Month 7 Weaning: Variety & Confidence

📆 Month 7 Weaning – Variety & Confidence

🌿 Week 1–2

✔ Choose: 2 familiar veggies + 1 new from your existing list (e.g., carrot, sweet potato, beetroot).

✔ Offer: 1 veg-based meal daily (5–10 tsp or finger food style).

✔ Texture: Smooth mash or soft finger foods. Observe cues and adjust texture gradually.

✔ Fruit: You may offer 1 fruit snack per day — always separate from veg meals.

✔ Milk: Still the main source of nutrition. No pressure to increase meal frequency yet.

🌱 Week 3–4

✔ Add: Another 1–2 new veggies and begin mixing previously tried ones (e.g., sweet potato + spinach).

✔ Offer: Add a second meal (breakfast or lunch) if baby is interested and coping well.

✔ Introduce Iron: Try gentle iron-rich options like red lentils or chicken purée paired with veg baby knows.

✔ Texture: Continue with mash or soft chunks, finger patties, or veggie batons if baby is handling them well.

✔ Tip: Avoid sweet + savoury in the same dish — let baby learn flavours clearly.

🍼 Looking ahead: Month 8 brings in new textures, allergens like egg and dairy, and more combo meals!

🌿 Month 7: Adding Variety & Building Confidence

Goal: Reinforce flavour recognition with familiar veg, gently introduce new ones, and begin laying the foundation for nutrient-rich meals — including iron. Keep everything calm, clear, and baby-led.

Why stick to simple?
Keeping flavours separate helps baby truly learn what each food tastes like. Repeating familiar veggies while slowly adding new ones builds trust, acceptance, and curiosity — without overwhelming little tummies.

Week 4 Flavour Building:
🌱 Start gently layering in spinach — not as a solo veg, but as a small add-in blended into a familiar purée (like sweet potato or carrot). This helps baby get used to new flavours without strong intensity.
🌿 Save more aromatic flavours like leek and fennel for Month 8 when baby is ready for deeper flavour blends.

Fruit Guidance:
🍎 From Month 7, fruit can be offered once a day — separately from veg meals.
🍐 Gentle options include: pear, apple, banana, avocado.
🍓 Offer fruit after a milk feed or as a light snack — never alongside vegetables during main meals to support flavour learning.

Meal Plan:
Begin Month 7 with 1 small veg-based meal per day (5–10 tsp or soft finger food)
From Week 3–4, you may gently introduce a second meal (e.g., breakfast or lunch) if baby shows readiness: good head control, interest in food, managing texture well.

Reassurance:
There’s no need to rush — many babies stay at one meal/day until closer to Month 8. Watch your baby’s cues and keep feeding flexible. Solids complement milk, not replace it (yet!).

🥩 Introducing Iron Foods (Late Month 7)

Why iron matters: Baby’s iron stores begin to decline around 6–7 months, so it’s a great time to start introducing gentle iron-rich foods.

Iron-rich first foods to try:
• Soft red lentils (well-cooked and blended with a familiar veg)
• Puréed chicken, turkey, or beef (smooth texture)
• Iron-fortified baby cereal (optional)
Always introduce one new iron food at a time and pair with a vitamin C–rich veg (like sweet potato or broccoli) to support absorption.

Texture Tips:
Begin transitioning from smooth purée to soft mash or textured blends.
Offer steamed sticks or soft patties as finger food if baby is showing signs of readiness.

Storage Tips:
Freeze purées and combos (made only with foods baby has tried separately) in small portions.
Use within 48 hours in the fridge, or up to 2 months in the freezer. Always add milk fresh before serving, not before freezing.

🍃 Gentle Sensitivities & Best Practice

- Spinach should be introduced in small amounts, mixed into other veg
- Beetroot, swede, and red pepper may cause colour changes in digestion — totally normal!
- Asparagus is suitable as a solo veg (soft spears or purée), just trim and steam well

🛡️ Allergy Awareness:
Combine only foods baby has already had separately
Introduce new foods earlier in the day so you can observe
Avoid mixing sweet + savoury flavours early on — this helps develop clear taste awareness

💡 Month 7 is a perfect time to slow down, explore gently, and stay connected to baby’s cues. Trust the pace — variety, texture and nutrients will come with confidence and calm.

🔜 Allergens like egg, wheat, and dairy are coming soon in Month 8. For now, keep things simple with veggies, gentle iron foods, and lots of calm confidence-building.

🛒 Spinach Shopping Tip

Pick up one small bag of fresh spinach — it softens quickly when steamed and blends beautifully into sweeter veg like sweet potato or carrot.

💡 Freeze leftovers in ice cube trays for easy add-ins later on. Just 1–2 tsp per portion is plenty for new tasters!