3-4 snacks a day for 1 year old?!

[TheRookieMum]

Currently my 11mo DS eats no snacks. Just 3 meals which he does generally well at + milk feeds. Days after he turns 1, he'll start with a childminder who has asked that as well as providing lunch (fine), we also send him with 3 to 4 snacks each day (three to four?! Is that normal?!). I'm struggling to even think of 3 or 4 snacks he'd eat, nevermind making it varied day to day! Banana... plum... yogurt...?

He doesn't like eggs, hummus, cream cheese or cheese, although we're working on it as I'm determined he just needs more exposure to some of these.

What snacks, and how many a day, do your 1yo's eat please?

Those baby snacks are overpriced UPF shite too btw.

www.firststepsnutrition.org/upfs-marketed-for-infants-and-young-children

A lot of info here. I bought into the 'baby snacks' thing with DD1 and wish I hadn't.

Rice cakes
Breadsticks
Crackers
Raisins
Pieces of fruit
Yoghurt tubes or pouches
Cheese eg babybels
Tofu squares
Soreen bars or oat bars
Little ham roll ups
Hummus and vegetable dippers
Fruit and veg dippers with peanut butter mixed with oil

DD2 really likes these and they are super quick to make. I do a ton of them and just freeze them and then defrost over a week or two when needed.

https://www.tamingtwins.com/savoury-muffins-recipe/

There's also a group of apps called BabyLed Weaning Cookbook, and one IIRC is light bites and lunch ideas. It has stuff like different muffins, pinwheels, etc. It was paid for but I think it was only a fiver or something and I've used it loads with both DC.

I’ve never done regular snacks. If DD (4) says she’s hungry of course I’ll give her something (usually a banana), but unless she asks she just has breakfast, lunch and dinner. I was reading an Italian weaning book the other day (DS coming up to that time) and it says snacking isn’t really a thing there.

But why give a one year old who doesn't know the difference one or two unhealthy things a day? It's just such an odd choice.

Completely different when they're old enough to ask/want it, but it's entirely your choice at this point. Faced with a healthy snack and an unhealthy one, it's weird to make the choice once or twice a day to give your one year old the unhealthy one.

But you can do better than fine. So why not do it?

The odd baby crisp isn't going to hurt. But it's not actively good for him and they're overpriced so why add that in? You've said yourself he's fine with no snacks. If you need to add snacks in then plum, yoghurt and banana all good choices, as as all other fruits, veggies, nut butters etc. You don't need baby crisps. He doesn't need baby crisps.

I give my 10 month old snacks every day. She loves food! I give all sorts of fruit, peas, sometimes a fruit and veg purée pouch, crackers, breadsticks, peanut butter or butter or avo on toast, mini homemade fruit and veg muffins, porridge fingers, the veggie straw crisps, Heinz biscotti, those oval wafers... loads of things really. All her meals are made from scratch and she's growing well. She's my second child and I'm a lot more willing to throw whatever is to hand at her while I stack the dishwasher

What I used to do was lunch (sandwich/cold pasta/salad etc) then some snacks (raisins, oat bar, bread sticks, yoghurt) quite often he'd have them with lunch at the minder as he was used to bigger meals less snacking, but I'd try to do dry/wrapped foods which could be offered as morning snack or afternoon if he wanted it if the others were snacking. No harm in also sending one of the things you know he doesn't usually eat but you'd like him to like some cut up cheese - sometimes if another child is eating them they magically develop a liking and it saves you the job of trying at home.

Blimey. The food police are out in full force today, I see.

Why can't people understand that different things work for different people?

I am very lucky, my toddler is a terrific eater with a mature palate. She eats 3 square meals a day with no regular snacks, unless we are travelling or a meal has been delayed. 80% of the time it's whole foods and home cooking, fruit and vegetables at every meal, breakfast and dinner are always eaten as a family and quite often there's dessert.

However, some days I pass the baton to Captain Birdseye and his cohort. I do this for two reasons:

1. I'm not always feeling up to cooking. I have off days, or sick days. Sometimes I'm simply too busy to cook, because I've got other household duties that require my attention. And sometimes I simply need a break. So rather than try to be superwoman, I make sure to have options like fish fingers, chips and peas, or chicken dippers, beans and potato waffles.

2. To prevent food snobbery and orthorexia. If I only ever exposed my child to perfectly healthy food, I'd be setting myself, and her, up for a world of headaches. Do I really want to never be able to take her out for pizza or ice cream? Do I really want to raise a kid that turns her nose up at the pleasure of fish and chips at the seaside, or refuses to touch a McDonald's happy meal when we're caught out and travelling, with only a crappy service station available?

Obviously, not all children have the same appetites or food preferences. Some children will be inevitably harder to feed than others. And some families are busier, or more stressed out, or worse off than others. It's not one size fits all.

Here's some food for thought for all the critics. My beloved grandmother lived to the age of 89. She was a very classy, elegant lady, but she was also very down to earth. She was brought up in a very poor family, lived through a world war, smoked most of her life, and one of her favourite meals was a can of cream of tomato soup with a grilled sandwich made with gasp american cheese. She knew the importance of nutritious food, but she also knew how to balance it with living a regular life. Throughout her entire life, she ate plenty of what we now call ultra processed food. And yet, she lived a long, full life, looked far younger than her years, and she was a remarkably healthy, vibrant woman, until she had a fall, broke her hip, had an extended stay in hospital and finally an aneurysm in her abdomen burst, and she passed away in her sleep.

