Open the app

Feeding the baby: 12 decisions to make together

Breast, formula or both, pumping, bottles — and how to start solids, including baby-led weaning.

  1. 1. Milk source

    What your baby drinks in the first months: breast milk (from the breast or a bottle), formula, or a mix.

    4 options · Experts disagree · During pregnancy

  2. 2. The non-nursing parent's role

    What the parent who is not feeding the baby from the breast does at feeds and around them: diapers, burping, settling, bottles or night feeds.

    4 options · Evidence leans one way · During pregnancy

  3. 3. Feeding on demand or on a schedule

    Whether you feed the baby whenever they show hunger cues, on a loose rhythm, or by the clock.

    4 options · Well established · Around the birth

  4. 4. Pumping, bottles and donor milk

    Whether you will express breast milk, when you will introduce a bottle, and whether you would ever use donor milk from a milk bank or another person.

    7 options · Your call · During pregnancy

  5. 5. Breastfeeding duration and night weaning

    How long you hope to breastfeed and whether and when to stop night feeds.

    4 options · Your call · 6–12 months

  6. 6. Pacifier

    Whether your baby uses a pacifier (dummy) and when to introduce it, for example from birth, after feeding is established, or only for sleep.

    4 options · Evidence leans one way · Around the birth

  7. 7. When to start solids

    The age at which you begin offering foods other than milk.

    3 options · Well established · 0–6 months

  8. 8. How to start solids

    Whether the first foods are spoon-fed purees, finger foods the baby picks up and feeds themselves (called baby-led weaning), or a mix of both.

    4 options · Your call · 0–6 months

  9. 9. Allergen introduction

    Whether and when to give common allergy-causing foods such as peanut and egg to your baby, and how to keep offering them.

    3 options · Well established · 0–6 months

  10. 10. First foods

    What you offer first when starting solids, such as iron-rich foods, fruit and vegetables, or infant cereal.

    2 options · Well established · 0–6 months

  11. 11. Homemade or commercial baby food

    Whether you make your baby's food yourself, buy jars and pouches, or use some of each.

    3 options · Your call · 0–6 months

  12. 12. Sugar and juice before age 2

    Whether your child has juice or foods with added sugar in the first two years, and how strictly you hold that line.

    3 options · Well established · 6–12 months