Weaning Your Baby: The Complete UK Guide

Everything you need to start your baby on solid foods with confidence, from the first spoonful of broccoli to chopped family meals. Written around NHS guidance, with 12 baby food maker recipes you can batch cook in an afternoon.

1. Where to start with weaning

Weaning, also called introducing solid foods or complementary feeding, is the point where your baby starts eating food alongside their usual milk. The NHS advises starting when your baby is around 6 months old. Before that, breast milk or first infant formula gives them everything they need.

It is a big milestone and it can feel like there is a lot to get right. There is not, really. Weaning is mostly repetition, mess and patience. The first few weeks are about your baby learning that food exists, not about how much they eat.

The three signs your baby is ready

The NHS lists three signs that usually appear together at around 6 months. Look for all three, not just one:

1. They can stay in a sitting position and hold their head steady.
2. They can coordinate their eyes, hands and mouth, so they can look at food, pick it up and put it in their mouth by themselves.
3. They can swallow food rather than pushing it straight back out with their tongue.

Three signs that are not readiness signs

These three are very commonly mistaken for "she's ready for food", and they catch out almost every parent. They are all completely normal baby behaviour:

• Chewing their fists
• Wanting extra milk feeds
• Waking in the night more than usual

Starting solids earlier will not make your baby sleep through. If you think your baby might be ready before 6 months, talk to your health visitor first. Solid foods should never be given before 4 months.

What you actually need

Less than the shops would like you to think. The NHS suggests:

• A high chair that lets your baby sit upright with good support
• Soft weaning spoons, gentler on new gums than metal
• Plastic bowls, ideally with a suction base
• A free flow open cup or beaker without a non spill valve
• Ice cube trays or small pots for freezing portions
• Bibs and a messy mat, because the floor is going to get it
• Something to cook and puree with, whether that is a pan and a hand blender or an all in one baby food maker

Your first week, realistically

Offer a small amount of solid food once a day, at a time that suits you both. Pick a moment when your baby is not overtired and not ravenous. Straight after a milk feed often works well, because a hungry baby has very little patience for a spoon.

The NHS recommends starting with single vegetables that are not sweet, such as broccoli, cauliflower or spinach. Starting with vegetables rather than fruit helps your baby get used to a wider range of flavours rather than expecting everything to taste sweet.

A teaspoon or two is a full meal at this stage. Milk is still doing the heavy lifting. And expect rejection: the NHS notes it may take 10 tries or more for a baby to get used to a new food, flavour or texture. A screwed up face is not a no forever, it is a no today.

Purees or baby led weaning?

Both work, and most families end up somewhere in the middle. Spoon fed purees give you control over texture and make it easy to build up from smooth to lumpy. Baby led weaning means offering soft finger foods from the start and letting your baby feed themselves.

You do not have to choose a camp. A very common and very sensible approach is purees for the first few weeks while your baby learns to swallow, with soft finger foods offered alongside from early on so they get practice picking things up and biting. The NHS is clear that you should move on from purees to mashed and finger foods as soon as your baby can manage them, so smooth textures are a starting point rather than a destination.

2. The three stages of weaning

Here is how the first six months of eating usually progresses, based on NHS guidance for each age band. Use it as a map, not a timetable. Babies move at their own pace.

Stage 1: around 6 months

Start with one small amount of solid food a day. Non sweet vegetables first: broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, courgette, leek. Then bring in root vegetables and fruit, and start pairing flavours. Move from smooth purees on to mashed food as soon as your baby is managing it.

Milk stays your baby's main source of nutrition throughout this stage. Offer milk feeds after solids, since small stomachs fill quickly.

Stage 2: 7 to 9 months

This is the stage that matters most for texture. The NHS advice is to move your baby on to mashed, lumpy foods and finger foods as soon as they can manage them. Babies take different amounts of time to get used to lumps, but it is an important skill and one that gets harder to introduce the longer it is left.

Iron is the other headline. Babies are born with iron stores that start running down from around 6 months, so protein foods that carry iron and zinc become genuinely important: red meat, chicken, oily fish, eggs, beans and lentils. Formula fed babies typically need around 600ml of formula a day at this stage, though that is a guide rather than a target.

