Edible paint for babies

Art with babies starts as soon as you introduce food, from that point on you can explore painting with them using easy to make edible paints – in fact it’s unlikely that you will actually have to make them as you may have them already sitting around waiting to be used.

Your baby won’t be creating a masterpiece and more of these paints will end up being eaten than used but they are perfect to get the idea of mark making, sensory of paints – different colours will have different textures so it will become a sensory play activity as well.

Materials for edible paints for babies

Carrot (for orange “paint”)
Strawberries (for red “paint”)
Broccoli (for green “paint”)
Food blender
Saucepan or steamer
Vegetable peeling equipment

Making Edible Paint for Babies

With the carrot and broccoli – cut and put in a steamer or saucepan and cook as you would normally until super soft more so than if making purée’s normally. Put into the blender and blend until very smooth. With the strawberries put in blender with a little water once you have topped them and blend until smooth.

Using a similar idea to the Abstract Art for Tiny Tots put some of the “paint” onto a tray – we used our high chair tray but you could set this up on a tray on the floor or at a weaning table and let the babies experiment.

A fun alternative for those that are crawling is to use a large white shower curtain, tarp or other white mat that you can then let them lose with the paints and crawl, play – be prepared for a bath straight after as this WILL be messy.

The paints are perfectly safe for babies to eat – however they will not last for art work if you want to keep them. But an alternative which is taste safe (but not edible) is our home made finger paint recipe which is ideal for making some masterpieces.