a week. I would usually nurse my son right before I left. He would get one bottle of pumped milk while I was at work, and I would pump at work, and be home in time to nurse him before his final nap. If you are committing to nursing 100% and want to try and make that doable, start pumping as soon as you can find the space in your day, bag it and freeze it. Get your baby used to taking a bottle as early as possible. Some say there can be nipple confusion if you start on a bottle too early. In my experience, you can get a slow flow nipple for the bottle so you don’t make it too easy – and the consensus among my mom friends is that they will always prefer the real deal. The trickier part is getting them to accept the bottle. Our son would only take a bottle when I was out of the house, and he’d be given it in his bouncy chair, or sitting upright, as opposed to being cradled as he was when he was nursed. My last thing about nursing 100% and how hard it is – I knew that I wasn’t making enough milk to nurse him, or just didn’t have the energy to nurse as frequently as he wanted. As he was up there in his weight class, I wasn’t too worried, but I knew his sleeping would improve when we could get more food into him.

First Two Foods Introduced at 5 Months

Though many begin food introduction at four months, the typical holistic recommendation is to wait until six months for any food introduction but because our son was so hungry, always crying after nursing as he couldn’t get enough (and yes, I was supplementing to increase my milk) we started earlier.
  1. Bone Broth: This was an easy one and he LOVED bone broth from the start. I made a basic broth, adding a pinch of salt and he was all over it and it agreed with him very well. He couldn’t get enough.
  2. Egg Yolk: This wasn’t such a success. I soft boiled the yolk and mashed it up. He ate it three or four times without issue. The final time, however, he had an allergic reaction to it and two hours after eating it, he was throwing up and dry heaving for an hour until he just fell asleep. It was terrifying. This, apparently, is the common allergic reaction to egg yolk, where a baby will be fine for the first few exposures and then have a reaction. We have not re-introduced eggs to date and will wait at least until 18 months if not two years to try again.

Six Months to Eight Months: The Purée Stage

Baby Puree Recipes I was stoked to make purées and I was determined to spice them up, literally. A few of my own guidelines I followed with purées were:
  • Avoid straight-up sweet/fruit purées. I felt like this would make introducing the savoury ones more difficult.
  • Thin the purées with bone broth and/or fats like ghee, tallow, or coconut oil.
  • Add spices, and don’t be shy about it – turmeric, clove, cinnamon, cardamom, cayenne, ginger, garlic etc.
  • Purée meats, poultry and organs along with vegetables and broth.
  • Offer a variety of different purées throughout the day and sometimes at a single meal to keep it interesting.
  • Introduce different flavours: savoury, sour, pungent etc.
You want to ensure your baby is hungry when they sit down to eat. You don’t want them so hungry that they’re irritable and too hungry to calm down to eat, but it helps when they’re ready. And they’re also human, so some of the things that can stimulate our appetite can help them too. Sauerkraut

The ‘Kraut Trick

One of our go-to ‘tricks’ to get our little man eating was to give him a few spoonfuls of sauerkraut juice. He loved it and even if halfway through a meal he stopped eating, a little sip of kraut juice would get him back in the game!

Sample Purée Recipes

  • Carrot, broth, chicken, turmeric, sea salt
  • Carrot, chicken broth, beef fat, cinnamon clove
  • Squash, ghee, broth, sea salt
  • Squash, ghee, broth, cinnamon
  • Beets, beef fat, sea salt
  • Sweet potato, ghee, sea salt
  • Celery root, beef fat, sea salt
  • Apricot, ghee, cinnamon, cardamom
  • Carrot, cinnamon, turmeric, beef broth, beef fat
  • Sweet potato, beef broth, beef fat, salt
  • Stewed beef, beef broth
  • Boiled chicken liver, broth, sea salt
  • Chicken (from chicken soup), broth, turmeric, ghee

Fill out the form below to get your Baby Food Inspiration Guide.


baby food introduction

What About Baby-Led Weaning (Also Known as Baby-Led Feeding)?

