Meal Ideas: Month 11

By Health Promotion Board in collaboration with A/Prof Mary Daniel Lourdes, Head & Senior Consultant, Clinical Services, Department of Child Development, KK Women's and Children's Hospital.

Your baby’s 11 months old now! Keep up the good work and continue to mash, chop or cut your baby’s food into small bite-sized pieces, and encourage him to eat a wide variety of food.

As for the texture of your baby’s food, you can now see the individual grains in your baby’s porridge, whereas previously they were more like fine gruel.

While your little one is growing up so fast, remember that he still needs his milk feeds, although it’s now a good time to use sippy cups and slowly phase out the bottle. Try to completely wean your baby off the bottle by month 12.

Related: Keeping Your Child Safe

Recommended Number of Servings (11 months)

A friendly reminder that these numbers are only a recommendation. Let your baby decide how much he wants to eat and don’t force him to finish everything!

You’ve been feeding your baby solids for almost half a year now, and you might have already introduced him to a wide variety of food, flavours, and textures. Think you’re running out of new ideas?

Here’s a refresher on the different food you can feed your 11-month-old tot, and new meal ideas and sources of inspiration you can draw from.

Related: How Much to Eat? Perfecting Portions

More Yummy Ideas for Mummy and Daddy

Get inspired by your favourites

Running out of ideas on what meals to cook for your child? Why not draw inspiration from your favourite local foods?

For example, take the local fave chicken rice: try brown rice porridge cooked in unseasoned chicken broth, steamed chicken cubes seasoned with ginger and garlic, and a side of chopped bok choy. Voila! A light, baby-friendly chicken rice.

How about something mee siam-inspired? Bee hoon in light fish broth with tofu, flaked cod flavoured with a twist of lime, and chopped beansprout. And maybe half a baked banana—healthy “goreng pisang”—for the fruit portion.

If you want something more “western”, try your hand at making a shepherd’s pie: mashed potato, minced chicken, pork, or beef, and peas, carrots and corn bits, baked in the oven.

Related: Recipe: Sliced Fish and Bee Hoon Soup

Fun shapes

Continue to let your child explore different food textures and shapes. This will keep mealtime engaging and full of new discoveries for the little one, and adds some variety to your meal prep.

Some fun shapes you can try:

• Cut carrot or bread into shapes like stars, flowers, teddy bears. Tip: Get some cookie cutters for convenience.
• Shape mashed potato or rice so they look more interesting, e.g. heart shape, bunnies.
• Make small patties with different food as feed them to your baby as finger food. Any food you can bind and form into a defined shape can be made into a patty, e.g. minced meat, mashed potato and other mashed veggies.

Related: Cute Bentos for Kids

Your baby, the adventurous eater

Throughout the course of these past few months, you and your baby have tried a wide variety of solid food. Here’s a recap of what you may have tried, and more examples of food you can feed your little one!

Whenever you feel uninspired, just take a look at this (not exhaustive) list, mix and match different food groups, try out different herbs and spice combinations, and attempt different cooking methods and food textures.

For example, try mixing avocado with rice cereals for extra creaminess and a touch of sweetness, or make a minced chicken and veggie patty if your little one is picky about his green leafy veggies.

And explore different flavor combinations too! Savoury cheese is yummy when paired with sweet fruits, and the butternut squash and chicken or fish can make a yummy and filling soup for the little one.

Related: Spice Up Your Life: Get Fresh with Herbs

Wholegrains and staples

• Brown rice, oats, barley, millet, quinoa, couscous
• Potato, sweet potato
• Brown rice bee hoon, brown rice mee sua, brown rice noodles
• Wholegrain pasta in various shapes, e.g. macaroni, penne, fusilli (spiral), farfalle (ribbon), shell-shaped
• Wholegrain bread, pita bread, thosai
• Wholegrain flour which you can use to make pancakes and waffles

Vegetables

• Spinach, kale, watercress, chye sim, bok choy, kai lan
• Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, butternut squash, cucumber, carrot, brinjal, corn, celery, bean sprouts, dou miao, nai bai, onions, spring onions, leek, tomato, long beans

Fruit

• Apple, pear, jambu, guava
• Banana, mango, papaya, pineapple
• Strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, kiwi
• Watermelon, rock melon, honey dew
• Avocado, peach, plums, apricot, nectarines
• Grape, longan, chiku (cut to size, seeds removed)
• Orange, grapefruit

Meat and others

• Fish: salmon, cod, light tuna, ikan bilis, pollock, flatfish
• Poultry: chicken, turkey, duck
• Meat: veal, beef, lamb, pork
• Tofu, lentils, chickpeas, kidney beans, red beans, egg yolk, cheese, yoghurt

As usual, introduce new food 3 or 4 days apart, and look out for signs of allergy, e.g. rashes, facial swelling, wheezing, diarrhoea.

Related: Wholegrains—The Wise Choice

Try These Solid Meals!

Breakfast

• Wholegrain pancakes with pureed blueberry and chopped bananas

Simple wholegrain pancakes

Ingredients:

• Whole-wheat flour/wholemeal flour, 120 g
• Baking powder, ½ tsp
• Eggs, 2 whole
• Breast/formula milk, 200g
• To cook: Oil, 2 tbsp (choose one with the Healthier Choice Symbol)

Steps:

1. Combine milk and eggs in a mixing bowl
2. Whisk wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until barely mixed. There should still be lumps
3. Pour batter into lightly oiled pan until the desired pancake size
4. Pan fry till golden brown on both sides (Tip: only flip when all the bubbles in the batter are popped and there are holes in the batter)
5. Serve while warm, and top with healthy pureed or chopped fruit!