Baby GAPS: First Foods and the Week-by-Week Weaning Plan

Our youngest was born March 1, 2026. He is the third child in our house to develop eczema, and his appeared in September when he was six months old. We started Baby GAPS with him on Sunday, September 20, 2026, because of eczema signs on his back. This is our first time following Baby GAPS as its own protocol. The guide below explains the book’s sequence; we do not yet have results to share.

The expanded Gut and Psychology Syndrome book gives a separate first-food sequence for babies. It begins with very small amounts alongside milk feeds, then adds foods and textures week by week. The schedule below follows that source. The week labels help you see the order, but stool, skin, appetite, and the baby’s response still decide the pace.^[1]

A baby’s milk needs do not end simply because a week number has been reached. Breast milk or infant formula remains the main source of nutrition from 6 to 12 months. Discuss any reduction in formula with your baby’s clinician, who can assess age, growth, intake, and the nutritional adequacy of the replacement diet.^[6]

What Baby GAPS Means

Baby GAPS introduces solid food one small meal at a time while the remaining feeds continue as breast milk or the baby’s usual formula. For formula feeds, the book adds a small amount of probiotic to the usual formula. It gives one starting route for a bottle-fed baby and another for a breastfed baby. It says solids may begin from the fourth month for a bottle-fed baby, while a breastfed baby may wait until the sixth month unless hunger calls for an earlier start.^[1]

Those are the book’s starting points. The source does not give one universal rule for an older baby who starts late or for every mixed-fed baby. The breastfed and bottle-fed timing guide keeps those branches together without pretending the book settles every mixed-feeding situation.

What to Have Ready Before Week One

Have homemade meat stock ready in small portions, along with a small spoon or cup and one place to record each new food. The first servings are measured in teaspoons. A short note with the food, its prepared form, the amount, stool, skin, and appetite is enough to keep the sequence clear.

The book means meat stock here, not long-simmered bone broth. GAPS keeps meat stock as the early staple and delays bone broth for at least a year, and for some people several years.^[2] The chicken meat stock recipe shows the practical method.

The Wrist Sensitivity Test

Before introducing a new food, the book places one drop on the inside of the baby’s wrist. Mix a solid food with a little water first. Let the drop dry before bed, then check the skin the next morning. A red or itchy spot means setting the food aside for a few weeks before trying again. A quiet patch is followed by a small oral introduction.^[1] A clear wrist spot does not rule out food allergy. Follow the baby’s allergy plan.^[8]

Test the food in the same form you plan to serve. If the next food is raw yolk, the test uses raw yolk rather than whole egg or cooked egg. The Baby GAPS wrist-test guide keeps the full method and the retry steps in one place.

The Week-by-Week Baby GAPS Sequence

Week 1: Meat Stock and Fresh Juice

Week 1 begins with homemade meat stock. For the Baby GAPS serving, use meat on the bone with its fat and soft tissues, without salt or other additions. Follow the current GAPS meat-stock timing of 2.5 to 4 hours on low heat.^[2] Strain it carefully and keep the fat in the stock. Cool the strained stock promptly in an ice bath, stirring often, then refrigerate up to two days or freeze small portions.^[7] Start with one to two teaspoons of warm stock before a breastfeed, then increase gradually as the baby accepts it. The book says the stock may be offered from a bottle, cup, or spoon, followed by breastfeeding as the extra portion.^[1]

The same week adds one to two teaspoons of freshly pressed carrot juice between feeds, diluted with warm water. After about a week, the book adds a little cabbage, celery, or lettuce juice to the carrot. It specifies homemade juice used within thirty minutes.^[1] The complete amounts and preparation are in the Week 1 Baby GAPS guide. CDC guidance advises against fruit or vegetable juice before 12 months and against unpasteurized juice for young children.^[9] The amounts here describe the GAPS book; discuss this step in the baby’s individual feeding plan.

Week 2: Probiotic Food and Vegetable Soup

Continue the Week 1 foods and increase them gradually. Add half a teaspoon a day of homemade whey or juice from homemade sauerkraut or fermented vegetables to the stock. When whey is tolerated, the book moves to homemade yogurt, beginning with half a teaspoon a day, then homemade sour cream fermented with the same culture.^[1]

Week 2 also adds a thin puree made from peeled, deseeded, nonstarchy vegetables cooked very soft in meat stock. Carrot, zucchini, squash, leek, onion, garlic, broccoli, and cauliflower are the named options. Blend in a permitted natural fat, let the food cool to body temperature, and add tolerated homemade yogurt if using it. Begin with two to four teaspoons and thicken the texture gradually.^[1]

When yogurt is part of the baby’s established dairy route, use homemade live yogurt cultured for at least 24 hours. The 2020 book describes a 24-hour ferment as lactose-free, while the official FAQ gives the more specific qualification that residual lactose varies and suggests 36 hours or longer for sensitive people. Commercial finished yogurt does not replace this preparation, and a dairy reaction still follows the source-defined dairy route rather than being pushed through.^[2][4] See the Week 2 soup and probiotic guide for the full sequence.