Baby-led feeding is where we decide to skip purées altogether and give babies well-cooked, low-choking risk foods in sizes they can easily pick up and feed themselves. The basic rules to know if your baby is ready are:
  • They are able to sit up, unsupported, by themselves
  • They have at least one tooth
Adults have a gag reflex on their tongue, mostly towards the back. Babies have a much more sensitive gag reflex that takes up more of their tongue and moves back as they develop. Well, our son was able to sit on his own and had a tooth or two, but he gagged so hard when we gave him solid food that I just wasn’t comfortable doing it. Baby-led feeding didn’t work for us as a food introduction technique. Many parents (and studies!) swear that it made their babies better eaters, more open to new foods, less picky, better ability to regulate food intake and loads of other claimed benefits. This all may be true, but it also doesn’t need to be the only way to get there.

Eight Months to One Year

baby meals Around eight months, our son was really getting into eating and that’s when it got fun! The photos above are usually the first portion. We’ve found overfilling his bowl gets him a little overwhelmed. We also often serve the food mixed together rather than as pictured above which is a great way to introduce new foods.

Paleo Baby: Skipping The Grains and Beans

The resources I outlined at the top of the post go into great detail about why we are following the recommendation to avoid grains for the first 18 months of life, so I encourage you to get those books.  In very top level summary, a baby’s intestines is still developing and highly permeable and a baby’s immune system is still getting established. Additionally, babies don’t begin producing amylase, the primary enzyme to help us digest starch until around 18 months. As grains can be tougher to digest, it’s recommended to avoid grains to help reduce risk of sensitivity and allergies. We’ve also not had any issue with constipation and so far, he has eaten everything we’ve put before him. He definitely has his favourite meals (chicken and sweet potatoes) and the things that he’s a little less excited about (sardines) but so far, he’s been a champ with trying new foods. From eight months onwards we began introducing a variety of foods that predominantly fit into a Paleo style of eating. His diet is mostly:
  • poultry (chicken, turkey)
  • fish (trout, cod, sardines, halibut, pickerel)
  • fish roe
  • beef
  • wild game (venison, bison, elk)
  • liver
  • bone marrow
  • fats (ghee, coconut oil, chicken schmultz, beef tallow, olive oil, flax oil)
  • fermented foods (sauerkraut, pickles, fermented coconut milk)
  • variety of vegetables (sweet potato, carrots, butternut squash, acorn squash, beets, turnips, parsnips, broccoli, cauliflower, steamed/chopped leafy greens, onions, garlic, asparagus and pretty much anything we can get organic and in-season)
  • mushrooms (brown button, shiitake, oyster, lion’s mane)
  • chopped fresh herbs (parsley, cilantro, basil)
  • some fruits (avocado, cucumber, banana, mango, watermelon, raspberries, blueberries, cherries, apple, pear, apricots, nectarines, peaches, grapes, coconut)
To date we have avoided all dairy, grains, beans, nuts, legumes and citrus. We are waiting until 18 months to introduce grains, grain-type foods, beans and dairy. Our next introduction will be nut and seed butters.

10 Meal Ideas For A One-Year-Old

We aim to combine a protein, a cooked vegetable, and a raw food like cucumber or sauerkraut with every meal. A few sample meals include:
  • Roast chicken, roast sweet potato cooked in ghee, chopped sauerkraut
  • Sardines, carrots cooked in coconut oil, cumin and lemon, sliced cucumber
  • Baked trout with dijon mustard, cauliflower, chopped pickles
  • Venison burger (homemade) with roasted parsnips, cherry tomatoes, and broccoli
  • Fish roe, sautéed spinach in ghee and sea salt, sautéed mushrooms, and roasted sweet potato
  • Liver, carrots, onions, and garlic
  • Ground beef sautéed with spices and tomato (usually the toppings for our tacos/nacho dinners), with roasted garlic, fresh chopped parsley and avocado
  • Curries (Butter chicken and Coconut Curry with Cod)
  • Ground bison cooked with tomatoes and oil, sautéed chard with garlic, onions and ghee, sliced cucumber
  • Turkey burgers (with herbs, onion and garlic), grilled zucchini, steamed carrots and sauerkraut

Fill out the form below to get your Baby Food Inspiration Guide.

baby food introduction

About That Liver

Liver isn’t a common food in our diet and so I had to find a creative way to introduce it. This was how I made it for Finn. In the beginning, I would purée it together with the broth and later, once he was eating more solid food, I would cut it into pieces and serve with vegetables. Print
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Liver recipe for babies

Liver for Babies


  • Author: Meghan Telpner
  • Total Time: 30 mins
  • Yield: 6 servings 1x

Description

A liver recipe to help parents introduce liver to the babies.


