Food options for 11 month old baby

Sample Menu for a Baby 8 to 12 Months Old

Ages & Stages

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.

Baby Food for 11-Month-Olds: Menus, Recipes, and Ideas

What are good baby foods for 11-month-olds?

It may seem like your baby was breastfeeding exclusively until very recently, but at 11 months old, your baby can eat many of the same foods that the rest of the family eats.

There are still some foods that they shouldn't have and certain preparation methods that you need to follow. Here are some of the things to avoid when planning a menu for an 11-month-old:

Sugar — Your baby doesn't need to consume added sugar, and this ingredient can lead to tooth decay. Avoid giving your baby sugary snacks or drinks, and don't add extra sugar to their food. Instead, offer them a variety of fresh, non-citrus fruit.
Salt — Added salt isn't good for your baby's kidneys. You don't need to add salt to their food. If you're cooking a family meal that your baby can eat, set a portion aside for the baby before you season it. Avoid salty snacks such as salty crackers, chips, and deli meats.
Honey — Honey is delicious, but it can contain bacteria that cause botulism. Avoid giving your baby honey until their first birthday.
Unpasteurized dairy products — Babies can eat pasteurized cheese when they're six months old, but unpasteurized cheeses can be harmful. Cheeses made with unpasteurized milk or mold-ripened cheeses, such as roquefort and brie, can contain a bacteria called listeria. Instead, offer your baby cheddar cheese, cottage cheese, and cream cheese.
Cow's milk — Dairy products, such as yogurt or pasteurized cheeses, are a great addition to your 11-month-old baby's food list. However, they shouldn't drink cow's milk until they're at least one year old. Instead, give them formula, breastfeed them, or provide breast milk that was stored previously.
Saturated fats — Avoid fried foods, processed meats, butter, baked desserts, cream, and mayonnaise.
Highly processed foods — Your baby doesn't need to consume the additives, artificial colors, and flavorings that come in lots of processed foods such as candy, breakfast cereals, microwave meals, ice cream, and chips. These foods should be an occasional snack rather than a dietary staple.
Whole nuts — Nuts and seeds can pose a choking hazard for your 11-month-old baby. Instead, you can offer them nut butter.
Uncooked eggs — Make sure any eggs your baby eats are fully cooked to avoid possible salmonella infections. Avoid foods that contain raw eggs, such as cake batter or homemade mayonnaise.
Raw fish or seafood — These foods carry an increased risk of food poisoning. Stick to fully cooked fish until your baby is at least one year old.

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How much food does an 11-month-old need?

It might be messy at first, but allowing babies to eat on their own can help them develop their fine motor skills, independence, coordination, and body and food awareness. Don't force your baby to eat. Forcing babies to finish every meal can cause them to negatively impact their relationship with food. Make sure that you cut your baby's food into small pieces, and allow them to feed themselves while keeping a close eye on them.

Here's a quick guide to the portion sizes that your 11-month-old baby needs each day:

Protein: Up to 4 tablespoons
Vegetables: Up to half a cup
Fruits: Up to half a cup
Cereals: Up to half a cup
Dairy: Up to 3 tablespoons
Breast milk or formula: 22 to 32 oz

If your child has already stopped breastfeeding, make sure they're still drinking formula or stored breast milk every day. You can also follow these tips to increase your breast milk if your supply has gotten too low. Breast milk or formula can provide up to half of your child's nutritional requirements until they're a year old. It's very likely that they'll want to breastfeed less frequently once solid foods are introduced; therefore, breastfeeding should be actively encouraged at this age.

Menu for 11-month-old babies

Here are some meal ideas for your 11-month-old baby:

Breakfast:

Eggs and toast
Blueberry whole-wheat pancakes
Cheese sandwich

Lunch:

Chicken and vegetables
Macaroni and cheese
Homemade lasagna

Dinner:

Creamy chicken and vegetable soup
Lean steak and vegetables
Cereal with fruit

Snacks:

Fruits and peanut butter
Yogurt with cereal or fruit
Boiled eggs

Food ideas for 11-month-old babies

Here are some ideas to help you come up with new recipes for your 11-month-old baby:

Try new ways to cook your baby's vegetables. Rather than sticking to the usual ways you cook your vegetables, try grilling or sauteing them so that your baby experiences new textures and flavors.
Create homemade versions of your favorite foods. Your baby shouldn't be eating frozen lasagna or pizza, but you can cook healthier, homemade versions of your favorite meals so that they can try them.
Only introduce one new food every couple of days. If you introduce too many new foods at once, and one of them causes an allergy, it will be hard to determine which one it was. Instead, introduce one food at a time and wait a few days before trying something else.