Week 3: Meat, Liver, Fish, and Avocado

Week 3 adds very soft boiled chicken and other gelatinous meat from the stock pot to the vegetable puree. The book uses the skin, dark meat, and fatty pieces as well as some breast meat. It cooks a piece of liver with the meat, blends the liver with stock, strains it, and adds about one teaspoon per portion. Fish stock and cooked fish join the rotation too.^[1]

Increase tolerated homemade yogurt or sour cream to one or two teaspoons with each meal, keep sauerkraut juice in the soup or stew, and add ripe avocado. Start with one teaspoon of avocado mixed into the vegetable puree and increase it gradually.^[1] The Week 3 meat, liver, and avocado guide holds those preparation details.

Weeks 4 and 5: Raw Yolk and Cooked Apple

After the wrist test, add raw yolk from an organic egg to the vegetable puree. Begin with one teaspoon a day. If there is no reaction, increase the yolk gradually until it is included with each soup or puree.^[1] For uncooked servings, FDA recommends eggs pasteurized to destroy Salmonella.^[10]

Cooked apple comes next when the earlier foods are well tolerated. Peel and core cooking apples, cook them soft in a little water, and add a generous amount of butter, coconut oil, or ghee. Begin with a few spoonfuls and watch for loose stool or another response before increasing.^[1] The Weeks 4 and 5 guide keeps the egg and apple steps together.

Weeks 6 and 7: Increase Yogurt, Yolk, and Meat

Increase tolerated homemade yogurt or sour cream to three teaspoons with each meal. Increase raw yolk to two a day and increase the tender meat, especially gelatinous meat from around joints and bones.^[1]

For a formula-fed baby, the book has already begun replacing formula little by little with soup and puree. In Weeks 6 and 7 it says to stop formula completely. Breastfeeding continues.^[1] That is the book’s sequence, not a reason to stop formula according to a week number. Keep milk feeds adequate for your baby’s age, growth, and intake, with any change agreed in the baby’s feeding plan.^[6] Use the milk-feed and start-timing guide for those distinctions, and the Weeks 6 and 7 guide for this part of the standard schedule.

Weeks 8 and 9: Pancakes, Juice, and Raw Vegetables

The book adds one small pancake a day made from almond or hazelnut butter, peeled and pureed zucchini or squash, and egg. Use properly prepared nut butter: the 2020 book describes soaking the nuts, then sprouting or fermenting them before grinding.^[2] Cook it slowly in ghee, coconut oil, or a home-rendered animal fat. Increase the fresh juice and add a little apple, with tolerated homemade yogurt if used.^[1]

Begin raw vegetables with a small amount of blended lettuce and peeled cucumber added to soup or puree. When those are tolerated, add raw carrot, celery, and soft cabbage one at a time and finely pureed.^[1] See the Weeks 8 and 9 guide for the ordered additions.

Week 10 and Beyond: Full GAPS Family Meals

Try a small amount of scrambled egg or omelet cooked gently in plenty of natural fat, served with avocado and raw or cooked vegetables. Add peeled raw apple or ripe banana between meals, homemade cream cheese made from tolerated homemade yogurt, and a small piece of GAPS bread. The book mentions honey with the cheese, but honey must be left out for babies younger than 12 months.^[9] Increase each food gradually.^[1]

Once the baby reaches Full GAPS, the book adds small amounts of natural salt and moves toward the same meat stock and GAPS meals prepared for the family, with the baby’s portion and texture adjusted before serving.^[1] The Week 10 and Full GAPS guide covers that transition.

How the Practitioner Chart Fits

The Be Well Clinic Baby GAPS chart follows the same broad week-by-week structure and can be useful as a compact implementation checklist.^[3] It does not replace the expanded book. Where a quantity, preparation, timing detail, or served form differs, the book controls this article.

Read the Baby’s Signals

Some foods may need to wait longer than the printed week. The book uses stool as the clearest signal. Loose stool or constipation after a new food means removing that food, waiting a few weeks, and trying again. A new skin rash or sudden eczema flare is another named response.^[1]

Keep the baby’s record separate from older siblings. We started Baby GAPS with our youngest on September 20 after eczema appeared that month. His response belongs to him, even though our family is moving in the same direction together. The weaning symptom guide gives stool, skin, refusal, and retry cues without turning one child’s timing into a universal calendar.

