Weaning and first foods checklist
Start around six months, one new food at a time, and expect more to end up on the floor than in them for the first few weeks.
23 items
Makes your own editable copy. No account needed.
The items
- High chair, with a strap that actually gets usedA chair without the straps done up is a chair a determined baby can stand up in.
- Weaning spoons×4Soft-tipped and small — an adult teaspoon is the wrong shape for a mouth this size.
- Bibs×6Long-sleeved ones earn their keep in the first fortnight, when more food ends up on them than in them.
- First foods to start with
- Single vegetables or fruits, mashed or as soft batons
- Baby rice or a plain first cereal, if using purees
- Iron-rich foods early — meat, lentils or fortified cereal
- Freezer pots×12Batch-cook and freeze small amounts — the food changes faster than the appetite does at first.
- Ice cube tray for tiny portions
- Blender, masher or a fork, whichever suits the approach chosen
- Open cup or a free-flow beaker, introduced alongside food
- Floor mat or newspaper under the high chairSaves the twenty-minute clean-up as much as it saves the floor.
- Foods to avoid before one year
- HoneyRisk of infant botulism before twelve months.
- Salt added to any of their food
- Whole nuts and anything round and hard enough to choke on
- Unpasteurised cheese and raw shellfish
- One new food at a time, a few days apartMakes it possible to spot a reaction and know exactly which food caused it.
- Knowing the difference between gagging and chokingGagging is loud and normal — it's how they learn to manage lumps. Silent and no cough means choking: get help immediately.
- A weaning or infant first aid course bookedTen minutes with someone who's shown you the technique beats reading about it afterwards.
- Health visitor's number saved, for anything that doesn't look right
- Highchair tray and surrounding surfaces easy to wipe down
- Patience for the messMore goes on the floor than in for weeks. That's the process working, not going wrong.
Makes your own editable copy. No account needed.
Questions people ask
- When should weaning start?
- Around six months, when they can sit fairly upright and reach for food themselves. Earlier than that should happen on specific advice, not guesswork.
- Purees or baby-led weaning — which is right?
- Neither is required and most families mix the two. Choose whatever suits how your baby manages food, and change course if it isn't working.
- What if something looks like choking?
- Coughing and red-faced is gagging — let them work it out. Silent, no cough, or turning blue is choking: act immediately and call for help.