Ingredients

Scale
  • 6 chicken livers
  • 34 carrots
  • 2 cloves of garlic (okay at the 8 month mark)
  • 1 tsp of turmeric
  • Pinch of salt
  • just enough bone broth to cover

Instructions

  1. Simmered it for about 20 minutes
  2. Can purée with ghee and store in Mason jars, or scoop out the simmered livers and freeze whole.
  • Prep Time: 10 mins
  • Cook Time: 20 mins

Keeping The Baby Hydrated

You can find loads of different information about hydration for babies. My feeling was that once he was fully eating meals and snacks, and nursing a bit less, he would also likely be thirsty like any other human, so need more liquids as part of his diet. Finn rarely, if ever, uses his bottle these days. We opted to avoid the sippy cup, for no other reason than it felt like the right thing for us to do. Instead, I opted for a silicone cup with a fitted lid and a glass straw.
Juice-free Hydration Options For A One-Year-Old
  • Water
  • Bone broth
  • Herbal infusions of nettle
  • Homemade coconut milk (1 part dried, shredded coconut blended with 2 cups of water and strained)
  • Fruit-free green juice as a special treat

Supplementing A Baby’s Diet with Supplements

In many cases, a baby can benefit from some supplementation. Though with adults I always recommend consulting with a natural health care practitioner before beginning a supplement regime, I stress this even more with babies. **Do not give your baby supplements without first consulting with your natural health care practitioner who has experience in infant nutrition.

Supplements We Use

  • From birth: Infant probiotic (Klaire labs), Vitamin D drops
  • From six months: we added in Cod Liver Oil by Genestra in addition to probiotic and Vitamin D
You can check out the Superfood Babies website for brand recommendations., as well as LittleWarrior.com.

General Best Practices For Meal Time

I can’t even tell you the number of times people said to us, “You’ll see”, when it came to food and habits of a baby. So far, we have not seen.  I had been given all kinds of advice on how to get the food in. I think I may have ignored most of it. My objective with what I did with meal time was that, ultimately, I wanted our son to get accustomed to meal time and to sit and eat without distraction or entertainment while eating. Perhaps the fact that I am completely clueless about most things relating to baby and baby stuff, I haven’t bought a lot of feeding gadgets, snacking tools or the like. The things you will not find in our kitchen include:
  • Those cups with the out only lid for cheerios and what not
  • Sippy cups
  • Plates with dividers so food doesn’t touch
  • Ready made smoothie packets where kids can suck back purées
  • Freeze-dried fruit snacks

Our meal time practices include:

  • Sit in the same spot for every meal (we now vary between a clip-on counter chair, a Stokke high chair, and if outside, a portable high chair that was lent to us).
  • Eat out of the same bowl and spoon
  • Meal time ends when the baby stops eating, not when the bowl or jar is empty.
  • Give him time. Our son has been a slow eater from day one. He can take upwards of 45 minutes to eat his lunch and start pushing his bowl away (or starts throwing food on the floor).
  • Avoiding snacks between meals. He eats or nurses every three hours or so. All meals and snacks are served seated, not on the go. I recognize this isn’t always possible, especially with more than one child but we only have one child.

My Favourite Meal Time Tools

  • Silicone Fresh Food Teether: We didn’t use this a lot but it really helped our baby nail the whole chewing thing. In the early days as we were transitioning off purées, we’d fill it with cucumber and sauerkraut, and sometimes harder to chew meats. These days we pull it out as a special treat and fill it with frozen watermelon as a teething aid for those pesky molars.
  • Counter Chair: We use this one that was given to us by friends. He often has his breakfast in this chair and it also keeps him busy watching us as we prepare dinner and make smoothies.
  • High chair: We chose the Stokke Tripp Trapp chair because we liked that it pulls up to the table, the child sits upright and it can grow with him
  • Pelican bib: This was also given to us, it catches the extra food and is easy to clean
  • Avanchy bowl and spoon: It’s bamboo and silicone and suctions on to the table so he can’t throw it at the wall (though he has worked out how to get his little thumb under it and dislodge it). We’ve managed just fine with one bowl and one spoon.
  • Silicone cup and straw friendly lid (also only one of these cups)
  • Baby size glass straw (7inch)
  • Bamboo cutlery 

Fill out the form below to get your Baby Food Inspiration Guide.

baby food introduction

Where We’re At Today

1 year old eating As I write this, our 13-month-old son eats largely the same as what we eat. Where we might accompany our meal with some rice or noodles once in a while, we just omit that for him. Above is our son devouring our Coconut Curry with Cod. We have breakfast and dinner together as a family. We eat dinner with Finn at 6pm and he is often eating long after we are done. For us this works and he seems to really enjoy eating along side us. I have outlined below some of the recipes he has loved from my blog.

