Starting solids is an exciting milestone for you and your baby. They’re about to embark on discovering new tastes and textures. But how do you know when your baby is ready to start solids?

Although many babies are ready around 6 months of age, every baby is different. Not all babies are ready for solids at a certain age or weight. Instead, pay attention to your little one’s developmental signs to clue you in that they may be ready for solids.

Here are the top six telltale signs that your baby is ready to explore solid foods.

1. Baby can sit upright without your help.

This means that if you place Baby on the floor in a seated position, they can stay upright (with decent posture) for at least 10-15 seconds, ideally longer. This trunk and head strength is crucial for learning to eat solids safely. Imagine trying to eat while wiggling and wobbling everywhere. And if your head slumps forward, it’s tough to chew and swallow safely. For success and safety – this is #1.

2. Baby can grasp objects.

Whether they’re grasping a rattle, reaching for your glasses, or even grabbing your spoon, when baby’s able to grasp objects, that’s a sign that they’re developmentally ready for solids. They don’t need to have a certain type of grasp (like the pincer grasp) mastered. All that matters is that they’re using some type of grasp.

3. Baby opens their mouth wide.

We’ve mentioned grasping, but how about bringing that object to their own mouth? If Baby is lifting a toy, spoon or other object to their mouth, that’s a really helpful skill as they learn to feed themselves.

4. Baby has the needed hand-eye-mouth coordination. 

This involves several of the signs we’ve already listed above. Baby needs the coordination and skills to look at the food, grab the food or a spoon, pick up the food or spoon, open their mouth, place the food inside, clamp down on the food, and swallow. 

This is especially important if you want to start baby-led weaning, where Baby feeds themself.

5. Baby’s tongue reflex has changed.

Babies are born with a “tongue-thrusting” reflex that helps them push food out of their mouth. But once babies are ready for solids, they outgrow this “tongue-thrusting” reflex. At that point, instead of pushing food out of their mouth, their tongue learns to move food to the back of their mouth, and they are able to swallow. This coordination takes time, which is why the first month of solids often involves lots of trying and not a lot of eating.

6. Baby is interested in your family’s food.

Is your baby eyeing you closely as you munch on your dinner? Are they intently looking at solid foods? Then, they’re probably eager to try solid foods of their own. The same goes if they reach for and try to grasp at the food you’re holding — or try to swipe your fork or spoon. They might also imitate the chewing motions or lip-smacking that they see you make at the table. Keep in mind that this sign alone is not enough to start solids. Some babies may take an interest in your food from very early on, and some foods are not safe or appropriate to share!

When starting solid foods, you can typically use the family meal once a day. Breastmilk and/or formula is still Baby’s primary source of nutrition during the first year. Serving allergens early and often once you start solids may have a protective effect against later food allergies. If your baby or family has a history of food allergies, then talk to your pediatric provider about what steps to take.

Reviewed by the Ovia Health Clinical Team

As Baby grows, they will get a lot better at letting you know what they needs, and you’ll get even better than you are now at figuring out what they is trying to tell you. They is also going to grow into a new set of hobbies, though – they won’t always be so captivated by ceiling-fans, for example. New interests might make it harder to run through a checklist of what Baby is trying to tell you, but they’ll also probably make Baby a bit more fun to play with. But for now, until the umbilical stump falls off, at least, Baby is going to be spending most of their waking hours staring up at the world from their back, thinking “there sure is a whole lot more going on over here than there was in the womb.”

Stump or no stump though, Baby probably spends most of their time asleep, which can get in the way of developing other interests. Newborns regularly sleep as much as 17 hours (not in a row, of course), but Baby is also probably finding a little time to bring their hands up to their face – a great way for them to get started on honing their fine motor skills. Today they is bringing their little fingers up near their face, but a few tomorrows from now, they could be doing calligraphy, or dismantling a space shuttle – you never know how those fine motor skills are going to come in handy.

Baby will continue to adjust to this big, bright new world over the coming weeks, months, and years, but for now, the best way you can help get them accustomed to their new home is simply to show them as much love as possible.

Milestones

• Thumbsucking: Many babies begin sucking their thumbs in the womb, and maintain this interest over the next several months, at least. Some babies take a bit of time to warm up, so it’s very common to notice thumbsucking start anytime over the first few months.

• Umbilical stump falls off: The umbilical stump typically falls off between 1 and 3 weeks after birth. After the stump falls off, it’s a-okay to start introducing an activity that will become part of Baby’S routine soon: tummy time.

