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Progressing Through the Weaning Stages 103

More nutritious first meals as the infant begins to eat more than 1–2 teaspoons

Day 1 Day 2 – vegetarian Day 3

Breakfast Baby cereal with Baby porridge with puréed Wholegrain wheat breakfast
puréed pear and milk or well-mashed banana and cereal with puréed cooked
milk apple and milk

Midday meal Puréed lamb with spinach Puréed or well-mashed lentils Puréed beef with potato,

and sweet potato with carrot and coriander broccoli and red pepper

Evening meal Puréed or well-mashed Puréed or well-mashed Puréed or well-mashed
mango and yogurt apple and pear peach and apricot

Weaning stage 2: 6–9 months By this age infants can move their tongue from
side to side and can therefore manage to move
Texture soft lumps to between their hard gums to be
At this stage foods should be a thicker mash with chewed. Teeth are not necessary for chewing
soft lumps and soft finger foods can be introduced. lumps.
Meat may still need to be puréed at first but can be
mashed if it is very soft. Foods to offer
Different foods should be offered at the three
Infants who begin weaning at or just before 6 different meal times. For example:
months of age should be moved onto mashed food
as quickly as possible to ensure nutritional ●● breakfast: cereal and fruit with milk
adequacy and for them to learn to cope with new
textures. Finger foods offered with all meals will ●● midday meal: meat/fish/dhal with potatoes/rice
keep infants engaged in the meal and give them the and vegetables
opportunity to develop self-feeding skills.
●● evening meal: egg/grated cheese with bread or
Some infants are more sensitive to texture pasta, a vegetable and some fruit.
changes and benefit with slow gradual changes.
Those who spit out lumps need more practice Over the three meals in a day, a variety of foods
managing them rather than being moved back to from all the four food groups should be included
smooth purées. (Table 4.2.3).

Examples of soft finger foods By the age of 6 months, an infant’s iron stores
that were laid down during pregnancy are no
Soft fruit pieces (e.g. mango, melon, banana, longer adequate to meet the infant’s iron
soft ripe pear, peach, papaya and kiwi) requirements. Breast milk is low in iron and so the
iron-rich foods from food group 4 as well as
Cooked vegetable sticks (e.g. carrot sticks, green iron-fortified breakfast cereals and green leafy
beans, courgette sticks, potato and sweet potato) vegetables should be encouraged. Foods rich in
vitamin C will increase the absorption of iron from
Cooked vegetable pieces (e.g. cauliflower plant-based foods.
and broccoli florets)
Drinks with meals
Cooked pasta pieces Once infants are eating thickly mashed food they
will need to be offered some water with all meals to
Crusts of bread or toast satisfy their thirst. Sips of water from a cup without
a valve allow the infant to learn to sip.
Cheese cubes

Soft roasted vegetable sticks (e.g. potato,
sweet potato, parsnip, pepper, carrot, courgette)