Introducing Your Baby to New Tastes and Textures

Children can start eating solid food at around 6 months. Offering a variety of tastes and textures from the start supports healthy development.

Why variety matters

Different tastes and textures help your child:

• learn to accept and enjoy many kinds of food;
• build fine motor skills, such as pinching and picking up food with their fingers;
• develop chewing skills.

Textures to try

Let your child explore how food feels in their mouth and hands. Textures include:

Moving through the stages

1. Around 6 months: very smooth foods — mashed, pureed or strained — are easiest.
2. As eating skills develop: offer thicker, lumpier foods.
3. As your child grows and is ready: move on to finely chopped or ground foods.

New textures take time. Your child may cough, gag or spit up while adjusting.

Let them use their fingers. Encourage your child to pinch and pick up food — it teaches them how food feels and builds fine motor skills.

CDC also offers guidance on when and how to introduce solid foods and how to prevent choking.

Sources

Based on "Tastes and Textures," Infant and Toddler Nutrition, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a work of the United States government in the public domain.