Moving on from first foods

You can move on from first foods when your baby:

• can sit without support
• can pick up and bring food to their mouth
• are learning to bite and chew
• may have some teeth.

Tips for feeding seven and eight month-old babies:

• Continue to purée cooked meat, fish or chicken
• Introduce mashed cooked fruit and vegetables, mashed cooked legumes, mashed cooked eggs, soft cheese (such as cottage cheese), custard or plain yoghurt (without sugar)
• Remove stalks and stringy bits from foods like pūhā, silverbeet or bok choy
• Offer finger foods in pieces that can be picked up by baby. Foods such as very soft fruit and vegetables (ripe bananas, ripe avocado, well-cooked pumpkin), toast fingers or thin slices of cheese are good options.
• Remember to keep offering breast milk or formula before solids until your baby is eight to nine months old.