Infant Breakfast Ideas from a Dietitian Your Little One Will Love
Infant breakfast ideas: From muffins to frittatas, toast toppings—and more! Discover dietitian-approved baby breakfast finger foods your little one will love. Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Get Cracking and contains affiliate links.
As a dietitian specializing in infant nutrition, I understand the importance of providing your baby with the right start to their day. However, coming up with exciting and healthy breakfast options for your little one can sometimes feel like a daunting task.
That’s why I have created a list of 16 nutritious infant breakfast ideas. From creative blends of fruits and whole grains to protein-packed options, focusing on finger foods that babies can self-feed.
16 Breakfast Ideas for Babies
Eggs for baby
Eggs are an easy and inexpensive food for your baby. They are an excellent source of the highest-quality protein and contain 13 important nutrients.
Did you know just one egg provides 100% of your baby’s choline needs, which is crucial for brain development and cognition and part of why they are recommended as one of baby’s first foods.
Be sure to offer your baby the whole egg. The yolk contains many important nutrients, such as choline, which is highly important for brain development and health.
Feeding your baby eggs early can help prevent an egg allergy, so don’t wait until 9 months or a year. Health Canada, the Canadian Paediatric Society, Dietitians of Canada, and the Breastfeeding Committee for Canada all recommend whole eggs when starting your baby on solids at 6 months of age.
For three ideas on how to serve eggs to your baby, watch my Instagram reel and read this article from Get Cracking: “Eggs, a perfect first food for babies.”
Toast & toppings
To serve your baby toast, look for seedless bread, like 100% whole wheat. Cut the crust off, toast it lightly, and cut the toast into strips. Offering untoasted bread will be more difficult for your baby to eat, as it can be mushy or “gummy.”
And don’t stop there! You can add a lot of flavour and nutrition to your baby’s toast with toppings. These toppings can be good for crackers too! I’ve shared some ideas in the photo:
- Mashed avocado with hemp hearts
- Ricotta cheese with mashed raspberries
- Hummus with roasted red pepper
- Nut butter and banana slices.
Frittata
This Cheesy Frittata recipe is perfect for the whole family. It contains just eggs, sweet potato, and cheese. You could also make this recipe into egg muffins for baby—bake for about half the time.
Once your baby is ready for baby-led weaning, serve a wedge of frittata along with a slice of avocado and tomato. Tip: If the avocado and tomato are too slippery to pick up, roll them in fortified infant cereal or ground flax.
Baby Muffins
Muffins are easy for little hands to grasp and eat. And you can fill them with nutrition, whether it’s grated carrots, pureed spinach or mashed banana muffins.
My “Avocado Blueberry Mini Muffins” contain avocado, Greek yogurt, blueberries, and fortified infant cereal. Avocados provide extra healthy fats and calories your baby or toddler needs for growth and brain development and add to a rich, moist texture.
And by swapping half of the flour with a fortified infant cereal in your baking recipes (such as muffins or pancakes), you can supply your baby with a little boost of iron. Iron is the most essential nutrient that your baby gets from solids, to support their growth and development. Read this blog for more information on how much iron your baby needs and food sources.
Smoothie
Smoothies are a great way to practice drinking from a straw. Thick liquids will be easier to start with, compared to thin liquids like water. And they’re an easy way to add in many nutrients. Serve a smoothie with one of the grain options above like toast strips or oatmeal.
Here are my favourite smoothie ingredients:
- Start with milk base: cow’s milk (yes, babies can have this at 6 months!), soy milk (if you’re vegetarian) or canned coconut milk. You could also use formula or pumped breast milk as the milk base.
- Plain yogurt
- Frozen fruit or fresh fruit + ice
- Spinach or kale
- Banana or avocado for creaminess
- Extras: hemp hearts, ground flax, chia seeds and/or nut butter.
Chia pudding
Chia seeds are high in fibre and omega-3 fatty acids. They also produce a thick gel-like pudding. You might have to feed this to your baby or pre-load their spoon, as it’s slippery!
