What food can my 11 month old baby eat

Sample Menu for a Baby 8 to 12 Months Old

Ages & Stages

Listen

Español

Text Size

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.

Take a quiz

Find out what you can do with our Health Assistant

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!

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 products 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 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.

You can already add some greens to the soup: dill, parsley. The leaves must first be finely chopped.

It makes sense to add vegetable and butter only to ready meals. Heat treatment deprives them of nutritional value.

Every day you have to cook anew. Alas, it is impossible to store dishes for the baby until the next day, otherwise they lose their nutritional value.

— share with your friends!

Menu for a 9-month-old baby: a list of allowed foods and recipes for every day
Menu for a 1 year old child: a detailed guide for parents
8 month old baby menu: new foods and rules

Child 8-11 months: development and nutrition

The development of the baby goes on as usual - he grows, and his appetite grows with him. The diet and diet of children 8 months and beyond play a very important role in the life of the baby and guarantee the correct and harmonious development. The kid actively explores the world, and for this he needs a lot of energy, vitamins and other useful elements. Such important foods as different types of meat (pork, lamb, beef, fish) and bread are added to the diet of a child in the first year of life. In addition, the baby gradually learns to chew.

At the age of 8-11 months, the child can already “explain” with gestures and sounds whether he is full or hungry, which foods he likes and which he does not like. If he opens his mouth and actively reaches for the spoon, he has not eaten yet. If he points to some products with a pen and then pulls it to his mouth, it means that he especially likes them. If during the meal the baby is distracted, turns away, fidgets - he is already full. Watch him.

9-month-old baby's diet: getting to know the variety of tastes and textures

At 8-9 months, the baby's menu becomes more and more varied. It’s great if you still have enough milk for constant breastfeeding, but the full development of the baby requires an increasing number of different foods in the diet.

The first incisors have already appeared in the baby, and in order to learn how to chew in the diet of an 8-9-month-old child, puree and porridge with pieces of fruit are added to the usual puree. The ability to chew is an important skill that the baby has yet to master. This is for us adults, it seems so natural and simple, and the child is just learning what it is. To make it easier for your baby to learn to chew and prepare for eating more solid foods, introduce new textures gradually. Try for a week in one of the feedings to alternate mashed potatoes with cereals, in which pieces of fruit or vegetables are added.

Feeding a 10-month-old baby: trying new tasty cereals

A child under one year of age develops at lightning speed, his need for iron, vitamins A, E, C, B and fatty acids is growing rapidly. The best source of all these nutrients is baby cereals. So that the child does not lose interest in them, offer him tasty and varied combinations:

• Add children's yogurt to the porridge or simply offer the baby porridge with adapted yogurt or fruit puree.

• Try mixing porridge with small pieces of fresh banana.

• Serve porridge with fruit juices to add variety to the taste, and the vitamin C in the juice will help the iron to be better absorbed.

More vegetables and fruits!

At 8-10 months the child is ready to take not only the usual puree, but also pieces of boiled carrots, pumpkins, broccoli. In the diet of a 9-month-old baby, there must be 200 grams of vegetables, 90 grams of fruit and 90 ml of juice.

Meat and fish

Meat is of great importance for the development of the baby, primarily because of animal protein and some other essential elements. Children usually like its taste, it is easy to combine with vegetables and cereals. In baby food up to a year, it is recommended to include lean meat of chickens, chickens, turkeys, veal, beef, which have the highest nutritional value and are well absorbed. The main thing is to chop the meat well with a blender and not use the broth, since the broth is not allowed for children under one year old! You can also use meat puree.

At 8 - 9 months you can include boiled fish in your baby's diet. The high content of vitamins D, E and A, minerals (calcium, magnesium, phosphorus) and polyunsaturated fatty acids makes fish and fish and vegetable purees valuable products for the development of the baby. But they must be introduced with great care, since sometimes the fish can cause allergies in the baby.

9-10-month-old baby can be offered ½ teaspoon of fish and, observing the reaction of the baby, gradually increase the amount. By the year, you can bring the content of fish to 60 g and replace mashed meat with it 2 times a week.

But do not forget that the basis of a child's nutrition up to a year should be a variety of cereals, purees, fruits and vegetables.

Diet must not be violated!

It is very important to teach your baby to observe the regimen and feed every day at about the same time. Starting from 9 - 10 months - feeding regimen - five times a day, with intervals between meals 4 - 4.5 hours.
In order for the baby to be vigorous and active during the day, breakfast should include only healthy, healthy and nutritious foods. An example of the first breakfast in the diet of a child 8 - 9months (about 6 am) - 200 ml of breast milk or formula. The second breakfast menu (at 10 am) may consist of baby porridge, fruit puree and fruit juice. The energy of cereals and vitamins from fruits will help the child feel great all day long.
The child's dinner should be sufficiently nutritious. What foods are suitable for a baby's evening diet? Depending on how hungry the baby is, you can offer him a milk drink, porridge, mashed potatoes with cottage cheese and be sure to breast milk or milk formula.

Can I eat with my hands?

The baby loves to twist food in his fingers, and most often the food that can be taken with his hands is especially pleasant to him. Such elements of fine motor skills are important in the development of a child of 8-10 months. Try to diversify your child's diet in a playful way by inviting him to dip small pieces of fruit into porridge or yogurt on his own. By sending pieces of food into the mouth, the baby learns skills that will be very useful to him when it comes time to eat with a spoon and use an adult cup.