Recipes Our Baby Loves

This is what I have for you. Consider this my offering in place of writing a whole book on the topic, which is not in the cards for me. If you have questions, I would be happy for you to post below and perhaps I can answer them for you or point you in the direction to get the answers you want. I recognize the choices we have made may not fall into what you deem the best for your child. That’s A-OK. Let’s make a deal. I won’t judge you and you won’t judge me and then we’re all good.
Header photo: Catherine Farquharson

45 Comments

  1. I love this informative post! My boys are now 19, 21 and 23 and all were breast fed for 9/10 months each and ate the same whole foods that we ate at dinner. There was some deviation during their teenage years but today they continue their healthy eating lifestyle and are thankful they weren’t fed commercial baby foods.

  2. I loved reading this too!! My kids are 4, 8 and 11 and I miss those baby days – which is why I totally wanted to read this post even though they are way past this stage. My 4-year-old ate similarly to Finley and he is by far the best eater of the 3. Thanks for always delivering such insightful and thoughtful blog posts Meghan!

  3. If you read ‘Medical Medium’ by Anthony Willliams, he suggests eggs are a no-no. Celery juice is the best healer/supporter of the body. I’m not sure why fresh green drinks are the ‘treat’ and devitalized cooked food is the mainstay in any diet, especially a child’s. I thought eating raw was a big proponent of your philosophy.

  4. Non-judgement is also part of my philosophy.

    As I say in the post, based on my research, this is the diet that makes the most sense to me for our little one. Advocating to have some raw foods as part of the diet is important for adults and children once their digestive tract is fully formed and their immune system established.

    I have never suggested anyone eat an all raw diet and I don’t subscribe to the belief that cooked foods are devitalized.

    I know Medical Medium also advocates eating a massive amount of dates- also not right for an infant or toddler. Our diets will evolve through the lifespan. And they should. There is no one diet, or one expert’s approach that will be right for every human on the planet.

  5. Hi Meghan,

    Was just wondering, are the livers chicken livers? Also, you mention garlic in a recipe, but mention it’s ok at the month mark. I’m assuming it’s a typo since one wouldn’t feed their one month old garlic. How many months did you mean to say?

    Thanks!

  6. Hey Meghan, thank you for the wealth of information. I will definitely take some of these food combos and try them out with my daughter. Out of curiosity, is Finn vaccinated?

  7. Hi Meghan! thank you so much for all the great tips! im curious what is the reason you are not giving him nuts, seeds, legumes, and whole grains? not sure if i missed something but didnt see an explanation….

  8. Hi Meghan,
    As a mum to a 7 month old son, this was very helpful to read. Especially the part about him eating with more gusto around 8 months!

    For some reason our son isn’t crazy about purees, but does really well with the baby led weaning (totally scary!) so that is what has been working for us.

    I was wondering how many times a day you started feeding solids at each stage? Was it 1 meal a day and then increasing to 2?

    Also curious when Finn was able to use his spoon on his own to feed himself?

    Thanks so much!

  9. Finn is so adorable. Thank you for all of the puree combos. Do you freeze them? I’m going to make a batch of the bone broth for my little guy. Can I use garlic and onion in it if he’s younger than 8 months?

  10. Hi Meghan!
    I really enjoyed this post. We’re on a similar path except my 11 month old already picks things out he doesn’t like (broccoli) and politely tosses them to the dog. I’m curious What you would suggest to put in little one’s bottle for daycare when I return next month to work? I’ll be breastfeeding in the morning, after work and bedtime. I’m considering coconut milk.

  11. Hey, love this. And yes this is what I have done with all my 3 wildlings!!! Yet with my first we did introduce grains at around 12 months only later to find out that he cannot digest them well and is sensitive. Which we eliminated and it all self-corrected. Now (nearly 8!!! Omg) occasional grains and gluten is just fine. Kraut and kimchi is amazing!!! We usually eat ferments every day and only top up w probiotics if traveling or under the weather. I do have a question though, why no nuts nor seeds yet?! I started those early (except peanuts). Why delay such amazing nutrition powerhouses?!
    Thanks xoxo

  12. Hi,
    I was wondering if you had another blog post or links to information on milk and toddlers. We started giving our 1 year old 3.25% milk when she started daycare this month (I’m still nursing at home) and I’m wondering why the coconut milk vs. cows milk?
    Thanks !

