Questioning how and when to introduce pancakes to your child? Right here is all the things it is advisable to learn about baby-led weaning with pancakes.
To this present day, pancakes are one in every of my youngsters’ favourite meals. I believe it’s as a result of they’re so enjoyable to make, and straightforward to vary up with what you resolve so as to add into the batter or on prime of the pancake after its cooked! The flexibility of pancakes makes them not solely thrilling for teenagers (and infants) but in addition permits for a spread of vitamin (and taste!) that may be delivered in a single easy flapjack (the dietitian in me loves this half).
On this weblog you’ll be taught that pancakes may be ready in quite a lot of methods, starting from 3-ingredient blender pancakes to extra complicated recipes! We’re going to dive into:
Why are pancakes an awesome BLW meals?
Pancakes are an exquisite baby-led weaning meals as a result of they’re mushy, moist and straightforward for younger child gums to breakdown and swallow. You may also customise your pancake recipe primarily based on the forms of components you need to introduce to your child! In case your child could be very new to the consuming sport, choosing a couple of easy components may be one of the best strategy to begin with (attempt these scrumptious tremendous straightforward 3-Ingredient Flourless Banana Pancakes ).
If you happen to discover your child is experiencing exhausting stools with meals introduction, add ins like chia seeds, flax seeds, and even pureed prunes might help easy out their bowel actions (ensure they’re consuming sufficient liquid as nicely!). If you’re desirous to introduce a typical meals allergen like peanut butter or almond butter, merely add some into the pancake batter or unfold some ON TOP of the pancake! Pancakes are a simple approach to proceed to show your child to meals allergens in small quantities any time after 6 months of age (which is across the time the place you’ll introduce solids meals).
However first… what’s child led weaning?
There isn’t any one “proper method” to introduce solids. Whether or not you introduce solids by way of baby-led weaning or conventional spoon feeding (or a combo!) a very powerful factor is that each one feeding is responsive. Child-led weaning is a feeding strategy that includes getting ready mushy finger meals for child to self-feed, as an alternative of the care-giver spoon-feeding purees. A profit to baby-led weaning is that child is 100% accountable for how a lot and how briskly they eat.
Nevertheless, feeding child complete items of meals could cause nervousness for brand new mother and father, notably round choking danger. Curiously sufficient, if meals are ready a protected mushy texture and form, choking danger isn’t any greater than conventional spoon-feeding. Child will inevitably gag with new meals and textures as part of studying find out how to manipulate meals of their tiny mouths. Gagging shouldn’t be the identical as choking—it’s an innate reflex that truly helps stop choking! Different potential advantages of baby-led weaning embody improved dexterity, early oral-motor talent improvement, higher self-regulation, and saving cash on retailer purchased child meals! Introducing all kinds of meals, tastes and textures may assist to scale back choosy consuming in a while.
When and the way do I serve pancakes to my child?
You possibly can serve pancakes to your child as quickly are they’re displaying the indicators of readiness to eat solids, which for many infants, is round 6 months of age (that is proper across the time that I like to recommend introducing strong meals). Try this information for necessary data in your child’s readiness cues for baby-led weaning.
6-9 months:
Serve pancakes by chopping them into finger-like strips which can be straightforward for a child hand to know. At this age your child could have developed “palmer grasp”. That is when your infant is ready to use their fingers and palm in a raking movement to seize bigger gadgets and convey them to their mouth.
10-12 months:
At round 9 months your infant might be growing higher finger dexterity and could also be prepared to select up smaller items of meals. Begin chopping your infants pancakes into smaller items by 10 months (or earlier if they appear prepared!) in order that they’ll begin training their “pincer grasp”! You may also assist to show your child to make use of a child fork to select up little items of pancake at this level too! Present them find out how to do it, and assist them to information it into their mouth (being very cautious to allow them to lead), till the get it on their very own.
How do I put together pancakes for my child?
Blender Technique:
That is by far the quickest approach to mix all pancake components with the least variety of dishes. You merely dump all pancake components into the blender, then mix till nicely mixed. Pour the combination proper from the blender onto a greased, non-stick pan on medium warmth. Cook dinner pancakes till gentle golden brown on each side! These are delicate, so guarantee that your pan is well-greased and that you simply’re cautious when flipping. I actually love this technique (for infants, but in addition for all ages) since it’s so quick and easy. When you have add-ins you don’t need blended like berries or slivered nuts, ensure to combine them in after the remainder of the components are blended. Blender pancakes are normally gluten free (should you use gluten-free oats) and use eggs to assist bind components collectively when cooked (eggs additionally add protein!). See the desk under for some enjoyable blender pancake recipes!
Mixing Bowl Technique:
That is the standard technique of constructing pancakes from scratch. Mix dry components (sometimes flour, baking powder, spices, and blend ins like chia seeds/flaxseed, and/or seeds) in a single bowl, and whisk collectively moist components in one other bowl (sometimes milk, oil or butter, eggs, and different moist combine ins like pureed fruit, peanut butter, yogurt and so on.). Pour the dry components into the moist and fold in till mixed. Ladle about ¼ cup of pancake batter (or no matter measurement of batter you need) onto a greased, non-stick pan on medium warmth. Cook dinner on each side till golden brown!
Muffin Pan Technique:
This technique is a good concept if you’re desirous to spend much less time on the range flipping pancakes. It additionally is ideal for making pancakes which can be all the identical measurement! Preheat oven to 350 °F. Mix dry components in bowl. Mix moist components in a big bowl. Add dry components to moist components and blend until all components are mixed (attempt to not overmix). Grease muffin tins with butter or oil spray. Pour batter into muffin tins about 2/3 of the best way full. Sprinkle on toppings like recent or frozen berries, shredded apple, hemp hearts and so on. Bake in oven for about quarter-hour for normal sized muffins or 7-10 minutes for mini muffins till calmly golden brown and cooked by way of.
