Introducing solids to your baby is a huge milestone—a mix of excitement, curiosity, and sometimes a little bit of trial and error. Every baby has their own preferences, and finding the right balance can feel like a journey. That’s where we come in to help guide you. One food group that often gets overlooked but is packed with goodness is pulses—think beans, lentils, and other tiny powerhouses. Not only are they rich in protein, fiber, and essential nutrients, but they’re also incredibly versatile and easy to work into meals.
In fact, both of Nita’s boys’ first food was daal, a traditional Indian lentil stew. Years later, they still enjoy different versions of beans and lentils like daal roti, beans in taco meat and bean burgers and hummus! Needless to say, it feels very full circle to be writing about how you can offer your baby beans and lentils.
In this blog, we’ll explore why beans and lentils can and, in our humble opinion, should be a staple in your baby’s diet, discuss the best types to start with, and provide simple ways to introduce them to your little one.
Whether you’re a first-time parent or looking to expand your baby’s palate, beans and lentils can be a wholesome addition that supports healthy growth and development. And this guide will help you navigate the journey with confidence.
Table of Contents
Okay, we’re starting with using the word bean because that’s the more commonly used term, but get ready to expand your vocabulary today because we’re going to get technical with some of our terms! Ready? Let’s do this.
Dried beans are part of the legume (Fabaceae) family, which is defined as edible plants that grow in pods. This also means that legumes/beans are technically seeds! Seeds are powerhouses of nutrition because they need to contain everything that will allow the plant to grow and mature.
When legumes are dried before being cooked, they’re considered pulses. Pulses come in a seemingly endless variety of types (just go check out the options in your grocery store’s international aisle!), including black beans, chickpeas, navy beans, pinto beans, and kidney beans.
While each variety has its own unique flavor, all legumes share a similar nutritional profile; they’re rich in protein, fiber, and essential vitamins and minerals. Introducing beans to your baby is a great way to offer them new textures and flavours while providing the nutrients they need to thrive.
FUN FACT:
Legumes can be placed in either the vegetable or protein food groups! It depends on when/how they’re eaten. When they’re still green, they’re considered a vegetable. But, when they’re dried (and if they have a low fat content) they become pulses, which are in the protein food group.
What is a lentil?
Lentils, like beans, are tiny nutritional powerhouses from the Fabaceae (legume) family, offering an impressive profile of essential nutrients. Because they’re dried before cooking, they’re also considered pulses. These small, lens-shaped seeds are packed with protein, fibre, and vital vitamins and minerals, just like their bean cousins.
For the rest of this article, we will be referring to the pulses category!
What nutritional value do beans and lentils offer?
As mentioned, beans and lentils are a powerhouse of fibre, protein, and micronutrients. Let’s explore what each of these can offer for your growing baby:
Fibre from beans and lentils is more than just a filler; it plays a crucial role in your baby’s digestive health. Because fibre isn’t digested, it helps keep your baby feeling full and satisfied. But that’s not all—undigested fiber acts as food for the beneficial gut bacteria in the colon, which are essential for boosting your baby’s immune system. This natural process not only aids digestion but also supports overall health, setting a strong foundation for your baby’s well-being.
Protein is often called the building block of life, and for good reason—it’s crucial for your baby’s rapid growth. As your little one grows and becomes more active, their muscles develop and go through wear and tear, which requires repair. Protein provides the amino acids necessary for building and repairing these muscles, helping your baby grow strong and stay active.
The carbohydrates in beans and lentils are an essential energy source that fuels your baby’s daily activities, growth, and supports the body’s natural repair processes.
Beans and lentils are rich in essential in the following vitamins and minerals:
Iron is especially important for young children as it’s needed to form hemoglobin, a protein that transports oxygen throughout the body and plays a crucial role in brain development. The iron in these legumes is non-heme iron, the only type found in plant-based foods. Although it’s not as easily absorbed as heme iron from animal products, including vitamin C-rich foods alongside beans and lentils can enhance its absorption.
Folate, another vital nutrient found in these legumes, helps prevent anemia and supports normal metabolic functions.
Potassium and magnesium are important for muscle and nerve function, ensuring that your baby’s body operates smoothly as they grow.
When can I introduce beans and other pulses to my baby?
If your baby is at least four months old and is passing the signs of readiness, which are like a safety test to see if your baby has developed to the point they’re able to start solids, then they’re old enough to start eating beans and other pulses!
