If you’re looking for finger food that won’t slip through your baby’s fingers!

Or you need an alternative to porridge for breakfast, which your baby used to love but now hates.

Try Sweet Potato Pancakes

These easy-to-make pancakes are a perfect breakfast, lunch or dinner. They’re a good source of iron, and they can be easily frozen.

What more could you want?!

Why are iron-rich foods so important for babies?

Iron is vital for your baby’s brain, body and immune system development. And the easiest way to ensure your baby gets enough iron is to offer iron-rich foods at every meal.

I like to use this rule of thumb when planning meals for babies (and toddlers). Choose:

1. An iron-rich food
2. Pick a portion of food for energy
3. Add a fruit or vegetable.

Bonus: As a bonus for joining my weekly newsletter, get this free cheat sheet of 7 simple baby breakfast ideas you can easily share.

4 Reasons Why Pancakes Are Great For Baby-Led Weaning

There’s a reason why there are SO many pancake recipes for baby-led weaning. Pancakes are super finger food for babies because they’re so easy to:

1. Cook– no major cooking skills needed!
2. Hold unlike some finger foods, which can be quite slippery
3. Batch cook and freeze
4. Adapt. You can make pretty much anything into a pancake or fritter. And pancakes for babies can include fruit or vegetables, different flour or oats. They can easily be made dairy-free like these. You can even make egg-free pancakes.

READ MORE: Finger food weaning ideas to get you started

Can I introduce these pancakes as one of my baby’s first foods?

You could. But I don’t advise it.

Egg is a potential allergen, and it’s helpful to introduce egg initially in a well-cooked form and in small amounts. But once you’re confident that your baby tolerates eggs, then you can go right ahead and introduce these pancakes.

LEARN MORE: Step-by-step guide to introducing potential food allergens during weaning

Sweet Potato Pancakes: 100% Suitable for the whole family to share

One of the best ways to show your baby how to eat and enjoy their food is to eat with them. And there’s no reason why you can’t enjoy these pancakes too. Add some salt for adults or older children, if you like!

Why these pancakes and not the 2-ingredient sweet potato pancakes for babies?

You’ll find tonnes of recipes for 2-ingredient pancakes online. These usually contain sweet potato plus egg or banana plus egg. And while these are great, too.

However, I like adding smooth fortified porridge for two reasons.

1. The pancakes hold together better.
2. Fortified smooth porridge is an excellent way to increase the iron content of these pancakes.

4 Simple Ideas For How Best To Serve Pancakes To Babies

1. With  chia jam
2. With mashed fruit such as mashed banana or mashed tinned mandarins
3. With soft, ripe fruit finger food such as soft, ripe pear or kiwi
4. With whole, natural or Greek Yogurt mixed with a little smooth nut butter like peanut butter or almond butter (choose a salt and sugar-free version)

RELATED: Easy ways to serve Weetabix for babies-and why to do it!

Iron-rich food + energy-rich food + fruit/veggie = balanced meal

Don’t add syrup or honey to your baby’s pancakes

Is It OK To Give Babies Maple Syrup As A Pancake Topping?

No.

It’s best not to give your baby foods with added sugar in their first year. And this includes table sugar, maple syrup, honey and agave syrup.

Even after their first birthday, you’ll want to keep their intake of these added sugars to a minimum.

Another reason for not offering your baby honey is that it can cause infant botulism and isn’t suitable for babies under 12 months.

But they won’t miss out. There are plenty of other ways to add flavour and variety.

Don’t have any sweet potato to hand? Make banana pancakes instead!

These pancakes will also work if you substitute the cooked sweet potato with the same amount of mashed ripe banana. Now, you’ve no excuse to throw out those black bananas hanging around the bottom of the fruit bowl!

How best to cut pancakes for baby-led weaning?

Depending on what size you make the pancakes, you can either serve them whole or cut them into fingers.

Of course, as your baby ages and starts developing its pincer grip, you can cut them up and serve them in smaller pea-sized pieces.

Another option is to pour the batter into the pan in a finger shape rather than a round shape.

Want to know my special family pancake birthday tradition?

We have a birthday breakfast tradition in our house where I make pancakes poured into the shape of the birthday boy’s (or girl’s) initial.

They love it, and it’s easy to do, but it makes them feel a bit more special than the others. Just pour the batter into a jug (a squeezy bottle would be easier, but I don’t have one) and do your best. Some letters are easier than others!

6 ingredients you’ll need to make these sweet pancakes

• Two eggs 
• 1/2 cup of cooked mashed sweet potato. The easiest way to cook this is in the microwave
• 1/4 cup Ready Brek or instant oat cereal. These products are fortified with iron making them a great alternative to flour
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• A little rapeseed oil for frying

Step-by-step guide on how to make these pancakes

1. Mix the eggs with the sweet potato in a small bowl.
2. Add the Ready Brek, cinnamon and baking powder.
3. Heat a little oil in a frying pan over medium/high heat.
4. Spoon one-two tablespoons of the mixture into the pan (these work best as small pancakes).
5. Turn the heat to medium/low and cook for around two minutes.
6. Flip and heat until cooked through.

Storing sweet potato pancakes for your baby to eat another day.

All pancakes freeze well—layer on a baking tray and freeze. When frozen, you can pop them into a freezer bag or box.

Sweet potato pancakes for babies

Print

This is such a simple pancake recipe. Not only is it a perfect finger food for your baby but it's one you can all enjoy together.

Ingredients

• Two eggs
• 1/2 cup of cooked mashed sweet potato. The easiest way to cook this is in the microwave
• 1/4 cup Ready Brek or instant oat cereal. These products are fortified with iron making them a great alternative to flour
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• A little rapeseed oil for frying

Instructions

1. Mix the eggs with the sweet potato.
2. Add the Ready Brek, cinnamon and baking powder.
3. Heat a little oil in a frying pan over a medium/high heat
4. Spoon one-two tablespoons of the mixture into the pan (these work best as small pancakes).
5. Turn the heat to medium/low and cook for around two minutes.
6. Flip and heat until cooked through.
7. Cool and serve