Fast and Straightforward BLW Pancake Concepts
Blueberry Oatmeal Blender Pancakes (gluten free, dairy free)
- 1 cup of blueberries
- ¾ cup of gluten free oats
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- 1 giant banana
- 2 eggs
*Confer with the blender technique above on find out how to put together
Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Blender Pancakes (gluten free, dairy free)
- 2 giant ripe bananas
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp. of cocoa powder
- 2 tbsp. of peanut butter
*Confer with the blender technique above on find out how to put together
Chia Almond Pancakes (Vegan)
- 1 cup of almond flour
- ½ cup of all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1 giant banana, mashed
- ¾ cup of soy or almond milk
- 1 tbsp. chia seeds + 3 tbsp. heat water (chia egg)
*Confer with Mixing bowl technique on find out how to put together
Mini Muffin Tin Pancake Poppers *adjusted from the The Finest Pancake Muffins (tremendous straightforward) | Child Foode
- ½ cup complete wheat flour
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- ½ tsp. cinnamon
- 1 cup milk
- 2 eggs
- 2 tbsp. oil or butter
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 1 tbsp. maple syrup (non-obligatory)
- Add ins: blueberries, shredded apple, diced strawberries
* Confer with the muffin pan technique above on find out how to put together
Add-ins and/or toppings are nice for including extra taste, vitamins, protein and fibre to your infant’s pancakes! It’s a simple approach to create selection and widen your child’s publicity to new meals and textures!
Balanced meal and snack concepts with pancakes:
Making pancakes at residence presents an awesome alternative so as to add quite a lot of components that pack your infant’s meal with taste, texture and vitamins! The simplest approach to stability out a pancake meal or snack is to verify there’s a supply of protein, vegetable or fruit, and wholesome fats!
This might imply including veggies or fruit, protein (like yogurt or peanut butter) and wholesome fat (seeds and nut butter) into the batter OR on the aspect. See under for some concepts on find out how to stability meals and snacks utilizing pancakes:
| Breakfast | AM Snack | Lunch | PM Snack | Dinner |
| Blueberry mini muffin tin pancake poppers
Complete-fat plain yogurt Sprinkle hemp hearts on pancakes or yogurt |
Oatmeal blender pancakes
Peanut butter on prime Sliced banana on prime |
Savory Pancakes (attempt the savory veggie pancake recipe listed under)
Serve with shredded cheese and shredded apple on the aspect |
Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Blender Pancakes (see above)
Choice to serve with additional peanut butter or a little bit of complete fats yogurt on prime for extra protein |
Carrot cake pancakes (attempt the recipe listed under)
Shredded hen thighs Steamed broccoli on the aspect |
FAQ
Sure, pancakes generally is a nice possibility in your child—they add a variety of vitamin and taste to your infant’s plate! Make sure that to not embody added sugar (infants don’t want sugar, syrup or honey but).
Let’s take a look at a couple of of the primary components in pancakes and what they supply your child:
– Milk- supplies protein, vitamin D, calcium and vitamin B12
– Eggs- Gives protein, iron, B nutritional vitamins, selenium and vitamin A
– Complete grain flour Or Oats- Gives fibre, B nutritional vitamins, iron and zinc
– Peanut butter- Gives protein, wholesome fat, and iron
– Bananas- Gives antioxidants, fibre, potassium and vitamin B6
– Berries- Gives antioxidants, polyphenols, fibre, vitamin C and manganese
– Nuts/seeds- supplies fibre, wholesome fat, and lots of micronutrients like vitamin E, selenium, zinc, magnesium and far more!
In case your child has a meals allergy or is at excessive danger for a meals allergy, it’s potential for that they might expertise an allergic response to pancakes. This in fact is determined by whether or not or not the components added into the pancakes include the actual meals that they’re allergic to.
Pancakes usually include frequent meals allergens like eggs, milk, wheat, and peanut butter. I like to recommend introducing all meals allergens individually to your child, earlier than they’re mixed with different meals allergens (like they usually are in pancake recipes). This manner in case your child does react to the meals merchandise you’ll know to not put it within the pancake recipe. For instance, in case your child is allergic to dairy, you may attempt dairy free pancake recipes that include a milk various or no milk in any respect. Nevertheless, if your child is NOT allergic to exploit or eggs, however you aren’t positive about peanut butter, you may attempt including peanut butter on prime of some pancakes as a method of introducing peanuts. This manner in case your child have been to have a response after consuming the pancakes, you’ll know it isn’t the pancakes themselves however the peanut butter added on prime.
No. Pancakes are usually not sometimes a choking hazard in your child as they’re moist, mushy and straightforward to chew. Nevertheless, it is very important observe your child whereas they gum on the pancakes to see if items simply break off and breakdown of their mouth. It’s potential for thick or dry pancakes to grow to be too “gummy” or sticky within the mouth making it troublesome to swallow.
Arduous items of nuts or seeds added into pancake batter can, nevertheless, current a choking hazard. Make it possible for nuts and seeds are in “butter” kind or sufficiently small that they wouldn’t be thicker than a pinky nail. Chia seeds and hemp hearts are a protected measurement. This can assist stop the chance of any choking hazards getting blended into pancakes. Recent or frozen berries added into the pancake batter don’t pose a excessive choking danger. Nevertheless, guarantee that the berries are not agency, and simply squish within the cooked pancake earlier than serving to your child.
Scrumptious Child-led Weaning Pancake Recipes:
