11 month food ideas for baby

Sample Menu for a Baby 8 to 12 Months Old

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Now that your baby is eating solid foods, planning meals can be more challenging. At this age, your baby needs between 750 and 900 calories each day, of which about 400 to 500 should come from breast milk or formula (if you are not breastfeeding)—roughly 24 ounces (720 mL) a day. Breast milk and formula contain vitamins, minerals, and other important components for brain growth.

At about eight months, you may want to introduce foods that are slightly coarser than strained pureed foods. They require more chewing than baby foods. You can expand your baby's diet to include soft foods such as yogurt, oatmeal, mashed banana, mashed potatoes, or even thicker or lumpy pureed vegetables. Eggs (including scrambled) are an excellent source of protein, as are cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, and avocado.

Sample menu ideas for an 8- to 12-month-old baby:

1 cup = 8 ounces = 240 ml
¾ cup = 6 ounces = 180 ml
½ cup = 4 ounces = 120 ml
¼ cup = 2 ounces = 60 ml

Breakfast

2 to 4 ounces cereal, or 1 mashed or scrambled egg
2 to 4 ounces mashed or diced fruit
Breastmilk or 4 to 6 ounces formula

Snack

Lunch

2 to 4 ounces yogurt or cottage cheese, or pureed or diced beans or meat
2 to 4 ounces cooked pureed or diced yellow or orange vegetables
Breastmilk or 4 to 6 ounces formula

Snack

Dinner

2 to 4 ounces diced diced poultry, meat, or tofu
2 to 4 ounces cooked green vegetables
2 to 4 ounces cooked soft-whole grain pasta or potato
2 to 4 ounces diced or mashed fruit
Breastmilk or 4 to 6 ounces formula

Before bedtime

Breastmilk or 6 to 8 ounces formula, or water. (If breastmilk or formula, follow with water or brush teeth afterward).

More information

Sample Menu for a One-Year-Old
Starting Solid Foods
Breastfeeding Mealtime Milestones
Ask the Pediatrician: Is it OK to make my own baby food?

Last Updated: 8/12/2022

Source: Caring for Your Baby and Young Child: Birth to Age 5 7th Edition (Copyright © 2019 American Academy of Pediatrics)

The information contained on this Web site should not be used as a substitute for the medical care and advice of your pediatrician. There may be variations in treatment that your pediatrician may recommend based on individual facts and circumstances.

11 Months Baby Food Chart With Recipes

Know what and how much your 11-month-old should eat to support their overall development.

Research-backed

MomJunction believes in providing reliable, research-backed information to you. As per our strong editorial policy requirements, we base our health articles on references (citations) taken from authority sites, international journals, and research studies. However, if you find any incongruencies, feel free to write to us.

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11-month-old baby food may contain a variety of options, as when children start nearing the age of one, their activities increase. To help them stay energetic and give them complete nutrition, you need to introduce them to various food options such as vegetables, fruits, grains, meat, and eggs.

However, it is important to introduce new foods slowly to babies to prevent any risk of allergies. Moreover, 11-month babies may also start showing interest in eating independently. However, while allowing this pleasure to them, you must be careful about choking hazards.

This post is a complete guide on the best foods you can give to an 11-month baby and what you should be careful about. It also provides you with a food chart and some interesting recipes.

What Can A Baby Eat At 11 Months Of Age?

A baby can eat nearly all foods from various food categories at the age of 11 months.

Babies can eat almost all fruits after six months of age (1). This is crucial for the wholesomeness of the diet. As a mother, you would want to be cautious for an allergic reaction of citrus fruits. Hence, always introduce one citrus fruit at a time. The quantity introduced should be small, such as one or two teaspoons a day. Check for any symptoms of allergy. If there are no such signs, the fruit can be a part of the diet on a regular basis. Always wait for 3-5 days in between introducing a new food (2).

Dairy products that an 11-month-old can have include yogurt. However, you must wait for them to complete 12 months before introducing cow milk (3).

Nearly all vegetables can be given to 11-month-old babies. A few exceptions are tomatoes, raw carrots, and celery that should be given after the age of 12 months (4).

All grains and cereals can be used to make cereal meals for the baby.

All types of meat and poultry can be given, but egg should be given only after the child is a year old (5).

To ensure adequate nutrition for the child, it is also essential to know the right quantities of these foods to serve the baby.

Related: 5 Health Benefits Of Eggs For Babies And 11 Simple Recipes

How Much To Feed An 11-month-old?

An 11-month-old can have half-a-cup of solid food, three to four times a day (6). It is the minimum quantity that your baby can eat during mealtime. You can give a healthy snack or two between the main meals namely breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The meals (including snacks) should be an assortment of various foods to provide optimum nourishment to the baby.

