Oaty Bars: Easy Baby Led Weaning Recipe
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Is This Recipe Right for Your Baby?
- Suitability: Suitable from 6 months+ when your baby is ready to start solids. These soft, chewy oat bars are naturally sweetened with banana and easy for little hands to grasp, making them a simple baby-led weaning breakfast or snack.
- Dietary Tags: Vegan | Vegetarian | Dairy-Free | Egg-Free | Can Be Gluten-Free | Contains Peanuts
- Time & Yield: 10 minutes prep + 15 minutes cook | Makes 8 bars | Great for meal prep and freezer-friendly
- Storage: Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. Freeze for up to 3 months, separating the bars with baking parchment so they do not stick together. Defrost overnight in the fridge and do not refreeze once thawed.
These easy baby oat bars are soft, chewy and naturally sweetened with banana, making them a great homemade snack for babies and toddlers.
Made with just 5 simple ingredients, these oat bars are quick to prepare and are perfect for baby-led weaning, breakfast or an easy snack when you’re out and about.
They’re also dairy-free, egg-free and freezer-friendly, so they’re a handy recipe to have ready in the freezer.
Why you’ll love these baby oat bars
Only 5 simple ingredients
Ready in around 25 minutes
No added sugar
Soft enough for babies learning to self-feed
Great for baby-led weaning
Easy to make ahead
Freezer-friendly
Dairy-free and egg-free
A handy breakfast or snack for babies and toddlers
The combination of banana, oats, peanut butter and chia seeds makes these bars naturally sweet and satisfying without needing to add sugar.
Can babies eat oat bars?
Yes, babies can enjoy homemade oat bars as part of a varied diet once they are ready to start eating solid foods.
These baby oat bars are soft and easy for little hands to pick up, making them particularly useful for baby-led weaning.
The texture is important, though. You want the bars to be soft enough to squish between your fingers, rather than hard or crunchy.
Because this recipe contains peanut butter, make sure peanut has been introduced safely and appropriately before serving the bars to your baby.
Always supervise your baby while they are eating and make sure they are sitting upright.
How to serve oat bars for baby-led weaning
For babies around 6 months, cut the baked oat mixture into long finger-shaped bars that are easy for little hands to hold.
I usually aim for bars around 3–4 inches long and about 1cm thick.
For older babies and toddlers, you can cut them into smaller rectangles or bite-sized pieces.
You can serve them:
On their own as a snack
With full-fat natural Greek yogurt
With mashed or puréed fruit
Alongside fresh soft fruit
As part of breakfast
Packed for an outing or lunchbox
What age can babies have oat bars?
These oat bars are suitable from around 6 months, when your baby is showing the usual signs of readiness for starting solids.
For younger babies, I recommend cutting the bars into large finger-sized pieces that your baby can easily grasp.
As your baby develops their pincer grip and becomes more confident eating, you can cut the bars into smaller pieces.
The bars should be soft rather than crunchy.
See my serving suggestion below!
Looking for more baby breakfast ideas? Check out more ideas here → BLW breakfast recipes
Ingredients
You only need five ingredients to make these homemade baby oat bars.
Ground oats - Oats are a great all rounder especially for growing babies and this healthy oat bars recipe, low in salt and high in fibre these are a staple in my house hold. Great for this oat bar recipe and so many other recipes such as a simple porridge recipe or an overnight oats recipe.
Banana - A banana on its own is a great snack for babies and adults, so combining this into an oat bar is a nutritional thumbs up from me. You could replace with apple puree as I know some babies do not like banana.
Coconut oil - This is a great versatile oil. Great to use if you’re plant based and great to use in both savoury and sweet cooking.
Peanut butter - Nut butters are great for weaning babies. There are so many to choose from and I just love peanut butter. You can swap to almond butter or a cashew butter for this recipe.
I always use nut butters that are 100% nuts with no added oils or salt. Check the labels before you buy.
Chia seeds - Chia seeds are packed full of nutritional value, such as omega 3, fibre, protein and antioxidants, these are a great ingredient to add if you are plant based as they are high in protein.
How to make baby oat bars
1. Prepare the oven
Preheat your oven to 180°C / 350°F and line a baking tray with baking parchment.
2. Mash the banana
Add the ripe banana to a mixing bowl and mash well with a fork.
3. Add the remaining ingredients
Add the ground oats, coconut oil, smooth peanut butter and chia seeds.
Mix everything together until you have a thick dough.
4. Bring the mixture together
The mixture will be quite thick. I find it easiest to use my hands towards the end to bring everything together.
5. Flatten the mixture
Place the mixture onto your prepared baking tray and flatten it with your hands.
You can use a rolling pin if you prefer.
Aim for approximately 1cm thickness.
6. Cut into bars
Cut the flattened mixture into long finger-shaped bars, approximately 3–4 inches long.
