How to cut food for baby by age

At 6 months most foods are best as smooth purées or very soft mashes on a spoon. If you follow baby-led weaning, offer large, very soft pieces about the length and width of an adult finger, so part of the piece sticks out of your baby’s fist. Avoid small pieces at this age: babies cannot pick them up yet and they are harder to manage.

Around 9 months the pincer grasp develops, so cut soft foods into small pieces about the size of a chickpea that your baby can pick up with thumb and finger. Everything should still squash easily between your fingers. Round foods such as grapes and blueberries are quartered lengthways or squashed flat.

From 12 months toddlers can eat soft, bite-size pieces of most family foods, about ½ inch (1 cm). Keep cooking firm vegetables until tender, shred or finely chop meat, and keep quartering round foods like grapes, cherry tomatoes and olives lengthways until at least age 4.

Never give a whole or halved grape. For babies, mash grapes into yogurt or oatmeal, or cut them into quarters lengthways, from stem to tip, and press them flat. Keep quartering grapes lengthways for toddlers and preschoolers, since halves can still block a small airway. See the grapes guide for every age.

At 6 months, mash or blend ripe strawberries and stir them into yogurt or oatmeal. From 7–8 months, mash them roughly or chop them finely; very soft berries can be quartered and flattened. From 9 months, cut them into small chickpea-size pieces or quarters. Never offer them whole to a baby. More in the strawberry guide.

From 6–8 months, pieces should be about the length and width of an adult finger, roughly 2 inches (5 cm) long, so your baby can hold them in a fist. From about 9 months, switch to small soft pieces about the size of a chickpea for the pincer grasp. At every age the food should squash easily between your thumb and finger.

Use the squish test: press a piece between your thumb and index finger. If it squashes with gentle pressure, it is soft enough. Firm foods such as carrot, apple, sweet potato and broccoli stem need steaming, roasting or baking until they pass the test.

Whole grapes, cherry tomatoes, blueberries and olives; whole nuts and seeds; popcorn; hot dog rounds; raw carrot, apple or celery; chunks of meat or cheese; and spoonfuls of nut butter. Change the shape (quarter, flatten, grate, thin) instead of avoiding these foods, always seat your baby upright and stay with them, and learn infant choking first aid.