You must continue breastfeeding or formula feeding a baby besides giving them solid foods. An 11-month-old baby usually breastfeeds four times a day (7). Make a diet keeping that in mind, to ensure the baby gets the nutrition from breastfeeding as well as solid foods.

Related: 15 Healthy Breakfast Recipe Ideas For Your Baby

11-month-old Baby Food Chart

Here is a sample menu for an 11-month-old baby’s feeding schedule, as recommended by pediatricians (8). Note that the plan includes all food types including breast milk and formula:

Name of the meal	Food items
Breakfast	1/4 – 1/2 cup of baby cereal 1/4 – 1/2 cup pureed fruit 4 – 6oz (118 – 177ml) formula or breastmilk
Snack	4 – 6oz (118 – 177ml) formula or breastmilk 1/4 cup boiled vegetable finger food
Lunch	1/4 – 1/2 cup yogurt or meat or cottage cheese 1/4 – 1/2 cup yellow or orange vegetables 4 – 6oz (118 – 177ml) formula or breastmilk
Evening snack	1 cracker or teething biscuit 1/4 diced fruits or cheese or boiled vegetable finger food
Dinner	1/4 cup diced meat or tofu 1/4 – 1/2 cup cooked green vegetables 1/4 cup boiled rice, potatoes, noodles or pasta 1/4 cup of diced or pureed fruit 4 – 6oz (118 – 177ml) formula or breastmilk
Before bedtime	6 – 8oz (177 – 236ml) formula or breastmilk, followed by a small cup of water.

Ensure that you brush the baby’s teeth before you put them to bed.

Note: If you still breastfeed your 11-month-old, then there can be on-demand breastfeeds between the meals.

Next, we give you seven recipes that you can try making for your baby,

Seven Food Recipes For 11-month-old Babies

1. Chicken and carrots finger food

Image: Shutterstock

You will need:

1/2 cup diced carrot
1/2 boneless chicken cubes
4 cups of water

How to:

Boil the carrot and chicken on a medium flame for about 25 minutes. You can cook them further if your baby prefers them soft.
Once done cooking, sieve out the carrots and chicken. Do not discard the broth since you can use it for cooking other items.
Cool the vegetables and then serve it as finger food to the 11-month-old baby.

2. Butternut squash and sweet potato

Image: Shutterstock

You will need:

1 cup sliced sweet potatoes
1 cup sliced butternut squash
1 cup of water

How to:

Put the sweet potatoes and squash in a cooking vessel and boil them for 20 minutes on full flame.
You can consider cooking them in a pressure cooker if your baby loves them extra soft. Put the vegetables in a pressure cooker, fill it half with water, and cook on high flame for one whistle. After the whistle, turn the flame to medium and cook for nine minutes.
You can shallow fry the boiled potatoes and squash. Use a one-third teaspoon of 100% rice bran oil on a pan and shallow fry the boiled vegetables till they are tender. Cool and serve.

Related: 9 Tasty Butternut Squash Baby Food Recipes

3. Broccoli and cottage cheese

Image: Shutterstock

You will need:

1 cup of large broccoli florets
1 cup of large cottage cheese chunks
2 1/2 cups of water
1/2 teaspoon 100% rice bran oil

How to:

Boil the broccoli for eight minutes or more if your baby loves them tender.
Heat oil in a cooking pan. Put the cottage cheese chunks, and shallow fry them till they turn a light brown color.
Next put the broccoli and shallow fry it with the cottage cheese for a couple of minutes. Cool and serve it to the baby.

4. Banana and oats porridge

Image: Shutterstock

You will need:

1 cup oats flour
1 banana
2 cups of water

How to:

Put the oats and water in a cooking vessel. Bring the water to boil and turn the flame to simmer. Cook the oats, while stirring it, for five minutes.
Chop the banana into small pieces and mash it in a bowl.
Let the cooked oats cool for a few minutes. Add the mashed banana and stir it well. Serve it to the baby.

5. Blueberry yogurt:

Image: Shutterstock

You will need:

1 cup blueberries
1 cup plain yogurt

How to:

Put the blueberries and yogurt into a blender.
Blend till the blueberries mix well with the yogurt.
You can serve the yogurt as it is or with a cracker.

6. Rice and apple

Image: Shutterstock

You will need:

1 cup rice
1 whole apple
3-4 cups of water

How to:

Remove the skin of the apple and chop it into small pieces.
Steam the apples using a vegetable/fruit steamer for three to five minutes.
Boil the rice till tender.
Mix the rice and steamed apples in a bowl. Mash them till they are soft and mixed well.

