Solids
Starting solids, allergen introduction, safe textures and picky eating — written to answer the question you actually typed, and linked to the 990-food database so you can check any ingredient in one click.
Starting solids: the complete guide
Purée or baby-led weaning is the question parents agonise over, and the trial evidence says it barely matters. Choking, allergen timing and what stays off the plate are the decisions that do — here is the map of all of them.
Gagging vs choking: how to tell the difference
Gagging is loud and normal. Choking is silent and an emergency. How to tell them apart, what actually causes choking, and when frequent gagging is worth raising with a professional.
Allergen introduction: when and how to start
Guidance reversed: allergens now go in early rather than being delayed. When to start, how to offer each one safely, what a reaction looks like, and why this is not the milk ladder.
Baby food schedule: 6, 9 and 12 months
How many meals a day at each stage, how textures should move, why babies under one do not need snacks, and where national guidance genuinely differs.
Baby-led weaning vs purées: what the trial actually found
The only randomised trial found no BMI difference, no difference in choking, and one result that contradicts the theory. An honest comparison, including what each approach asks of you.
Division of Responsibility: who decides what, and when
You decide what, when and where; your child decides whether and how much. Ellyn Satter's model, the validated evidence behind it, and the pressure loop it exists to break.
Food chaining: getting a picky eater to accept new foods
Start from a food your child already eats and move one sensory step at a time. How to build a chain — and why the evidence sits in repeated exposure rather than in the method itself.
How to cut food by age: sizes, shapes and safety
Two principles cover almost every food: cut round shapes lengthways, and soften firm ones until they squash between your fingers. How the cut changes from 6 months to 18 months and beyond.
Related from other hubs
Bottle refusal: what actually helps, and what to do if nothing does
A survey of 841 mothers found 27% said bottle refusal hurt their breastfeeding experience. The variables worth changing, in order — and the plan that works even if the bottle never does.
Paced bottle feeding: how and why
A tipped-up bottle lets gravity set the pace. Pacing hands the speed back to your baby — horizontal bottle, upright baby, regular pauses — and makes overfeeding much less likely.
