I’m regularly asked by parents to write about and provide ideas for snacks for toddlers and young children. This is such a popular topic! I’ve posted separately my 7 days of snacks for toddlers and young children as well as my 9 easy, no-cook snacks for kids. I’ve also shared a post about adding extra nutrients to kids’ meals which includes lots of tips for snacks as well as main meals. Today’s blog is a round-up of all you need to know about snacks for babies, toddlers and little ones.
Do babies and toddlers NEED snacks?
Current recommendations in the UK are that, under 1 year of age, children don’t really need snacks. Once baby is established on 3 meals a day, alongside their milk feeds in-between meals should provide enough in the way of energy and nutrients for young babies.
Over 1 year of age, the NHS and other organisations do tend to recommend offering snacks to young children between 1-5 years of age.
In both my personal and professional experience, whether or not you offer snacks is very dependent on each child.
My two children were both very different when it came to snacking habits. Raffy had very little in the way of snacks, until Lockdown when we lived with my mum and she did a lot of childcare for us. There were a lot more snacking occasions introduced as a result, but we soon found that this impacted Raffy’s appetite for mealtimes hugely.
He used to have big meals and would often have 2-3 portions of a meal and ate plenty of variety within each mealtime. I realised that regular snacks just weren’t very helpful for him, and although he had them at nursery or at parents house or when we were out and about, they weren’t the norm for him.
However, Ada was very different. She ate “mini meals” often and didn’t have a huge appetite for breakfast or dinner time. She would be full after eating not a lot…this meant I had to change tack with her and Ada did have fairly regular snacks. I’d usually offer her breakfast (hit and miss whether it was eaten), but she’d then have a snack at 10.30, lunch at 12 or 1 and then another snack around 3.00pm (just before school pick up, followed by dinner. It worked well for her like that. My two kids, raised in a similar way, had such different appetites and approaches to mealtimes.
In the most practical sense snacks can be really handy for keeping little ones occupied, for making sure they don’t go hungry if you’re not able to (for whatever reason) offer meals at baby’s usual food times, or in case there isn’t anything else your little one can have on a menu, for example.
However, for other families, snacks can also play an important role of keeping little ones topped up on energy and nutrients, and, especially for children who are often more picky with their foods, they can offer more opportunities for children to eat!
What is a healthy snack for babies and toddlers?
When it comes to snacks, it can be easy to rely on some of the less healthful options such as crisp/biscuits and sweet options, as you know your little one will likely gobble them up and it’ll sustain them for the short while before their next meal.
However, it’s ideal if snacks at this age provide more than just calories & sugar/salt for baby. This is because children have small stomachs and high nutrient needs, comparative to their body size. In other words, if they are eating foods, it’s helpful if the calories they are eating come along with LOTS of nutrients too!
Ideally, snacks for babies and toddlers should include:
- A piece of fruit (e.g. banana, tangerine, plums, apricots or a small pot of blueberries are the easiest)
- A starchy carb such as bread, oatcake, a pancake or a cracker
- A protein food, such as cheese/yoghurt/meat/fish/beans/pulses or nuts and seeds.
This helps to ensure snacks are balanced, varied and provide a filling and nutritious option. I like to think of snacks as “mini meals” which helps to keep them going in between meals, and to top up their nutrient intakes where needed. Check out my blog on How to Balance Meals for Toddlers for more on balanced diets for kids.
For example, a balanced snack might look like:
- Oatcakes with peanut butter and some tangerine segments
- Mini tuna and cucumber sandwiches
- Pancakes with cream cheese & quartered cherry tomatoes
Of course, not EVERY snack is going to tick every box and you can’t always offer a nicely balanced snack, especially when out and about. But when you can, aim to balance those snacks with the food groups above for a more satisfying snack.
On the go snacks for toddlers
Having EASY snacks on hand for when you’re out and about with toddlers is super important! I’ve written about my favourite no-cook snacks for kids, which are ideal for quick and easy foods, and at the end of this blog I’ve shared LOTS of my favourite snacks – many of which are ideal for on the go.