Try this Banana Chia Pudding. You can use any milk you like. Full-fat cow’s milk has more protein and fat, which would be my preference. It is fine for your baby after 6 months (just not as a main source of milk).
You can also include any fruit, from puree to berries, mango or banana.
Are chia seeds a choking hazard? They are too small to be a choking hazard, but you can always use ground chia instead of full chia seeds. Read this post for more info on “How to prevent choking when starting finger foods.”
Baked Oatmeal Bars
Oats don’t just have to be served as a hot morning cereal! They can also be made into breakfast or snack bars. I like this “Soft Baked Banana Oatmeal Bar” recipe, which contains nutrient-dense ingredients like peanut butter, banana and flax seed.
The recipe also contains cinnamon. Yes, your baby can have spices. Exposing them to different flavours early on, like garlic, cumin, or cinnamon, may actually help to broaden their palate and prevent picky eating!
French toast
French toast strips are easy for a baby to grasp and soft for toothless gums. Simply dip bread (stale is best!) in a mixture of whisked egg & milk with a dash of cinnamon, and a touch of vanilla. Fry the bread on both sides in a bit of butter in a hot pan and slice into strips.
For extra flavour and nutrition, serve the French toast with whipping cream and fruit. You can also spread on nut butter or ricotta cheese with mashed or sliced fruit.
Waffles topped with ricotta cheese or nut butter
Waffles are another fun and tasty breakfast for baby! You can make your own waffles using a Basic Waffle Recipe or buy them in the freezer section. I like Nature’s Path Flax Plus Waffles for extra fibre. And remember if you make your own, you can substitute some of the flour for fortified infant cereal.
The holes in waffles make them a great conduit for nutritious toppings, too. Add ricotta cheese for protein and calcium, butter and mashed berries, or nut butter and banana slices.
Oatmeal
Oatmeal or other warm mixed-grain cereal like Sunny Boy is a nutritious start to your baby’s day! Avoid pre-packaged instant, sweetened oatmeal. Steel-cut oats are too tough for your baby to chew easily. Instead, look for regular or quick oats.
Mix some milk or plain yogurt into the cooked cereal for added protein. And yes, babies can have whole milk after 6 months as an ingredient, just not as their main source of milk.
Other ways to add extra nutrition to oatmeal include cooking it with egg whites, chopped apples and hemp hearts. Other topping ideas for hot cereal include ground chia seeds, nut butter, finely chopped nuts and pureed fruit.
Yogurt
The yogurt aisle can be very confusing. You might find added sugar, artificial sweeteners, colourings, and different fat percentages. Watch my Instagram reel for ingredients to avoid.
For baby, look for plain, full-fat yogurt. You can mix in fruit puree for some flavour and colour. Thick Greek yogurt will be the easiest for a baby to pick up with a dipper spoon like Num Num Gootensils (affiliate link).
Meatballs
There’s no reason why you can’t have supper for breakfast! Considering iron is the most important nutrient for babies to get from solid foods, and the heme iron in meat is best absorbed, you could certainly offer meat for breakfast.
Try batch-cooking these bison meatballs and freezing them. Read this blog for more ideas on iron-rich food sources for babies.
Pancakes
Try these 2-ingredient pancakes from my book “The Parents’ Guide to Baby-led Weaning” (affiliate link). They contain only eggs and bananas, with optional add-ins: vanilla, cinnamon, peanut butter or ground flax.
Watch my Instagram reel for instructions on how to make the pancakes.
You can also make regular pancakes. Substitute half of the flour for fortified infant cereal. If you’re looking for a mix, Kodiac Power Cakes is my favourite. Top with nut butter or butter.
Tofu
Though tofu might not be a traditional breakfast food, it’s nutritious, soft finger food for your baby! Tofu is made of soy, which is high in protein and many vitamins and minerals – especially calcium if it’s set in calcium (check the nutrition facts table). And yes, soy is safe for your baby to eat.
Try frying strips of extra-firm tofu. I show you how to make tofu strips for your baby in this video. Or you could add a silken (soft) tofu blended into a smoothie.
Peanuts
Like other tree nuts, peanuts are a good source of protein, healthy fats, and fibre. They also contain important vitamins and minerals, such as Vitamin E, iron, and magnesium.
