Snacking is an important part of a toddler’s diet. They need to eat little and often to make sure they get enough energy and nutrients to keep up with their requirements as they grow and become more active. Toddlers should be having 3 main meals a day, plus 2-3 healthy snacks. Main meals can be straightforward as toddlers can enjoy the same foods as the rest of the family, but it can be challenging to come up with tasty ideas for healthy snacks.
Here are some ideas to help:
- Fruit salad – chop up a variety of seasonal fruit and allow your toddler to eat it from a bowl with their hands (or a spoon for juicier fruit!)
- Small yogurts – they love feeding themselves from the little pots
- Cheese & crackers – chop pieces of cheddar or other hard cheese into bite-size pieces and serve on a plate with some wholemeal crackers
- Veggie sticks – cucumber sticks, carrot sticks, sliced peppers & halved cherry tomatoes are great for little hands. Older toddlers will love to dip these into hummus
- Squares of wholemeal toast with smooth peanut butter
- Cold hard boiled eggs, quartered
- Mini sandwiches – vary the bread by using mini pitta, mini rolls or mini bagels to keep their interest
- Ice lollies made with blended fruit
- Small bowls of wholegrain cereal
- Toasted pancakes with sliced banana
- Banana bread (TIP – you could try making this recipe into mini muffins!)- https://www.first1000days.ie/recipe/banana-bread/
- Small squares of cold frittata – https://www.first1000days.ie/recipe/sundried-tomato-frittata/