7. Green bean and avocado mash:

Image: Shutterstock

You will need:

1 cup chopped green beans
1 avocado
2-3 cups of water

How to:

Trim the ends of the green beans and cut them from the middle.
Put the chopped beans into a cooking vessel and boil for 7-10 minutes.
Scoop out the pulp from the avocado and transfer it into a blender. Add the boiled green beans as well. Blend till mixed consistently and feed the baby.

Related: 11 Tasty And Easy-To-Make Avocado Baby Food Recipes

Tips For Feeding A 11-month-old

Work with an assortment of recipes: Alternate the recipes such that the infant gets all types of foods that supply the essential nutrients for healthy growth. A balanced diet is vital to help the infant grow better.

Do not add salt: A baby only needs 0.4 g of sodium per day, up to the age of 12 months ( (9). Eleven-month-old babies will get all the sodium they need from formula and breast milk, as well as the vegetables you give them. Avoid adding excess salt to the food and always check for salt content of various foods before giving them to the baby.

Never give fruit juice: The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no fruit juice for children below the age of 12 months, as it offers no nutrition whatsoever (10).

1. What should my 11-month-old avoid eating?

You should avoid giving honey, whole nuts, raw or partially cooked eggs, raw shellfish, and too much salt and sugar to your 11-month-old (11).

2. How much water can I give to my 11-month-old?

Your baby will need four to eight ounces of water daily until age one (12).

An 11-month baby’s food plan can include almost everything the family eats. With continued breastfeeding, they can consume one-fourth to half a cup of well-cooked, healthy foods, such as whole grains, tofu, beef, chicken, dairy, fruits, and veggies, three to four times a day. Besides breakfast, lunch, and dinner, feed them a one-time snack to get sufficient energy to make it through the day. Encourage them to self-feed if they show interest in eating independently. However, be watchful to help prevent the choking risk.

References:

MomJunction's articles are written after analyzing the research works of expert authors and institutions. Our references consist of resources established by authorities in their respective fields. You can learn more about the authenticity of the information we present in our editorial policy.

1. Foods and drinks to encourage; Centres for Disease Control and Prevention
2. Feeding Guide for the First Year; Stanford Children’s Health
3. Why Formula Instead of Cow’s Milk?; American Academy of Pediatrics
4. Introducing Solid Foods to Infants; Colorado State University
5. Feeding Guide for the First Year; Driscoll Children’s Hospital
6. Feeding your baby: 6–12 months; UNICEF
7. The First 12 Months: What & When to Feed Your Baby; UC Davis Children’s Hospital
8. Sample Menu for an 8 to 12 Month Old; American Academy of Pediatrics
9. How much salt do babies and children need?; NHS UK
10. AAP Recommendation on Fruit Juice; American Academy of Pediatrics
11. Foods to avoid giving babies and young children; NHS
12. Choose Water for Healthy Hydration; Healthy Children; AAP

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Author

Swati Patwal is a clinical nutritionist, a Certified Diabetes Educator (CDE) and a toddler mom with over eight years of experience in diverse fields of nutrition. She started her career as a CSR project coordinator for a healthy eating and active lifestyle project catering to school children. Then she worked as a nutrition faculty and clinical nutrition coach in different...
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Menu for an 11 month old baby with recipes for a week

Baby development Pediatrician Galina Mayer February 08, 2019, 15:42

You just recently arrived home from the hospital with a small envelope, but today your little one is 11 months old, he knows and understands so much. In order for the baby to grow up healthy, a lot of effort is required from the parents. Many factors influence the development of the baby, and nutrition plays a crucial role here. The nutrition of a child at 11 months should be not only varied, healthy and nutritious, but also safe. At this age, the baby is already getting acquainted with adult cuisine.

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Contents

Fundamentals
Feeding schedule
Feeding process
What can you feed a baby at 11 months
Several recipes
Sample menu for the week
If there is no appetite

Fundamentals

You can argue for a long time about what to feed your baby, but it is clear that your child's menu at any age should consist only of fresh and natural products. Naturally, all products must undergo heat treatment. Even if you offer your child a fresh apple, it should be poured over with boiling water before eating.

No children's menu recipe should contain unprocessed foods.

As before, nutrition at 11 months requires caution. All new products on the menu should be introduced gradually, starting with small doses. You can start with half a teaspoon, the next day give a full spoon, then two spoons, and so on. There is no need to rush, the child still has his whole life ahead of him. By the way, the famous doctor Komarovsky recommends not to compete with neighbors in the age at which you started giving your child pineapple or mango, but, on the contrary, when compiling a menu for a child 9-12 months to be guided by genetic memory - you can give what your grandmother probably ate. Moreover, the grandmother with great pleasure will give you the recipes that she fed her children with.

