Starting Solids: Readiness Signs and What Canadian Guidance Recommends

Somewhere around four months, the advice starts arriving. Your mother-in-law suggests rice cereal in a bottle. An app tells you to begin purées. Someone at the park insists their baby has been eating since twelve weeks.

Health Canada, the Canadian Paediatric Society and the Dietitians of Canada all recommend starting at around six months. Here’s what that looks like in practice, and why the first foods matter more than most people realize.

Age is not the readiness sign

Six months is a guide, not a date on the calendar. Your baby needs to show developmental readiness, and all of these together:

• Sits with minimal support and holds their head steady and upright
• Has lost the tongue-thrust reflex, so food isn’t automatically pushed back out
• Can pick things up and bring them to their mouth
• Opens their mouth when food approaches and shows genuine interest, not just interest in watching you
• Can turn their head away to refuse

That last one matters more than it sounds. A baby who can’t decline can’t regulate their own intake.

Worth knowing: waking more at night, watching you eat, and chewing on fists are not readiness signs. They’re normal four-month behaviours, and they’re the most common reasons families start early.

Start with iron

This is the part that distinguishes Canadian guidance from a lot of what circulates online, and it’s the single most important thing on this page.

Babies are born with iron stores that begin running down around six months. Breast milk is low in iron, so the first foods need to fill that gap. Canadian guidance is clear that iron-rich foods should come first and be offered two or more times a day.

That means:

• Well-cooked meat, poultry and fish
• Eggs
• Beans, lentils and tofu
• Iron-fortified infant cereal

Offer these alongside vitamin C sources such as fruit and vegetables, which improve iron absorption.

Starting with weeks of rice cereal or fruit purées delays iron. There’s no nutritional reason to begin with bland single foods and progress slowly through a hierarchy.

Allergens go in early, not late

Advice on this reversed some years ago and a lot of parents are still working from the old version.

Current guidance is to introduce common allergens early, from around six months when solids begin, and then to keep offering them regularly. Delaying introduction increases allergy risk rather than reducing it. That includes peanut, egg, dairy, wheat, soy, fish, shellfish, sesame and tree nuts, all in age-appropriate forms.

Introduce one new allergen at a time, in small amounts, earlier in the day so you can watch for a reaction, and then keep it in the rotation rather than offering it once. If your baby has severe eczema or an existing food allergy, speak to your physician before starting, as they may want a different approach.

Breastfeeding continues

Solids are additional, not a replacement. The WHO, Health Canada and the Canadian Paediatric Society all recommend continuing breastfeeding to two years and beyond, alongside solid foods.

In the first months of solids, milk remains your baby’s main source of nutrition and calories. Offer the breast first, then food, so solids don’t displace milk feeds. Intake at the beginning is genuinely tiny, and that’s fine. This stage is about practice: learning to move food around the mouth, chew, and swallow safely.

Safety points

• No honey before twelve months, because of the risk of infant botulism.
• No cow’s milk as a drink before nine to twelve months. In cooking and in yogurt or cheese it’s fine from six months.
• No added salt or sugar.
• Choking hazards: whole grapes and cherry tomatoes (quarter them lengthwise), whole nuts, popcorn, hard raw vegetable pieces, chunks of hot dog or sausage, hard candy. Cut round foods lengthwise, not into coins.
• Always seated upright in a high chair, always supervised, never eating in a car seat or while moving.
• Learn the difference between gagging and choking. Gagging is noisy, involves coughing and is a normal protective reflex that appears often at this stage. Choking is silent. An infant first aid course before starting solids is genuinely worth the time.

Purées or baby-led weaning

Both work. The evidence doesn’t strongly favour one approach, and many families use a mix, offering soft finger foods alongside spoon-fed textures.

What matters more than the method is that iron-rich foods come first, that textures progress so your baby isn’t still on smooth purées at twelve months, and that mealtimes stay relaxed. Pressure and distraction techniques tend to create problems later.

If you’d like to go through it properly

Starting solids raises more questions than any other transition, and most of them are specific to your baby rather than covered by a general guide.

I run an Introduction to Solids Workshop covering readiness, iron-rich first foods, allergen introduction, textures, choking safety and how solids fit alongside continued breastfeeding. Partners and caregivers are welcome, which is useful when more than one person is doing the feeding.

If you also have feeding questions beyond solids, a consultation can cover both. I see families at home across Kanata, Barrhaven, Orléans, Stittsville, Riverside South, Findlay Creek, Manotick Village, Hintonburg, The Glebe and Aylmer, and virtually across Canada.

Related questions

When should babies start solids in Canada?

At around six months, and when your baby shows developmental readiness: sitting with minimal support, steady head control, loss of the tongue-thrust reflex, bringing objects to their mouth, and the ability to turn away to refuse.

What foods should I start with?

Iron-rich foods, offered two or more times a day. Well-cooked meat, fish, eggs, beans, lentils, tofu or iron-fortified infant cereal, paired with fruit or vegetables to help absorption.

When should I introduce allergens?

Early, from around six months when solids begin, then regularly. Delaying introduction increases allergy risk. Speak to your physician first if your baby has severe eczema or a known food allergy.

Do I stop breastfeeding once solids start?

No. Milk remains your baby’s main source of nutrition for the first months of solids, and Canadian guidance recommends continuing breastfeeding to two years and beyond alongside food.