Providing nutrient-dense and healthy snack options for our toddlers is so important for their overall growth and development. As parents, we often default to what’s convenient and easy for our kids, leading us to choosing less than ideal snacks. With so much information online, it can be confusing and overwhelming to know what is nutritious vs. what is harmful for our kids.
When I became a mom, I was overwhelmed with the number of snack options for our son. We would see in posts in our social media warning us about what ingredients to avoid and why they were so bad for our health. On top of that, we were cautious of pesticides in the fruits we were giving our son, which can lead to a higher risk of cancer. With all this information, it can be stressful to know what is healthy or not for our kids.
This post will help simplify how to choose the best healthy snacks for your toddler that is also easy and convenient for us busy parents. We aim for natural organic whole foods as much as possible. We know this isn’t easy so we’ve curated a list of healthy organic snacks that every kid is sure to love!
Healthy and Easy Toddler Snack Ideas
Below are some of our favorite go-to toddler snacks:
- Organic whole fruits. Providing a variety of organic whole fruits is a great snack for any toddler. We always have at least a few different fresh fruits in stock at our house. The type of fruits we offer changes depending on what’s in season. Typically, we will stock up on bananas, strawberries, blackberries, and apples. When they are in season, our family loves nectarines, oranges, plums, watermelon and
- Solely Fruit Jerky. If you’re looking for an easy way to provide fruits without the added preservatives and sugar, try Solely Fruit Jerky. It’s made with 100% fruit. This is great as an on-the-go snack or when you don’t have the time to cut and prepare fresh fruit. I love this fruit jerky to add variety to the types of fruit that we give our toddler, especially when the fruit is out of season. For instance, during the winter months, we like to give our toddler the fruit jerky in mango and pineapple since it’s not in season. Since this is a dried fruit, we limit giving this to our son due to the risk of tooth decay and cavities, and will only give this to him occasionally.
- Cerebelly bars. We’ve been giving Cerebelly bars to our son since he was 1 year old and he still loves it! It’s a guilt-free easy healthy snack for when you’re on the go. It is made with real food ingredients like oats, carrots, sunflower seed butter, dates, raisins and more. It comes in four different flavors including carrot date, sweet potato blueberry, apple kale and strawberry berry. Our son has tried all flavors and has liked them all.
- Cauliflower stalks. We just recently added this delicious snack to our weekly rotation of snacks and our entire family loves it! It’s made with natural ingredients like cassava, sunflower oil, cauliflower, rice flour, brown rice, and a vegetable blend. No added sugars or preservatives so you can feel good about giving this to your littles or enjoying them as a snack yourself!
- Serenity packs. The Serenity packs are amazing! This is a great way to sneak in those greens for those picky little eaters. Once our son started to reject his veggies, we begin to complement his meals with the Serenity organic savory veggie pack. It’s great as a snack or as an addition to a meal. It contains no sugary fruits or added sugar.
- HappyTot Pouches. If you’re looking to add variety to your pouches, HappyTot is another great pouch option. We like to rotate between Serenity, HappyTot and the Peter Rabbit Organics pouches so our son doesn’t get tired of them. HappyTot offers a variety of different flavors and blends of fruit and veggies so you can mix things up for your little one.
- String cheese. This is a great source of calcium and vitamin D if you have a toddler who is not drinking adequate milk like our son was. It’s also a delicious snack for the entire family!
- Nuts or trail mix. Nuts are a great source of protein, fiber and those healthy good fats! Great for the entire family. We love the organic cape cod mix at Whole Foods which includes a mix of cashews, almonds and cranberries.
- Hard boiled egg. If you’re looking to add more protein to your toddler’s diet, hard boiled egg as a snack is a great choice. You can eat it on it’s own or pair it with a nut butter.
- Avocado. Avocados are a healthy choice as a snack, which contains vitamins C, E, K, B6, potassium, folate and magnesium. It also has those healthy fats, omega-3 fatty acids, which promotes brain and heart health. You can eat it on its own or spread it on toast or crackers.
- Seaweed. Seaweed is a great source of omega 3 fatty acids and iodine. It’s also a great on-the-go snack! They can be eaten on its own or you can make it a meal as sushi rolls or onigiri. We love the Gimme Seaweed brand because it contains a variety of delicious flavors.
- Hummus. Hummus is a very healthy snack as it’s packed with protein and complex carbs. It also contains a lot of other vitamins and minerals including Omega 3 fatty acids, fiber, iron, calcium and folate, which help to promote brain power, boosts mood, and increase sleep quality.
- Apple sauce. Apple sauce is essentially cooked apples, which means it contains the vitamins and minerals you would normally get from eating an apple including antioxidants and fiber, which helps promote digestive health and reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer and diabetes. Avoid choosing apple sauce with added sugar. We always choose unsweetened applesauce and have found it’s still sweet enough for our toddler. You can add applesauce as a dip or spread on toast or oatmeal.
- Homemade muffins. We make homemade muffins in batch every other week and our son loves it! Find a recipe that contains low sugar or you can always substitute with honey. We love this mini-applesauce muffin recipe which is delicious as an on-the-go snack or breakfast.
- Beans. Beans are a great source of protein and fiber. Our son doesn’t like to eat beans on its own so we typically will add it into a cheese quesadilla. Any beans are great! We typically use pinto, black and kidney beans.
- Almond butter packets. Justin’s almond butter packs are great for on-the-go. It’s a great way to add protein to any snack. You can eat it on its own or add it to any snack. We like to serve it with a banana or apple.
- Veggie straws. While this snack is not the most healthiest option, it is a great alternative to al the other chips out there for kids. We like to offer this snack to our child once in a while when we’re in a time crunch and need something quick to grab for on-the-go.
Foods to Avoid
Once I became a mom, I begin obsessing over what was in every snack and food we purchased at the grocery store. It didn’t occur to me how many artificial ingredients and added preservatives were in most kid snacks. I would spend minutes in the grocery store scanning each nutrition label to search for the best possible healthiest option.
As a general rule of thumb, we try to avoid or reduce snacks that include artificial ingredients, preservatives or added sugar. While I know this isn’t always possible when our toddlers are exposed to snacks from our family or friends, we can do our best to control what we bring into the household.
Some of the snacks we avoid or limit include:
- Goldfish crackers
- Cheez-its
- Pocky sticks
- Potato chips
- Dried fruit
- Granola bars
- Sugary cereals
- Juice
- Candy
- Soda
- Fruit gummies
- Pop tarts
- Chocolate
In general, snacks or food that comes in a box will require you to be more cautious about what ingredients are used. We try to stay clear of snacks containing high-sugar, artificial flavors, preservatives and canola vegetable oil.
Not only are these snacks bad for their health, they can be really bad for their teeth. Our son starting having plaque buildup in his front teeth and when we took him to visit his pediatric dentist, they strongly recommended (1) that we reduce the amount of snacking and (2) reduce dried fruit, granolas and juice. While we weren’t giving him any granola or juice, we did occasionally offer him dried fruit so we removed that and reduced the amount of snacking in between his meals. This has helped reduce the plaque buildup on his teeth.
Please comment below and share some of your kid’s favorite snacks!