Persistent refusal together with poor growth belongs on the separate GAPS failure-to-thrive route, not inside a casual “try again later” note. The failure-to-thrive first-food guide keeps that source-defined feeding pattern and its milk-feed relationship together.^[5]

The Two-Spoon Technique

The book’s feeding method is simple. Keep two spoons at every meal. Give the baby one spoon to hold and use however he wants. Feed with the second spoon. Over time, he takes over more of the job himself.^[1]

Go into the meal calm and unhurried. If a food is refused, try again an hour later or the next day. Put something washable under the chair and let the mess happen. This stage is short. The two-spoon and sensory first-food guide keeps the texture, self-feeding, and refusal pieces together.

Food Is Not Everything

The New Baby chapter closes this feeding section by bringing the focus back to ordinary baby needs: loving attention, daily time outside, and good sleep.^[1] The food sequence matters, but it is still one part of caring for the baby.

How We Are Fitting This Into Family Meals

Early on, I want his portions kept simple enough that I can tell what he has actually tried. Later, once the ingredients are established, his portion can come from a family meal before salt is added and be adjusted to the texture he needs.

Write down the food, its prepared form, roughly how much your baby ate, and what changed afterward. Keeping those details together gives you something clear to look back on as more foods are introduced.

Baby GAPS First Foods: Frequently Asked Questions

When Does GAPS Start Solid Food?

The expanded book says a bottle-fed baby may begin solids from the fourth month. A breastfed baby may wait until the sixth month unless hunger calls for an earlier start.^[1] The separate timing guide explains what the source says and what it leaves unsettled for late or mixed-fed starts.

Does Every New Food Use the Wrist Test?

The book says to test foods of any kind, especially at the beginning, and to test the exact form that will be served. A food that causes a red or itchy patch waits a few weeks before another try.^[1]

Does Starting Solids Stop Milk Feeds?

No. The schedule begins with one very small solid meal while the remaining feeds continue as breast milk or the baby’s usual formula. For a formula-fed baby, the book gradually replaces formula with soup and puree, then stops formula in Weeks 6 and 7. Breastfeeding continues after meals. Do not stop needed milk feeds because the schedule reaches a new week; use the baby’s individual feeding plan.^[6][1]

Is Meat Stock the Whole Meal?

It starts as one to two teaspoons before a milk feed. The schedule then builds vegetables, meat, liver, fish, fermented foods, egg yolk, fruit, and new textures around it. Meat stock remains the foundation without staying the only food.^[1]

One Thing to Do Today

Make the first batch of meat stock and freeze small portions. Then write the first three things you will record: the food, the amount, and the stool or skin response. Start with those notes; you can add detail as the food sequence grows.

My Little Bellies: Baby’s First GAPS Foods course brings the food sequence, preparation, and response notes together. You can find it in the WFLI course catalog.

References

1. Campbell-McBride, N. GAPS – Gut and Psychology Syndrome, expanded second German edition (2015), Part 4, “New Baby”: starting solids, wrist sensitivity test, Weeks 1 through 10, milk-feed progression, tolerance cues, and the two-spoon method.
2. Campbell-McBride, N. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), chapter “Food,” lactose avoid-list paragraph; chapter “What We Shall Eat and Why, With Some Recipes,” sections “Yogurt, Kefir and Sour Cream” and “Meat Stock and Soups”: the book’s nut preparation, fermented-flour and 24-hour yogurt statements, homemade yogurt preparation, meat stock as the early staple, and bone broth delayed for at least one year, and for some people several years.
3. Be Well Clinic. Baby GAPS Weaning Protocol, copyright 2021, current file hosted in 2025: attributed practitioner implementation chart for the week-by-week sequence, with the GAPS books taking precedence where the chart differs.
4. GAPS official Dairy Introduction Structure and GAPS FAQs, Dairy question 9 and Fermented Foods question 2: sensitivity testing, gradual homemade fermented-dairy introduction, residual-lactose qualification, and longer fermentation for sensitive people.
5. Campbell-McBride, N. GAPS official “Fussy Eaters and Failure to Thrive”: solid-food refusal, poor growth, and the separate failure-to-thrive feeding route.
6. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. How Much and How Often To Feed, March 11, 2025.
7. Mamane, Rachael. Mastering Stocks and Broths, “Cool in an Ice Bath,” “Store in Refrigerator or Freezer,” and “Basic Chicken Stock”: cooling, straining, and storage technique. GAPS infant ingredients and protocol timing follow Campbell-McBride.
8. American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. Allergy Testing.
9. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Foods and Drinks to Avoid or Limit, April 14, 2026.
10. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. What You Need to Know About Egg Safety.