Stage 3: 10 to 12 months

Three meals a day alongside milk feeds. Lunch and tea can each have a main and a pudding such as fruit or plain yoghurt. Your baby should be handling mashed, lumpy, chopped and finger foods from all the food groups, and finding it easier to pick up small pieces and feed themselves.

If you are formula feeding, around 400ml a day is a rough guide at this point. Babies under 12 months do not need snacks. If your baby seems hungry between meals, the NHS suggests offering extra milk instead.

Eat together whenever you can. Babies learn a huge amount about food by watching you eat it.

3. Using your BooBoo baby food maker for weaning

A baby food maker is not essential for weaning. It is, however, the difference between homemade baby food being a lovely idea and homemade baby food being something you actually keep doing at 7pm on a Wednesday.

The PuréePro steams and blends in the same jug, which means no transferring hot food between pans and blenders, one thing to wash instead of four, and total control over how smooth or lumpy the result is.

Steaming keeps more of the good stuff in

Boiling vegetables leaves a lot of the water soluble vitamins in the water, which then goes down the sink. Steaming keeps more of them in the food. It also softens vegetables evenly, which matters when you are trying to get a lump free puree for a 6 month old.

How to use it at each stage

The important thing to understand is that the blend time, not the machine, controls the texture. Same ingredients, same steam cycle, different result:

Steam time guide

Times are a guide for pieces cut to roughly 2cm. Always check food is properly soft before blending, and always check meat, poultry and fish are cooked all the way through. Check your instruction manual for your model's water levels and cycle settings.

The Sunday afternoon batch cook

This is where a food maker earns its place on the worktop. One session gives you a fortnight of meals:

1. Pick three or four ingredients that steam in a similar time. Sweet potato, carrot and butternut squash, for example.
2. Steam and blend each one separately so you keep single flavours you can combine later.
3. Cool within one to two hours, then spoon into ice cube trays.
4. Freeze, then pop the cubes into labelled freezer bags with the food and the date on them.
5. At mealtimes, defrost one or two cubes and mix and match. Carrot plus apple. Broccoli plus potato. Sweet potato plus a cube of chicken.

One ice cube is roughly one starter portion at 6 months, and two to three cubes is a reasonable meal by 9 months.

Beyond purees

The PuréePro is a 5 in 1, so it keeps earning its space after weaning is over. Use the steam function for vegetables for the whole family, the sterilise function for bottles, dummies and small accessories, the bottle warming function for night feeds, and the self clean cycle to save yourself the fiddly bits.

4. Twelve baby food maker recipes

Four recipes for each stage, all written for a steam and blend baby food maker. No added salt, no added sugar, and no honey before 12 months. Each one freezes well unless noted.

1. Broccoli and Cauliflower Puree

• Prep 5 mins
• Steam 12 to 15 mins
• Makes 6 to 8 cubes
• Freezes well

Ingredients

• 150g broccoli florets
• 150g cauliflower florets
• Cooking water from the steamer, to loosen

Method

1. Cut the florets to roughly even 2cm pieces so they cook at the same rate.
2. Steam for 12 to 15 minutes, until a knife goes through with no resistance.
3. Blend for 45 to 60 seconds, adding the cooking water a tablespoon at a time until it is completely smooth.
4. Cool, then test the temperature before serving.

Why this one first: the NHS suggests starting with vegetables that are not sweet. Broccoli and cauliflower are the classic first pairing, and getting them in early makes green vegetables far less of a battle later on.

2. Sweet Potato and Carrot Puree

• Prep 5 mins
• Steam 15 to 20 mins
• Makes 8 to 10 cubes
• Freezes well

Ingredients

• 1 medium sweet potato (around 200g), peeled and cut into 2cm cubes
• 2 medium carrots (around 150g), peeled and cut into 2cm rounds

Method

1. Add the sweet potato and carrot to the steaming basket.
2. Steam for 15 to 20 minutes until both are completely soft.
3. Blend to a smooth puree, loosening with cooking water. Sweet potato thickens as it cools, so go slightly looser than you think.
4. Cool and test before serving.

