What snacks do I feed a 1 year old

[Baba]

My ds eats for England at mealtimes which is great but in between I don't know what to feed him.

He has white chocolate buttons every day and 2 biscuits in the morning and in the afternoon and apart from that, has cubes of cheese.

He won't eat anything lumpy really as I have tried chopped up banana but he's not fussy and when he eats sandwiches he just picks at the middles and throws the rest on the floor?

Any ideas?
Plus I am worried about his (6) teeth with having so much sweet stuff in between meals.

rice cakes? breadsticks? My ds (now 17 months) has always had these as his snacks and loves them still. Or cubes of fruit - apples / strawberries etc

Yoghurt!

my ds (15 months) loves raisins, mango, bread sticks, rice cakes, quavers/wotsits, cheesy crackers, chocolate muffins, cheese dipper things, bananas and yoghurts.

My dd became known as the sausage queen. Sausages are easy to handle and soft to chew on, also carrot sticks which have been steamed or boiled and left to cool.
Rice cakes if you can get them to eat them are great too.
Snacking is a habit we all have and it is important to assert healthy eating as early as poss, we all know how easy it is to pick up a packet of crisps as opposed to an apple.
At 1 he should be easily swayed as what he eats. If he refuses something just put it away and try again another day.
Just don't give up on anything, and if he thinks he can refuse something and get what he wants instead eg buttons he will push it as far as he can (they learn very early)

Just don't give up on anything and try and keep buttons for a treat or reward not everyday.

Have a rummage round your local health food shop for some lower sugar alternatives to the chocolate and biscuits. How about dried fruit like apple rings or pear halves?
I would probably avoid the chocolate every day to be honest - he's quite young still for so much refined sugar.
How about the lower sugar or slightly flavoured rusks? Not the normal ones though - way too much sugar again (as much as a doughnut allegedly!)
As for the teeth - there's not much you can do other than brush at least twice a day and only give juice with meals when there's more saliva in the mouth to protect them, water at other times.

dd usually has a bit of bread with olive oil - she loves it!

Plus the steamed carrot idea is good, or yoghurt, or little bits of odd fruit (cherries, strawbs, mango etc.)

Ok, I'm going to stick my neck out here and say I was horrified that you give a one year old chocolate every day. In fact I would NEVER give a one year old chocolate, even as a treat. They don't need it and he's too young to even ask for it so there is NO EXCUSE! Sorry, had to say that, but please stop giving it to him, its bad enough when they are older and can pester you for sweets. He would probably be just as happy with most of the suggestions here. I try not to give many snacks generally, you shouldn't need to give much at one year old if he is a good eater as you say.

Personally I would only ever give cheese, fruit and rice cakes/bread to a one year old.

My 3.5 year old is a different matter and lives for sugar, but I still rarely give her sweets although she does have cakes/bread and jam/custard/yogurts. Somehow they just seem better than a bag of sweets. And even if she really begs for sweets, if you say no often enough she gives up and isnt really that bothered. You have the power!!

My ds loves cucumber, peeled and cut into strips

Thanks for all the advice.

I agree that I shouldn't be giving him chocolate every day but it stops him from getting out of hand and he is really quiet when he eats it.... anyway, I know I shouldn't be doing it so will just maybe give him chocolate once a week???

Will start trying sausages as I like that idea and have tried cucumber, carrots, etc but to no avail.

I have to say I do give my one year old chocolate, very very occasionally - It's one of lifes great pleasures. But for day to day snacks breadsticks, toast, pasta salad, advocado (a special favourite), savoury stocks (by cow and gate I think),

Agree, he doesn't need chocolate and it won't do him any good at all. Bad for his teeth, and empty calories. An occasional treat is one thing but every day is too much. You can buy ricecakes sweetened with applejuice which my ds loves, he also eats grapes, strawberries, milk, ricecakes with marmite, bread with butter and a smear of honey, dried apricots, apple slices, Babybels, bread and butter, sugar-free muesli bars for babies, sticks of toast, ham, breadsticks, Dairylea, oranges, yoghurt... lots of things. I also gave cow and gate baby biscuits which were lower sugar and contained iron etc, but haven't had those for ages.

I must admit I give my 1 year old chocolate too as a treat. Baba - don't feel too bad at these comments. Being horrified at a 1 year old eating chocolate is a slight over reaction I feel. It's not a good habit to get into I agree, but horrifying it is not. How about fruit dipped in chocolate as a compromise! Or chocolate covered raisins?

At that age one of my Ds's favourite snacks was a bowl of peas (frozen ones cooked in the microwave). He would sit on the floor with a bowl and eat them with his fingers as if they were sweets.... Those were the days - he is now a stroppy 2 year old who has learned that dreaded expression "no like". Try and get him to try as many things as possible while he is still reasonably amenable.

