Baby's First Year
Month 6 — Halfway Through the First Year
Baby This Month
approximately 66–70cm and 7–8kg
Six months is a landmark. Your baby has likely doubled their birth weight, can sit with minimal support (and some can sit unaided briefly), rolls confidently in both directions, and is on the edge of mobility — rocking on hands and knees or propelling themselves backwards are common pre-crawling moves. Babbling has taken off, with strings of consonant-vowel sounds ('bababa,' 'mamama') that sound convincingly like speech. Your baby now clearly recognises familiar people versus strangers, and may show the first hints of separation anxiety when you leave the room.
The 6-month check includes vaccinations and a developmental review. This is also when most health guidelines recommend starting solid foods — signs of readiness include sitting with support, showing interest in food, and the disappearance of the tongue-thrust reflex. You can start with purées or go straight to soft finger foods — both approaches are safe and effective. Breast milk or formula remains the primary nutrition source alongside any solids for now.
Most babies have doubled their birth weight by 6 months — meaning a baby born at 3.5kg is now around 7kg. To put that in perspective: if you weighed 70kg at birth and doubled your weight at the same rate, you would weigh 140kg by the time you were 6 months old. Human babies grow faster in their first six months than at any other point in life. The adolescent growth spurt takes years to achieve what your baby did in six months.
When introducing solids, offer new foods at lunchtime rather than dinner. That way, if your baby has any reaction to a new food, you have the rest of the day to monitor them rather than discovering a rash at 2am. Introduce one new food every 2–3 days so you can identify any reactions clearly. Common allergens (peanut, egg, dairy, wheat) should be introduced early rather than avoided — current guidance recommends introducing them around 6 months to reduce allergy risk.
Start with iron-rich foods when weaning — pureed meat, fish, lentils, or fortified cereals. Iron stores from birth are depleting and need replacing through food from 6 months.
This content is for informational purposes only and is not medical advice. Read full disclaimer
Weaning is messy, slow, and often frustrating at first. Share the mealtimes so it doesn't all fall to one parent, and keep it playful — food before one is for fun and exploration, not nutrition.
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