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Starting Solids: How to Cut and Serve Each Food by Age

By Berkay Yenilmez
Updated October 8, 2026

Pick a food to see when babies can start it and how to cut and serve it at 6, 9 and 12 months, with choking and allergen notes and its iron. 25 foods, written by us from AAP, CDC, NHS, ASCIA and USDA guidance.

How shapes change
  • At 6 months: soft pieces as long as a finger, mashed food, or thin spreads your baby grabs with a whole hand.
  • At 9 months: small soft pieces about the size of a chickpea, for the pincer grasp between thumb and finger.
  • From 12 months: chopped family food. Small round foods like grapes stay quartered lengthwise until age 4.

Sources differ on size at 6 months. The NHS suggests pieces big enough for your baby to hold in a fist with a bit sticking out, about the size of your own finger; the AAP says to cut food for young children into pieces no larger than half an inch. This guide follows the NHS at 6 months and moves to small pieces at 9 months.

Cow's milk and juice as drinks wait for the first birthday whatever the shape. Honey waits longer: none before 12 months because of infant botulism, and as an added sugar we wait until age 2. Whole nuts and peanuts wait until age 5 (NHS). Stay with your baby at every meal, sitting upright.

How to read the labels: Choking risk means the food needs a safe shape until the age on its page. Allergen means one of the nine major food allergens. Iron-rich means at least 1 mg of iron per 100 g and a real amount in one baby-sized serving; a thin smear of a spread falls short of that.

Fruits

Vegetables

Meat, fish and eggs

  • Eggs Allergen Iron-rich
  • Steak Choking risk Iron-rich
  • Chicken Choking risk Iron-rich

Beans, lentils, peas, tofu and peanut butter

Dairy

Grains and corn

Other foods and drinks

Stay with your baby at every meal, sitting upright. This is general information from public health sources, not medical advice. Your child's doctor has the final word.

Starting Solids in the Sito app

Sito is our app. From 4 months, the home screen is Starting Solids: the signs of readiness, how to serve each of 583 foods at your baby's age, and a quick log for every taste. Spears to grip or mashed on a spoon, each food's card shows the shapes that fit your baby's age, and swipes ahead to how it changes as they grow.

The Allergen Ladder takes 9 common allergens, one at a time, with a check-in after each. At 12 months the full app opens on its own: meals from a photo, 18 nutrients, and how to cut every food until age 4.

Every first food, served right

Add your baby and Starting Solids opens at 4 months.

Download on the App Store
Get it on Google Play
Sito's first-food card for avocado at 6 months: thick finger-length spears to grip, or mashed on a preloaded spoon, with a reminder to stay with Sofia at every meal, sitting upright. Sito's Allergen Ladder for Sofia: 5 of 9 allergens introduced, with egg, milk and wheat kept up and soy, sesame and tree nut not started yet.

Sources

  1. AAP HealthyChildren: Choking Prevention for Babies & Children
  2. AAP HealthyChildren: When Can Babies Start Solid Foods?
  3. AAP HealthyChildren: Cow's Milk Alternatives: Parent FAQs
  4. CDC: When, What, and How to Introduce Solid Foods
  5. CDC: Foods and Drinks to Avoid or Limit
  6. NHS: Your baby's first solid foods
  7. NHS: Foods to avoid giving babies and young children
  8. ASCIA: How to introduce solid foods to babies for allergy prevention
  9. USDA: FoodData Central
  10. NIH Office of Dietary Supplements: Iron
  11. NIH Office of Dietary Supplements: Zinc

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