Emily Avery-MillerContributing writer

When my son was about four months old, he rolled from his back to his belly for the first time. He had been practicing a full-body twist with Rockette-style kick for a couple of weeks, and I’m sure he conjured that first definitive flip mostly by accident. He quickly hid his wide-eyed amazement with a proud, grinning cobra pose. With my own flash of first-time-mom pride, I dubbed my little acrobat “King Rollo.”

The royal moniker is borrowed from a picture book character. David McKee’s King Rollo is a goofy, mutton-chopped man-child whose Cook and Magician keep him real, or, at least, as real as one can be when one has a personal chef and a sorcerer at one’s disposal. Among the heroes of children’s literature, who tend to save the day and live happily ever after, King Rollo stands out as one whose humble frustrations are poignantly familiar, especially for a new mother who is discovering that parenting is a learning process, and, often, a slow one.

At one pre-dawn pumping session, I was sure I could fill the bottle with tears faster than it would fill with milk.

The Rollo storylines hinge on the monarch’s bumbling ego, in particular his impatience and his fear of failure. In King Rollo and the New Shoes, the Magician refuses to cast a spell that will tie the King’s laces, and thus unleashes a two-page tantrum. Rollo hides in his chamber, fumbles with knots, and hoots and crashes so much that the Cook drops her cake. In another adventure, the Cook suggests that King Rollo should draw a birthday card for his beloved Queen Gwen. He scribbles and frets that none is as good as the one from the store. Of course, it always works out in the end. Rollo prances out of his room with beautiful bows on his toes, and the Queen loves her custom card best of all. But there’s a believable humanity to his highs and lows.

As for my own little King Rollo, the intervening time between his first “I did it!” flop and “I’m a pre-crawling ninja who can silently pencil roll across the floor” (or — yikes — the bed) spanned a month, at most. But when he couldn’t remember the moves, he wriggled and whined and lost sleep that he (and I) couldn’t afford to lose. I wish I could say that I was as sagely patient as the Cook and the Magician during my charge’s developmental transition, but if a magic wand could’ve ended Baby Boy’s frustration, I’d have been very tempted to use it.

In fact, I’d have been casting spells all over the place. I was constantly fumbling myself, and I was always sure there must be a faster, smarter way. I bent into Boppy-pillow-aided contortions while seeking the perfect nursing position. I agonized over when exactly was that “drowsy but awake” magical moment during which I was supposed to put my boy down to nap. At one pre-dawn pumping session, I was sure I could fill the bottle with tears faster than it would fill with milk.

When nap routines or milk or motor skills were not flowing, I grumbled and pouted and called upon Google, sure that my kid was already going to be too tired, too skinny, too far behind.

Well-meaning advisers encouraged me not to get hung up on the books and charts. They said I should “relax” and “trust my instincts” and, basically, let parenthood unfold as an intuitive experience. But I and they failed to acknowledge how complex the day-to-day tricks of motherhood can be. When nap routines or milk or motor skills were not flowing, I grumbled and pouted and called upon Google, sure that my kid was already going to be too tired, too skinny, too far behind. I didn’t allow myself a grace period of trial and error to carry off my new-mama moves.  

Now my Rollo can do a 180 without so much as a grunt, and instead he’s huffing and puffing about staying vertical. I still have my episodes of worry — how I’ll keep a feisty toddler safe once he’s fully on foot, and how he’ll ever be fuelled by the ten percent of each puff-and-puree buffet that actually makes it into his mouth — but I’m also a little more assured of a happy resolution. Most days my boy and I are enchanted enough with each other and the charms of our daily lives that, even in our humble wriggling, we feel like royals in our own little kingdom. When troubles test us, we turn to our friend King Rollo, and remember that we love him from beginning to end in his story, and on every page in between.

About the author

Emily Avery-Miller has contributed reviews, essays and prose to publications including Art New England and WBUR’s The ARTery. She teaches writing at Northeastern University.

Bonding

Engaging with Baby is the best way to help them get excited about the world, and because so many milestones have to do with their drive to explore, excitement about the world is important.

Empower, encourage, entice

Sometimes Baby just needs a little incentive to get moving. If they isn’t reaching out for or grasping things, it could just be that they isn’t seeing anything worth reaching for or grasping. If you place some objects they might be interested in just out of their reach, they might be more willing to reach out to try to get it. Having them reach for different objects with different shapes gives them the chance to work with different muscles and build dexterity. Similarly, you can encourage motion by giving them more of a reason to want to be, say, a few steps away by sitting nearby and calling them over to you.

