The Mommy Mindset: Healthy Toddler Snacks

Ahhh, the dilemma of food. What’s healthy? What’s safe? What’s good for away from home? This week we came together to talk about ideas for healthy toddler snacks, especially for on the go. I have been revising Rissa’s snacks now that she eats more and has molars coming in. We are eating more multi-grain crackers, cheese, Gerber biscuits and Gerber banana cookies. I still try to cut or shred food at mealtimes, so I get unsure about snack foods. She seems to be chewing and biting off pieces pretty good though! Anyway… I’ll let you peek in on our conversation!

 
The moms joining the conversation this week include Mariah of Formula Mom, Leila of The Go To Mommy, Kathleen of Callista’s Ramblings, Tamara of Mommyland, Cyndy of Mama Does It All, LaVonne of Long Wait for Isabella, Darcy of Tales From the Nursery, Tonya of Bringing Up Hopkins, Emily of Nap Time is My Time, Lena of Way2GoodLife, Ashleigh of Living Off Love and Coffee, and Ghada of Mama Goes BAM.

Mariah: I never realized how hard it could be to put together healthy snacks for W. I don’t want him always eating crackers or cereal but it can be difficult to put together snacks that work well when we are out and about. He loves apple slices, peaches, bananas, green beans, and salad but those don’t go in the diaper bag well. I end up taking goldfish with us a lot. Do you have any suggestions for other healthier snacks that work for toddlers?

Leila: We always had a selection of crackers, cereal, and raisins. Occasionally we did dried fruit since it was easy to carry around without spoiling.

Kathleen: Yogurt covered raisins keep well and add more to regular raisins. My kids never liked dried fruit much. If they don’t mind them not being cold, fruit cups would work.

Tamara: When mine were little, what I did was get the 1/4 cup ziploc bowls with the lids, then add fruit to those and kept them in the fridge. I would cut them up when we I got home from the market so it was done and when walking out the door I didn’t have to worry about it. Just grab and go! Tey fit right in the bottle bag that comes with a lot of the diaper bags to stay cool and if you keep it in the freezer when you’re not using it, it stays cold longer! I also put veggies cleaned and sliced in the snack size baggies.
Dried fruit is another thing I would do. Get a big bag then put a small handful in the baggies. Frozen fruit works too. I would take frozen strawberries, toss them in the little bowls, and by the time they wanted them they were thawed enough to eat but still frozen enough to not be really messy.

Leila: Oh, Kathleen, that reminded me! Applesauce!!! It is not bad warm and you can get organic, sugar free, etc. Those work great too!

Cyndy: When Gwen was younger, I would try to have strawberries and blueberries in containers for her. I also had some of the Gerber snacks that she liked. She also really likes ham so I would bring slices of it in a container.

Kathleen: Yes, applesauce too. Also those baby puffs because toddlers like them too. I think they count as healthy?

LaVonne: My daughter is 4 and we pack snacks for her very often. This time of year we are giving her Cuties (those easy to peel citrus fruit), Annie’s Organic Fruit Snacks, and Clif Kidz bars. Her newest favorite, which I have been purchasing on Amazon is Annie Chung Roasted Snack Seaweed Paper. We always have 100% juice boxes or her water bottle with us too. It seems like we have programmed her to ask for snacks and drinks anytime we are in the car though!

Darcy: We bring along Gerber crunchies. Rissa loves them now that she snubs the puffs! We also will take pouches of like applesauce since she’ll suck it out of there. Oh and frozen fruit since its usually thawed by the time she wants it like Tamara mentioned.
Tonya: Whenever I would bring snacks for A it was always puffs. My 5 year old would eat them all the time.

Mariah: W now has his one year molars so I might feel safer trying some sort of fruit snacks if they aren’t too sticky. I just don’t want to get into the habit of giving him the same thing again and again. I want him to have a variety! He loves applesauce and we do carry it in the diaper bag. I like putting the fruit in the small tupperware containers! Thanks for the great ideas!

Emily: I love Plum Organics, Revolution Foods, and HappyBaby Products. Each company offers healthy snack choices for kids. The best part is that they’re not full of preservatives & other nasty things I don’t want The Boy exposed to. Some of his favorites are the pouches, I love that they combine fruits & veggies. I also carry bananas because he loves them and they travel well…as long as they’re on the top of the bag!
Lena: I have been putting snack bags for my kids and my favorites are dry snap peas, plantain chips, dry berries, and cheerios. I put these together once a week in a tiny sandwich bags and the kids love getting their own snack bags. Seaweed snacks are also great and they come individually packed.

Valerie: A lot of great suggestions. My girls really like fruit and cereal bars. They are an easy to go snack.

Ashleigh: I have Pirate’s Booty snacks, homemade muffins and 100% fruit cups around all the time. I love these other ideas as well! I am always looking for healthy but fun snacks for my son.

Ghada: It was pretty hard when Mr 4 was alot younger. As you say, a lot of the food you want to bring does not travel well. Thankfully he is a fruit kid and now we can bring apples and bananas. Unfortunately I think a lot of what we travel with is a little more on the less healthy side – biscuits and raisins. I’m going to try my hand at Kale chips this week and hopefully start making mini muffins from scratch again.

Mariah: These are all great ideas and maybe it’s not as hard as it seems to get some variety into snack time, even when we’re on the go! I will have to try all of these ideas and see which foods W likes and which he just throws back at me!

Do you have any toddler snack suggestions to share?