Knowing when to move through textures

Before you start weaning it can feel like there are so many questions! When to start, what foods to give, what equipment do I need?! Once you get started, one of the main questions and areas of confusion is around when to move on from puree and when to keep increasing the texture in the food.

Understanding what to do is less about dates and more about understanding what to look for and how to create the right environment for learning.

Babies are born with a suck reflex, to help them remove milk from a breast or a bottle. So, when you first offer food, you may notice foods being slurped off the spoon, or being pushed back out of the mouth with their tongue, as they haven’t yet learnt how to eat - which can be a huge learning curve!

Even with puree there is lots to learn: taking food from the spoon, closing the lips and then using the tongue, cheeks and roof of the mouth to move food around and swallow. It may take a couple of weeks or more to learn to do this. Once your baby is taking the food off the spoon with their lips, swallowing easily then leaning forward with an open mouth for more food you can start to think about moving on from initial purees.

In general, moving on through textures should be led by your baby’s ability rather than age, so try to avoid comparing to other babies as they all master new skills at different times. Some will move through textures quickly whilst others will take longer, just as they will with other developmental milestones like learning to crawl or talk.

The only timeframe you should keep in mind is moving on from smooth purees by 9 months of age. This is because there may be an increased risk of difficulty with eating textured food and fussy eating later in childhood if purees are given for too long.