“Now that your baby is 6 months old you can start introducing baby food.”
Ugh! Even before I got pregnant with Baby Z I was so not looking forward to the baby food stage. Spending an arm and a leg on store bought baby food is not how I wanted to spend our hard-earned income. And while I’d done it before, I couldn’t face the hours I was going to have to spend in the kitchen steaming pureeing and mixing to make homemade baby food.
When I happened on a blog article about “baby led weaning” I immediately knew that this was how we’d do foods with our next baby. I breathed a sigh of relief knowing I wouldn’t be throwing money away at the grocery store (our grocery bill is already exorbitant for goodness sake) or slaving away in the kitchen making the homemade stuff.
With Baby Led Weaning we’ve fed Baby Z whole table foods. For the most part he just eats what we eat. But even baby led weaned babies need to start out on relatively soft foods.
Part of the point of baby led weaning is to introduce your baby to a variety of tastes and textures. But whether doing pureed food or table foods it can be easy to get into a creative rut, feeding your child the same 5 foods day after day.
To help us all out of the rut I enlisted my friends in the Baby Led Weaning Facebook group I belong to.
Compiled below is a list of their baby’s favorite, whole baby led weaning first foods.
Baby Led Weaning First Foods
- Sweet Potatoes – cut into strips, or gripable chunks or as sweet potato fries
- Avocado
- Banana
- Zucchini – raw cut into strips, grilled, or sauteed
- Apples – raw or steamed cut into thin slices, leave the skin on
- Strawberries – if your baby has any food sensitivities it is best to hold off on the berries until about 9 months
- Blueberries
- Broccoli – steamed
- Pears – thinly sliced
- Artichoke hearts – look for cans with low sodium content
- Chicken – cut into thin strips or small chewable pieces
- Salmon
- Steak – make sure it isn’t tough
- Ribs – Baby Z devours baby back ribs!
- Cucumber – cut into long thin strips
- Banana – halved or quartered
- Peas – steamed or boiled
- Carrots – Steamed
- Parsnips – I’ve never had one and couldn’t tell you how to prep it, but multiple moms said their little ones love it.
- Mango
- Asparagus
- Green Beans
- Cauliflower
- Corn
- Peaches
- Cheese
- Baked Potatoes
- Spaghetti
- Curry
- Stir Fry
The baby led weaning first foods list can go on and on, but I’m going to leave off there. Just make sure that (as with any method of feeding) your child is supervised at all times.
If you need more ideas about great meals for Baby Led Weaning that the whole family can enjoy, many baby led weaning parents love The Baby Led Weaning Cookbook by baby led weaning expert Gill Rapley. The book to the right is the Baby Led Weaning Essential Guide by Gill Rapley.
Here are some other Baby Led Weaning posts you might be interested in:
What’s the deal with Baby Led Weaning?
What were your baby’s favorite first foods?

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