Starting solids feels like a huge deal — and honestly, it is. You're handing a tiny human their first real food and trying not to panic every time they gag. But here's what we wish someone had told us before we started: it's way less scary than the internet makes it seem, and you need way less stuff than you think.
The key is keeping it simple. You don't need a cabinet full of specialty feeding gear. You need a few good spoons, something to catch the mess, plates that don't end up on the floor, and cups your kid can actually figure out. That's it.
Here's everything we use, why we picked it, and the one category where we'll die on a hill.
Spoons
You'll go through phases with spoons. Early on, you want something your baby can safely mouth and explore. Later, you want something functional for actual feeding. These three cover every stage.
NumNum Pre-Spoon GOOtensils
Price: ~$10 for a 2-pack | Best for: First foods (6+ months)
These were our secret weapon — and we started using them before our baby even touched food.
The flat, textured design lets you smash soft foods like banana or avocado right into the spoon surface. Your baby sucks and licks the food off instead of trying to manage a small chunk of food, which makes the whole experience way less nerve-wracking from a choking standpoint.
Here's the bonus move nobody talks about: give these to your baby a couple months before you start solids as a teething toy. Our daughter loved gnawing on them, and we're convinced that's why she had so much less gagging when we actually started feeding her. She'd already spent weeks getting used to having something in her mouth and moving it around. By the time food was involved, the spoon wasn't the scary part.
Munchkin Soft Tip Infant Spoons
Price: ~$5 for a 12-pack | Best for: Purees and jar feeding
The tried and true classic. If you're doing any puree feeding — whether homemade or from a jar — these are the spoons you'll reach for every single time.
The soft tip is gentle on baby's gums, and the long handle makes scooping food out of those tall, narrow baby food jars easy. As your baby gets older and starts wanting to hold the spoon themselves (this phase is messy but exciting), the handle is long enough for both of you to hold it at the same time.
At roughly 40 cents per spoon, these are cheap enough to keep extras everywhere. We have a couple permanently living in our diaper bag for on-the-go feeding. If one rolls under a restaurant table and into the abyss, you don't care.
Nuby Hot Safe Feeding Spoons
Price: ~$7 for a 4-pack | Best for: Temperature checking
These spoons change color when food is too hot — the tip turns white if the temperature could burn your baby's mouth. It's a simple feature that takes one more worry off your plate, especially when you're heating up purees or serving warm foods.
Are they essential? No. But for $7, the peace of mind is worth it. We found ourselves reaching for these specifically when reheating leftovers or serving anything that came out of a microwave (which heats unevenly — ask any parent who's accidentally served a hot pocket of sweet potato in an otherwise cool bowl).
Bibs
We're going to keep this section short because we only have one recommendation, and we feel very strongly about it.
PandaEar Silicone Bibs
Price: ~$9 for a 3-pack | Best for: Every single meal from first foods through toddlerhood
Silicone bibs with a spill pocket. That's it. That's the recommendation.
Do not buy cloth bibs for feeding. Do not buy flat bibs. Do not buy bibs that need to be laundered after every meal. We are begging you.
The silicone ones with a pocket across the bottom catch everything — stray peas, dripping puree, the piece of banana your baby chewed for 30 seconds and then let fall out of their mouth. After the meal, you rinse it in the sink or throw it in the dishwasher. Done. No stain-treating, no laundry pile, no scrubbing dried sweet potato out of fabric fibers.
A 3-pack for less than $10 means you can have one in the dishwasher, one in use, and one backup. No notes. No alternatives. This is the hill we die on.
Plates & Bowls
This one took us some trial and error, and we landed on a strong opinion: stainless steel is the way to go.
PandaEar Stainless Steel Plates and Bowls with Silicone Suction Base
Price: ~$17 for a set | Best for: Daily home use from first foods through toddlerhood
Here's the problem with full-silicone plates and bowls: over time, they absorb micro particles of food and soap that you can't fully scrub out. The result? Your toddler's food starts tasting slightly funky, and they can't tell you why — they just start refusing to eat off them.
Stainless steel doesn't absorb anything. It cleans completely, doesn't stain, doesn't retain odors, and is practically indestructible. These PandaEar plates pair a stainless steel eating surface with a silicone suction base, so you get the clean-eating benefits of steel with the stay-put benefits of silicone.
Cups
Cups were our biggest trial-and-error category. We tried more than we'd like to admit before finding what actually works. Here are the two that survived the gauntlet.
The First Years Squeeze & Sip Straw Cups
Price: ~$13 for a 3-pack | Best for: Learning to use a straw (6+ months)
This is hands down the best cup for teaching your baby how to use a straw. And we don't say that lightly — we've tried a lot.
The squeeze-to-sip design means you can gently compress the cup to push liquid up the straw when your baby is first learning. Once they figure out the suction on their own, you stop squeezing and they take over. It's a built-in training mechanism that actually works.
Zero leaking. We've thrown these in diaper bags, car seats, and stroller cup holders without a single spill. The straw is soft and gentle on gums, and the cups are easy to disassemble for cleaning.
We've recommended these to friends and family and the feedback is always the same: "Why didn't we start with these?"
NUK First Choice Hard Spout Cups
Price: ~$12 for a 4-pack | Best for: Transitioning to a real cup (9+ months)
Once your baby has the straw figured out, the NUK hard spout cups are a great next step toward drinking from a regular cup.
The key feature: the anti-spill restrictor pops out for easy cleaning. If you've ever battled a sippy cup valve that's impossible to fully clean and starts smelling like a science experiment — this solves that. Take it out, wash everything, put it back. Simple.
The hard spout is closer to the drinking experience of a real cup rim compared to soft spout sippies, which makes the eventual transition to an open cup less jarring for your kid.
Our Starting Solids Starter Kit
Here's everything in one place:
Total starter kit cost: ~$90
That's everything you need to start solids, learn straw drinking, and transition through toddler feeding — for under $100. You don't need a cabinet full of specialty gear. You need these seven things and a willingness to let your kitchen get messy.
A Few Tips We Wish We'd Known
Gagging is not choking. Gagging is loud, dramatic, and your baby's way of learning to move food around their mouth. Choking is silent. Learn the difference before you start and take a safety course — it'll save you from panicking every meal. (And keep a LifeVac accessible for peace of mind.)
Start with single-ingredient foods. Banana, avocado, sweet potato, steamed carrots. One food at a time for a few days so you can spot any allergic reactions.
Let it be messy. Fighting the mess makes feeding stressful for everyone. Put a splat mat under the high chair, use the silicone bibs, and let your baby explore. The mess phase doesn't last forever.
Your baby will eat when they're ready. Some babies inhale everything at 6 months. Some pick at food for weeks before committing. Both are normal. Follow their lead, not a schedule.
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