Verbal milestones can follow a similar trajectory – the more you talk to them, the more incentive you give them to want to communicate right back. When you talk to them, waiting for them to respond helps to teach them about the rhythms and give-and-take of conversation, even if they isn’t quite ready to talk back yet. Making eye contact when you talk to them can also help them with their growing social skills.

Be consistent

When it comes to communication milestones like words or gestures, you can help Baby out a lot just by being consistent with your vocabulary. If you’re calling the family dog “the dog,” one day, “doggy,” the next, “puppy,” the day after that, with the occasional “Fluffy” thrown in, Baby is definitely going to have a harder time deciding what to shout out when their fuzzy friend comes running into the room.

The same goes for gestures – Baby is more likely to start waving goodbye if that’s the gesture they sees every time somebody leaves for the day.

Make way!

Sometimes literally, what Baby needs in order to reach a lot of their big milestones is the room to practice. If they has a safe space to roll, then scoot, then crawl around in, and enough time to spend there, they should start to experiment with what they can do. If they has something stable and the right height to pull up on, they is a lot more likely to move on to that stage of pre-walking than they would otherwise. And if they has a fair amount unsupervised and unscheduled time to explore, they is more likely to try new things than if they has less time to play around and experiment.

Don’t panic

It’s good advice if you’re hitchhiking across the galaxy, and it’s a good idea if you’re raising an infant too. Baby may be focusing on learning one set of skills now, and have to play a little bit of catch-up later, but they has their own pace and their own set of priorities. Not following the established pattern for milestones may just mean that they is going to be a little bit of a maverick, and venture off the beaten path a bit – every family needs a maverick. If you have any concerns about Baby‘s development, don’t hesitate to talk to your healthcare provider about it.

1. The first time Baby smiles at you on purpose
   There’s no way to know when that moment is coming – unlike the days leading up to their first steps, which will probably include a few failed attempts, and a whole lot of building up the muscles and balance they is going to need, Baby probably isn’t going to give you any signs that they is gearing up to grace you with their first ever social smile. On the bright side, you’ll still get plenty of other chances to photograph their toothless grin.
2. When Baby makes eye contact with you while feeding
   It’s such a gentle, sweet expression on their face, and at an angle that you may never get again once they starts on solids. But whether you breast or bottle feed, you still never seem to have quite enough hands to snap a shot in the moment.
3. Baby’s first laugh
   There’s a good chance you were too busy being their favorite comedian to stop to take a picture!
4. Baby’s first big mealtime mess
   It might not have happened the first time Baby is presented with solids, when you were expecting the big photo-op and they hadn’t figured out quite what food is. But some time in their first few weeks of adventures in solid food, the photogenic-in-hindsight mess of Baby’s first food fight appeared – the question is, did you get a picture?
5. The ‘here and gone again’ hair and eyes
   If Baby is one of the many children who was born with a hair or eye color that disappeared in their first few weeks or months of life, you may have thought you were getting enough pictures of those pale blue eyes or temporary curls. But as soon as they’re gone, and Baby’s hair and eyes have settled into their permanent color, you might reach a point where you wish you had more. It doesn’t matter how many you do have – you’ll still want just a couple extra.

When do babies start eating prepared baby food from a jar?

Here’s more information about the different types of prepared baby food you can feed your little one.

Stage 1:

The simplest form of baby food is designed for babies transitioning away from breastfeeding. Inside the average jar, you’ll find a single ingredient food, smoothly pureed. A few Stage 1 staples include bananas, sweet potatoes, and green beans. Stage 1 is the easiest for babies to handle.

Stage 2:

After mastering the softer foods that correspond with of Stage 1 foods, Baby should be ready to start mixing and matching food groups. Stage 2 baby food offers combinations such as veggie medleys and two to three ingredient fruit salads. The other distinction here is that Stage 2 baby food isn’t pureed, it’s strained. This gentle escalation in food texture will allow Baby to become familiar with variations in texture, and begin to experiment with chewing.

Stage 3:

Once Baby has passed the average teething age, it’s time to adjust their diet accordingly. Stage 3 baby food takes infant edibles to the next level by combining strained foods and small chunks of solids. Jars of Stage 3 tend to be slightly larger than earlier stages to compliment the average baby’s increased appetite, and you’ll also notice several options in the baby food aisle that contain meat ingredients.

How to transition your baby to the bathtub

Once Baby outgrows their fun-size bath spot, it’s time to move them to the next step. At some point all parents must start washing Baby in a regular bathtub. And when that time comes, you can make the transition easier for you both by sticking to these baby-centric traditions for the high seas.