You can also bake the mixture as one piece and cut it into bars once cooked.
7. Bake
Bake for approximately 15 minutes, until cooked through.
You don’t want the bars to become too hard or crunchy.
8. Cool
Allow the bars to cool completely before serving.
They will firm up slightly as they cool.
Baby oat bar variations
One of the things I love about this recipe is how easy it is to adapt.
Peanut-free oat bars
Use a smooth seed butter such as sunflower seed butter instead of peanut butter, if appropriate for your family.
Nut-free oat bars
For a completely nut-free version, use a suitable nut-free seed butter and check all ingredient labels for cross-contamination.
Gluten-free oat bars
Use certified gluten-free oats if you need the recipe to be gluten-free.
Oats themselves don’t naturally contain gluten, but they can come into contact with gluten-containing grains during processing.
Banana-free oat bars
If your baby isn’t a fan of banana, try using smooth apple purée instead.
You may need to adjust the amount of oat flour slightly depending on how wet your purée is.
Other flavours
Once you’ve made the basic recipe, you can experiment with flavours such as:
* Apple and cinnamon
* Blueberry
* Pear
* Strawberry
* Carrot and apple
For babies, keep additions soft and age-appropriate.
Serving suggestion
These baked oat bars for baby can be enjoyed on their own, or for a more substantial snack they can be served with a simple apple puree and yogurt for dipping for your toddler or baby as the oaty bars are suitable from 6 months old.
You could also serve with a mango pot,peach melba or with some baked apple slices.
Other great oaty recipes you may like: Teething biscuits, Baby oatmeal cookies, Apple oat crumble recipe, Weetabix bites for baby or Oat balls without peanut butter.
Storage instructions
How to store baby oat bars
Once completely cooled, store the oat bars in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
I recommend keeping them refrigerated because they contain fresh banana.
Can you freeze baby oat bars?
Alternatively they can be frozen in freezer bags or in an airtight container in small batches, for up to 3 months. separating each layer with parchment paper so that they don’t stick together and you can access one bar at a time.
To defrost the oaty bars all you will need to do is leave in the fridge overnight to thaw in an airtight container.
Once defrosted the oaty bars will not be able to be re frozen.
Equipment used to help with this recipe
I have used a great baking sheetfor the oaty bars, a brilliant mixing bowl too! Large airtight containers for storage and a nutri bullet to make rolled oats into an oat flour!
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Yes, these homemade oat bars can be offered from around 6 months when your baby is ready for solid foods.
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Oat bars can be a useful baby-led weaning breakfast or snack because they can be made soft and shaped into easy to hold pieces.
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Yes, peanut butter can be included in a baby’s diet, but peanut butter must be smooth not crunchy. Just make sure you have done the allergy testing before serving.
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Yes, replace the peanut butter with a suitable smooth seed butter.
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Yes, however I find blitzing the oats helps the mixture bind together. You may need more banana and peanut butter if you use rolled oats to help the mixture bind together.
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Make sure the banana is well mashed and that the mixture is thoroughly combined before shaping.
More baby-led weaning recipes
Looking for more easy recipes for your little one?
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Recipe | Oaty Bars: Easy Baby Led Weaning Recipe
Oaty Bars: (Easy) Baby Led Weaning Recipe
This is a great recipe for baby-led weaning and toddlers. A great snack idea or baby-led weaning breakfast idea.
Ingredients
Instructions
- Pre heat oven to 180 C or 350 F. Prepare your baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Mash the banana in the bowl, you will need a medium sized mixing bowl.
- Add in all the other ingredients to the bowl and mix together.
- I find it easier to finish the mixing by using my hands to form a ball.
- On a flat surface, flatten using your hands (no need to dust the surface with flour).
- Shape and flatten the oaty dough to a circular shape or any shape you like using your hands, you can use a rolling pin for speed, but your hands will also do the job.
- Once flattened, it’s best that the thickness is approx a centimetre and that it is cut to 3-4 inch fingers.
- Bake in the oven for 15 minutes.
- Leave to cool and enjoy.
- Hope you and your family enjoy!
Notes
If there is a nut allergy in your household you can substitute the coconut oil for vegetable oil or avocado oil.
Additionally, if there is a gluten intolerance, you can use gluten free oats instead of regular oats.
If you wanted a rough texture you do not have to blitz the oats to make oat flour. You will find that the dough will bind easier if the oats are blitzed, and you may need an extra teaspoon of coconut oil.
You can add in other seed butters and even add in some dried fruit for example, cherries apricots or sultanas. (dried fruit from 12 months)
I love having these baby oat bars ready in the fridge or freezer for those moments when you need a quick breakfast or snack.
They’re simple to make, easy for little hands to hold and can be adapted with different flavours as your baby grows.
If you make them, I’d love to know which variation your little one enjoys most!
©The Petit Spoon
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