Starting Solids / Grains and corn

How to Serve Rice to Babies at 6, 9 and 12 Months

By Berkay Yenilmez
Updated October 16, 2026

Babies can eat rice from 6 months, when they start solids. At 6 months: cooked extra soft and sticky, pressed into a large soft ball to hold in a fist, or simmered into a thick porridge. Why so big: babies this age grab with the whole hand, so a finger-sized piece with a bit sticking out of the fist is easiest to hold and gnaw, and gnawing helps them learn to chew. Feeding themselves carries no more risk of choking than being fed with a spoon; always stay with your baby while they eat.

Other names and forms
white rice, brown rice and cooked rice
Start
6 months, when solids begin
Common allergen
Not one of the nine major allergens
Iron
1.2 mg per 100 g
Textures
Mashed and finger food
Before you serve: Mix up the grains rather than rice every day; cooking rice in plenty of water and draining it lowers arsenic. Rice drinks wait until age 5. Sticky steamed rice cakes (mochi, tteok) wait until age 3 and are cut lengthwise into quarters until age 4.

How to serve rice by age

6 to 8 months

Rice, 6 to 8 months: 1, Pressed into a large soft ball; 2, Simmered into a thick porridge
  1. Pressed into a large soft ball
  2. Simmered into a thick porridge

Cooked extra soft and sticky, pressed into a large soft ball to hold in a fist, or simmered into a thick porridge. Why so big: babies this age grab with the whole hand, so a finger-sized piece with a bit sticking out of the fist is easiest to hold and gnaw, and gnawing helps them learn to chew. Feeding themselves carries no more risk of choking than being fed with a spoon; always stay with your baby while they eat.

Texture: mashed and finger food

9 to 11 months

Rice, 9 to 11 months: 1, Small soft clumps, to pick up; 2, Soft rice patties, cut in strips; 3, Mashed into soft food
  1. Small soft clumps, to pick up
  2. Soft rice patties, cut in strips
  3. Mashed into soft food

Soft rice pressed into small clumps or patties to pick up, or mashed into soft food; loose grains from 12 months. Why smaller now: between about 9 and 12 months babies learn to pick food up between thumb and finger, and small soft pieces let them practice. Babies who don't move on to lumpy food by about 9 to 10 months are more likely to have feeding difficulties later.

Texture: mashed and finger food

12 months and up

Rice, 12 months and up: Rice from the family pot

Rice from the family pot, cooked without added salt, eaten by hand or with a first spoon.

Texture: finger food

Sito shows this card at your baby's exact age, for 583 foods.

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Nutrients

USDA figures per 100 g (Rice, white, long-grain, regular, enriched, cooked): iron 1.2 mg, zinc 0.49 mg and calcium 10 mg. Household measures from USDA: 1 cup (cooked) is about 158 g.

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.

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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.

FAQ

When can babies eat rice?

From 6 months, when your baby starts solids.

How do you serve rice to a 6-month-old?

Cooked extra soft and sticky, pressed into a large soft ball to hold in a fist, or simmered into a thick porridge. Why so big: babies this age grab with the whole hand, so a finger-sized piece with a bit sticking out of the fist is easiest to hold and gnaw, and gnawing helps them learn to chew. Feeding themselves carries no more risk of choking than being fed with a spoon; always stay with your baby while they eat.

How do you serve rice to a 9-month-old?

Soft rice pressed into small clumps or patties to pick up, or mashed into soft food; loose grains from 12 months. Why smaller now: between about 9 and 12 months babies learn to pick food up between thumb and finger, and small soft pieces let them practice. Babies who don't move on to lumpy food by about 9 to 10 months are more likely to have feeding difficulties later.

How do you serve rice to a 12-month-old?

Rice from the family pot, cooked without added salt, eaten by hand or with a first spoon.

Sources

  1. AAP HealthyChildren: Choking Prevention for Babies & Children
  2. CDC: When, What, and How to Introduce Solid Foods
  3. CDC: Foods and Drinks to Avoid or Limit
  4. NHS: Your baby's first solid foods
  5. NHS: Foods to avoid giving babies and young children
  6. USDA FoodData Central: Rice, white, long-grain, regular, enriched, cooked
  7. FDA: What You Can Do to Limit Exposure to Arsenic
  8. AAP HealthyChildren: Reducing arsenic in baby food
  9. AAP HealthyChildren: Movement Milestones: Babies 4 to 7 Months
  10. CDC: Important Milestones: Your Baby By One Year
  11. ESPGHAN: Complementary Feeding: A Position Paper by the ESPGHAN Committee on Nutrition (2017)

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