Provide a captain’s chair:

Many parents start the baby-bath-to-big-tub switch once their babies are able to sit independently for short periods of time, which might happen around 7 months after birth. But since there’s so much space in a grown-up tub, even the parents of strong sitters sometimes add a baby bath seat to the tub floor. Not only will a bath seat offer Baby plenty of support, it will also keep them from laying down or crawling around in the tub.

All hands on deck!

Baby bath time needs to be supervised at all times, especially when the bathtub itself is designed for adults. Big tubs present some potential hazards such as water level, and on-demand water that can range from icy to scalding. For Baby’s first big-time baths, fill up the tub with no more than 1 to 2 inches of lukewarm water, as any more could frighten them or shock them off-balance from their seated position. And if the temperature is too hot to the touch for you, there’s’ a good chance it is for Baby‘s more sensitive skin, too.

Stick to clear waters:

By the time Baby has comfortably settled into the big tub, you can keep the cleaning routine simple and safe by using only tear-free soaps and shampoos that are specifically designed for infants. This way, when they splashes some bath water around the tub, the odds of getting irritating soap residue in their eyes will be comfortably low.

How your newborns hearing may develop the first month

Newborns can hear well, but not perfectly because their inner ears are often filled with fluid and are generally underdeveloped. This is why Baby responds so well to exaggerated and high-pitched sounds, and may startle at other unfamiliar sounds. Baby was probably born with the ability to distinguish their mother’s voice and respond to it above all others because of their time in the womb. Other voices that are familiar from their time in the womb may also ring a bell for them early on, including sounds like music that they heard often before they was born. Sounds that are new to them at birth may take a little longer to become familiar, but the more your family talks and sings to them, the better they will know the sound of your voices, so make sure to communicate with them early and often.

Testing

Chances are that Baby’s hearing was tested at birth, as most states mandate newborn hearing screenings — if not, have it tested within the next 2 months. The two types of newborn screenings are automated auditory brainstem response, and otoacoustic emissions. Both are very quick and painless, and monitor how Baby‘s ears and brain respond to clicking sounds. You should talk to the doctor if you have any questions about when and how to test Baby‘s hearing.

Early identification of hearing loss

Identifying hearing loss early is important because babies learn so much, both about how to speak, and about the world around them from sound. Some newborn hearing tests can miss smaller hearing loss, so pay attention to Baby’s development and how things seem to be progressing, and not just the tests. If they does not respond to loud sounds or react to your voice, talk to the doctor. Many factors can influence hearing problems, including genetics, infections, trauma, and damaging noise levels. As Baby ages, have their hearing checked regularly by the doctor.

Sources

• “Can your baby hear?” American Academy of Pediatrics. American Academy of Pediatrics, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Web.
• “The necessity of early intervention in hearing.” ENT net. American Academy of Otolaryngology, 2016. Web.
• “Parents.” Hear and Now. National Center for Hearing Assessment and Management. Web.
• “Your Baby’s Hearing and Communicative Development Checklist.” National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. National Institutes of Health, March 6 2017. Web.

If a baby who has been a strong self-feeder in the past has decided they wants to go back in time to the days when you were feeding them, there’s a good chance that they is just a little nervous about how fast they is growing up, and is hoping for a way to stay a baby a little while longer. Growing up is scary, and there’s nothing wrong with indulging Baby a little, especially once you already know that they can feed themselves.

If Baby is just having a hard time making the initial transition from being fed to self-feeding, there’s no need to rush them unless the doctor is concerned, or you feel they isn’t getting enough to eat. You can encourage Baby to start feeding themselves by making sure that if you’re feeding them finger foods, there are in pieces that are the right size for them to grasp, as well as to eat without choking.

In some cases, just giving your child the space to explore their meals at their own pace will mean that they may start to investigate the food they previously refused all on their own.

If you’re spoon-feeding Baby, let them hold their own spoon while you do, so they can start to make the connection between the spoon and their yummy dinner, and work on their coordination at the same time. If Baby is still working out the ins and outs of eating, and they is used to seeing you feed them, they may also go through a phase that involves trying to feed you, your partner, or the dog or cat, more than trying to feed themselves. This phase can be cute but also a little frustrating, so spending some time eating around Baby so they has a model for self-feeding can also help.

If Baby won’t accept solids at all, is not gaining weight at the expected rate, or seems to have trouble or pain while chewing, your pediatrician may want to take a closer look at them to make sure nothing more serious is wrong. For the most part, though, delays in self-feeding come down to the fact that babies go through an immense number of serious changes during their first few years of life, and different rates of development and interest are just to be expected.