Baby food portion guide

Three countries, three different questions

Portion guidance is one of the places where national bodies diverge most and say so least. For the same seven-month-old, the NHS, the AAP and Australian guidance answer with three different kinds of thing.

The NHS describes the shape of the day and gives you a milk volume: three meals emerging, around four milk feeds alongside, about 600 ml of formula a day. It gives no food portion at all. The AAP does the opposite — a plate figure of about four ounces a meal, and no daily milk volume. Australian guidance gives you the starting spoonful, one to two teaspoons once a day, and then says to increase according to appetite.

None of them is wrong. They are answering slightly different questions, and a tool that averaged them into one number would answer none of them. So this one reports whichever body you pick, names it on every line, and shows the other two alongside.

The number that is not a portion

Under twelve months, milk is still the main event and food is practice. WHO puts a figure on it: breast milk "can provide half or more of a child's energy needs between the ages of 6 and 12 months, and one third of energy needs between 12 and 24 months". The NHS says the same thing from the other side: "At the beginning, how much your baby eats is less important than getting them used to the idea of eating. They'll still be getting most of their energy and nutrients from breast milk or first infant formula."

Which reframes the whole question. A day where your baby ate two spoonfuls and wore the rest was a day where they still got most of what they needed. The parent worrying about the plate is worrying about the smaller half.

What the day actually looks like, month by month

At around six months, one small taste a day, offered before a milk feed. Not three meals — the NHS is explicit that babies do not need three meals when they start. From about seven months, meals build towards three a day alongside roughly four milk feeds. From about ten months it is three meals and about three milk feeds, and lunch and tea can start to include a main course and a fruit or unsweetened dairy pudding. From twelve months, three meals and two healthy snacks, with cows' milk as the main drink and formula no longer needed at all.

The formula volumes fall as the food rises: around 600 ml a day at seven to nine months, about 400 ml at ten to twelve, and at least 350 ml of whole milk a day after one year, or two servings of dairy instead. Breastfed babies get no equivalent figure, and should not: "If you're breastfeeding, your baby will adapt their feeds according to how much food they're having."

A portion has a shape, not a weight

The most usable portion guidance the NHS gives is not a number at all. Finger food is "cut up into pieces big enough for your baby to hold in their fist with a bit sticking out. Pieces about the size of your own finger work well."

That is more practical than any figure in grams, and it scales automatically as your baby grows. Offering finger food at every meal from the start is also how self-feeding, hand-eye co-ordination and biting and chewing get practised — the NHS recommends it whether or not you are also using a spoon, and is clear that "there's no more risk of choking when a baby feeds themselves than when they're fed with a spoon."

Let your baby stop

Every body here says the same thing in slightly different words. The NHS: "Go at your baby's pace and let them show you when they're hungry or full. Stop when your baby shows signs that they've had enough. This could be firmly closing their mouth or turning their head away... Do not force your baby to eat." Raising Children Network lists the same signals: turning their head away, losing interest, pushing the spoon away, clamping their mouth shut.

And appetite swings, sometimes wildly. "It may take 10 tries or more for your baby to get used to new foods, flavours and textures. There will be days when they eat more, some when they eat less, and then days when they reject everything. Do not worry, this is perfectly normal."

The rules that matter more than the portion

No salt and no sugar, including stock cubes and gravy — salt is hard on a baby's kidneys and sugar causes tooth decay. No honey until twelve months, because of the risk of infant botulism. Cows' milk can be used in cooking from around six months but must not be a main drink until a year, and under-fives should not have rice drinks because of arsenic levels. Full-fat dairy until two, because young children need the energy.

On choking: no whole nuts, large seeds, whole grapes, chunks of meat or cheese, popcorn, or raw hard fruit and vegetables. Cook harder vegetables until soft, halve or quarter round foods lengthways, and never leave a baby alone while they are eating. And know the difference between gagging and choking — a baby who is noisy, red-faced and coughing is clearing their own airway and learning. A baby who is silent, floppy or blue needs help immediately.