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Starting solids essentials: what to actually buy

The honest list: what is genuinely necessary, what makes life considerably easier, and what you can probably skip.

By Karen · Kiddo Kitchen · 8 min read

The week before Luca (6.5 years old) started solids, I bought a lot of things. Some of them were genuinely useful. Some of them sat in a drawer for six months and then went to the op shop. And one of them, the baby food maker my dad eventually gave me, I wish I had bought before any of the rest of it. By the time Theo (3 years old) came along, I knew exactly what starting solids essentials actually looked like, what was nice to have, and what the baby industry had convinced me I needed but definitely did not.

This is that list.

Starting solids essentials, sorted by how much you actually need them.

Starting solids essentials at a glance

Before you buy anything: what matters most

The thing nobody said to me at any of the baby showers was: the food matters more than the stuff.

Raising Children Network is clear that the priority when starting solids is iron-rich first foods: pureed meat, fish, lentils and iron-fortified cereals, not the equipment you use to serve them. You can start solids with a bowl, a spoon, and a fork to mash with. Everything else makes the process easier or more sustainable over time.

That said, the right gear does reduce friction significantly. And reduced friction is the difference between batch cooking every Sunday and buying pouches by Thursday because you ran out of steam. So the list below is sorted honestly: what you genuinely cannot skip, what earns its place quickly, and what can wait.

Is your baby ready to start?

Before you buy a single thing, it is worth knowing that the gear does not matter at all if your baby is not developmentally ready. Most babies show signs of readiness at around six months, though every baby moves at their own pace. Raising Children Network recommends not introducing solids before four months, and advises waiting for these readiness signs before starting: your baby can sit upright with support and hold their head steady, they show interest in food by watching you eat or reaching toward your plate, and they can move food to the back of their mouth and swallow rather than pushing it straight back out with their tongue.

With Luca, the sign was unmistakable. He was six months and two weeks old, sitting on our back deck here in Brisbane, watching me eat soup, and he lunged for my spoon with a focus and determination I had not seen before. With Theo, I was watching for the same thing and he gave me a subtler version: just a steady, interested stare at whatever was on my plate for about a week before I decided he was ready. Both completely different, both clear once I knew what I was looking for.

If you are not sure, your GP or child health nurse is the right first call. And if you want more detail on the readiness signs and what to offer first, our when can my baby start solids article covers it in full.

The non-negotiables

A safe highchair

I will admit that Theo's very first experimental spoonful did not happen under ideal conditions, which is a story I tell rather than a recommendation. For anything beyond that first taste, your baby needs to be sitting upright, supported, and supervised at every meal.

Raising Children Network recommends sitting your baby in a highchair where they are safe, supported and supervised throughout every meal. A highchair also means your baby can eat at the table with the family. Babies who eat alongside adults are more likely to try new foods and develop healthy eating habits.

Soft-tipped spoons

The shape matters here. You want a soft, shallow spoon that sits flat, one that you can put into your baby's mouth without pushing it too far in. In the early weeks, you will be doing most of the feeding. As Luca got older and started wanting to hold the spoon himself, we switched to the MashMunch Spoons, which are designed for the transition stage when babies are learning to self-feed but still need something that works well with thicker textures. Having a spoon your baby can practise with while you feed them with another is a genuinely useful strategy that takes the performance pressure out of mealtime.

A small bowl

Simple and easy to clean. A suction base is useful once your baby is old enough to deliberately throw things, which happens sooner than you expect. In the early weeks, any small bowl works. The goal is keeping portions realistic. A tablespoon of puree does not need a salad bowl.

What earns its place very quickly

A way to make food

This is the one that made the biggest difference in our house. You can steam vegetables on the stove and blend them in a regular blender. You end up with two pots and a dismantled blender to clean after making three tablespoons of sweet potato puree, but it works. The KiddoKook Pro does both in one bowl. Steam and blend, then self-clean. The whole session for two or three purees takes about 20 minutes on a Sunday, and the KiddoKook Pro keeps earning its spot on the bench long after the puree stage, for steaming vegetables, reheating small portions, and making quick smoothies.

The food maker is the one thing I wish I had bought before everything else. It changed how consistently I could make homemade food, because it made the process actually manageable on a weeknight.

Freezer storage

Batch cooking only works if you have somewhere to put the batch. According to Raising Children Network, homemade baby food keeps for up to two days in the fridge and up to one month in the freezer in individual portions. The PureePops Tray makes individual portions that pop out frozen and go straight into a labelled bag. This is the system that kept homemade food on the table consistently for us rather than just on the good weeks.

Fridge storage

For the portions you plan to use within the next two days, you need something small, sealed, and easy to grab. We use the Mini Munch Jars for fridge storage: glass, the right portion size, and they stack neatly. Worth noting: these are storage containers, not serving vessels. Decant into a bowl before feeding.

A good bib

Waterproof, with a catch pocket at the bottom. The catch pocket sounds like a minor detail until you watch half a meal get rescued from it rather than transferred to the floor. We went through several bibs before finding ones that actually stayed on and rinsed clean quickly. This is not the place to economise. Buy one good one rather than six mediocre ones.

Useful, but can wait

On-the-go feeding

Once you are out and about regularly with a baby who is eating, having something portable matters. The SilliSqueeze Pouch is our go-to here: a reusable pouch you fill yourself with whatever is in the fridge, so you are not relying on shelf-stable pouches when you are out. Theo had strong opinions about mealtime independence from very early on, and being able to hand him something he could hold and squeeze himself made outings significantly calmer.

A floor mat or splat mat

If you have hard floors, this is genuinely useful and very cheap. If you have carpet under your dining area, it is non-negotiable. The volume of food that ends up on the floor in the first few months of starting solids has to be seen to be believed.

A small open cup

You can start offering small sips of water with meals from around six months. A tiny open cup works well for this. It builds the skill early and costs nothing. Fancy sippy cups with complex valve systems tend to be harder for babies to learn from than a simple small cup with a little water in it.

Building your starting solids essentials kit over time

The honest advice is to start with the essentials and add things as you discover you actually need them. A highchair, soft spoons, a small bowl, and a way to make food will get you through the first weeks comfortably. Storage gear becomes important once you are batch cooking. On-the-go items become important once you are actually going on the go regularly.

The starting solids stage lasts longer than most parents expect, and it evolves significantly. The equipment that earns its place is the equipment that grows with your baby rather than becoming obsolete the moment textures change. That is the lens worth applying to every purchase: will this still be useful at nine months, at twelve months, at two years?

The things that earned their place in our kitchen were the ones that reduced friction. Less washing up, less prep time, less mess to manage. Everything else was just gear.