Tip: this one is naturally sweet and very well accepted, which makes it a useful base to hide a less popular vegetable in later.

3. Butternut Squash and Pear Puree

• Prep 8 mins
• Steam 15 to 18 mins
• Makes 8 cubes
• Freezes well

Ingredients

• 250g butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and cubed
• 1 ripe pear, peeled, cored and chopped

Method

1. Steam the butternut squash for 10 minutes on its own.
2. Add the pear and steam for a further 5 to 8 minutes.
3. Blend until silky smooth, adding cooking water as needed.
4. Cool and test before serving.

Tip: a ripe pear needs barely any cooking. Adding it late stops it turning watery.

4. Courgette, Pea and Mint Puree

• Prep 5 mins
• Steam 8 to 10 mins
• Makes 6 cubes
• Freezes well

Ingredients

• 1 medium courgette (around 200g), chopped
• 100g frozen peas
• 2 fresh mint leaves

Method

1. Steam the courgette for 5 minutes, then add the frozen peas and steam for a further 3 to 5 minutes.
2. Add the mint leaves and blend until smooth. Pea skins need a little longer, so give it a full minute.
3. Cool and test before serving.

Why herbs matter: you cannot add salt to baby food, but you can absolutely add flavour. Mint, basil, cinnamon and mild spices are all fine from 6 months and build a much broader palate.

5. Chicken, Sweet Potato and Apple

• Prep 10 mins
• Steam 18 to 20 mins
• Makes 4 portions
• Freezes well

Ingredients

• 1 small chicken breast (around 150g), cut into 2cm pieces
• 1 small sweet potato (around 150g), peeled and cubed
• 1 eating apple, peeled, cored and chopped
• A pinch of dried thyme

Method

1. Add the chicken and sweet potato to the steaming basket and steam for 15 minutes.
2. Add the apple and thyme and steam for a further 5 minutes. Check the chicken is cooked all the way through with no pink remaining.
3. Pulse two or three times only. You want a thick, soft, slightly textured mix, not a puree.
4. Cool, test the temperature and serve.

On texture: if your baby is new to lumps, blend two thirds smooth and stir the chopped third back through. It is a gentler step up.

6. Red Lentil, Carrot and Cumin Dhal

• Prep 5 mins
• Cook 25 mins
• Makes 5 portions
• Freezes well

Ingredients

• 100g red lentils, rinsed thoroughly
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
• Quarter of a teaspoon of ground cumin
• 300ml water or unsalted vegetable stock

Method

1. Simmer the lentils and carrots in the water for 20 to 25 minutes, until the lentils have collapsed and the carrots are completely soft.
2. Stir in the cumin.
3. Pulse briefly for a thick, soft dhal. Leave some texture.
4. Cool and test before serving.

Iron note: lentils are a strong plant source of iron. Serving them with a vitamin C food such as a few pieces of soft pepper or some fruit afterwards helps the body absorb more of it.

7. Salmon, Broccoli and Potato Mash

• Prep 8 mins
• Steam 15 mins
• Makes 4 portions
• Freezes well

Ingredients

• 1 skinless, boneless salmon fillet (around 120g)
• 1 medium potato (around 150g), peeled and cubed
• 100g broccoli florets
• 1 tablespoon of your baby's usual milk, to loosen

Method

1. Steam the potato for 5 minutes, then add the broccoli and salmon and steam for a further 10 minutes.
2. Check the salmon flakes easily and check very carefully for bones. Flake it with your fingers before it goes in the jug.
3. Mash by hand or pulse once. Loosen with the milk if it needs it.
4. Cool and test before serving.

Fish and weaning: oily fish like salmon is a good source of omega 3. Fish is one of the allergen foods, so introduce it on its own first, in a small amount, on a day when you can keep an eye on your baby.

