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Weaning your baby: from first tastes to family meals

Last updated: 6 July 2026 · checked against NHS guidance · UK edition (switch to the US edition)

Somewhere around 6 months it begins: first tastes. And with it, the questions. When exactly do you start? What first? How do peanut and egg fit in? How much milk should stay?

This plan gives you one continuous guide from the very first spoonful to the moment your child simply eats family meals. It follows the UK guidance from the NHS (Start for Life).

📋 All stages at a glance

The stage-1 ages are deliberately "weeks after starting" rather than calendar age: however old your baby is when you begin around 6 months, the build-up is the same.

🚦 When do you start? The signs of readiness

The NHS advice: start solid foods when your baby is around 6 months old — and never before 17 weeks. By around 6 months your baby also genuinely needs the nutrients from food (especially iron) alongside milk. Signs your baby is ready:

• They can sit up (with support) and hold their head steady.
• They can coordinate eyes, hands and mouth — looking at food, picking it up and bringing it to their mouth.
• They can swallow food rather than pushing it straight back out with their tongue.

Does your baby spit the first tastes out or turn their head away? Completely normal. A new taste may need 10 or more tries before it is accepted. Calmly keep offering, without pressure.

🥕 First tastes: discovering veg

The goal of the first weeks is not feeding but practising: getting used to the spoon, to new tastes and to swallowing. All milk feeds stay exactly as they are. Offer the taste at a calm moment when your baby is not overly hungry or completely full.

Why veg first? The NHS suggests starting with single vegetables that aren't sweet — such as broccoli, cauliflower and spinach — so your baby learns to like a wide range of flavours, not just the sweet ones they love by nature.

What it looks like:

• 1 tasting moment a day; a few teaspoons is plenty.
• Smooth, blended single vegetables, thinned with a little of the cooking water or your baby's usual milk.
• Offer the same vegetable a few days in a row before switching — your baby gets used to the taste and you spot it quickly if something doesn't agree with them.

Good starter veg: broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, courgette, parsnip, swede, carrot, sweet potato, green beans, peas.

🥜 Introducing peanut

Early introduction lowers the chance of a peanut allergy. The UK advice: introduce peanut from around 6 months, once your baby has started solids — and evidence shows that delaying beyond 6 to 12 months may increase the risk of an allergy developing.

Which peanut butter? Smooth, 100% peanut butter without added salt or sugar. Whole peanuts and other whole nuts are off-limits until age 5 (choking hazard).

A gentle build-up (3 days):

All going well (no reaction)? Done. From now on, keep peanut as a regular part of your baby's diet — for example a spoonful of peanut butter through a purée or on toast every week. Keeping it up is just as important as the introduction itself.

What to watch for: an allergic reaction almost always shows within 2 hours — think rash or red patches, swelling around the mouth, vomiting, diarrhoea or unusual drowsiness. If you see this: stop and speak to your GP. With a severe reaction (trouble breathing, going pale or floppy): call 999. Severe first reactions are rare — and early introduction is exactly what prevents most allergies from developing at all.

Does your baby have eczema or an existing food allergy? Then talk to your GP or health visitor before introducing peanut — they may advise starting under guidance.

🥚 Introducing egg

The same principle applies to egg: introduce it from around 6 months, build up calmly, then keep it in the diet.

Which egg? In the UK, hens' eggs with the British Lion stamp are safe for babies even raw or lightly cooked (for example soft-boiled). Eggs without the stamp — or duck, goose or quail eggs — should always be cooked thoroughly.

A gentle build-up (3 days):

Afterwards: keep offering egg regularly — mashed through a meal, scrambled, or later as omelette strips. Don't introduce peanut and egg for the first time on the same day; a week apart means you know immediately which one caused a reaction, if any.

🍎 Two moments a day

Once the veg tastes are going well, a second fixed moment joins in: fruit in the morning, veg later in the day. Keep varying, and repeat tastes that didn't land before.

Good starter fruit: pear, banana, apple (steamed or very ripe), melon, mango, peach, plum. Avocado needs no cooking at all — just mash. Amounts can slowly grow, but your baby still decides how much.

🗓️ The quick-start plan: the first 6 weeks written out

Just want a concrete plan without puzzling? This CAN be a fine schedule — see it as a starting suggestion, not a test. It shifts along with your start day.

