What are the guidelines on introducing snacks?

The current guidelines in the UK are that under the age of one year, children don’t necessarily need snacks as they will be eating their 3 meals a day and still getting nutrition from their milk feeds. After a year, the advice is to start to introduce snacks. However, we need to consider that all babies have differing appetites and if your child eats really well at breakfast, lunch and dinner, they may not need snacks straight away. We need to remember that their tummies are still very small!

Why do we need to offer snacks?

When we start to think about snacks as part of our daily food intake for our little ones, we need to think about what this actually means for them as they are growing and developing. When we think about food in general, we need to think about what benefit are our children going to get from what we are offering them. And when I say the word “benefit”, I am talking about nutritional benefit. They are growing and developing and using energy in many ways. From learning to pull themselves up, to learning to walk those first steps. And therefore, when so many changes are occurring in their bodies, we need to ensure that they are getting the correct “Fuel” that they need. So, at Happy Tums, we describe snacks as “mini-meals”. This means, that we need to think of our snacks in the same way as we do our breakfast, lunch and dinner. Are they low in salt and sugar, are they giving a protein source/iron source, are they a starchy carbohydrate and do they contain veg or some fruit to provide those all-important vitamins and minerals? 

Another benefit to thinking of snacks in this way is that if there are days when you might not be able to offer meals at the standard time that you may have been doing due to being out or other reasons, if we know they have had a nutritious snack or 2 during the day, we can be assured that they are not missing out. Snacks are also a great way of keeping a child occupied and being tactile with food which is so important when helping to create a positive relationship with food and mealtimes.

What about things like crisps or chocolate as a snack option?

Typically, I think we view “snacks” as something which comes in a packet. So, think crisps, biscuits, cakes etc. But these are definitely not going to give our little ones the goodness they need as these tend to be very high in salt and sugar and all sort of other nasties! We also don’t want to encourage our children to see their snacks always coming out of a crinkly packet and start believing that this is the normal way snacks are presented to them.

Snack ideas for the whole family.

To give you an idea of snacks which contain amazing nutrients for your baby or toddler, I have made a list below of the ones I have given my family.

  • Eggy bread fingers with full fat Greek yogurt and berries.
  • Canned tuna mixed with Greek yogurt on whole meal bread and unsalted butter.
  • Avocado on toast with some orange slices
  • Blueberry pancakes with Greek yogurt.
  • Cashew nut butter on oat cakes and some peach slices
  • Peanut butter on toast with halved tomatoes
  • Whole meal wrap spread with full fat cream cheese with peppers and cucumbers.
  • Savoury flapjacks – recipe
  • Roasted root veg wedges with houmous
  • Small bowl of pesto pasta
  • Cheese and spinach savoury muffins
  • Grapes and baby-bel cheese with small pitta bread
  • Cooked carrot sticks with tzatziki (homemade)
  • Falafel with tzatziki
  • Savoury curry biscuits – recipe with some pineapple chunks
  • Hard boiled egg with buttered (unsalted) toast
  • Plums with oats and yogurt
  • Porridge fingers with almond butter
  • Berries with chopped nuts and cheddar cheese cubes
  • Prawns and oat cakes with cream cheese
  • Prawns and cooked broccoli mixed with Greek yogurt in small pitta bread
  • Fruit salad sprinkled with chopped nuts and seeds with a cup of milk
  • Banana and yogurt made in the Nom Nom reusable pouches.
  • Flaked salmon mixed with yogurt and chopped tomatoes on toast
  • Apple muffins with slices of edam cheese

I hope these give you some ideas of snack options if you are beginning to think about adding snacks into the day or if you are stuck in a “snack rut” and need more inspiration. If you have any other snack ideas, I would love to hear about them on my social media platforms