Sugar in baby and toddler snacks - homemade alternatives?

[Shockingggg]

In light of today's Action on Sugar report showing the drastically high rates of sugar in so called natural baby and toddler snacks, even those marketing as healthy and containing natural sugars only...

I'm keen to avoid this trap with my toddler. Can anyone suggest any good portable snacks that can be taken out and about easily with little mess, but which are homemade and healthy? I usually take an apple. I also make "flapjacks" with porridge oats, flax seeds, mashed banana, cinnamon etc. Would love some new ideas though!

Bumping!

Try the young gums recipe book it has some good recipes. My favourites are the courgette muffins

Just take savoury things!
When my dd was little I took cucumber, tomatoes, breadsticks, rice cakes etc as snacks. Also, took fruit like banana or satsumas which don’t need cutting up. Small children don’t need packaged sweet stuff for snacks.

Just take easy portable things that don't need keeping hot/cold. Loads of choice really;

Breadsticks, rice cakes, crackers, cheese, fruit, veg sticks, sandwiches etc

We make our bliss balls so we can keep the sugar levels down. They can be kept in the freezer until the day, travel well and make minimal mess.

Banana muffins - banana, flour, eggs and cinnamon.

Banana bread (no sugar), rice cakes, cucumber, pepper, sticks of cheese, breadsticks.

Yes to all the above

You can also make pretty much anything in to sugar free muffins too. Also little frittatas out of diced veggies, eggs and a little cheese

Agree, just take savoury things. There is no point making a flapjack if your intention is to avoid sugar. You're just trading one kind of sugar for another - unless you are like my (crunchy 1980s) mother, who basically served us oats.

Basically, anything marketed to children is really sugary (esp. yoghurt).

I always get the impression fancy home-made substitutes for sweet food have snob value and little else. I'd rather buy a pack of cheap chocolate buttons and feed her properly the rest of the time, it's less stressful and she still thinks she's had a treat.

A lot of the things mentioned though aren't really suitable for babies, cucumber and tomatoes get very messy when out and about and harder veg sticks such a carrots are too hard for babies. Breadsticks and rice cakes are so dry my baby won't eat them.
The thing with the baby and toddler snacks you can buy is they are easy to eat and not too messy. We could do with recipes that are also easy to take out but not messy to eat

My oat fingers are quite good and easy-

Porridge oats
Cinnamon
Mashed banana
A splash of milk
Add berries if you so wish

Mix into a dryish sticky mix and pat down into a flat layer in a microwaveable baking dish. Microwave for 5 minutes until firmish to the touch. Refrigerate then cut into fingers. Can be frozen.

We do fruit or veg for snacks, since babyhood. It's the easiest!

American style pancakes are a great one, or we also do a super easy banana, egg, oat pancake. Add whatever flavours you want.

A little tub of humous and some breadsticks, boiled eggs chopped into quarters, cheddar cheese in flat rectangles, black beans cooked and cooled.

We also follow solid starts on Instagram and they have some great ideas for snacks!

Our go to snack is an oatcake. We’re never without a packet. Ours have them with cheese, cream cheese, houmus and peanut butter.

I personally never restricted sugar and salt as I didn’t want them to view sweet or salty food as rewards or treats like a lot of my friends’ and relatives’ kids do. I do believe a home made flapjack or slice of cake eaten sparely (and eating the same food all together) is probably healthier in the long run as they learn it’s just food and how to moderate. This is probably more important for the toddler who will soon, if they haven’t started already, be more exposed to outside food at nursery / playdates / parties etc.

I give a variety of snacks. I make cheese and veg scones, banana bread muffins and pancakes but I also give shop-bought chocolate buttons, oat bars, biscotti. I read the report and yes the sugar is high in some things but I personally think it’s fine as part of a balanced diet and in a small portion.

P.S. the recipe for the mini cheesy vegetable scones that I make is from the “Mummy Cooks” website. It comes up if you Google it.

thin strips of cheddar
breadsticks
bananas
apples (for older toddlers)
cucumber
pepper sticks or carrot sticks (for older toddlers)

DS2 likes strips of cold buttered crumpet

10 month old DC gets a combo of the following:

Apple, carrot and cinnamon oat fingers (similar to PP recipe)
Greek yoghurt with almond butter/raspberry “swirl”
Cheese and courgette egg muffins
Veggie sheet pancakes (What Mummy Makes recipe)
Raspberry and yoghurt triangle pastries
Homemade oatcakes (SR Nutrition recipe)

Plus the usual rice cakes/corn cakes/breadsticks with hummus/beetroot dip/butter bean dip/guacamole.

DC will also happily sit and eat cooked batons of courgette or asparagus. I tend to cook extra with dinner and just keep it in a Tupperware.

Equally they did have a bit of banana bread yesterday with sugar in it & almost definitely have cake and pudding at nursery. I’m more concerned with salt than sugar, but our diet overall is pretty good & I don’t bother buying any of the baby or toddler yoghurts/snacks when they can just eat what we eat.