Cut It Like This

A picture guide to starting your baby on solid food, for a parent who has never done it and is worried about getting it wrong.

Somewhere around six months your baby starts to eat. About six months later they are at the table eating a cut-up version of your dinner. This book covers the stretch in between, and it is built around the question that most weaning books answer in a paragraph and most parents end up searching for at 6pm: what shape do I cut this into?

What makes it different

• Every common food, shown four ways. 43 food cards, each with a photograph of the food and the same four rows: on a spoon, to hold, to pick up, and “not like this”, the form of that food that is on an official choking list.
• The sizes are drawn at true size. The three measurements the official advice uses (a piece the size of your finger, half an inch, and a US nickel) are drawn at their real size, along with a grape and a sausage and the cuts to make to them. Every true-size page has a ruler printed on it, and there is a page for checking your print with a ruler or a coin.
• US and UK advice side by side. The CDC, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the USDA and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans on one side; the NHS and the British allergy bodies on the other. Where they agree the book says so. Where they differ (how fast to add foods, the first texture, snacks, vitamin D and iron, runny eggs, how much milk) you get two columns and are told which is which.
• Gagging and choking, taken seriously. How to tell them apart at a glance, what makes a food a hazard, and what to do if a baby chokes, in the published words of the NHS, the British Red Cross, St John Ambulance, the American Red Cross and the American Heart Association, with a page explaining why your first-aid class may teach a different hand position.
• A plan for the first four weeks, drawn twice: once at the British pace and once at the American pace, with the allergy foods placed on purpose.
• A part for when it is not working: refusing, a baby stuck on smooth food, alarming diapers, and a plain list of when to phone someone.

By the end you will know

• When to start, and the three signs that your baby is ready
• How to set up the seat, and how little kit you need
• Why you do not have to choose between spoon-feeding and baby-led weaning
• The difference between gagging (loud, normal) and choking (silent, an emergency), and the first-aid steps for a baby under one
• How to cut and cook vegetables, fruit, bread, pasta, eggs, cheese, meat, fish, beans and nut butter for a baby’s fist, and later for finger and thumb
• How to adapt six ordinary family dinners instead of cooking twice, and eight no-recipe plates for the nights that will not work
• What to do on day one, how much is enough, and what changes at 7, 10 and 12 months
• How to introduce egg, peanut and the other allergy foods, who should speak to a doctor first, and what a reaction looks like
• Which foods and drinks wait until after the first birthday, and why
• How to store, freeze and reheat baby food safely

What is inside

1. Ready? When to start; the signs; the seat and the kit; spoon, fingers or both
2. Gagging and choking Telling them apart; hazard shapes; first aid; four rulebooks compared
3. Cut it like this The three ways to serve a food; true-size pages; 43 food cards; family dinners adapted
4. The first weeks, and the months after Day one; two four-week calendars; amounts and hunger cues; 7 to 9 months, 10 to 12, and from 12; milk and food
5. Allergens The foods and the rule; who should ask first; how to serve each; reactions
6. Not before one The full US and UK list; salt and sugar; drinks and cups; vitamin D and iron; storing and reheating
7. When it is not going to plan Refusal; texture trouble; diapers and tummies; when to ask for help

Plus the whole book on one page, an A to Z food finder, and two pages of sources.

What you download

• Cut It Like This (63 pages, PDF, US Letter): the book, in color, with bookmarks and a contents page.
• Print-outs (10 sheets, PDF, in both US Letter and A4): the cutting chart with true-size shapes; 24 foods at a glance; choking first aid for the fridge; the not-before-12-months list; a four-week planner; a ten-tries food tracker; an allergen log; a week’s feeding log; and a one-page brief for grandparents and sitters.
• A ZIP with all three files.

Good to know

• Every piece of guidance was checked on 13 October 2026 against the published advice of the bodies named above, and each page names its sources. The full list with web addresses is at the back.
• This is general information for healthy babies born at term. It does not replace your pediatrician, health visitor or GP. If your baby was born early, has eczema or a known allergy, or has a medical condition, the book tells you where to ask first.
• Reading about choking first aid is not the same as practicing it. The book says so, and tells you where to book a class in the US and the UK.
• True-size drawings are exact when printed at 100%. On a screen, or printed “fit to page”, use the ruler on the page.
• Written in American English with British words alongside where they differ. Measurements are in both systems.
• There are no recipes in the usual sense: the book teaches the method for any food.
• The photographs are illustrations and show no real child.
• This is a PDF download. No physical book is shipped.