Need ideas for healthy snacks for toddlers? This list is specifically geared towards kids 1-3 years old, with homemade and storebought ideas for at home and on the go.
Hi friends!
Let’s talk healthy snacks for toddlers. Way back in 2015 I wrote a post called 10 Healthy Toddler Snacks and it’s been wildly popular on Pinterest. It has some great ideas so be sure to check it out! I think a lot of snack ideas posts are geared towards kids in general but there always seems to be a fair amount of ideas that aren’t safe for toddlers, mainly because of choking hazards. So I wanted to put together an even bigger list of toddler-safe snacks.
When it comes to choking hazards, it’s important to be aware. Let’s review some of the more common toddler choking hazards:
Toddler Choking Hazards
- Round foods like hot dogs, sausages, cherry tomatoes and grapes
- Hard foods like apples and carrots and other hard raw veggies
- Nut butter by the spoonful or thickly spread on bread
- Marshmallows, whole nuts, gum, hard candy, chips and popcorn
Toddler Choking Hazards modified:
- For round foods: cut lengthwise into quarters
- For hard fruits and veggies: grate, cut into matchsticks, dice and saute, steam or roast to soften
- Nut butter: spread thinly on toast
- Marshmallows, gum, hard candy, chips and popcorn should be avoided
- Chop whole nuts into very small pieces and consider softer nuts like cashews/pecans/pistachios vs almonds/peanuts
- Popcorn cakes/rice cakes are safer than popcorn kernels
Healthy Snacks For Kids
If you’re looking for snacks for older kids, I have several posts to check out. These lists will have some snacks that are good for toddlers but not all of them:
- 60+ Healthy Packaged Snacks For Kids
- Healthy Costco Snacks
- Healthy Walmart Snacks
- Best Trader Joe’s Snacks
- Healthy Amazon Snacks
- Peanut & Tree Nut Free Packaged Snacks
- Healthy After School Snacks
And a lot of these snacks would be great in lunch boxes so if you need more lunch box ideas, check out my Month of Easy Packed Lunches for Kids resource!
So let’s dive right into toddler snacks, shall we?
Healthy Snacks Toddlers
Here are some snack ideas that I make at home:
- Smoothies
- Hard-boiled eggs – I usually cut them into quarters
- English muffin pizzas
- Mini muffins – My favorite for young toddlers are my Sweet Potato Banana Bites – Here are lots of my kid-friendly baking recipes. My friend and fellow RD Min over at The Adventures of MJ and Hungryman also has tons of Healthy Baby and Toddler muffins here.
- Fruit – berries, kiwi, mandarin oranges, bananas, fruit leather, raisins, grated apples + pb yogurt dip
- Vegetables – matchstick carrots, peas, corn, cucumber, roasted sweet potatoes + ranch/hummus/laughing cow (toddler dips)
- Quesadillas
- Waffles/toast with peanut butter and jelly or avocado, cut into sticks or in half
- Nut-free trail mix – pumpkin & sesame seeds, cereal, dried fruit
- Homemade energy bars – use any energy ball recipe that uses a food processor to avoid big chunks, then press into a pan and cut into bars vs balls, then cut
- Egg wraps/mini egg muffins
- Oatmeal
- Pancakes
Healthy Snacks For Toddlers On The Go
Here are some packaged snacks that I often have on hand for quick snacks both at home and on the go:
- Bars – Larabar minis, Happy Family Organic & Nature’s Bakery Baked Ins are some of our favorites. Check out my list of Healthy Store-Bought Granola Bars for Kids for more toddler-friendly options
- That’s it dried fruit mini bars
- Innerpeas/Harvest snaps
- Triscuit thins
- Bambas
- Canned beans & chickpeas
- Stonefire mini pitas
- Cereal -Cheerios & Love Grown are our favs – here’s more Lower Sugar Cereals For Kids
- Skinny Pop or Safe & Fair Popcorn cakes
- Hummus
- Freeze-dried fruit
- Hippeas
- Made Good granola bites
- Bitsy’s Crackers
- Soozy’s Muffins
- Veggie’s Made Great Muffins
- Mini bagels, Dave’s Killer Bread thin sliced or Brownberry bread with peanut butter or avocado
- Seaweed snacks
- Brown rice thin cakes
- Horizon Organic shelf-stable milk
- Zego fruit and chia bars
- My Superfoods Granola bites
- Cheese
- Olives (quartered & pit removed)
- Annie’s whole wheat bunnies
- Yogurt/kefir – Chobani, Siggi’s & Stonyfield have good lower sugar options
- Mamma Chia Squeeze pouches
- Serenity kids pouches – they have lots of meat and veggie options
- Enjoy Life fruit and seed mixes
- Waffles – we like Kashi and Kidfresh Foods
So there you go! Lots of toddler-friendly snack ideas for you!
Enjoy!
–Lindsay–
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