The Ten Foods I Recommend Introducing Before 12 Months

I get asked about weaning more than almost anything else. And I understand why — it's one of those areas where there is an enormous amount of conflicting information, a lot of anxiety, and very little practical, honest guidance that actually prepares you for what it's like to sit across from a seven-month-old who is looking at a stick of broccoli like it has personally offended them.

These are the ten foods I recommend introducing before twelve months — not because they appear on an official list, but because in eight years of working alongside families through the weaning process, these are the ones that have made the most difference to the children I've worked with: developmentally, nutritionally, and in building the relationship with food that will serve them for life.

A note before we start: the NHS recommends starting solid foods at around six months. Everything below is for babies who have reached that stage and shown the readiness signs — sitting with support, lost the tongue-thrust reflex, showing interest in food.

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1. Broccoli

Start here. I mean it. Broccoli is bitter, it's green, it's not sweet — and that's exactly why it should go in early. Babies have an innate preference for sweetness, but the window between six and ten months is when they are most receptive to new tastes, including bitter ones. Children introduced to bitter vegetables in this window are significantly more likely to accept them at three, four, and five years old than children who weren't.

Steam it until soft, offer as a spear they can hold, and don't react to the face they make. The face is not a rejection. It's sensory processing. Keep offering it every few days.

2. Egg

Scrambled, boiled, as fingers of omelette — egg is one of the most nutritionally complete first foods you can offer. It's rich in protein, iron, choline (which supports brain development), and fat. It's also an allergen, which is precisely why it needs to go in early. Current UK guidance, backed by solid research, shows that introducing allergenic foods between six and twelve months — rather than avoiding them — significantly reduces the risk of allergy. Offer egg within the first few weeks of starting solids.

3. Salmon

The omega-3 fatty acids in oily fish — particularly DHA — are critical for brain and eye development throughout the first year. Salmon is the most practical way to get them in. Bake it, flake it, check obsessively for bones, and offer it alongside something neutral like sweet potato. Most babies take to salmon readily because it has a mild flavour and soft texture.

UK guidance recommends up to two portions of oily fish per week for babies from six months. Don't skip this one.

4. Avocado

Avocado is fat — and fat is exactly what a developing brain needs. Around half of a baby's calories in the first year should come from fat, and the healthy monounsaturated fats in avocado are an excellent source. It also has a texture that most babies manage well early on: soft, mash-able, and easy to hold as a spear.

Mash it onto toast, offer slices, or mix it into purees. It oxidises quickly so prepare it fresh, but don't let the practicality put you off — it's genuinely one of the best early foods.

5. Full-fat yoghurt

Plain, full-fat, unsweetened. This one comes up in almost every family I work with, because parents are often nervous about dairy. Cow's milk as a main drink isn't recommended until twelve months, but dairy in food is fine from six months and is an excellent source of calcium, protein, and fat.

The critical word is plain. Flavoured baby yoghurts are often loaded with sugar or fruit concentrate. Get your baby used to the natural, slightly tart taste of plain yoghurt from the beginning — you'll thank yourself when they're two.

6. Sweet potato

A classic first food for good reason. Sweet potato is naturally sweet (which helps with acceptance), soft enough to puree or offer as fingers, rich in vitamin A and fibre, and almost universally well-received. It's also forgiving to prepare. I'd suggest sweet potato as one of the very first foods you offer, and then continuing it regularly — it pairs well with almost everything and forms a reliable base for mixed meals.

7. Peanut butter (thinly spread)

This one surprises people. But the research on this is clear: early introduction of peanut reduces the risk of peanut allergy. The LEAP study — a major UK clinical trial — showed that children with eczema or egg allergy who were given peanut products early had an 86% lower rate of peanut allergy than those who avoided it.

Offer a small amount of smooth peanut butter thinly spread on toast or stirred into a puree. Not a spoonful — the texture is a choking risk — but incorporated into food, it's safe and important. If your baby has severe eczema or a known egg allergy, speak to your GP before introducing, as they may want to do it under supervision.

8. Lentils

Iron deficiency is the most common nutritional issue in infants in the UK, and it peaks between six and twenty-four months — precisely when breast milk and formula can no longer meet iron requirements on their own. Lentils are an excellent plant-based iron source, and they're soft, easy to prepare, and mild enough that most babies accept them without resistance.

Red lentils cooked into a dal or soup are the easiest introduction. Pair them with a food high in vitamin C (sweet potato, broccoli, mango) at the same meal — vitamin C significantly improves iron absorption from plant sources.

9. Cucumber

Not for nutrition — cucumber is mostly water — but for teething, texture exploration, and the experience of cold. A chilled cucumber spear gives a baby something firm to gum during teething, introduces a crunchy texture safely (they can't bite off pieces at this stage, and the high water content means it softens quickly), and gives them sensory feedback that's genuinely different from everything else on this list.

It's also one of the foods that babies seem to delight in. There is something about the combination of cold, crunchy, and slightly bitter that they find genuinely interesting. Watch a six-month-old with their first cucumber stick and you'll see what I mean.

10. Mango

Last but genuinely important. Mango is rich in vitamin C (which helps iron absorption), vitamin A, and folate. It's soft, naturally sweet, and — crucially — it introduces a flavour profile that is completely different from the European palate most weaning guides default to. Exposing babies to diverse flavours before twelve months makes them more receptive to varied foods as toddlers. Don't just default to apple and pear.

Ripe mango can be offered as slippery fingers (some babies struggle to grip it — you can roll it in baby rice for traction) or mashed alongside other foods. Frozen mango chunks, slightly thawed, are also excellent for teething.

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A few things I want to say about how, not just what

The foods matter. But the environment around food matters just as much, if not more.

Eat with your baby whenever you can. Not feeding them while you do something else — sitting at the same table, eating the same food, at the same time. Babies learn to eat by watching. They are observing what food is, how you handle it, whether you seem to enjoy it. The table is the classroom.

Expect mess. Welcome mess. A baby exploring food with their hands is developing their pincer grip, their sense of texture, their understanding of cause and effect ("if I drop this, it falls"). The mess is the learning. A tray wiped clean is a session cut short.

Don't track every bite. Appetite varies day to day in babies just as it does in adults. What matters at this stage is exposure — the more varied foods your baby encounters before twelve months, the broader the palette they carry into toddlerhood. You are not trying to fill them up. You are building a relationship with food that will last a lifetime.

Be patient with rejection. A food needs to be offered on average ten to fifteen times before a baby reliably accepts it. One refusal is not a verdict. Keep coming back.