8. Beef, Butternut and Tomato Ragu

• Prep 10 mins
• Cook 30 mins
• Makes 5 portions
• Freezes well

Ingredients

• 150g lean beef mince
• 200g butternut squash, peeled and cubed
• 200g chopped tomatoes, no added salt
• Half a small onion, finely chopped
• A pinch of dried oregano

Method

1. Steam the butternut squash for 15 minutes until soft, then set aside.
2. Brown the mince and onion in a pan with a little olive oil, then add the tomatoes and oregano and simmer for 15 minutes.
3. Add the squash and mash everything together, or pulse once for a slightly finer texture.
4. Cool and test before serving. Lovely stirred through soft, well cooked small pasta shapes.

Iron note: red meat is one of the most easily absorbed sources of iron there is, and iron matters from around 6 months. Buy the leanest mince you can and check tinned tomatoes for added salt.

9. Mini Veggie Frittata Fingers

• Prep 10 mins
• Cook 20 mins
• Makes 12 fingers
• Freezes well

Ingredients

• 4 British Lion stamped eggs
• 100g courgette, grated
• 50g frozen peas, defrosted
• 30g grated mild pasteurised cheddar

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180C fan.
2. Steam the courgette and peas for 5 minutes, then pulse once so they are finely chopped.
3. Beat the eggs, stir in the vegetables and cheese, and pour into a lined small baking tin.
4. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes until fully set and firm in the middle. Both the white and the yolk must be solid.
5. Cool completely, then cut into finger sized strips your baby can grip.

Egg safety: the NHS advises that only British Lion stamped eggs are safe to serve raw or lightly cooked. Any other egg needs to be cooked until both white and yolk are solid, which is what this recipe does anyway.

10. Chunky Chicken, Leek and Potato Stew

• Prep 10 mins
• Cook 25 mins
• Makes 4 portions
• Freezes well

Ingredients

• 1 chicken breast (around 150g), cut into small pieces
• 1 small leek, washed well and sliced
• 2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 200ml unsalted chicken or vegetable stock
• A pinch of dried thyme

Method

1. Steam the chicken and potato for 15 minutes, adding the leek for the last 8 minutes.
2. Check the chicken is cooked through with no pink remaining.
3. Do not blend. Chop the chicken into small, soft pieces roughly the size of your fingernail and mash about half the potato to thicken.
4. Stir in enough warm stock to make it spoonable, cool and test before serving.

Tip: this is a good one to make a double batch of. The adult half just needs seasoning after you have taken the baby portion out.

11. Hidden Veg Pasta Sauce

• Prep 10 mins
• Cook 25 mins
• Makes 6 portions
• Freezes well

Ingredients

• 1 red pepper, deseeded and chopped
• 1 carrot, peeled and chopped
• 1 small courgette, chopped
• 200g chopped tomatoes, no added salt
• 1 small clove of garlic
• A pinch of dried basil

Method

1. Steam the pepper, carrot and courgette with the garlic for 15 minutes until everything is soft.
2. Add the tomatoes and basil and blend until completely smooth.
3. Simmer in a pan for 5 minutes to thicken if it is too loose.
4. Stir through soft, well cooked small pasta shapes. Cool and test before serving.

Worth the effort: this freezes in cubes and turns any pasta, rice or couscous into a meal in three minutes. It is also the recipe most families tell us they are still making a year later.

12. Banana and Oat Breakfast Fingers

• Prep 10 mins
• Cook 20 mins
• Makes 10 fingers
• Freezes well

Ingredients

• 2 very ripe bananas
• 150g porridge oats
• 50g blueberries, halved
• 1 British Lion stamped egg
• Half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180C fan.
2. Blend the bananas, oats, egg and cinnamon into a thick batter.
3. Stir in the halved blueberries by hand.
4. Spread into a lined tin and bake for 18 to 20 minutes until firm and golden.
5. Cool completely and cut into finger sized strips.

No added sugar: the sweetness comes entirely from ripe banana. The NHS is clear that babies do not need sugar, and starting without it makes life much easier later.

5. Introducing allergens safely

This is the part that worries most parents, and the advice has changed considerably in recent years. Current NHS guidance is that delaying allergenic foods does not protect against allergy, and may increase the risk. Peanuts and eggs in particular should be introduced from around 6 months, not held back.

