Easy baby lunch and dinner ideas from 6 months
4 min read
Quick answer
Easy baby lunch and dinner ideas include scrambled egg with toast and vegetable fingers, cauliflower cheese with pasta, lentil and vegetable mash, shepherd's pie with greens, and fish with potato and broccoli. Use family meals without added salt, and mash, chop or cut them into finger foods for your baby's stage.
- Most baby lunches and dinners are family meals made without salt
- Take your baby's portion out before seasoning
- Build each plate from a starch, a protein and a vegetable
- From 10 months, add a pudding of fruit or plain yoghurt
- Cool food fully and stay with your baby while they eat
What can my baby have for lunch and dinner?
Your baby can have most family lunches and dinners, cooked without salt, stock cubes or gravy and adapted to the right texture. Aim for a starchy food, a protein and at least one vegetable on each plate.
In the UK, the evening meal is often called tea. From 7 to 9 months, babies move towards 3 meals a day, and by 10 to 12 months, lunch and tea can include a main course and a pudding.
What are easy baby lunch ideas?
Quick lunches work best on busy days. These are based on NHS meal ideas.
- Scrambled egg with toast, chapatti or pitta, and soft cooked vegetable fingers
- Cottage cheese dip with pitta bread and soft cucumber or carrot sticks
- Baked beans (reduced salt and sugar) with toast fingers
- Cauliflower cheese with soft pasta pieces
- Hummus-style chickpea mash with pitta and avocado slices
- Leftover lentil pasta with broccoli
Easy baby dinner ideas
Cook once for the family and set your baby's portion aside before seasoning.
- Mild lamb or lentil curry with rice, made without salt
- Chicken and carrot stew, cooked slowly and mashed with potato
- Lentil or vegetarian mince under a mashed potato top, with soft broccoli
- Flaked salmon with couscous and soft green beans
- Sweet potato and cauliflower mash with soft chickpeas
- White fish gently poached in milk, with mashed potato and peas
- Soft courgette and pepper sticks with rice and a spoon of plain full-fat yoghurt
How do I adapt family meals for my baby?
Set your baby's portion aside before adding salt, stock, gravy or strong spices. Then adjust the texture.
- Around 6 months: blend or mash, or offer soft finger-sized pieces
- 7 to 9 months: lumpier mash, soft chopped food and more finger foods
- 10 to 12 months: mashed, lumpy, chopped and finger foods
- From 12 months: most family meals, chopped small
- Remove all bones from meat and fish, and cut small round foods into quarters
Pudding ideas for babies
From around 10 months, lunch and tea can include a pudding. Keep it simple and unsweetened: fresh, tinned or stewed fruit, or plain full-fat yoghurt with fruit stirred in. Avoid adding sugar, syrup or honey, and give no honey at all before 12 months.
Foods to avoid in baby lunches and dinners
Some everyday dinner ingredients are not suitable for babies.
- Salty foods: stock cubes, gravy, bacon, sausages, ready meals, takeaways
- Mould-ripened soft cheese and unpasteurised cheese, unless cooked in a recipe
- Raw or lightly cooked shellfish
- Shark, swordfish and marlin, because of mercury
- Whole nuts before 5 years
- Eggs without the British Lion stamp unless cooked until solid
Sources
We check this guide against these sources. It is general information, not medical advice: speak to your health visitor, GP or paediatrician about your own baby.
Questions parents ask
What time should my baby have dinner?
There is no set time. Choose a time that suits your family, when your baby is not too tired or rushed. Many families find an early tea works well, before the bedtime milk feed. Eating together when you can helps, because babies learn by watching you eat.
Can babies have spices and herbs in dinner?
Herbs and mild spices can add flavour without salt, and NHS meal ideas include dishes such as lamb curry with rice. What matters is leaving out salt, stock cubes and gravy, which are high in salt. Start gently and watch how your baby responds to new flavours.
Is it fine to give my baby leftovers for lunch?
Yes, if they were stored safely. Cool leftovers within 1 to 2 hours, keep them in the fridge, and use them within 2 days. Reheat them only once, until steaming hot throughout, and allow them to cool before serving. Cooked rice should be eaten within 24 hours.
How much should my baby eat at lunch and dinner?
Let your baby guide you. Start with a small amount and offer more if they want it. Signs they are full include closing their mouth or turning their head away. Babies under 12 months still get much of their nutrition from milk, so a small meal is fine.