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Sugar Free Baby Oat Bites | Healthy & easy recipe perfect for baby led weaning! These nutritional nibbles are sweetened naturally with ripe bananas and dates. Super easy for little hands to grab and feed themselves. They are portable for on-the-go meals or snacks and freeze beautifully!
And I am back with another baby/infant/toddler recipe 🙂 I hope you don’t mind too terribly…now that Baby Girl is eating solids, it is pretty much all I think about 😉 I am guessing that you don’t mind too much as my baby bites recipes are very popular! Thanks y’all!!
The need for these Sugar Free Baby Oat Bites came after the morning that I brilliantly decided to try oatmeal with Baby Girl for breakfast. Remember that I am trying to use more of a baby led weaning approach to her introduction to solids. So I did spoon a couple of bites of oatmeal and feed it to her at first but Miss Independant kept trying to take the spoon from me. So I let her play with the spoon and she actually was able to get it to her mouth and in it 🙂 Then she started reaching for the bowl of oatmeal and I thought why not…
She had a BLAST with it and really seemed to enjoy eating it, but it was MESSY!! In fact this picture was taken right before it all ended up on the floor 😉 Thankfully we have hardwood floors and a dog! Who knew that my picky eater dog would actually like oatmeal!?!? The dog that won’t eat anything but meat, gobbled it right up. I was thankful but very confused.
Anyways after that experient, I decided that I needed a better way to feed her oatmeal. So I did some searching and found something that I thought might work. These Sugar Free Baby Oat Bites were inspired by this recipe for Sugar Free Flapjacks for Baby Led Weaning by My Fussy Eater. I left out the shredded coconut because I forgot it at the store and wasn’t making a second trip 😉 I also replaced the juice with Baby Girl’s formula because I believe that citrus is on the list of foods that you shouldn’t introduce until after 6 months of age. I also baked them in a (affiliate link) silicone mini muffin pan to make them “bites” instead of “bars.”
Success!! She gobbled them right up 🙂 I tried them too and thought that they were tasty too. I added a smear of peanut butter to mine and they were delish! Once I have introduced peanut butter to her, I will feed them to her that way as well. I brought some over for my twin nephews (they are 10 months old today) and they enjoyed them too 🙂
I am already thinking of other variations for this recipe!! I mentioned peanut butter, but I bet you could add powdered peanut butter to the recipe as well (I will try it soon and report back). I would also like to try adding blueberries, strawberries, raspberries! You could also try your favorite nuts or even chocolate chips for a special treat 😉
Here is your recipe for Sugar Free Baby Oat Bites:
- 2 cups old fashioned oats
- ⅓ cup coconut oil, melted (I used the microwave)
- 2 ripe bananas
- 6 pitted dates
- 3 tbsp. breastmilk or formula (apple juice or orange juice can be substituted if the child is old enough and can tolerate it)
- Preheat the oven to 350 F.
- Spray a mini muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray or use a silicone mini muffin pan. Set aside.
- Add oats to a food processor and process to break them down into more of an oat flour. Pour processed oats into a medium mixing bowl.
- Add coconut oil, bananas, dates and liquid to the food processor and pulse to create a thick paste. Add mixture to bowl with the processed oats.
- Stir to combine.
- Spoon mixture into mini muffin pan.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.
- Remove from oven and let cool.
They also freeze beautifully and will thaw out in less than 30 minutes. Another option is to pop them in the microwave for 30 seconds.
I have also made these without processing the oats. They make the bites have more texture and are good for older babies.
Add ⅓ cup peanut butter for another variation. (only if baby has been exposed to peanuts and does not show an allergy).