The three rules

1. One at a time. Introduce allergenic foods one at a time and in very small amounts, so if there is a reaction you know exactly what caused it.
2. Keep going. Once a food has been introduced and tolerated, keep offering it as a regular part of your baby's diet. Introducing peanut butter once and then never again does not build tolerance.
3. Pick your moment. Offer a new allergen earlier in the day, at home, when you can watch your baby for a few hours afterwards. Not at 6pm on the way out the door.

What a reaction looks like

A mild reaction can include a rash, itchy throat or tongue, swollen lips, a runny or blocked nose, coughing, wheezing, vomiting or diarrhoea. Stop offering that food and speak to your GP.

Allergen introduction tracker

Print this and stick it on the fridge. Tick each food off as you introduce it, note the date, and write down anything you noticed. It is genuinely useful to have this written down if you ever need to talk to a GP about a suspected allergy, and it stops the "have we done sesame yet?" conversation entirely.

Print this page

The first nine are the foods the NHS highlights as most likely to cause a reaction in babies. The last five complete the 14 allergens that must be declared on food labelling in the UK, so they are worth knowing about even though reactions to them in babies are less common.

6. Foods to avoid

A short list, and worth knowing properly. This follows NHS guidance on foods to avoid giving babies and young children.

7. Choking and gagging: knowing the difference

Almost every parent has a moment in the first month of weaning where they think their baby is choking and it turns out to be gagging. Knowing which is which takes a lot of fear out of the process.

Reducing the risk

• Always stay with your baby while they eat. Never leave them alone with food, not even for a moment.
• Sit them upright in a high chair, never reclined, never in a car seat, never lying down.
• Never feed a baby in a moving car, where you cannot reach them quickly.
• Cut round foods lengthways. Grapes, cherry tomatoes and similar shapes should be quartered lengthways, never served whole.
• Remove stones, pips and bones and check fish twice.
• Avoid hard raw foods such as raw carrot sticks, whole nuts and hard apple. Cook them soft or grate them.

8. Freezing, storing and batch cooking

Batch cooking is what makes homemade baby food sustainable. These are the NHS food safety rules, and they are worth following to the letter.

Cooling and storing

• Cool food within 1 to 2 hours of cooking, then refrigerate or freeze it.
• Food kept in the fridge should be eaten within 2 days.
• Rice is stricter. Cool it within 1 hour, refrigerate immediately, and eat within 24 hours.
• Freeze in ice cube trays or small pots, then transfer to labelled freezer bags with the food name and date.

Defrosting

• Defrost in the fridge overnight, or use the defrost setting on a microwave.
• Once defrosted, eat within 24 hours.
• Never refreeze food that has been defrosted.

Reheating

• Reheat until steaming hot all the way through, then let it cool before serving.
• Only reheat once. Never reheat rice more than once.
• If you use a microwave, stir well to get rid of hot air pockets and always check the temperature before feeding.
• Throw away half eaten portions. Never save, store or reheat food your baby has already eaten from, because bacteria from their saliva will have got into it.

Out and about

Use an insulated bag with an ice block or a frozen bottle of water. If food is not kept cold, it should be eaten within 4 hours maximum.

9. Drinks, cups and vitamins

Drinks

• From around 6 months, offer sips of water from an open cup or free flow beaker with meals. A cup without a non spill valve helps your baby learn to sip rather than suck.
• Breast milk or first infant formula remains the main drink for the whole of the first year.
• Whole cow's milk can become the main drink from 12 months. Before then it can be used in cooking, but not as a drink.
• Skip juice and squash. They cause tooth decay and are not needed.
• Once your baby is 1, feeding from a bottle should be discouraged.

Vitamins

• Breastfed babies should be given a daily vitamin D supplement of 8.5 to 10mcg from birth.
• Formula fed babies having more than 500ml of infant formula a day do not need extra vitamin D, because formula is already fortified.
• From 6 months to 5 years, babies and children who are not having 500ml of formula a day should have a supplement containing vitamins A, C and D. Check the label is age appropriate.
• Families on certain benefits, or with a parent under 18, may qualify for free Healthy Start vitamins. Some areas offer them to everyone, so ask your health visitor.

11. Weaning FAQs

Making weaning easier

A few things from our range that parents tell us make the biggest difference during the weaning months.