✅ The 60-day plan: every day written out

Rather not think about it at all? This is the quick-start plan above written out day by day — including the peanut and egg build-up days, the weekly top-ups and three weeks of stage-2 meals. Tick the days off in your personal dashboard (it follows along automatically from your start day), or use the print-friendly version below for the fridge.

Here too: a handhold, not a law. Swapping a day, skipping one or using a jar instead is fine — the only fixed anchors are the peanut and egg build-ups and keeping them up weekly afterwards.

🧊 The ice-cube method: cook once, two weeks ahead

Making purées yourself is cheaper than jars and you decide what goes in. With the ice-cube method it costs one cooking session every week or two: steam or boil one or two vegetables until soft, blend smooth, freeze in a lidded ice-cube tray, then pop the cubes into a labelled freezer bag (name + date).

Storage rules: freshly made purée keeps up to 2 days covered in the fridge; frozen cubes about 3 months. A defrosted portion must not be refrozen or kept — throw leftovers away. Always taste and check the temperature yourself: lukewarm is right.

🍽️ Mashed meals & finger foods

From 6 months the role of food changes: it is no longer just practice — your baby genuinely needs the nutrients (especially iron) alongside milk.

• Milk: breast milk or first infant formula remains the main drink for the whole first year. Follow-on milk is not needed (NHS).
• Texture: the blender can stay in the cupboard more often. Mash with a fork; soft lumps are exactly what helps your baby learn to chew.
• Combining: from single tastes to real mini-meals: veg + potato/rice/pasta + a little well-cooked meat, fish, egg or pulses.
• Finger foods: offer soft pieces your baby can grasp — cooked carrot sticks, broccoli florets, strips of toast.
• Drinking: practise sips of water from an open cup or free-flow cup with meals — better for teeth than bottles or valve cups. No juice or squash needed.

🥣 Meals replace feeds

Your baby gradually moves towards 3 meals a day (breakfast, lunch, dinner). As the amount of solid food grows, milk feeds naturally reduce step by step — take about a week per change, and keep responding to your baby's appetite.

• Texture: mashed with soft lumps, minced, and plenty of finger foods. Let your baby grab pieces themselves — mess is learning.
• Dairy: plain full-fat yoghurt after a meal is fine, and a splash of cows' milk in cooking is allowed — cows' milk as a drink not before 12 months.

✋ Chopped & self-feeding

The last step before joining family meals. Food hardly needs mashing any more; your baby picks up more and more with thumb and finger and practises (with help) with a spoon.

• Rhythm: 3 meals a day, alongside milk feeds (roughly 2–3 a day by now). Snacks aren't needed until around 12 months.
• Self-feeding: offer food your baby can hold: omelette strips, soft cooked veg, soft fruit pieces, toast fingers.
• Cup: water from an open cup becomes routine.

🍲 Family meals

Congratulations: you have a toddler, and they simply eat what the family eats — without added salt or sugar.

• Milk: bottles and formula are no longer needed. Move to whole cows' milk from a cup (semi-skimmed not before age 2). About 300 ml of milk a day — or milk plus some yoghurt or cheese — covers the calcium. Toddler and growing-up milks are not needed. Breastfeeding on demand can simply continue as long as you both want.
• Rhythm: 3 meals and about 2 healthy snacks, following the family rhythm.
• Keep watching: still no added salt, no whole nuts or peanuts (until 5), and cut grapes and cherry tomatoes lengthways into quarters. Honey is fine from now on.

⚠️ What NOT to give (before 1 year)

💊 Vitamins

Breastfed babies should have a daily vitamin D supplement (8.5 to 10 micrograms) from birth. Babies having more than 500 ml of infant formula a day don't need it (formula is fortified). From 6 months to 5 years, the NHS recommends daily vitamin A, C and D supplements for children — again, unless they drink more than 500 ml of formula a day.

❓ Frequently asked questions

📚 Sources

This guide follows the UK guidance as published by:

• NHS Start for Life — Weaning and What to feed your baby from around 6 months
• NHS — Food allergies in babies and Drinks and cups for babies and young children

This is general information, not medical advice. Worried about your child's growth, eating or a possible allergy? Talk to your health visitor or GP — you are never too early with that.