What finger foods can a 6 month old eat?

Typical finger foods at 6 to 8 months include soft-cooked vegetable sticks, ripe banana, soft fruit pieces, well-cooked pasta and shredded meat, with yoghurt also on the list. Texture at this stage is mashed with soft lumps or soft finger foods. This is a typical progression loosely based on AAP guidance, not a fixed schedule, so readiness matters more than the calendar. If your baby was premature, check timing with your paediatrician.

What can a baby eat at 8 to 10 months?

At 8 to 10 months, many babies move on to chopped soft finger foods such as soft-cooked diced vegetables, pasta shapes, soft cheese, flaked fish with the bones removed, and toast fingers. From 10 to 12 months, most family meals cut to size, minced meat, rice and soft whole fruit pieces are typical. Texture should track your own baby's progress, and your paediatrician or health visitor can help if you are unsure.

What foods should a baby not eat in the first year?

Honey stays off a baby's plate before 12 months because of the botulism risk, which is separate from allergy. Unpasteurised dairy and juice, and added salt or sugar, stay off the plate at every stage too. So do the genuine choking hazards: whole nuts, hard raw vegetables and fruit, whole grapes and popcorn. Those rules apply regardless of which age band your baby is in.

How long should a baby stay on purees?

A baby does not need to stay on purees indefinitely. Babies who stay on purees well past when they are ready for lumps and finger foods sometimes get fussier about texture later, so moving through the stages as readiness allows tends to go better than staying cautious. Every baby is different, so it is worth a conversation with your paediatrician or health visitor if you are unsure where your baby actually is.

First Foods by Age: What to Offer at 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 Months

What we actually wanted, most days, wasn't a philosophy of infant nutrition. It was a shorter version of the question: what do I put in front of this baby today. This is the checklist we built for ourselves once we got tired of scrolling back through old notes.

Direct Answer: A typical age-based progression moves from smooth purées at 4-6 months (iron-fortified cereal, puréed meat, well-cooked egg) through soft finger foods at 6-8 months, chopped foods at 8-10 months, to most family meals by 12 months and beyond, adjusted for readiness and choking safety at every stage.

Tracking meals and symptoms manually is harder than it sounds. Our app makes it quick, and stays completely private.

Coming soon — clicktap to get notified

Scan with your iPhone camera to get the app.

Or open the App Store link →

The app is iPhone only for now.

Tell me when it comes to Android

A note before the table

This is a typical progression many families follow, loosely based on AAP guidance on introducing solid foods, not a fixed schedule or a clinical recommendation for your specific baby. Readiness matters more than the calendar: texture should track your own baby's progress, smooth purée, then mashed with soft lumps, then soft finger foods, then chopped table food. If your baby was premature or has a medical condition affecting feeding, run timing past your paediatrician rather than this table.

The checklist

Age	Texture	Good first foods
4-6 months (if showing readiness)	Smooth purée / very soft mash	Iron-fortified infant cereal, puréed well-cooked meat, lentils, sweet potato, pear, avocado, well-cooked egg
6-8 months	Mashed with soft lumps / soft finger foods	Soft-cooked vegetable sticks, ripe banana, soft fruit pieces, yoghurt, well-cooked pasta, shredded meat
8-10 months	Chopped soft finger foods	Soft-cooked diced vegetables, pasta shapes, soft cheese, flaked fish (bones removed), toast fingers
10-12 months	Chopped table food, most textures	Most family meals cut to size, minced meat, rice, soft whole fruit pieces
12 months+	Family food, adjusted for choking hazards	Most of what the family eats, still avoiding whole nuts, whole grapes, hard raw veg/fruit, popcorn, hard sweets

What can a 10-month-old eat?

Around 10 months, many babies pick up small pieces with a thumb-and-finger grip and start moving from chopped soft finger foods toward chopped-up family meals. The amounts below are the portions in the American Academy of Pediatrics' sample menu for 8 to 12 months. They're a picture of what a day can look like, not a target to hit.

Food group	Rough amount	What to offer
Breast milk or formula	About 24 oz (720 ml) a day in the AAP menu; the NHS suggests around 400 ml of formula as a guide	Still a main source of nutrition at this age
Grains and starches	2 to 4 oz (60 to 120 g) at a meal	Iron-fortified cereal, soft wholegrain pasta, potato, toast fingers
Vegetables	2 to 4 oz at lunch and dinner	Soft-cooked yellow, orange and green vegetables, chopped or as soft sticks
Fruit	2 to 4 oz at breakfast	Mashed or diced banana, ripe pear, avocado
Protein	2 to 4 oz at a meal, or 1 egg	Diced poultry, meat or tofu; puréed or diced beans; yoghurt or cottage cheese; one mashed or scrambled egg
Allergens already introduced	Once or twice a week	Egg, peanut and any others your baby already eats without trouble: keep them coming rather than letting them drop off. More in our guide to keeping allergens in your baby's diet

How many meals: the AAP's sample day has three meals and two snacks; the NHS says three meals a day and that babies under 12 months don't need snacks. Either works. Texture at this age is mashed, lumpy, chopped and finger foods.

What a day can look like:

Breakfast: cereal or a scrambled egg, diced fruit, milk feed
Mid-morning: milk feed and soft fruit pieces
Lunch: yoghurt or beans, soft orange vegetables, milk feed
Afternoon: smooth peanut butter thinned with warm water and stirred into mashed pear
Dinner: diced chicken or tofu, green vegetables, soft pasta, milk feed
Before bed: milk feed

Appetite swings a lot from day to day at this age, so follow your baby's hunger cues rather than the numbers. If your baby was premature or has a known allergy, check the plan with your paediatrician. No honey before 12 months, no added salt or sugar, and no whole nuts or whole grapes.

Sources: AAP HealthyChildren.org, Sample Menu for a Baby 8 to 12 Months Old; NHS Start for Life, 10 to 12 months.

The table is the easy part. Remembering by Sunday which groups got covered, and whether egg and peanut came up at all, is harder.

The app's First 100 Foods tracker groups every food you log by category, so a gap or a missed week stands out at a glance.

Log your 10-month-old's meals free →

What stays off the plate regardless of age

Honey before 12 months (a botulism risk, not an allergy issue), unpasteurised dairy and juice, and added salt or sugar all stay off the plate across every stage above. So do the genuine choking hazards, whole nuts, hard raw vegetables and fruit, whole grapes, popcorn, regardless of which age band you're in.

Texture matters more than the specific food

Babies who stay on purées well past when they're ready for lumps and finger foods sometimes get fussier about texture later; moving through the stages as readiness allows, rather than staying cautious indefinitely, tends to go better. Still individual, still worth a conversation with your paediatrician or health visitor if you're unsure where your baby actually is.

Logging what actually got eaten

A checklist tells you what's reasonable to offer. It doesn't tell you what your baby actually ate, how much, or whether anything happened afterward. That gap is what we built the app's food diary for.