Spoiler alert! Pulses make more than one appearance in our Slow and Steady (baby’s first month of purées mini e-course). We’ve carefully planned a four week menu to introduce your baby to a wide variety of foods using a puréed texture. It’s available as a stand alone purchase or as part of our Essential Starting Solids Package.
Wait… what about gas??
As you start introducing beans and lentils to your baby’s diet, you might be concerned about gas, which is a common phenomenon with legumes. Gas from pulses is typically caused by oligosaccharides, a type of carbohydrate that the human body can’t digest. Instead, these carbohydrates act kind of like a fibre, which the beneficial gut bacteria in your baby’s digestive system can break down, producing gas as a byproduct.
Here’s a fun thing a lot of people don’t know about beans. Contrary to what the catchy song says, the more you eat them the LESS you toot! Digestion is an adaptive process. If you regularly eat pulses, you won’t experience as much gas than if you were to only eat them occasionally.
While your baby’s digestive system is adapting to eating beans, you can reduce the oligosaccharides significantly by:
- Soaking legumes for 5-6 hours before cooking. Since oligosaccharides are water-soluble, soaking helps to break them down, making the legumes easier to digest and minimizing the risk of gas for your little one
- Rinsing canned beans under running water. A lot of the oligosaccharides hang out in the cooking liquid and can be rinsed away.
You may also be interested in: Help! My baby is constipated after starting solids!
What’s best - boiled or canned?
Short answer- either one!
Boiling legumes at home means you can make them completely salt-free. But, this can take time! If you have an electric pressure cooker- it’s really easy! You don’t even need to soak beans before cooking.
But if you want convenience, canned beans and lentils work great too. If your store carries them, choose low or sodium-free options. If low-sodium options aren’t available, simply rinsing the canned beans thoroughly can help reduce the sodium content.
NOTE: baked beans, ie: the type that you buy canned in a tomato sauce, contain added sugars and salt. As such we don’t recommend baked beans for baby.
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How can beans and lentils be served to babies?
There are endless ways you can serve your baby beans and lentils.
4 to 6 month old:
- If you’ve started solids between this time frame, then offering your baby puréed beans and lentils is the most safe way. You can offer your baby daal, soups, bean spread or simply purée with broth, formula, or breastmilk until you reach your desired consistency.
- Reading this you might be thinking “hummus is a puréed chickpea dip- can babies eat hummus?” And the answer is yes! If you’re only feeding a small amount or not feeding hummus frequently, then store bought would be fine. But, if you want to make hummus a staple in your baby’s diet, we’d recommend making a salt-free version. We have a wonderful baby hummus recipe in our e-book Whole Food Recipes for Your Baby. This is a collection of our tried-and-true recipes for feeding your baby 6-12 months old. It’s truly comprehensive- you won’t need any other baby food recipes!
6 to 9 month old:
- For a baby at this age you can offer beans and lentils similar to above but also adapt the texture so that it’s more mushy or lumpy. Whole beans are both too small and a choking hazard at this age.
- If you’re eager to feed beans Baby Led Weaning style then you can use them in recipes such as a lentil fritter or chickpea waffle like we’ve developed in our best selling ebook, Whole Food Recipes for Your Baby. The key is ensuring you’re offering a soft hand-held food for your baby.
9 months +
- At this age your baby may be perfecting their pincer grasp. You can now offer your baby beans like soft kidney beans, chickpeas or black beans that are squished!
If you’re sitting here eager to try recipes that will help you and your family reap the benefits of beans and lentils, we’ve got a ton of suggestions on our very own blog, so you don’t have to go far:
- Black Bean Spread: this makes the perfect black bean baby food and doubles as the best quesadilla filling, trust us!
- Moroccan Beef Lentils: the iron in the lentils and the beef work synergistically to increase the total amount of iron your baby’s body will absorb. It’s like magic- scientists don’t fully understand how it works!
- Veggie Black Bean Burger: great for baby led weaning beans
- Blended Sliders: another recipe that harnesses the iron power of meat + pulses
- Baby’s First Daal: a delicious Indian-spiced lentil recipe the whole family will enjoy.
Pulses (aka beans and lentils) are a food group we’re really passionate about at Happy Healthy Eaters and in our own personal eating patterns. For our children, many of their first food exposures included lentils and beans. Beyond being incredibly versatile we appreciate how accessible and nutritious they are – whenever you get a chance, let us know how you plan to offer your bub this food group. As always, we’d love to stay connected!