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Easy self-feeding meal ideas for babies and tips for solids with 8-12 month olds. How to get started with baby led weaning for your baby, what foods to serve, and food ideas with pictures for meal time inspiration.
Hi there! I’m a mom of 3 sharing our experience of starting solids and some of our self-feeding food ideas for beginner eaters and easy meal ideas for babies. These meals ideas are what my babies ate from about 8-12 months when they were just beginning to eat solid foods.
NEW TO SOLID FOODS? Start here >> Baby-Led Weaning Food Ideas or Combining Purees and Baby-Led Weaning or 7 Month Old Baby-Led Weaning Meal Ideas. This post is about easy meal ideas for babies for beginner eaters, but doesn’t go into too much detail on how to first introduce solid foods.
If you are looking for more easy meal ideas for babies or toddlers, check out more posts from my feeding series:
- 7 Month Old Baby-Led Weaning Meal Ideas
- 8 Month Self-Feeding Ideas
- 9 Month Self-Feeding Food Ideas
- Self-Feeding Baby Lunch Ideas
- 27 Easy Lunch Ideas for 1-year Olds
- 1 Year Old Meal Ideas – 30 Toddler Meals
- Self-Feeding 1 Year Old Dinner Ideas
How Should You Cut Food For Babies?
One big tip I want to share from our experience starting solids with the Baby Led Weaning (or BLW) approach is to cut the food “correctly” for young babies. A good visual for cutting BLW food is to cut into a “fry” shape about the size of your pinky finger.
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Young babies have very tiny airways and food can easily get stuck. The “fry” shape is great for early eaters because it helps avoid chocking and teaches baby to first gnaw on the food, and then eventually bite and chew.
It’s also helpful for young babies to grasp before they have their pincer grasp to pick up smaller sized things. Once your baby has mastered picking up the fry shaped foods and gumming (and also has developed their pincer) grasp, you can move onto smaller bite-sized foods.
Having the right baby feeding supplies for self-feeding can go a long way in helping your baby self-feed (or at the very least save your sanity and keep your dining room a little cleaner).
These are some of our favorites: find the list here
Getting Started: Easy Food Ideas for Babies
Fruits for Babies
- Blueberries (smush or halve)
- Strawberries
- Raspberries
- Blackberries
- Plum
- Pineapple
- Cooked apples/pears
- Grapes (quartered)
- Watermelon
- Canned peaches/pears
- Mandarin oranges
- Pears
- Amara Organic Smoothie Melts
Veggies for Babies
- Cooked broccoli
- Cooked carrots
- Cucumber
- Sweet potato
- Peas
- Cooked peppers
- Cooked cauliflower
- Green beans
- Tomatoes
Carbs for Babies
- Toast strips
- Pasta
- Dry cereal or puffs
- Waffle strips
- French Toast
- Mac ‘n cheese
- Grilled cheese
- PB&J bites
- Avocado toast
- Quesadilla
- Flaky Crackers
Protein/Fat for Babies
- Scrambled eggs
- Avocado
- Shredded cheese
- Flaky fish
- Chicken sausage
- Deli meat
- Chicken Salad
- Baked beans
- Meatballs
- Ground beef/turkey
- Black beans
- Tuna
- Shredded meat (the more tender the better)
Even if you start with baby-led weaning or self-feeding foods, baby food pouches can be a great way to supplement or feed your baby on the go. Add purees to sauces, smoothies, inside quesadillas, or serve as a dip!
Here are some of our favorite organic baby food brands:
- Serenity Kids Pouches(Use JESSICA15 for 15% off)
- Amara Baby Food (Use PANDP15 for 15% off)
Easy Meal Ideas for Babies
Here are some photos of meal ideas for babies based on what my kids have actually eaten during the 8-12 month age range over the years!
8 Month Old Self Feeding for Babies
- Avocado toast – with scrambled eggs and chicken sausage (Applegate brand is our favorite!)
- Waffle strips – cut into strips for younger eaters to help with grasp and gnawing, side of diced mandarin oranges and chicken sausage.
- Yogurt – full fat yogurt with smushed blueberries. Add a spoon to practice self feeding!
- French toast – one of my absolute favorite recipes for babies, cut into strips and served with (canned) pear halves.
Another similar recipe: 3 Ingredient Baby Banana Pancakes for Self Feeding
- Hashbrown breakfast: Hashbrowns, scrambled eggs, and avocado
- Dry Cereal: Cheerios and diced plums
- Whole grain waffle: Waffle strips with a thin layer of peanut butter
- Peanut Butter Toast strips: Peanut butter toast strips, scrambled eggs, avocado
- Hard Boiled Eggs – cut hard boiled eggs into quarters for baby self-feeding, sides of cooked carrot sticks and quartered grapes.
- Turkey – turkey deli meat, strawberries, mandarin oranges, and full-fat greek yogurt.
- Pulled chicken – deconstructed fajitas with pulled chicken, cooked bell peppers and cheese.
