These are the best Breakfast Ideas for Baby-Led weaning to nourish your 6 to 9-month old and ease him or her into a healthy, wholesome diet.
If you are working on weaning a baby, you know that breakfast can be one of the most difficult meals to prepare. However, during the first three months of weaning, it’s important to start each day with a healthy breakfast that the little one enjoys and can palate. I’ve compiled the master list of the best breakfast recipes to serve baby during the first three months of baby-led weaning.
These recipes below are designed to introduce baby (and you!) to new flavors, textures, and ingredients. Use this list for baby breakfast inspiration to keep things interesting and help you break out of a rut.
Plus, these recipes accommodate all diets and aversions. See breakfasts with and without eggs, with fruit, vegetables, grains, and more. There’s something for every palate!
How I Prepare for Baby-Led Weaning
In my experience with baby-led weaning, my goal is to try as many different shapes and sizes of foods (as long as they’re not a choking hazard size, of course). This way, I could see what Luca and Roma liked best. Plus, meals become an opportunity to work on dexterity and fine motor skills!
The recipes below are all meals that I’ve made for 6- to 9-month-olds that both my kids love. You can find photo examples of all of these kid-friendly breakfast ideas on Instagram @inspiralizedkids. Plus lunch and dinner ideas.
And before you start cooking, for safe practices on baby-led weaning, I recommend taking the Infant Feeding Course by Feeding Littles with code INSPIRALIZED for a $10 discount!
For my favorite baby feeding products, check out my Baby Favorites.
What is Baby-Led Weaning?
Baby-led weaning, Or BLW, is how I’ve weaned both Luca and Roma. Essentially, it’s a method of introducing foods to babies that they eat themselves. Instead of spoon-feeding baby food purees, you go straight to finger foods that the kids can hold themselves. You can read more about why we’ve used BLW and how it works here.
The most important thing is to choose foods that the babies can hold and eat, and all of these breakfast ideas fit the bill.
Best Breakfast Ideas for Weaning Babies
These are the breakfast foods that I’ve had the most success with feeding both Luca and Roma as they weaned off of breastfeeding and started eating solid foods on their own. I’ve included tips to help make raw ingredients more baby-friendly and easy to pick up. Often, just a bit of help with grip is all your baby needs to start feeding him or herself.
Egg-Free Breakfast Ideas for Babies
Because it’s so easy to fall back on eggs at breakfast time, I’ve put together my family’s favorite eggless recipes to switch things up:
- Chia seed pudding. Make dairy-free chia pudding with almond milk. Top it with nut butter for healthy fats and plenty of fresh fruit (smushed berries or chopped bananas) for fiber.
- Vegetable sticks made with a crinkle cutter. These can be dipped in applesauce. It’s a great way to get your baby to eat more veggies.
- Boiled or roasted beets. Slice the beets into quarters or strips. They’re sweet enough for breakfast.
- Roasted purple sweet potatoes with cinnamon and/or yogurt.
- Orange or grapefruit slices with part of the rind still on for gripping.
- Banana with part of the skin on. You can rub this with nut butter or dip it in a smoothie for more nutrients.
- Oatmeal with swirls of nut butter, breast milk, or fruit (smushed blueberries, chopped banana, etc).
- Healthy Cheerios. Eating dry cereal helps with pincer grasp.
- Avocado quarters sprinkled with almond flour or unsweetened coconut flakes for gripping.
- Toast strips with mashed avocado, KiteHill almond cream cheese (vegan), thinly spread nut butter, or mashed raspberries.
- Peeled apricot slices, served on a Grabease fork.
- Peeled and halved large grapes. I also smash them a little bit with my fingers.
- Roasted or steamed veggies cut into sticks with a crinkle cutter. I love using carrots, zucchini, kabocha squash, sweet potato, butternut squash, broccoli, cauliflower, beets, parsnips, etc. You can also top them with some Greek yogurt. Or, season them with whatever seasoning your little one likes – cinnamon, curry powder, cumin, etc.
- Fruit cut into strips – melon, tomato, kiwi, mango, etc.
- Applesauce preloaded on a GOOtensil.
- Berries. halved or quartered. Especially blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries.
- Energy bites. I flatten out the mixture and cut it into strips/squares for easy grabbing (example here.) They include dates, nuts, and coconut shreds.
- Whole milk Greek yogurt swirled with nut butter, coconut, and mashed berries (example here.) Preloaded on a GOOtensil.
- Potato toast dippers
- Egg-free oat muffins. This is the recipe I use and Luca loves.
- Waffle strips. I like Birchbenders!
Baby-Led Weaning Breakfast Ideas with Eggs
If your little one loves eggs, then try these recipes for breakfast too:
- Hard-boiled eggs, sliced into quarters or strips.
- Egg donut or muffin. These are my favorite way to serve veggies at breakfast. I add any leftover roasted/steamed veggies from the week into the blender. I’ve tried: kabocha squash, parsnips, sweet potato, carrots, and beets!
- Egg and banana pancake strips – you can make two-ingredient pancakes. Then slice them into strips OR use the same batter from the egg donuts and muffins and just pour into a skillet like you would cook a pancake and then cut into strips (example here).
- PB&J Oatmeal Bake from my cookbook. This is probably one of Luca’s favorite breakfasts. I cut them into grabbable pieces. This is how I serve it.
- Veggie omelet strips. Simply make an omelet with veggies like spinach, bell peppers, etc, and cut it into strips (example here.)
- Scrambled eggs with homemade basil pesto. Just make sure the scrambled pieces are big enough for your baby to grab.
Drinks to Serve Babies at Breakfast
I give Luca sips of water after his meals. I rotate between a cup and a straw cup!
Baby-Led Weaning Resources
If you’re new to baby-led weaning or curious to learn more, here are some other helpful resources to check out:
- Our first week with baby-led weaning (Luca)
- Baby Led Weaning Basics and Cooking Tips
- What a week of meals looks like for our family (Luca)
- Inspiralized Littles eCookbook for Baby Led Weaning
- Baby Led Weaning With Roma: Feeding Update
- Inspiralized Littles eCookbook: Healthy and Delicious Recipes for Baby Led Weaning
