How to serve potato at 6 and 9 months
Ages are approximate; go by your baby’s skills.
Ages are approximate; go by your baby’s skills.
6+ months
Wash and peel the potato, then boil or steam it until completely soft. Mash it with a fork, adding a little water or milk suitable for cooking if needed. Serve on its own or with other vegetables.
Peel the potato and cut it into long wedges that stick out of the fist. Boil, steam, or roast them until soft: a wedge should squish easily between your fingers, with no hard crust.
9+ months
If your baby manages soft pieces, offer small pieces of cooked potato on their own, in soup, or in a vegetable stew.
Once your baby has a pincer grasp, offer small soft pieces of potato. Long soft wedges are still a good option too.
Choking risk
Raw or undercooked potato can be too firm for babies. Cook potatoes until soft before serving.
Keep your child sitting upright and stay with them throughout the meal.
Allergies
Potatoes aren’t considered a common food allergen. Individual allergic reactions are still possible.
Green potatoes
Green patches on the skin are a sign that the potato has built up more glycoalkaloids, mainly solanine. According to Germany’s Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), these compounds sit mostly in the skin, with the highest levels in sprouts and eyes. Mild poisoning can cause nausea, stomach pain, vomiting, and diarrhea.
BfR advises:
- give young children peeled potatoes only;
- cut away green parts and eyes generously;
- don’t reuse the water you boiled potatoes in: some of the glycoalkaloids pass into it;
- don’t eat a potato dish that tastes bitter.
Old, shriveled, green, or heavily sprouted potatoes aren’t fit to eat.
Where to store them
BfR recommends keeping potatoes in a cool, dark, dry place: light turns them green. The fridge is out for a different reason. According to the FDA, potatoes stored in the refrigerator form more acrylamide when they’re fried or roasted. Acrylamide is a compound that forms in starchy foods cooked at high heat.
Boil, roast, or fry
According to the FDA, boiling potatoes doesn’t produce acrylamide, and neither does microwaving whole potatoes. It forms during frying and roasting, mostly in browned areas. If you roast potato wedges, cook them to golden yellow, not brown. The FDA also suggests soaking cut potatoes in water for 15–30 minutes before roasting.
Fries and chips are a different food
527 mg of sodium in 100 g of salted potato chips — and 5 mg in a baked potato with no salt.
That’s USDA data. The same chips have 34 g of fat per 100 g; a baked potato has 0.1 g. Frozen fries heated in the oven have 400 mg of sodium per 100 g when salt is added during processing, and 32 mg when it isn’t. For your baby, cook potatoes at home from whole ones.
Potassium and vitamin C
100 g of baked potato without the skin has 391 mg of potassium, according to USDA data, almost half of what a baby 7 to 12 months old needs in a day (860 mg, according to the NIH). The same portion has 12.8 mg of vitamin C; peeled boiled potato has 7.4 mg, because some of the vitamin goes into the water.
Sources · 14
This page is based on guidance from health organizations:
- CDC — When, What, and How to Introduce Solid Foods
- NHS — From around 6 months
- NHS — Preparing food safely for babies
- NHS — Choking and gagging on food
- NHS — Food allergies in babies and young children
- AAAAI — Food Allergy
- BfR — Frequently asked questions about solanine (glycoalkaloids) in potatoes
- FDA — Acrylamide and Diet, Food Storage, and Food Preparation
- USDA FoodData Central — Snacks, potato chips, plain, salted
- USDA FoodData Central — Potatoes, baked, flesh, without salt
- USDA FoodData Central — Potatoes, french fried, shoestring, salt added in processing, frozen, oven-heated
- USDA FoodData Central — Potatoes, french fried, all types, salt not added in processing, frozen, oven-heated
- USDA FoodData Central — Potatoes, boiled, cooked without skin, flesh, without salt
- NIH ODS — Potassium
For informational purposes only. Not medical advice. Decide on introducing foods, especially allergens, together with your pediatrician.