- Pasta w/ squash sauce – cooked pasta mixed with a squash pouch from My Serenity Kids (Use JESSICA15 to save 15%)
- Chicken sausage: chicken sausage, sweet potato fries, riced broccoli
- Flaky white fish: white fish and green beans
- Baked beans: baked beans, avocado, hamburger
- Ground pork: ground pork and broccoli
Read More > 8 Month Old Baby Self Feeding
9 Month Old Meal Ideas for Babies
- Pancakes – pancakes are a great option for babies because they are soft and easy to eat, side of scrambled eggs and raspberries.
- Sourdough toast – whatever kind of bread is fine, but we love sourdough! Peanut butter toast, scrambled eggs, and strawberries
- Avocado toast – cut into strips with bananas, halved blueberries, and scrambled eggs.
- Banana French toast – one of our favorite recipes for easy banana French toast, side of halved blueberries and raspberries.
- Chicken salad: homemade chicken salad made with chicken, avocado, and veggies, and a side of halved blueberries
- Sweet potato tots: sweet potato tots, grapes quartered, and peas
- French toast: french toast with raspberries cooked in (similar to this recipe)
- Jelly toast bites: jelly toast cut into bites, scrambled eggs
- Broccoli littles – Dr. Praeger’s broccoli littles, grapes quartered, and string cheese
- Turkey & puffs – deli turkey, cucumbers, berries, and pumpkin puffs from My Serenity Kids (Use JESSICA15 to save 15%)
- Teething biscuit with hummus – level up your teething biscuit and spread hummus on top, with cooked carrot sticks, and smushed blueberries.
- Sweet potato littles – Dr. Praeger’s sweet potato littles, diced beets, oranges, and blueberries
- Fruit & veggies: Cook carrots cut into strips, pineapple, string cheese, avocado
- Spinach Littles: Grapes quartered, string cheese, peaches, cooked apples, crackers, Dr. Praeger’s Spinach Littles
- Chicken Sausage: Chicken sausage, grapes quartered, shredded cheddar cheese, avocado, string cheese, watermelon
- Avocado + Lunch Meat: Deli turkey, shredded cheddar cheese, avocado
Read More > 9 Month Old Self-Feeding Food Ideas
10 Month Old Meal Ideas for Babies
- Oatmeal Bites – Dr. Praeger’s oatmeal littles, full fat yogurt, and raspberries.
- Toast with cream cheese – toast strips with cream cheese and jelly, mandarin oranges
- Bananas & PB – diced bananas topped with a drizzle of peanut butter (too much can be a choking hazard), blackberries quartered, cucumbers and cooked carrots
- PB&J – peanut butter and jelly cut into very small pieces, oranges, and cucumbers
- Veggie corn dog: Morningstar Farms Veggie corn dog, grapes, peas and carrots
- Chicken meatball: KidFresh chicken veggie meatballs, string cheese, grapes quartered
- Mac ‘n cheese: Annie’s Four Cheese penne, and grapes quartered
- Grilled cheese: grilled cheese bites, peaches, peas and carrots
Our favorite silicone toddler plates & bowls:EZPZ Fun (Use code EZPZ25LOVE for 25% off $75+)
- Ground Beef + Beans – deconstructed taco plate with ground beef, refried beans, cheese, tomato, and smushed avocado
- Rotisserie chicken – pulled chicken, berries, cucumber with hummus, and pumpkin puffs from My Serenity Kids (Use JESSICA15 to save 15%)
- Pasta with Alfredo sauce – pasta with white sauce, cooked broccoli, and quartered grapes
- Quesadilla – quesadilla strip, strawberries, grapes, cucumbers, and avocado
- Meatball: ground beef meatball, sweet potato fries, green beans, peppers, carrots and broccoli
- Deconstructed Taco plate: Spanish rice, avocado, shredded cheese, black beans
- Pesto Pasta with Veggies: pasta with pesto sauce, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli
- Tuna salad: tuna salad, tomatoes, avocado, mandarin oranges
Related post: Lunch Ideas for 10 Month Olds
11 Month Old Meal Ideas for Babies
- Oatmeal – make your own with one of these recipes or use pre-packaged from Amara (use PANP15 for 15% off)
- Jelly Toast – jelly toast strips with a side of diced bananas
- Bananas with PB – scrambled eggs and bananas with peanut butter drizzled on top (too much peanut butter can be a choking hazard).
- Zucchini Scrambled Eggs – scrambled eggs with diced zucchini and cheese, banana, and Veggies Made Great blueberry muffin
- Hamburger – diced hamburger with cheese, tomatoes, string cheese, and raspberries
- Mac & Cheese – add thawed frozen veggies to mac and cheese to get in some veggies, cucumber hummus, and quartered grapes.
- Pizza – pizza made on Naan bread, asparagus, and diced pineapple
- Grilled Cheese – grilled cheese cut into strips with sweet potato, black beans, and tomato
Looking for 12 month meal ideas for babies? Check out this post: 12 Month Old Meal Ideas
More toddler meal ideas: ToddlerMealIdeas.com
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