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It’s no surprise that sweetpotato baby led weaning recipes are a favorite in our house, so using sweetpotato for baby led weaning first foods was natural for us.

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Please note that sweetpotatoes is spelled as one word throughout this article, which is the proper spelling. You can learn more here.

Sweetpotatoes are just one of those foods that we always have on hand and use and re-use in just about everything.

By reuse, I mean we’ll cook a bunch, and then re-use sweetpotato leftovers in so many wayws.

Plus, sweetpotatoes for babies are extremely nutrient-dense and easy to introduce.

There is no shortage of uses for sweetpotatoes, and many sweetpotato baby led weaning recipes are easily modified.

This post will show you how to cut sweetpotatoes in different shapes and textures for baby if you choose to use sweetpotatoes in your 6 month foods baby led weaning journey.

If you need some out-of-the-box ideas for advanced and older eats for what to eat with sweetpotatoes, check out this roundup.

Sweetpotato for Baby: Nutrition and Benefits

When deciding how to serve sweet potatoes for baby and start baby led waning, you first want to research food options and pick something that your family regularly eats.

You want to be eating what baby eats, or moreso, have baby eat what you eat.

For us, blw sweet potato recipes are so commonplace that it was a no-brainer.

Sweetpotato for baby has so many benefits and there are so many easy and creative sweetpotato blw recipes.

Sweetpotatoes are a wonderful first food because they have a great nutrition profile. However, don’t stop at babies, kid friendly sweetpotato recipes are also wonderful!

When preparing how to cook sweetpotato for baby led weaning, consider options such as baked, mashed, sauteed, or blended into other foods.

We often mix some mashed or pureed sweetpotatoes into popsicles or homemade baby puree as well.

How To Cook Sweetpotato for Baby Led Weaning

When introducing sweetpotato for baby led weaning, you have a few options.

Sweetpotato Fries for Baby

It is helpful to serve sweetpotatoes for babies in a handheld fashion for early eaters.

We often make sweetpotato fries for 6 month baby-led weaning foods, and even for a 7 month old for baby led weaning.

Sweetpotato fries for babies are soft and easy to chew, even without teeth.

To prepare, cut sweetpotatoes into fry shape, and cook with your favorite choice of fat (olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil) and serve to baby.

You can add some herbs (be careful on the salt), and serve with a dipping sauce, like full fat greek yogurt, peanut butter, butter, mashed avocado, hummus or oil.

Sweetpotato Baby Wedges

You could also cook sweetpotatoes as wedges and serve them that way, which would also fall within the self-feeding realm.

We love these air fryer sweetpotato wedges – just moderate or omit the salt when serving to baby!

Sweetpotato wedges should be long enough for baby to hold them, and thick enough that they don’t mash or crumble when baby is holding them. I make them just longer than finger length.

Remove most of the skin – you can keep some on for grip at the bottom if you want since they can be slippery or overly mushy.

These are kind of like sweetpotato fingers for baby to hold.

You can even pair with other starchy vegetables, like carrots or parsnips.

We have several ideas for a parsnip baby recipe!

You can even add some spices if your baby is more advanced.

Don’t go crazy on the salt, as babies kidneys are immature and can’t filter out high amounts of salt.

Baked Sweetpotato for Baby

To make a baked sweetpotato for baby, just bake a sweetpotato and top with butter, peanut butter or a little oil and let baby get their hands dirty and dig in, literally.

Make sure that it’s not too crisp or burnt.

You want the interior to be very soft (similar to a mashed consistency).

Another way to cook a baked sweet potato is in the microwave, which I do often.

Take a fork and put a few holes in the sweet potato, and then microwave for 6-8 minutes, depending on the size of the sweet potato.

It is cooked through when it’s no longer hard and a fork mashes it easily. Let it cool for baby!

Mashed Sweetpotato Puree

Mashing sweetpotato and serving with butter, yogurt or avocado is also a great way to serve sweetpotatoes to babies.

This baby oatmeal cookie recipe uses mashed sweetpotatoes.

You can even mash in flax seeds or chia seeds with it.

I’ll often use mashed sweetpotato in my favorite baby pancakes recipe.

This is one of my favorite easy sweetpotato recipes for babies.

You can even add mashed sweetpotatoes into baby led weaning muffins and baked goods.

No matter how I serve sweetpotatoes to babies, I like to have a dipping sauce, like full fat plain greek yogurt, mashed avocado or even applesauce.

As kids grow older to toddlers, I’ll sometimes serve with ketchup too.

I also utilize the freezer often because frozen meals for toddlers and babies can make your life so much easier, and sweetpotatoes are easy to freeze and reheat in other meals.

