Guide to giving your baby solid foods at 12-15 months

In general, at this age children can eat the same things as you, so try to gradually introduce as many different foods, flavours and textures as you can. All children are different, and some children may accept new foods more quickly than others, so the key is patience!  They may not always like the things you offer them at first, but keep trying! Just make sure everything you feed your wee one is low in salt and sugar. 

Here are some things to remember:

• Try to avoid adding salt when you're cooking or serving food, and try to limit foods that contain salt, like crisps and other snacks.
• Try to avoid foods with free sugars in. Free sugar is any sugar added to a food or drink, or that is already in honey, syrup and fruit juice.  
• The main drink for your child at this age should be pasteurised whole or semi-skimmed milk or water, as well as breast milk if you're still breastfeeding.
• It's important that once they turn one, they're given a wide range of foods that are good sources of iron. Iron comes from a variety of both animal and plant sources including red meat, fish, poultry, beans, pulses, dried fruit, fortified breakfast cereals and dark leafy vegetables.
• Offering children unfamiliar fruit and vegetables, including those with bitter flavours, over and over again (as much as 10 times or more) can help them get used to them. Some examples of bitter vegetables are broccoli and cauliflower.

You can find out more about what they can eat here.

Try sitting down as a family and eating the same meals together. We have some great ideas to help you eat as a family. You can chop up your meals into small pieces for them and using a spoon they can get used to feeding themselves. Just make sure it has cooled down.

They are still very little with small tummies but are growing quickly so most will need 3 small meals at this stage. It’s also time to start adding in 2 fruit or veg snacks, one at a time. Try offering between 6-8 teaspoons of cut up food, or a couple of pieces of soft finger foods. It’s all about getting used to foods – so try not to worry if they don’t eat or spit food out.

The guide below is just to give you an idea of when and how much but you might find that they need even more. Always trust your instincts and go at your baby’s pace. 

• Along with their usual milk feeds, your baby can now have three meals a day (breakfast, lunch, and tea).
• Around this age, your baby might have about 3 milk feeds a day (for instance, after breakfast, after lunch, and before bed) but every baby is different so just keep responding to your own baby’s needs and pace.
• If you're breastfeeding, your baby will change the amount of your milk they are drinking as they are getting more solid foods but every baby is different so just keep responding to your own baby’s needs and pace.
• As a guide, babies fed infant formula will drink about 400ml daily.
• Remember that all breastfed babies should be offered vitamin D supplements and formula-fed babies should take extra vitamin D if they're having less than 500ml of formula a day.