Since breakfast is the first meal of the day, it should be nutritious and filling. Therefore, parents should ensure that the breakfast foods for babies are a perfect blend of nourishment and taste. Introducing a variety of fruits, vegetables, meats, grains, and millets can help you provide diverse tastes and nutrition to babies. However, coming up with new breakfast ideas every day may be challenging. Therefore, this post provides you with a list of healthy, wholesome, and easy-to-prepare breakfast recipes that your babies will enjoy. But, before that, let us understand the benefits of breakfast.
Why Is Breakfast Important?
Breakfast is crucial for babies for the same reason it is for adults. It provides calories for initiating body’s metabolic processes. Even if your baby is fed in the middle of the night, his body would have surely depleted the resources by morning. Learning some breakfast recipes will let you know what exactly you need to make in the morning.
15 Breakfast Recipes For Babies
These are some amazing breakfast ideas for your baby’s menu. Remember, breastmilk is the only food your baby must consume until the age of six months. Thereafter, you can introduce solid foods that can make great breakfast foods for babies. Many of these recipes use formula or breast milk. You can use expressed breast milk in the place of formula milk, or simply add water (as you will subsequently read in the recipes). All these breakfast recipes are for babies between six and 12 months of age. This is the age when the baby develops a taste for solid food. Therefore, these recipes can actually be baby-led weaning breakfast ideas.
1. Multi-vegetable puree
It is a simple and classic breakfast for babies and quite popular as the first breakfast for the baby. You will need:
Vegetables of your choice such as potatoes, peas, carrots, etc. Water
How to:
2. Fruit puree
This is the fruit equivalent of the vegetable puree that has all the goodness of fresh fruits. You will need:
Fruits of your choice such as apples, mangoes, bananas Water
How to:
3. Banana and rice porridge
Porridge is healthy for adults but also makes an amazing breakfast for babies. A conventional porridge is made using milk, but since we are preparing it for babies, you can opt out of it or use formula or expressed milk instead. We use rice here since it is gluten-free, unlike wheat, therefore, you need not worry about allergies. It is for this reason, rice flakes can make a great breakfast cereal for babies. You will need:
1 cup rice or rice flakes 1 cup chopped banana 3 cups water 1 cup formula or expressed milk (optional)
How to:
4. Oatmeal Banana Porridge
This is similar to the previous porridge recipe with the replacement of rice with oatmeal. Oatmeals are usually flat, but you can coarsely grind them again using a hand pounder or a blender with a blunt blade. This is to ensure that there are no fine bits of oats when the porridge is ready and that the oatmeal cooks thoroughly. You will need:
2 cups ground oatmeal 1 cup chopped banana 3 cups of water 1 cup formula milk (optional)
How to:
5. Rice flour and vegetable porridge
You can make porridge using rice flour instead of rice grains or rice flakes. Here you can use vegetables in place of fruits to give this healthy breakfast for babies a unique flavor. You will need:
2 cups rice flour 1 cup chopped carrots and peas 3 cups water
How to:
6. Mango and rice porridge
The natural sweetness of mango combined with the goodness of rice makes a healthy breakfast recipe for a baby. You will need:
1 cup sliced and diced mangoes 2 cups rice 3-4 cups of water 1 cup formula or expressed milk (optional)
How to:
7. Barley apple porridge
Barley makes a great food for babies, and you can use finely powdered barley flour to make some breakfast porridge for your baby. You will need:
1 cup barley flour 3 cups water 1 cup mashed apple 3 tbsp formula or expressed milk (optional)
How to:
8. Lentil, carrot and pumpkin mash
Lentils are a healthy food option for your baby and when combined with vegetables the nutritional value of the preparation increases, thus making it an ideal choice for a healthy breakfast for babies. You will need:
Peeled and diced pumpkin Red lentils Diced carrot Water
How to:
9. Mashed oatmeal and bananas
You can mash oatmeal and bananas together to give your baby an amazing start for the day. You will need:
2 cups oatmeal 1 cup mashed bananas 2 cups water 1 cup formula or expressed milk (optional)
How to:
10. Meat-vegetable puree
The age between eight and 12 months is the time when you will introduce your baby to foods such as meat and eggs. Meat is nutritious and can make a great breakfast food for your baby. You will need:
1 cup sliced vegetables of your choice such as peas, carrot, potatoes, etc. 1 cup boneless and minced meat
How to:
11. Sabudana (Sago pearls) fruit porridge
Sago or sabudana makes a nice breakfast food for your baby since it is nutritious and mild on the stomach. You will need:
2 cups sago pearls/sabudana 4 cups water 1 cup sliced and diced banana or mango 1 cup formula or expressed milk (optional)
How to:
12. Ragi (Finger millet) porridge
This makes a great Indian breakfast recipe for your baby. Ragi is rich in vital nutrients and provides ample nourishment to your baby to kickstart his day with energy. You will need:
2 cups of ragi (finger millet) flour 3 cups water 1 cup sliced and diced banana or mango 1 cup formula or expressed milk (optional)
How to:
13. Atta halwa (Wheat dessert)
This is a breakfast recipe for your little one if he already eats wheat and is not allergic to gluten. You will need:
1 cup wheat flour 1 cup water 1 cup formula or expressed milk
How to:
14. Boiled chicken chunks and mashed potatoes
This is a recipe that makes a breakfast finger food for the baby and is quite nutritious at the same time. You can give it to your little one once he is ten-months old by when he will be habituated a variety of solid foods. You will need:
1 cup finely chopped and diced potatoes 1 cup boneless chicken minced into small chunks
How to:
15. Mashed sago pearls (sabudana) and potatoes
Cooked sago can be mashed and mixed with mashed vegetables like potatoes thus making a great breakfast for babies older than ten months. You will need:
1 cup sabudana 1 cup chopped and diced potatoes
How to:
