What to cook for Six month old baby?

Home made baby food by the dabblist/CC BY

Baby completed six months,Wow ! Its time to try ur culinary skills  with motherly touch.
Get ready to cook for ur little munchkin and lets enjoy her first taste and do click the photo of that puzzeled look!  (i missed that and now i regret......)

see the baby food chart for six month old that I have compiled from various sources and choose what u want to feed to ur LO

Here are some baby food dishes for six month old ,some of the recipes i have written , most of the dishes are easy and any one can guess how to prepare them,for making purees do check my post on HOW TO PREPARE BABY FOOD???


phot by jhecking/CC BY

UPDATE-I forgot to add sabudana in the above food chart.if ur doctor allows,u may give sabudana water to babies at six months.

Dishes with Cereals
rice water(chawal ka paaani), the starchy part that u get whn u boil rice
rice porridge
brown rice porridge
oat meal porridge
barley water or barley porridge
suji porridge
rice porridge with stewed and chopped fruits/fruit puree in it.
upma with or without vegetables in it
wheat porridge(Daliya)
Daliya with veggies in it
sabudana(tapioca pearls) water/sabudana soup (ask ur doc esp abt giving sabudana)

Dishes with Lentils
green lentil soup(moong daal ka pani)
red lentil soup(malka dal ka paani)
properly cooked daal
dal with veggies in it.

Dishes with Vegetables
carrot soup
carrot puree
beans puree
sweet pumpkin puree
sweet potato mash
beet root soup
mashed potato and so on

initially give each veggie individually , once u have introduced two or three veggies ,can give them together.

carrot and beet root soup
beens puree with potato mashed
clear vegetable soup

Gradually,u can try giving baby some lumps or textured food too other than purees,if he can handle lumps without gagging,then u can simply cut the steamed veggies in smaller pieces or can mash a bit with fork before offering to baby.

cut steamed veggies in bite size pieces and offer them as finger foods
e.g.

steamed and chopped carrots
beans /potato mashed with little lumps in it
potato wedges(boiled and cut into wedges)

Dishes with Fruits    
apple puree(click it see the recipe)
banana mash
avocado mash
pear puree
chikoo puree and so on

don't know how to stew fruits for puree?click the link

other than purees try offering ur baby stewed and chopped fruits too,
if ur eating some fruits like apple,mango,musk melon u may give a taste of that fruit to ur LO without any stewing also.let them suck fruit juice from it. 
though it is advised to give stewed fruit(except ripe bananas) for the first six or eight months of baby's life.One main concern is the risk of choking,so always be near to ur baby while offering finger foods.

Once u have introduced every food above individually,now can mix veggies and fruits ,cereals/lentils or fruits/veggies.

apple and carrot soup
cereals with fruits puree/stewed & chopped fruits in it
upma/suji with vegetables puree/stemed & chopped vegetables in it
daal pressure cooked with vegetables in it.
e.g.
lentil caroot soup
lentil beans soup
lentil and lauki soup

kichdi with or without veggies

Finger Foods

steamed and chopped vegetable(cut into bite size pieces)
stewed and chopped fruits
whole wheat bread toast
dry bagel
cottage cheese (paneer )

AND SO ON, I guess the list is quite long and u can't introduce this much food to six month old baby,continue it to seven month.I have written only to to give u lots of options,so that u can choose what u want to feed to ur baby and also the list will be cut short by ur choosy little customer too.

How to Introduce Solids

Every baby is different in their growth,temperament, willingness, eagerness,choices and tastes. Likewise,every parent need to be different in their approach.some babies are so eager to eat that they start grabbing food from their parents plate even very early while some are not even interested in it.some are so hungry that they are willing to have three meals a day while other are full with one only.But as per the doc says to start solids after six months,I have written it accordingly on the basis of my experience as follows- 

Week 1 DAY 1
start with any food that u like fruits or vegetable puree or whatever ur doc advised.but give it  only once a day(only one meal a day) and better at day time.
some start with rice cereal but in India we generally start with daal ka pani(lentil soup) and i too continued that tradition ,daal is something that is cooked daily for lunch or (may be in dinner) in our north Indian meal, so why not start with it?
Wait for four or five days ,continue giving same food

Day 4
lets start with another dish,something yummy!
i introduced beans puree then (but my lo didn't seem very interested)
u can introduce anything,fruits or vegetables
see here my post on Introducing solids to baby?

Week 2
well now u can add one more meal , add dinner or if u like breakfast more ,so thats good too.better go for tested food during night.
i guess by the end two week ,a baby might get taste of 4 to 6 food(perhaps lentils,cereal,two fruits and one veggie) and u also got the idea of ur babys taste preferences also,
don't force ur baby to eat a particular thing,if he is not liking veggies,try giving it again after few weeks,till then continue with whatever he liked

Week 3
now u can add one more meal too if u want and ur baby is interested also ,so 3 meals a day.
so now u can make a chart of what u want to give in breakfast,lunch and dinner.write down all the food options.infact some options wud be cut down by ur lo too making ur chart short.

Week 4
Now u can introduce food u didnt gave initially (that were written in yellow in my chart) but if ur doc said ok ,may give them earlier too.
Also try to puree the food a little less and leave a bit of lumps to see whether ur baby can swallow it ,if  he is gaging then puree it well.
There is no hard and fast rule  to start giving textured or lumpy food from this day,if ur baby can handle it from day one,u may give.
Or can try giving lumps gradually.

e.g.1 instead of giving dal ka paani,can give well cooked dal,then adding vegetables in it and then can offer the dal  in the same form as u eat urself.

e.g.2 start with purees or soups,then mashing steamed food, then to chopped steamed fruits or vegetables.


P.S.  Always ask ur doc before introducing solids,as he knows abt ur child much better than anyone from internet,Discuss any doubt regarding food freely with ur doc.If u found ur baby is allergic to certain food,take ur baby to doc or talk to him on phone.

waiting for 4 or 5 days before introducing new food is advised only to chk allergies in babies; otherwise most parents start slowly in beginning but later on start giving new food quite quickly.

always be near to ur baby while offering any food esp, finger foods



its just the begining of that lifelong food taste that form in infancy and then tend to persist till one ages. This is once-in-a-lifetime oppurtunity to introduce healthy eating habits .
Its a life long food journey.and we will continue with our journey in our next post with food for seven month old baby.till then.........BON APETITE




U can also give ur recipes too,I wud love to add it in my blog.
post next week- What to cook for seven month old baby?