The importance of offering your baby new food textures

As the weaning adventure progresses, introducing lumps and increasingly challenging textures to your baby's diet will help them learn to chew. It also plays a role in speech development and can even help them grow up to become a confident eater and enjoy a varied diet.

Purées and first tastes (4 to 6 months):
Your baby's first foods will be baby rice and smooth purées. They need to learn to eat these by first getting used to taking the food from the spoon, then moving it from side to side in their mouth before swallowing.

Take your time when you start weaning and do not worry if your baby does not take much to begin with. The idea is to get them used to a new texture that is different from milk.

Introducing lumps and learning to chew (7 to 9 months):
Once your baby is used to taking their food from a spoon, any time from around seven months, you can introduce slightly more challenging mashed textures.

This helps to encourage your baby's tongue flexibility and movement.

This is the time when chewing skills are beginning to develop and your baby is learning to push the food to the roof of their mouth. Most babies can learn to chew soft lumps, even if their teeth have not come through yet. If they experience foods with lumps now, it will make them less likely to reject lumpy food later on¹.

Introduce a mashed texture of soft lumps in a fairly thick purée. Hard lumps in a runny sauce will be difficult for your baby to cope with. This is because your baby will find it difficult to separate the lumps from the liquid and will probably try and swallow both, which may make them gag.

Whole peas in a sauce, for example, are likely to be too tricky for your baby at this stage, whereas a mashed-up banana that contains some soft lumps is a texture and consistency your baby will probably find easier.

Chopped-up textures and starting to chew (10 to 12 months):
Once your baby is used to lumpier textures, and as their teeth start to come through, you can move on to bigger lumps and tender pieces in a more chopped-up texture that your baby can start to chew. Examples include pasta pieces and rice.

The arrival of your baby's teeth means you can introduce an even wider range of flavour and texture combinations. It also helps encourage tongue flexibility and the development of your baby's speech muscles.

Even if your baby has no teeth yet, you can encourage them to chew by giving them finger foods. Finger foods provide chewing practice which helps develop your baby's speech muscles. They can also help to develop hand-eye co-ordination.

¹ 2008 ESPGHAN Committee on Nutrition. Complementary Feeding: A Commentary by the ESPGHAN Committee on Nutrition, Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition 46:99-110