When to Start Weaning: A Parent's Guide

Weaning. When, how, and why nobody tells you the truth about it.

Six months, give or take. That's the honest answer, and anyone promising you an exact date is guessing. The NHS says around six months, and there's good reason for it. Before four months, a baby's digestion and kidneys just aren't ready for anything more than milk. But babies don't read the guidelines. Some are ready bang on six months. Others need a few more weeks. The calendar is a rough guide, not an instruction.

What actually tells you something

Forget the fist chewing and the night waking. Those are just things babies do. What matters is whether they can sit up with decent head control, whether they've started coordinating eyes, hands and mouth, and whether that tongue thrust reflex has faded enough that food stays in rather than coming straight back at you. All three, ideally, not just one. That's your green light.

Starting

Pick a moment when they're calm and reasonably interested, not ravenous and not half asleep. A small spoonful of something soft and smooth. See what happens. If they turn away, that's not rejection, that's a Tuesday. Try again another day. Milk is still doing the heavy lifting nutritionally for a good while yet, so there's no pressure to make the first few weeks about volume.

A bit of reassurance, minus the hand holding

Gagging looks alarming and isn't the same as choking. It's just your baby working out how food behaves in their mouth, and it happens a lot early on. Variety early helps too. Flavours, textures, the lot, rather than easing in gently with beige purées for a month. And obviously, always stay with them while they eat.

The bit where we mention we sell weaning sets

A decent bowl that doesn't slide across the table, a spoon that's soft on new gums, a bib that catches most of it. That's really all you need, and our Complete Weaning Set covers it, in colours that don't look out of place on your worktop, which matters more than you'd think once it's there permanently.

Last thing

You know your baby better than any guide does, including this one. It'll be slow, it'll be messy, and most of what lands will end up on the floor rather than in them for the first while. That's normal. That's the whole process, really.