Your baby may be perfectly content nursing or drinking a bottle but is starting to eye your plate at dinner time. A newborn baby's digestive system is immature and not ready for solid foods, but by the time he reaches 4 to 6 months old, he may be ready to try solids. Consult your pediatrician before you introduce solids into his diet.
Assess Development
Your baby's digestive system is not the only part of her body that needs to be developing on schedule to introduce solids into the diet. Babies are born with a strong tongue thrust. If this tongue-thrusting action is still strong by the time she reaches 5 or 6 months old, feeding solids could be difficult or impossible. Your baby also needs to be able to hold her head up independently and be well on her way to sitting in a high chair on her own before you give her solid foods.
Purees
Introduce your 4- to 6-month-old to pureed food or baby food that contains only one ingredient at first. Cereals such as rice, oats or barley are easy on the digestive system and can be prepared loosely to mimic the texture of formula or breast milk. As your baby becomes accustomed to eating solids, increase the cereal-to-milk ratio to make the cereal thicker. Single-ingredient fruits and vegetables such as applesauce, pears or carrots are also easy on your baby's delicate stomach and can be introduced soon after cereals.
Adding Foods
Add solid foods to your baby's diet in increments, waiting three to five days between new additions to assess any allergies or adverse reactions. Meats, even those that are purees, can be more difficult to digest. Wait until your child is 6 to 7 months old and has successfully eaten a variety of cereals, fruits and vegetables for several weeks before feeding meats.
Finger Foods
By the time your child is 8 to 10 months old, he has most likely cut a few teeth and may be more than ready to try them out. At this point, you can safely begin to give your baby chunkier foods -- cut into small pieces -- to eat, including pieces of bagel or toast, O-shaped breakfast cereal, soft pasta and crackers. Children who are late to teethe may not be ready for finger foods until they are closer to 1 year old.
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