Sweetpotato Baby Food Combinations

Sweetpotatoes, thanks to their versatility, are wonderful options for making your own baby food.

For example, this sweetpotato spinach baby food has just 4 wholesome ingredients with fiber and healthy fats for babies growing brains.

Sweet potato also meshes wonderfully with other vegetables, like broccoli, carrots or pumpkin, as well as fruits, like pureed apples or applesauce, avocado and mashed blueberries.

Popsicles

I love serving popsicles to baby. These are my favorite baby popsicle molds!

Just blend any foods in a blender, and then pour into popsicle molds and freeze.

They work great for teething, like in these breastmilk popsicles, or even sweetpotato pineapple coconut popsicles.

As Spaghetti

When baby is able to pick up thinner items, including sweetpotato spaghetti could be another fun and nutrient-dense option.

Not only is pasta for babies adorable to watch, serving sweetpotato as spaghetti provides a huge increase in nutrients for baby. Pair with some beef or beans!

With Other Finger Foods

Beyond pureed sweetpotato baby food combos, using sweetpotato for baby finger food just makes sense.

You can pair it with chicken strips for baby, or mash it over the chicken strips.

Sweetpotato fries are wonderful as a finger food, as well as other baby finger foods.

They blend well with nearly everything and are great for babies, kids and adults alike and are a great option for how to get veggies into toddlers.

These sweetpotato recipes for baby also make great baby breakfast foods.

Nutrition Tips for Baby Led Weaning with Sweetpotato

When using sweetpotatoes in baby led weaning recipes, here are some tips to keep in mind:

• Pair with fat – Serving sweetpotatoes with a fat source, like butter, olive oil, coconut oil, or nut butter, will help Vitamin A, D, E and K absorption. Fat is important in protecting the growing brain of babies.
• Pair with iron – When starting with blw sweetpotato, make sure to pair with an iron source, like beef (baby led weaning meatballs), poultry or legumes (lentil hummus). The Vitamin C in sweetpotatoes can help the baby better absorb iron.
• Keep in mind baby’s age – When babies are younger and just starting blw, try to prepare sweetpotatoes in longer, fry shape so they are easier to grip. As babies get more proficient with the pincer grasp, you can offer smaller shapes and sizes.
• Cut the sugar – Babies are recommended not to have added sugars until age 2, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Try your best to omit sugar or at the very least, cut it down extensively.
• Avoid honey – Babies under 1 shouldn’t have honey due to the food borne risk of botulism.
• Reduce salt – Babies’ kidneys can not yet handle high amounts of salt. I usually add my salt to taste after serving sweetpotatoes to baby.

Tools for Baby Led Weaning Sweetpotatoes

You don’t need a ton of supplies for baby led weaning, as you can keep it as simple as you’d like.

However, that being said, there are some products that make it easier and reduce the mess associated with babies learning to feed themselves.

Even with these products, there’s still a daily mess to clean up. But, in the long run, I totally think this way of starting solids!

Here are some of my most favorite used items.

• Silicone Bibs – We’ve used these and these. These bibs are great for the inevitable spills and dropped food. A smock covers their entire upper body, and we used this for messier foods, like mashed sweet potatoes, oatmeal, pasta and some mashed fruits.
• Suction plates and bowls – We’ve used EZPZ and other iterations for something that sticks to the tray
• Sturdy high chair – You want a quality high chair that baby can sit upright in. It’s also nice to have something for them to put their feet on. Even better if the tray can be easily removed and wiped down
• Splat Mat – This isn’t a necessity but it sure does make cleaning the floor easier. It can be easily thrown into the wash. They have lots of cute designs so you can find one that fits your decor preference.
• Silicone or soft utentils – These are great for pre-loading food for baby at first, until they learn to use them by themselves.
• Ezpz cup- The ezpz is the perfect size silicone cup for introducing water or small amounts of milk.

That’s about it. We introduced the little cup around 7-8 months once baby figured that out.

A straw cup is helpful too. We would use it to serve water, and eventually breastmilk/whole milk after one year.

How to Give Sweetpotato to Baby FAQ

Sweetpotato Recipes for Baby Led Weaning

These BLW sweetpotato recipes can be personalized to your family preferences.

For example, leave out meat if you follow a plant-based lifestyle, reduce sauces, cut in smaller pieces if you feel more comfortable that way.

Hope this post was helpful! Let me know if you have any other questions about baby led weaning or sweetpotato recipes for babies!

More baby led weaning recipes

• Baby french toast sticks
• Lentil recipes for baby
• Baby waffles
• Zucchini and sweetpotato fritters
• Baked parsnips