Oh yes frozen peas and sweetcorn - but you will find bits scattered around your home for the next week

It would never have occurred to me to give my dd chocolate! She is only 10 months though (but has 8 teeth and weighs as much as a 1 yr old)

She loves slices of apple, ricecakes, apple flavoured rice cakes, grissini, cucumber, cheese, sausages. Also I make her little cream cheese sarnies (with wholemeal bread) and she wolfs those down.

Some may think this is cruel, but DD who is now 15 months has never in her short life tasted chocolate in any form. I figure she has no idea what she is missing, and the later it is introduced, the better. The sweet things we give her are biscuits and fresh fruits. She seems to like savory things, like crisps (which I know are not good for her, but she likes to munch on them, as I do). She absolutely loves yoghurt at any time of day. I also do indulge her in ice cream every now and then.

Must say that I have never tried sausages, but will try that. Also, I like the idea of cream cheese sarnies, but DD doesn't seem to like bread much unfortunately.

Toast fingers, cheese, dried fruit, cooled down steamed carrot sticks (and other veggies), plain biscuits, cooked meat (DD loves wafer thin ham and turkey), penne pasta with dips, fruit pieces, tomotoes (can be messy though), etc. I think most of this has already been said though.

I too give my DD white chocolate buttons for the odd treat. She's 14 months now and I can't say that I think the odd bit will do any long term har at all. I clean her teeth morning and night and she has lots of other snacks and ood throughout the day. The odd mini pack of buttons surely isn't a disaster. I'd rather she didn't see them as forbidden as then she may want them more and more as she gets older. Sorry to disagree with some of you but I really think we worry far too much about the dangers of one little piece of chocolate when there are so much other stuff to be concerned with. I do agree every day is a excessive though but can see how it could become a habit.

tinyfeet, i don't think you're cruel at all. My ds1 didn't have chocolate till he was about 2 and a half and started going to parties from nursery. My parents thought I was terribly mean especially when I insisted they didn't buy him easter eggs for easter. He is 4 now and usually has a small amount of chocolate after his evening meal. However with ds2 it was harder to stop him eating it as he could see big brother eating it. So from age of one he has also enjoyed his nightly treat.

Tinyfeet - DD recently decided she liked them mini hulahoops after an a friend's older child a gave her some. She has only ever had a few with her tea but again, a little bit every so often.. is it really that big a deal?

The crisps and snacks like that are probably seven worse than chocolate though aren't they, because of the salt?

Like the sausage idea for a snack too. ASDA do tiny sausgaes (not cooked cocktail ones, proper ones but tiny). They only take a few minutes to cook and would be ideal.

There's a good question, Claireandrich. I suppose it all depends on what the mums are eating. I'm not a huge chocolate fan, and I guess I'm inclined not to give DD chocolate or sweets since we don't have them in the house anyway. I love crisps, and therefore let DD have them when I'm eating them. I've just assumed that crisps are better than sweets, but maybe that's completely wrong!

Personally I want to delay chocolate for as long as possible, once she gets to that age when i can't get away with it than so be it, but what she doesn't know about she doesn't miss. Having said that my childminder has been known to give her chocolate so i've asked if she feels it an absolute must to comprise and give her chocolate coated rasins, or rice cake sandwiches with a bit of chocolate spread down the middle! I give Lottie, museli bars (you can buy baby organin ones), bananas are very sweet plus dried, apricots, prunes, peaches, figs and apple, you can also soak these in a bit of water for a while to soften them up a bit more, carrot sticks, bits of cheese, organic cheese & herb puffs, red & yellow peppers which you can dip in humous etc, avacado, bits of french bread, pizza fingers, a small sarnie with marmite & cream cheese etc etc.
However if he eats for England at mealtimes, is sancking that important. Please correct me cos I really don't know, maybe I'm doing it all so wrong. Lottie (18 months)has cereal, toast and a bottle of milk at brekkie, lunch is a main meal followed by a bit of cheese or similar, then a yoyhurt or fruit or soemthing, followed by a bit of a museli bar of something and tea is similar only not quite as big as lunch. I rarely give her snacks inbetween - should I?

I agree with your approach on chocolate, Thomcat. Sounds to me like you're giving your children fabulously healthy foods. You're lucky that they like them. I wish my DD would eat more veggies for snacks, but I've tried, and she doesn't take them.

Also, things like pitta bread, naan, crumpets, muffins, crunchy french bread, pancakes, plain popcorn, homemade oven cooked potato wedgies...

How did I manage?... I hardly ever needed to give her a snack when she was that young! I must have been lucky. If I did it used to be a bit of cheese, or an organic cereal bar, or a homemade biscuit, or some french bread, or some apple.