Snacks for babies: a how to

Once your baby starts eating solids you’ll enter into a daily loop of caring about the best snacks for babies, as you rack your brains for ideas for morning and afternoon tea.

We’ve given you a bunch of ideas for snacks for babies below (all things that are easy to do while travelling), but before we do that, we’ve provided a few general tips that will help feed your baby solids on holidays.

General tips for feeding your baby while travelling

1. Get organised.It’s always smart to be super organised and have your first evening’s meal with you while travelling, as well as anything you need to feed the baby the next morning. Don’t assume you’ll just ‘duck down to the shop’ to buy something – that’ll cause you undue stress night/day 1. (And if you’re travelling internationally, be ready to feed them a proper meal at some ungodly pre-dawn hour – remember, the baby will still be on ‘home’ time.)
2. Buffets are your friend.
   In restaurants, buffets are best.  If not, don’t waste your child’s “patient sitting in a seat” quota by having them sit there waiting for food. Play or take them for a walk till the food comes.
3. Picnics – pros and cons.
   Picnics are great for ambience (we love them) although crawling children are often hard to ‘catch’ and as a result, might eat less or simply graze their way through. If this proves to be the case for your baby, you’ll find picnics are superb for morning and afternoon tea, but if you do one for lunch you may need to give them a bigger dinner to compensate.
4. Take your esky/cool bag everywhere.
   A small esky/cool bag (one which in your former life you filled with 3-6 cans of beer) is super useful when you are planning mobile snacks for babies. You can keep spoons, wipes, a bib (we love the bibs with a pouch to catch food) and non perishables like the almond butter below in here and pack it fast. Keep everything cool with a tiny frozen water bottle (the size they give out on planes) – better than an ice block as you drink it in emergencies.
5. Should you be strict or flexible about the type of food your baby eats when travelling?
   A bit of both. If you follow the tips above, and plan some easy snacks for babies (suggestions below) it’s possible to keep your specific food standards high. Still, allowing yourself the occasional dash of flexibility and feeding your baby something you wouldn’t do at home will make the world of difference to your trip.

Snacks for babies – a few ideas.

(Please help others by adding your own discoveries below!)

1. Crackers of all descriptions (watch the salt content, not great for babies).
2. Fruit. Particularly small ‘self contained’ foods like blueberries that don’t require any/much preparation – dole these out one at a time when your baby is a bit impatient in a pram, car or on public transport.
3. 100% almond paste (assuming he/she eats nuts).  A great protein hit.  The jar is heavy but you could ‘decant’.  This lasts for ages, and you can either put it on crackers (popular, but messy) or spoon it straight into the waiting mouth (faster, hit and miss in popularity, much less messy).
4. Health food stores, delis and even supermarket chains often sell fresh meals like salads (rice or quinoa a good base for babies) or Japanese meals. Fruit salad pre-packed and cut into baby size squares also makes fabulous snacks for babies. Just check the mains and salads are really from that morning; you don’t want to be eating day old rice.
5. Hard boiled eggs. Cut into chunks and keep cold in a small esky/cool bag.
6. Sachets/squeezy pouches/jars of puree.
   We personally always wax and wane between feeling these are ‘cheating’ and being extremely grateful when they save the day. Take a few with you (plenty are organic, with no preservatives) as they don’t need refrigeration, have options for different ages (try to get the chunkier food options if your baby is older and used to ‘family food’ vs purees) and save them for emergencies.  Or, if you prefer, just use them a lot. It’s a personal preference more to do with how you like to feed your child.  But don’t get us wrong: a few sachets can be a godsend when on the road.
7. Yoghurt
8. Cheese
9. A bread roll (from the breakfast buffet!) makes a good snack.
10. There are endless ideas but remember you want simple AND nutritious…help others by going to the comments and telling us your favourite snacks for babies when you are travelling.

Still have questions about feeding your baby on holiday?

We have a post on ‘eating out’ in restaurants or cafes with a baby that you’ll like.

We have another post on feeding your baby on a plane.

You’ll also want to learn about mobile high chair options.  It’s all covered here.

Remember, we’re also hoping you will book accommodation with a kitchen (see this post here). It will just make your life easier if your baby is onto solids.