Introducing textured food to your baby’s diet is a big step. Although it’s exciting, it can also be challenging. However, transitioning your baby from smooth purees to soft lumps and finger foods will help them develop healthy eating habits and it improves their oral motor skills.

Ready to explore how you can support your baby’s growth through textured food? We’ve put together a simple guide filled with 5 important tips that will help to lay the foundation for a lifetime of healthy eating!

• Gradually introduce textured foods to your baby’s diet, starting with slightly thicker purees and progressing to soft lumps and finger foods.
• Mix smooth and chunky consistencies to help your baby adjust to new textures and flavours.
• Offer a variety of textured foods 
• Encourage self-feeding by providing appropriate finger foods and using baby-led weaning techniques to promote independence and exploration.
• Monitor your baby’s responses to new textures and adapt the progression based on their individual development and preferences.

Start with thicker purees than the usual runny ones. You can do this by adding less liquid or blending for a shorter time. This helps your baby get used to food in their mouth.

Try:

• Mashed avocado
• Blended cooked sweet potato
• Pureed cooked carrots with less water
• Mashed ripe banana

When your baby is okay with thicker purees, introduce soft lumps. These should be small and easy to mash. Try:

• Mashing cooked vegetables with a fork, leaving some small soft pieces
• Adding finely chopped soft fruits to purees
• Mixing well-cooked, mashed lentils or beans into vegetable purees
• Incorporating small, soft pieces of pasta or rice into purees

Give your baby time to get used to new textures and watch for signs that they’re ready for more textures. These signs can include easily managing the current texture without gagging or choking, showing interest in more textured foods and attempting to chew or mash food with their gums. If your baby struggles with a new texture, go back to the previous one. As a parent, patience is key here!

As your baby gets used to smooth purees, it’s time to add new textures. Mixing purees with soft chunks helps to make meals fun and nutritious. Start by adding small amounts of finely mashed or chopped food to smooth purees. Good soft chunks include:

• Ripe avocado
• Cooked sweet potato
• Steamed carrots
• Soft-cooked pasta
• Well-cooked lentils

Mix these soft chunks into the smooth puree and make sure the chunks are small and safe for your baby. As your little one gets more comfortable with solids, you can make the chunks bigger.

Over time, you can change how much chunky food is in your baby’s meals. Start with a little chunky food in a lot of smooth puree. Then, slowly add more chunky food as your baby gets used to it.

Offering many textures supports your baby’s senses and helps them try new tastes. It also helps to avoid your baby being picky later down the line. Soft lumps, mashed foods, and finger foods with different flavours and shapes are great. 

Choose foods that are right for your baby’s age and safe. Soft veggies, ripe fruits, and cooked pasta are good for little hands. Mashed potatoes, avocado, and cooked lentils are tasty and nutritious, too.

Self-feeding helps your baby to grow up independent and curious. It also boosts your little one’s fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination and they will likely feel more in control during meals.

Finger foods are great for self-feeding. Give your baby soft foods they can pick up easily and make sure their foods are small to avoid choking. Try foods such as soft-cooked vegetables like carrot sticks, broccoli florets, or sweet potato wedges; ripe fruit pieces such as banana slices, avocado chunks, or soft peach slices; cooked pasta shapes or small pieces of bread; and soft, tender pieces of cooked meat or fish.

Baby-led weaning starts with self feeding from the beginning. Instead of spoon-feeding, offer soft foods that your baby can pick up. This lets them explore food at their own speed and improves their self-feeding skills.

You can also mix baby-led weaning with spoon feeding. Give your baby soft foods during meals and let them choose what and how much they eat. 

To make self feeding easier, place your little one in a high chair or booster seat for easy access to food. Be sure to use unbreakable plates, bowls, and utensils that are easy for your baby to handle and let your baby explore food with their hands, even if it gets messy! Praise and encourage your baby’s self-feeding efforts too.