Recipes for 11-month-old babies

Vegetable and chicken soup — Boil broccoli, potatoes, and a chicken breast. Then, blend the solid ingredients together and add some of the stock. This soup will have a creamy consistency, and you can even add some cheese on top.
Homemade frozen smoothies — Freeze ripe bananas. Once they're frozen, blend them until they're smooth. You can add other fruits such as strawberries and blueberries. Keep it in the freezer for a healthy, cool snack.
Homemade pizza — Use pita bread for the crust and puree some peeled tomatoes to make the sauce. Top with mozzarella cheese and fresh basil before placing it in the oven.

Food for your 11-month-old baby is very similar to food for the rest of the family. At this age, they'll be able to eat on their own and discover many wonderful new flavors, textures, and sensations. They'll be eating a piece of their own birthday cake very soon!

Baby 11 months - Friso company website

Speech understanding

The child understands the requests of adults and responds to them with pleasure. He is ready to show parts of the body at himself or at the doll many times in a row, find all the objects and toys that you name. Now, on your instructions, he can perform several related actions in a row: open the cabinet and take out his cup, take soap and wash his hands. Encourage your baby to these actions, because these are the first skills of active cooperation. And, of course, do not forget to praise him.

The same action, if it deserves your approval, the baby is ready to repeat dozens of times. Do not stop him: this is how he improves his skills. If for some reason the game cannot be continued, divert the attention of the baby - at this age, children are ready for a quick change of activity.

Active speech

By 11 months, the child begins to pronounce the first words. So far, these are mostly short onomatopoeias, but the baby puts as much meaning into them as into a whole sentence. For example, with a simple word “um-am”, a child can tell you that he is hungry, hint that you have his favorite treat in your hands and he would like to try it, or talk about how he spoon-feeds a doll.

The baby's speech becomes an important means of communication: with the help of short words and sound combinations, the baby shares with you his desires, observations and experiences. Be sure to answer the crumbs to all his exclamations so that your communication is mutual.

Emotions

The behavior of a child at 11 months is becoming more and more like how adults behave. Children already understand that in the big world around them, not everything is available for research, and they calmly react to the word “no”. But how much effort does the baby make to arouse the approval of the mother! He is very willing to carry out small assignments: find an object, give a toy, put the keys on the table. The kid will be delighted if you instruct him to put the chopped apples for compote in a saucepan and then pick up a suitable lid for it.

Playing with everyday items is very useful for the baby. On the one hand, they expand his horizons, and on the other hand, they give the first skills of behavior in the family.

Communication with the child during this period can be based not only on games, but also rely on sign language. At 11 months, the baby can already learn the simplest gestures: yes - a nod of the head, no - shaking.

The child can apply these skills in communication with other children. So, if on the same site there are children of the same age who still cannot speak, then they express their mutual sympathy with gestures and exclamations. The kid immediately chooses one friend for himself and reaches out to him, and then they study each other with interest. At 11 months, the baby still does not understand how to play with other children, and so far he only watches them from the side and sometimes tries to repeat their actions. However, such an experience is very important for the development of the child's social skills, and gives him the first understanding of the relationship between people outside his family.

Nutrition

A balanced diet will provide the baby with energy for the whole day

At eleven months, the baby's body has become much stronger, and the gastrointestinal tract has formed so much that it can take almost all products. From this age, the baby's diet includes cereals, boiled and raw vegetables, fish, meat, dairy products, bread and fruits. However, there are still two breast milk or formula feedings on the menu. This is best done in the morning and evening.

How to diversify baby's diet?

Soups, steamed, baked or stewed vegetable and meat dishes must be in the daily menu for proper nutrition of 11-month-old children.

Meatballs, steam cutlets or soufflés can be prepared as a meat dish from different types of meat.

Best served with mashed pumpkin, courgette, carrot, broccoli or mixed vegetables and egg yolk omelet.

Greens and raw vegetable salads dressed with yogurt, vegetable oil or cream should be included in the diet.

A delicious and nutritious dessert is cottage cheese pudding, jelly, dried fruit compote with a little sugar, or rosehip infusion.

11 month old baby menu: sample 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

An 11 month old baby's daily menu 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 regime 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 prepare 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.