AGE
12m+
Baby Banana Oat Pancakes (Baby · 12 months+)
iBuddies parent community · Family-shared · Pan-cooked
Baby Banana Oat Pancakes
One blender batter, one pan — baby gets soft finger strips, the grown-ups get theirs with yogurt and berries 🥞
Weekday breakfasts get a lot easier when everybody eats the same thing. This batter is four pantry ingredients in a blender — ripe banana, oats, egg and milk — cooked into small soft pancakes with no added sugar at all. Baby's are cut into finger-width strips to grip and chew; the grown-ups keep theirs whole and add yogurt, berries or a drizzle of maple at the table. No separate baby meal, no separate pan, and the toppings stay where they belong: on the adults' plates.
Ingredients
- Ripe banana (peeled)1 · ~100g
- Rolled oats (or ready oat flour)40g
- Egg1
- Milk (whole milk; formula or breastmilk if a younger sibling under 1 is sharing the batter)60ml
- Ground cinnamon (optional)a pinch
- Unsalted butter or neutral oil (for the pan)a little
Everyday pantry ingredients — nothing special to order. Use whichever oats and milk you already have at home.
Method
- Blitz the oatsBlitz the rolled oats in a blender or food processor for about 30 seconds, until they look like a coarse flour. Skip this step if you are using ready oat flour.
- Make the batterAdd the peeled banana, egg, milk and the optional cinnamon to the oat flour and blend until smooth. Let the batter stand for 5 minutes so the oats swell and it thickens to a thick, spoonable pouring consistency.
- Heat the panWarm a non-stick frying pan over medium-low heat and brush it very lightly with unsalted butter or neutral oil. Medium-low matters: too hot and the outside browns before the middle sets.
- Cook in batchesSpoon in about 2 tablespoons of batter per pancake, three at a time. Cook for 2–3 minutes, until the bubbles on the surface have set and the underside is matte and lightly browned, then flip and cook for another 1–2 minutes. Work through three batches, about 15 minutes in total. Every pancake must be cooked through, with no wet batter in the centre and the egg fully set — break one open to check the first batch.
- Cool and cutMove the pancakes to a rack and let them cool to just warm. Cut baby's pancakes into finger-width strips — never serve a whole round pancake to a baby.
- Share the tableServe baby's strips plain. Adults and older children can top theirs with yogurt, berries, nut butter or a drizzle of maple syrup at the table, so nothing sweet or salty ever reaches baby's plate.
Safety notes
- Cook the egg fully. The batter contains raw egg, so serve only once each pancake is cooked through — no wet batter in the centre, egg fully set. Break the first one open to check; if it is still loose, lower the heat and give the rest another minute per side.
- Allergens: gluten (oats), egg, milk — plus nuts if you add nut butter. If this is a first introduction to oats, egg, milk or nuts, introduce one new food at a time and watch for 2–3 days before adding another.
- No added sugar, salt or honey in the batter. The ripe banana does all the sweetening. Honey is never suitable under 1, so if a younger sibling is sharing, keep the whole batch honey-free.
- Toppings are for adults and older children only — maple syrup, jam, chocolate spread and salted butter stay at the table and never go on baby's plate. Add them to individual plates, not to the batter.
- Milk choice: whole cow's milk is for 1 year and over — if a younger sibling under 1 is sharing the batch, make the batter with formula or breastmilk instead.
- Cut size: serve baby finger-width strips, never a whole round pancake and never coin-shaped rounds, which are an awkward shape for a small mouth. Let them cool to just warm first.
- Baby eats seated upright and supervised, never walking, crawling or in a moving pram.
Why it's great for baby
Banana brings natural sweetness, potassium and quick energy, and it is what lets this recipe skip added sugar entirely. Oats add dietary fibre and slow-release carbohydrate that keeps a toddler going between meals. Egg supplies protein and choline and binds the batter so the pancakes hold together in a small fist. Milk rounds it out with calcium and protein.
Just as useful at 12 months: the strips are a proper self-feeding job. They are soft enough to gum, firm enough to hold, and they teach the pincer grip and the bite-and-chew rhythm far better than anything on a spoon.
No added sugar
Fibre
Protein
Family-shared
Tips
Make ahead and freeze: cool completely, stack with a square of parchment between each pancake and freeze in a sealed bag for up to 1 month. Reheat straight from frozen in a dry pan over low heat until hot all the way through, then cool to just warm before cutting.
Vary the batter: blend in a little grated pear or apple, or a spoonful of unsweetened plain yogurt for a softer crumb. Test any brand-new ingredient on its own first, before it goes into a mixed batter.
Adjust for the stage: if your baby is newer to finger foods, cook the pancakes a touch thinner and softer and cut narrower strips. A confident chewer at 12 months can manage thicker pancakes cut into wider fingers.
If the batter is too thick after resting, loosen it with a splash more milk; too thin and it will spread instead of holding a round — another 5 minutes of resting usually fixes it.
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Shared by the iBuddies parent community 💛 Thank you to the parents swapping baby-recipe ideas — this one comes from the "everyone eats the same breakfast" camp. Got your own version? Come share it with us in the community.
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