Feeding regimen

By the age of 11 months, mother and baby must have already established a certain feeding schedule. It's convenient, it promotes healthy digestion, and it prepares the baby for the big day - going to nursery. Since your baby is already quite big, "infant" food (breast milk or adapted milk formula) in his menu goes by the wayside. If you are still breastfeeding, it is very convenient to leave one feeding in the early morning, around 6-7 am. Then, after such a breakfast, both you and the child can still get some sleep, and you don’t need to immediately run to the stove after waking up and then wash the dishes. The interval between feedings at 11 months should be 4-4.5 hours.

Feeding process

It is very likely that by 11 months your baby will want to try to feed himself. Don't let him do it. You can drink from a cup, hold a spoon in your hands - the child will be very interested. Therefore, you can slightly change the feeding ritual (if, of course, you adhere to it). First you need to wash your hands, then sit down at the table, put on a waterproof bib and invite the child to eat himself. Let him get dirty, prepare napkins for this occasion and invite him to wipe his face himself - children at this age like to imitate adults. When you see that the child has lost interest in independent food, you can supplement it.

And the last recommendation - the process of eating should bring pleasure to everyone - both the child and the parents. If a mother stands at the stove all day just to please a small family member, then such a menu will not do him any good - an annoyed, tired mother and a father deprived of attention will not be able to devote enough time to the baby.

What can I feed a baby at 11 months

As a rule, by 9 months the main types of foods have already been introduced into the baby's diet. These are dairy products, cereals, vegetables, fruits, meat. The only thing that is usually not in the diet of an 11-month-old baby is fish. And just at this age you can start trying it. The first will be the fish broth. It’s not worth buying salmon or sturgeon for the first entry on the menu - again, remember Komarovsky - our grandmother probably didn’t eat that. Pelengas, crucian carp, pike perch are suitable - preferably low-fat fillet parts.

A few recipes

Your 11 month old baby's menu should include soups. In principle, the diet may already include soup from an adult table, the main thing is that it should not be too fatty and the pieces of vegetables should be medium-sized so that the little one can chew them and not choke.
We offer you a delicious soup recipe that almost all children like. It is cooked in chicken broth. For the broth, any parts of the chicken that are washed and boiled until boiling are suitable. As it appears, you need to remove the foam. After boiling, finely chopped potatoes are added to the broth, it is best if it is boiled. After the potatoes become soft, add small pasta to the future soup (these can be stars, gossamer, horns). At the very end, add grated carrots, finely chopped onions, herbs, chopped boiled egg yolk, vegetable oil, after boiling, remove from the stove and let it brew for 10-15 minutes. Salt last and as little as possible.
Also, little fidgets at 11 months old are happy to eat cottage cheese casserole, we share the recipe. For 2 servings you will need 250 grams of cottage cheese, 3 tablespoons of sour cream, 1 tbsp. l. semolina, 4 teaspoons of sugar, 1 egg. Sour cream must first be mixed with semolina and left at room temperature for half an hour. Then add cottage cheese grated through a sieve and the rest of the ingredients. Place the resulting mass in a form sprinkled with semolina and bake for 40-45 minutes at a temperature of 190 degrees.

Approximate menu for the week

If there is no appetite

Almost the most common problem that young mothers face is the child’s absence of desire to eat, whatever The food was not tasty and the diet varied. For this case, there are several recommendations. First, remember that an active child is a hungry child. If your baby sits in a crib all day and sees the street only through a closed window, then lack of appetite is not his main problem.

That is, the main recipe for lack of appetite is walking.

The second rule is no snacking. In the menu of a child who eats poorly, there should not be a single cookie, not a single piece of apple between feedings, not a single treat. Food is on schedule. And the third rule is that a hungry child eats everything. If your baby is picky and requires only chicken cutlets all week, then it is not only possible, but you need to calmly let him starve until the evening. And already for dinner he will eat potatoes, porridge and cottage cheese. After all, food should not be monotonous, and allowing a child to command a parade is also not very useful for its development.

11 month old baby menu: approximate diet

Lyubov Troshina

Daily Baby author, mother of two girls

#nutrition #lure

The time for one-component purees is over. Now mom is free to experiment: there are a lot of products on the list of allowed products that can now be mixed, besides, the baby is already used to a denser consistency of dishes. So, what to feed a baby at 11 months?