We now know that introducing high-risk allergens like peanuts within the first year can prevent allergies. To serve peanuts to your baby here are some ideas:
- Melt 2 tsp of peanut butter for the baby in 2-3 tbsp hot water and let it cool. If they need a thicker mixture, mix in some infant cereal.
- Mix 2 tsp peanut butter into 2-3 Tbsp of baby’s regular purees – apple would be yummy!
- Powdered peanut butter (affiliate link) is another option. Sprinkle 2 tsp in a smoothie or mix into a puree.
- Peanut puree: Spread 2 tsp peanut butter thinly on a piece of toast, waffle or pancake.
- Make the Peanut butter cereal fingers from this blog post.
Sweet Potato & Quinoa Breakfast Tortilla
Breakfast tortillas are a traditional Spanish dish. This recipe is a great way to introduce sweet potatoes and quinoa to your baby-led weaner. It cuts into the perfect-sized strips for them to grasp. My whole family loves this breakfast recipe, too; it’s not just for babies.
If you’re looking for more recipes the whole family will enjoy, check out my book “The Parents’ Guide to Baby-led Weaning” (affiliate link).
Fruit for baby
We can’t talk about breakfast without talking about fruit! Fruit provides fibre, water and many antioxidants to your baby’s diet. Any of the above breakfast ideas can be served with soft fruit, to add variety and nutrition.
And it doesn’t just have to be purees from a pouch. Here are some ideas:
- Mash ripe berries to spoon feed or mix into oatmeal or top peanut butter toast.
- Peel, slice and steam an apple until it’s soft. Once your baby has a pincher grasp, you can grate a full, raw apple. Add a pinch of cinnamon if you like.
- Banana for Baby: you can slice a banana into stips and roll it in ground flax or infant cereal. Or slice off the top of the banana peel and let your baby chew on the exposed fruit.
- Mango for baby: Cut it into long thin strips, and coat in infant cereal, ground nuts or ground flax if it’s too slippery to hold. You can also offer your baby a whole mango pit (with a bit of fruit on it) to chew on.
- Put frozen berries in a feeder bag and let your baby chew on them, to ease sore gums.
How much do babies need to eat at breakfast?
When starting solid foods around 6 months of age, you can offer two meals per day. Gradually increase the number of times per day your child is offered solids between age 6-12 months until they are on regular eating patterns of 3 meals and a few snacks per day. Remember that milk is still your baby’s main source of nutrition until a year of age.
Breakfast is a great meal to offer when you’re starting solids. Your baby will have a chance to digest the food (compared to eating and going right to bed with gas!). And you will have a chance to watch for any signs of allergy, such as a rash.
The amounts eaten at these meals are totally up to your baby. Start offering small amounts so you don’t waste much food. If your baby doesn’t want to eat, they can still play with the food! It’s all a part of learning how to eat. And if baby wants more, you can offer more until they are finished.
Tips based on your baby’s age
For a beginner baby, you’ll have to offer food in a long finger or stick shape, so your baby can grasp it with their palm. They’ll eat down to their palm, drop it, and grab another piece.
When your baby has developed the pincher grasp, they will be able to pick up smaller pieces of food between their thumb and forefinger. This is when you can offer bite-sized pieces.
For example, when offering eggs to a baby starting finger foods with a palmer grasp, you can fry an egg and cut it into long strips. Once your baby has a pincher grasp, you can serve smaller pieces of scrambled egg.
Final thoughts on infant breakfast ideas
As a parent, you want to ensure your baby is getting the nutrients they need to thrive. Breakfast is often considered the most important meal of the day, especially for growing infants. I hope this blog has provided you with a few ideas that will make breakfast a joy for both you and your little one!
Founder of First Step Nutrition | Registered Dietitian Nutritionist
Jen believes raising happy, well-nourished eaters who have a healthy relationship with food doesn't have to be a battle! She is an author and speaker with 18 years of experience specializing in family nutrition and helps parents teach their kids to try new foods without yelling, tricking, or bribing.
laduree
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