At this stage your baby is ready for more complex tastes and textures, and is learning to chew! Here is a list of foods suitable for babies between the ages of 8 and 12 months.
PROTEIN
All the meat proteins (including fish) in the list below should be steamed or slow cooked, then mashed or minced, or you can offer them as soft hand-held finger foods.
- Meat proteins: white fish, fatty fish, tuna, chicken, lamb, pork, ostrich, turkey, beef and venison
- Dairy: yoghurt (smooth, plain, full cream) and cream cheese (smooth, plain, full cream), soft gouda, soft white cheddar, and soft white cheeses. You can also add full-cream milk, but for cooking purposes only
- Pulses: chickpeas (soft, dehusked and mashed), lentils (mixed into veggies), butter beans (mashed), and edamame beans (cooked and mashed).
- Eggs: Scrambled with some milk
- Tofu: soft white
- Nuts: peanut butter and tree nut butters mixed into cereal or veggies or fruit
- Soya milk, in cooking
STARCH
These can be cereals, and from this age eaten as a whole grain mashed into vegetables or fruit:
- Rice
- Maize
- Spelt
- Millet
- Wheat (in the form of toast or pasta)
- Rye (in the form of toast)
- Potatoes (mashed, or soft chips that can be hand held)
VEGETABLES
Vegetables should be mashed or very soft, and you can also serve them as finger foods in hand-held sizes. Choose any and all seasonal vegetables in a variety of colours: green, yellow, orange, red and white. To flavour your veggies, use spring onions, red onions, fennel and garlic, and fresh herbs such as origanum, basil, parsley and sage.
FRUIT
Offer your baby any and all seasonal fruit. Serve fruit blended, mashed, or (if it is too hard to mash raw) grated. You can also offer soft fruits - such as strawberries or small slices of banana - as hand-held finger foods.
FATS
- Coconut fat
- Olive oil
- Olive paste
- Avocado oil
- Avocado, mashed or in small soft blocks
- Butter