What to feed

The daily menu of an 11 month old baby ideally includes foods from all major groups of the food pyramid. Namely:

Cereals . The baby can already have buckwheat, rice, corn, oatmeal, wheat and millet porridge. The approximate daily allowance for an eleven-month-old baby is 200 grams.
Vegetables . Zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower and white cabbage, carrots, pumpkin, potatoes, beets, tomatoes, onions. A child can eat about 150 grams of vegetable dishes per day.
Meat and fish . For a baby, it is better to cook rabbit, turkey, chicken and beef. The norm per day is 40-50 grams of meat puree from a boiled product or 80-100 grams of meat “in a jar”. As a meat portion, you can sometimes give dishes from offal: tongue, liver or heart. A couple of times a week it’s good to arrange a “fish day”. A serving of fish now can be 30-60 grams. Among those allowed for baby food: sea - flounder, cod and pollock; river - hake, carp and river perch.
Dairy products . At this age, the child is advised to give no more than 50 grams of cottage cheese. Fermented milk drink - kefir, biokefir, biolact, yogurt - about 200 grams.
Fruit . Among the most friendly to the baby's digestive system are apples, pears, bananas, peaches, apricots, plums, currants (white, black and red). The norm of fruit puree is about 90-100 grams.
Egg . A couple of times a week it is useful to give the baby half a chicken yolk, or a whole quail. Eggs for this should be boiled "hard boiled". A short heat treatment with the “soft-boiled” or “pouched” options does not destroy salmonellosis pathogens.
Oil . Vegetable oil goes well with vegetable dishes. The daily norm for a baby at 11 months is 6 grams. Creamy makes porridge tastier, 5 grams is enough for a child a day.
Cookies . An eleven-month-old baby can be pampered with special baby biscuits. But you should not get carried away - two things a day are enough.

When to feed

It is not always possible to follow a strict regimen with babies, but it is worth trying. Children who eat at regular intervals—with a maximum margin of error of 30 minutes—have better appetites and fewer digestion problems.

At 11 months, it is advised to feed the baby five times a day, keeping four hours between meals. Immediately after sleep and at night, the baby still receives breast milk or an adapted milk formula.

A classic breakfast is porridge, cottage cheese, sometimes egg yolk.

Lunch is usually served with vegetables and meat (fish or offal). But the meat portion also goes well with a cereal side dish. Then vegetables can be given for breakfast or dinner.

Fruit puree and any fermented milk drink are also suitable for dinner.

What to drink

Plain water is what a child needs to maintain water balance. You can buy bottled baby water or use boiled tap water. In second place are compotes from berries, fruits or vegetables familiar to the baby. Preferably without sugar.

Fruits and berries that are familiar to babies can also be used to make sparse jelly. The drink improves digestion, but since it is very high in calories, it is better not to give it to overweight children.

You should not get carried away with juices, although according to the norms they are allowed to drink 60-80 ml every day. They contain a lot of sugar and this is a disaster for delicate milk teeth. And the juices are rich in organic acids, which irritate the mucous membranes of the gastrointestinal tract.

What not to feed

There are foods on which, in the imagination of parents, there should be a “sign of an outcast”. They are absolutely not allowed in complementary foods. These are any canned foods, pickled vegetables and fruits, smoked meats.

Sausages, wieners and other sausage products should not be given to a child at least until the age of three. The same applies to cakes, pastries, chocolate, glazed curds. These are too "heavy" sweets. If you want to pamper your baby with sweets, then it is better to give him dried fruits, marshmallows or marshmallows.

Milk - cow, goat - for children under one year old will only bring harm. There is a lot of phosphorus in the product, and the kidneys of a child under one year old do not know how to remove it correctly. As a result, along with phosphorus, the baby loses calcium and vitamin D, and this is dangerous for the development of a severe form of rickets.

Honey sometimes contains spores that cause botulism. They are dangerous only for children under one year old.

It is also a mistake to give the baby dishes with mayonnaise, mustard, horseradish, pepper, vinegar and hot sauces.

How to cook

Baby food can be boiled, steamed, baked and stewed. Fried foods are taboo in baby food.

Vegetables and fruits no longer need to be thermally processed. They can be grated and served as a salad.

You can cook meatballs and meatballs from meat. Moreover, at the “sculpting” stage, it is permissible to prepare them for several days at once and put them in the freezer. The next time, all that remains is to get the product and heat it.

For juiciness, you can add vegetable puree to minced meat: zucchini, carrots, cauliflower.

At 11 months, pediatricians allow the child to cook soups with meat broth. But when the water boils for the first time, it is advised to drain it. The "primary" broth is too fatty and contains most of the harmful substances that could be in the meat.