Anyway, for all the mothers (and fathers) who might be reading this, I just wanted to share this with you today, and to encourage you to keep trying your best and ignore the naysayers. Sure, make improvements wherever you're able to, and offer as much nutritious grub to your kids they'll take, but don't kill yourself over it. Your kids want parents who are happy and present, not burnt out husks.

And please, don't waste your days worrying about what other people think. Just focus on yourselves and your own families, and pour all your love and effort into them. It's your family who love you back, not faceless internet busy-bodies.

All the best,
From a fellow mum

@TheGrTheGr8Cornholio, you are a beautiful human. Thank you. You have so eloquently written what I could not. The judgement is strong on this post!

Thank you also to everyone who provided real examples of what might constitute a snack, and tips. It's interesting to look at the different lists provided, and to hear that not everyone does snacks. I'll have to experiment and see what DS would prefer and go from there.

Nobody’s judging OP. You asked what snacks our kids have and how often, and we’ve answered you. What did you expect? Of course you were going to get a range of responses.

I’m a bit shocked that anyone is giving a one year old sausage rolls, cocktail sausages, pizza bites or any ultra processed items. Additionally, none of those are snacks. Party food for ages 4+ perhaps.

Maybe I've misread the other posts, but I think they are talking about giving a baby, who isn't asking to snack, crisps instead of a banana, not toddlers and fishfingers or the elderly and cheese sandwiches. Totally different things.

And the idea that you have to introduce junk food young lest you produce a child that doesn't like McDonald's 😂😂😂.

I'd also say it's unlikely that the OP would be killing herself/end up a burnt out husk because she sent a plum to the childminder instead of an oaty bar!

Very eloquent, but massively off point!

Yes it was a very good post but for a totally different thread!

Indeed!

I'll feed my son how I want to thanks. Don't need the food police to tell me otherwise. He had his first McDonald's the other day and thoroughly enjoyed it. 😊

@NuffSaidSam my son gets plenty of fruit and veg every day. He can have other snacks too.

Not telling you anything.

I was asking you a question.

Why do you make that choice for him?

I know that you can. That's not in dispute. My simple question was, why?

I think also you do have to get used to them eating differently in a child care setting. Mine go to nursery (well, the second will when I go back to work). Nursery always serve two courses for lunch and tea. Sometimes the second is fruit or yogurt, sometimes it's crumble or cake with custard. I'd never offered my first any dessert other than fruit and yogurt! They offer 3 meals and two snacks over the course of the day, and when I look at the meal plan for the week I'm always struck by what a nice balance it is. All this hype about UPF is a bit like the hype around fruit containing sugar or how it used to be about fat. At the end of the day it's balance that is important and that your child is included in the social aspect of eating with others at the childminder.

My son also has plenty of meat but probably shouldn't mention that as I don't want the vegans after me for not being old enough to make that choice...🙄🙄

Fact: it's been proven to help with their brain development better than just a fruit/veg diet.

We have fish fingers, beans, etc in this house too but this thread isn't about that is it? It's about snacks, everyday things, and I do think it's weird to give a baby crisps and chocolate every day because it's just so unnecessary. They aren't old enough to demand those things, so I suppose I don't really understand why you would give them daily. It's just needless. In an older child who asks for things and who cares what peers are doing then that makes more sense.

DD2 is 14mo and she from time to time has a little bit of chocolate if there's some on the go or cake or shares a packet of crisps with DD1 on a day out, but absolutely not every day. I don't think I'll have anything to fear about her refusing to eat junk food when she's older though How I wish it worked like that. I still don't understand how a baby can have crisps AND chocolate every day yet still have far more healthy snacks unless they are eating like 6 snacks a day, which is probably another issue entirely! I think that it might be one of those cognitive dissonance things that if you actually looked at what they had in a week, that stuff would be higher than you thought.

But anyway OP has received plenty of healthy snack ideas that aren't crisps and chocolate and I've taken a few ideas from it too

@TheRookieMum can I just ask how much milk he's having if he's currently not eating snacks? Just asking as between 10 and 12 months they only need 400 ml of formula a day so isn't he starving?

3/4 seems a lot

1/2 so one 10/11 and 3ish seem fine

Not sure how and when a cm can give 4 tbh

Anyway dd had/has

Rice cakes - still like now
Breadsticks
Raisins
Chopped banana apple pear plum etx
Veggie crisps
Crisps
Cucumber
Squares of cheese
Carrot sticks

Where have you got the amount 400ml from please?

He's combo fed atm so he gets offered 2 bottles of formula a day, each is 150ml, of which he drinks roughly 70-120ml depending on (I assume) how hungry he is. He also gets 2 milk feeds from me during the day and none or 1 overnight. He eats what I think is an impressive amount of food at each meal as well. I'm introducing snacks alongside bottles now thanks to a PP so I'll see how that changes things.