In terms of packing snacks for being out and about, I always make sure I have:
- Freezer bags
- Tupperwear boxes
- A mini cool bag
- An ice pack
- A lidded free-flowing water cup
At the ready to shove into a bag along with any snacks that need to stay cool!
Healthy Snack ideas for Toddlers:
I know what parents really need is plenty of inspiration when it comes to ideas for feeding kids. So here I’ve put together a variety of snack ideas, for when you really don’t have any time and also some ideas for batch cooking for when you do have a little extra time.
No cook snacks for babies and toddlers
- Breadsticks/veggie sticks and dips – these iron rich dips can be a good opportunity for increasing iron intake
- Mini sandwich quarters
- Plain/natural yogurt & chopped banana
- Avocado with cream cheese & tomato chunks
- Buttered bread fingers with a hard-boiled egg
- Peanut butter with mashed banana with bread/crackers
- Oatcakes with nut butter, marmite, cream cheese
- Crackers with cheese & chopped grapes
- Cucumber fingers with homemade hummus
- Carton of plain milk/fortified milk alternative with some breadsticks
- Dates filled with nut butter – try my kid-friendly chocolate date and nut butter bats for something a little fun
- Celery sticks filled with nut butter, cream cheese or hummus
Batch cook snack ideas for babies and toddlers
- Veg packed flapjacks – these savoury flapjacks are a great way to offer some extra nutrition in a comforting and familiar meal for little ones!
- Savoury muffins
- Banana and peanut butter muffins
- Blueberry baked oats
- Egg and dairy free blueberry muffins
- Pancakes – serve with nut butter/ground nuts, milled seeds and fruit
- Falafel bites – these sweet potato falafels are a great option to keep stocked in your freezer
- Scones with some chopped strawberries
- Chocolate raisin bread – this is an absolute staple in our house. I usually serve it alongside some nut butter and yoghurt for a really filling and satisfying snack.
- Baked banana bars – another favourite for my kids – they’re super easy and really delicious
- Veggie green egg muffins – a perfect freezer friendly option to make ahead – ideal for lunchboxes too!
Turning leftovers into snacks for babies and toddlers
- Cold pasta fingers with a tomato dip and some cheese
- Figgy porridge fingers
- Mini pot of peas with some fish fingers
- Cooked broccoli with a pot of grated cheese
- Sweet potato wedges yogurt dip
- Leftover cooked veg – serve with a dip, or blend into a pasta sauce or a veggie ‘pate’ on toast
- Leftover meat with a dip
- Tofu fingers with peas & potato wedges
- Use up leftover fish to make fishcakes or salmon and potato tots
- Use up leftover baked beans or potatoes for a simple and balanced snack – my homemade baked beans and mini jacket potatoes is a super simple meal idea and is perfect for turning leftover into a snack
- Leftover fritters – I made this recipe for Christmas day, but it works well with any leftovers you have and is a really simple, baby-friendly way to make use of leftover veg, potatoes and meat.
Prepped in 10 minutes snack ideas for babies and toddlers
- Fritters – courgette fritters or carrot and sweetcorn
- A hard-boiled egg
- Mini pitta pizzas
- Tinned fish (sardines, mackerel, salmon or tuna) on toast/crackers/rice cake – I like to mix it together with a little yoghurt and lemon
- Energy balls Recipe
- Porridge – there’s no reason why porridge can’t be a snack as well – here are some of my favourite porridge flavours combinations to try
- Yoghurt/smoothie bowl – blend frozen fruit into yoghurt/kefir and mix in nut butter/ground nuts and milled seeds
- Pesto pasta – my ultimate pesto recipe is my favourite way to add plenty of hidden nutrition into a super simple meal/snack
- Air-fryer pizza toasts
- Easy pin-wheel wraps
How To Feed Your Toddler
How to Feed Your Toddler – Everything you need to know to raise happy, independent little eaters