Ohio Department of Health Ohio.gov

Feeding Your Baby — 9-12 Months

Table Foods
By 9 to 12 months, your baby will already be fitting into your family’s eating schedule and will be eating family foods at the table.

During this Time Many Babies:

  • Will eat with their fingers.
  • Will start spoon feeding themselves with help.
  • May begin to hold a cup by themselves.
  • Will want to eat the same food the family eats.

Helpful Hints

  • Table foods for Baby should be soft and easy to chew. 
  • Baby will be able to eat more and more foods from the table as more teeth come in. 
  • Baby will gradually get off strained and junior foods during this period. By 1 year of age, all of baby’s foods are usually from the table. 
  • Offer more and more formula in a cup. Baby should be gradually weaned from the bottle by 1 year of age or just a little after. 
  • Try to keep older children from sharing their drinks, sweets and chips with the baby. 
  • Always stay with Baby when he or she is eating. 
  • Don’t let Baby have hard, round foods. 
  • Baby can choke on foods such as popcorn, round candy, nuts, grapes and round slices of hot dogs. Be careful! 
  • Soft drinks, Kool-Aid, fruit punch and tea are NOT good drinks for Baby.

Here is a suggested way to give foods your baby needs each day:
Your baby will gradually take more and more formula from a cup. This menu suggests using a cup from lunch to bedtime. Gradually wean baby from the bottle by about 12 months old.

Food for a Day

  • Four to six (or more) breastfeedings or 24 - 32 ounces of formula offered in a cup.
  • Iron-fortified infant cereals: four to eight (or more) tablespoons after mixing with milk or formula.
  • Bread and other grains: two to three servings (1/2 slice of bread is a serving).
  • Infant juice or regular, 100 percent fruit or vegetable juices: four ounces per day only in a cup.
  • Mashed or chopped cooked fruits and vegetables or junior fruits and vegetables: two servings of each a day, about four tablespoons per serving.
  • Pureed or chopped lean meat, poultry, fish or egg yolk, cheese, yogurt or mashed beans: about two to eight tablespoons per day.

This page last updated on 7/31/07.