  13. Hi Meghan,
    Thanks for this great post, so informative! I have a 4.5 month old and starting to plan for introducing foods….
    When you first introduced bone broth to Finn, did you include carrots, onions, garlic, etc. when making it? Or was it simply the bones? Thanks!

  14. Hi Meghan,
    Another question for you….I also live in Toronto and wondering where you source your bones and liver from? Thanks!

  15. Hi Meghan, thanks for such a informative post. Is the sauerkraut you feed homemade? Just wondering if store bought would be ok for my son..

  16. Hi Meghan,
    Thanks for the post which is very helpful. 2 questions: when you first introduced foods, did you wait 3 days before intro a new one? It seems from your post you varied more from the beginning (tempted here but also concerned).

    In regards to the glass straw (very interesting): would you say it is strong enough that a baby with a fierce teeth bite would not break it?
    Thanks again for all your amazing tips!

  17. Wondering why ghee is OK, but you avoid other dairy? Also, what are your thoughts on introducing all the major allergens by 6 months? I don’t recall doing this for my son 3 years ago, but for my new little guy, the pediatrician is encouraging even peanuts by 6 months!

  18. I am SO glad to have come across this post. I’ve been feeling totally lost with my 2.5 year old and this is so helpful! Just wondering if there is anything you would change or add in for a toddler as opposed at a 1 year old. Thank you thank you thank you for the post!

  19. Hi Meghan,
    I was wondering if you still used the same supplements now that Finley is a little older – cod liver oil, probiotics and VitaminD? Thanks!

  20. Hi Meghan! I love reading all of your content, such a fan. However, this post got me slightly confused- on the one hand i’m aware that you are not vegan and do include meat in your diet and your recipes, on the other hand (and that is partially why i enjoy your stuff) your recipes are predominantly plant based and you write so much about plant based ideas, info, recipes, etc. How come – and this is not judgment at all i really am curious- you chose such a meat heavy diet to you little one? I can see that virtually all of his meals include meat. I would love to hear more thoughts on that. Thank you!

  21. Hi! I like the idea of starting mybbabe off with bone broth – however, I don’t plan on making my own… so is storebought okay?! And. I understand you should introduce one food at a time for a few days, so you can observe any sensitivities but the broth is obviously made of many foods…. is this an issue?

  22. Hi,
    Thanks for your excellent article on starting baby on solids. I appreciate how you outline the process and give meal ideas. It resonates and aligns with my values. I have ordered the two books you suggested and am wondering what you used to puree the food? There are a ton of baby food makers and most of them are plastic. My vitamin and food processor are also plastic. I am thinking about using my stainless steel food immersion blender. What worked for You? Also do you use a water filtration system for water? Thanks. Kate

  23. Hi Meghan,
    I read the bit where you described your LO’s allergic reaction to egg yolk. We had the same reaction with our LO. Have you heard of FPIES? We were diagnosed with this for peanuts and potentially eggs. Has your LO had the same reaction to anything else since starting solids? Thanks for the feedback. Sincerely, Colleen

  24. Hi Meghan,

    Thank you so much for such an amazing and informative post. I’m preparing to introduce my 5 month old to foods in the near future and I’d like to start with bone broth. With regards to quantity of bone broth, how much do you recommend I start with? And in terms of water to make broth, I do not have a filtration system installed and don’t have the financial capacity to do so at the moment… any suggestions for the next best source of water to use?

    Thank you so much!

  25. Hi Meghan, you mentioned fermented coconut milk in the article. I wonder if you purchase pre-made coconut milk kefir for your son or make it from scratch. If it’s the latter, do you buy canned coconut milk, make your own from shredded coconut or get it from a fresh coconut?
    Many thanks:)

  26. Hy Megan

    Thanks for sharing your experience.Very Informative post. Its very challenging that how to find the safest organic baby formula.Babies are very sensitive at this age and mothers want best organic milk for their babies.

  27. Hi Meghan! I have two questions: where can you find liver/fat and can you provide a baseline amount of spice to add to the purées? Great post, thank you!

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