First foods database
Can babies eat carrots?
The short answer: yes, with preparation. Here's the safe way to do it.
When can babies eat carrots?
Carrots are a weaning staple from 6 months — cooked. Raw carrot is one of the more common choking culprits for under-3s.
Is carrots a choking hazard?
High risk raw (hard, breaks into plugs). Cooked until squishable, risk is low. No raw carrot sticks or coins before age 3-4; grated raw carrot is fine from around 9-12 months.
Roasting concentrates sweetness and keeps a grippable shape better than boiling. Batons should squish between finger and thumb.
Is carrots a common allergen?
No — carrots are not one of the top-9 food allergens, which makes it a low-stress food to serve alongside deliberate allergen introductions.
How to serve carrots by stage
Steamed or roasted batons, cooked until they pass the squish test.
Soft-cooked coins quartered, diced soft carrot, or grated raw carrot.
Soft-cooked shapes of any kind; still no hard raw sticks.
For more depth on this topic, see our guide: Gagging vs Choking in Babies: Know the Difference.
Track every new food in BabyEats
Checking foods one by one is exactly what the BabyEats app streamlines: age-appropriate serving guidance for the food in front of you, allergen introduction planning, and a tracker that logs everything your baby has tried — so the "can they eat this?" moment takes seconds, not a search.