At first you’ll have to puree all your baby’s food, but this stage won’t last very long, so if you don’t have a blender or food processor it’s probably best just to get a cheap hand-operated food milk. At first a sieve will be perfectly adequate. As your baby gets older you can feed him coarser foods. By the time he is six months old he will be able to take a thicker puree, and at nine months he will enjoy a mash with chunks of meat or vegetables in it.

You can use a variety of liquids to thin home-prepared foods: the water you’ve used to steam fruit or vegetables is ideal. To thicken foods, you can use ground, whole-grain cereals like wheat germ, cottage cheese, yogurt, or mashed potato. If you feel you need to sweeten food, use naturally sweet fruit juice, not refined sugar. In general, however, young babies don’t have a developed taste for sweets, so try foods unsweetened first, adding sweetener only if your baby absolutely refuses everything without it.

To protect your baby from bacteria, make sure all feeding equipment is scrupulously clean, and be careful with the storage and preparation of formula.

• Follow all cleaning instructions carefully
• Wash your hands before preparing or giving feedings
• Never add any extra powder; follow the instructions accurately
• Give the formula to your baby as soon as it has been warmed up
• When making batches, cool the formula as soon as it is made up. Don’t store warm milk in a thermos bottle; germs will easily breed there
• Keep all prepared bottles refrigerated until they are needed
• Keep any opened ready-to-use formula in a jar (not the can) in the refrigerator
• After a feeding, throw away any leftover formula

Burping your baby Hold your baby close to you and stroke or pat him gently to help him bring up air bubbles.