Please help with HEALTHY snack ideas for 2 year old!

[Mydreamcametrue]

My son is not a great eater AT ALL.  He does not eat meat, vegetables, noodles, rice, nothing at all like that.

He does like Peanut butter, cheese, french fries, pizza, cereal, fruit, etc.

Anyhow he also likes to eat small meals.  I need some suggestion on healthy snacks since he does not really eat lunch or dinner.  He eats a great breakfast though.

This is some I give him:

- Fruit
- Peanut butter crackers
- Gold fish crackers
- raisens
- freeze dried blueberrys
- cheese
- trail mix (cheerios, fruit gummys, pretzals)

Any suggestions?

Thanks, Wendy

[isaac'smom]

Hi,

Would he try things like different types of cereal (not sure where you're from, but Shreddies, for example), celery with peanut butter and raisins or just cheese spread, fruit smoothies (frozen or fresh fruit with yogurt whizzed up in the blender). How about a slice of meat rolled up with a slice of cheese in the middle? I'm trying to think of ways to incorporate the things he already loves into new combinations or ideas and also sneak in new foods.

DS loves vegetable juice...would your ds like that as well? It's a great way to get veggies into him. Hmmm, we don't have a lot of variety in our snacks either...ds can be picky as well. I just found that offering new things once in a while helped because some days he is willing to try new things. I know how frustrating it can be though.

HTH! 

[KathyM]

I mostly want to lurk on this thread for new ideas as my ds's diet sounds a lot like yours.
Will your ds eat yogurt? That's a regular meal item with us. I also use almond butter instead of peanut butter because my ds is mildly allergic to peanuts. It's really good and might be something a little bit different for your ds to try...and it's good for him too. My ds will drink the V8 Fusion drink that has vegetables and fruit in it...that's the only way I get any veggies into him. I'll try to think of more things....and continue to lurk as well.

[J & J's Mum]

Hi,  I have exactly the same problem

My ds is 27 months old.  He only likes certain foods, won't even contemplate trying something new.  I do keep trying though.

Will be interested with some of your responses.

[TDR'smom]

Have you tried Yogurt or String Cheese?

DS loves those as snacks.

[J & J's Mum]

My ds would eat yoghurt forever.  I;m trying to stop it because he wants it all the time instead of meals!  He won't even touch cheese!

[TDR'smom]

My ds would eat yoghurt forever.  I;m trying to stop it because he wants it all the time instead of meals!  He won't even touch cheese!

 

[Mydreamcametrue]

WOW Stacy... Thanks so much.  I have to always remind myself to try different things.  I have tried the skewers, but only once, then I forgot all about it.  I took all your ideas and typed it up on a word doc., so I will not forget.

How to you cook Tofu??  I have never ate it.  Does it have a strong taste?  If I hid it in his milkshake, do you think he could taste it??

Kathy:  He does eat yogurt, just not that much.  We used to give him Sunbutter and mix it with  ground flax seed or wheat germ.  We did this because he could not handle peanut butter, but is fine with it now.  I totally forgot about adding the wheat germ or flax seed to it.

Thanks for all the input!  This really helped my memory of things I have been wanting to try with him.

[momofclaire]

Just wanted to chime in on the tofu thing.  We eat it daily around here.  You can blend it in a smoothie, like Stacy said and you don't even taste it.  It has tons of protien.  We cube it and sautee it with different flavor sauces.  Claires fav is soy with a little brown sugar. It comes out tasting sweet. I like it as well.  The soft kind can be mixed in with yogurt.  You can also mix it into peanut butter and it goes undetected. 

[Colin Macs Mom]

DH and I both love tofu, but Colin won't touch it. I've been trying for a year 

[KathyM]

thanks for the tofu ideas. I love tofu, so maybe I can sneak it in a few things for ds.

[Mydreamcametrue]

I am going to have to think about the tofu thing.  When he was 9 mos old he came up positive at being allergic to Soy, but at 15 mos. it was negative.  He could never handle soy formula or milk though.  BUT he also could never handle milk products and now does great with them.

Just the thought of tofu... yucky..  I am not really worried about the protein part.  He gets complete protein with milk and cheese that he eats. 

I am more worried about his iron because of no meat.  He gets that checked in 3 weeks though.

[binxyboo]

Riley eats plain tofu, just cubed up or cut into strips. Buy the frim one if you are not going to cook it, it holds together better.

[nursekat]

Don't know if you have rice cakes where you live but dd loves them as they seem "sinful" like chips, LOL!  We also have something here in the US called Veggie Booty and Pirate's Booty - healthy cheese-puffs!  And the veggie booty is cheese puffs with spinach and kale instead of cheese (although recently recalled)...again the LO thinks it's such a treat!  We also do our own baby trail mix, which DH calls "baby kibble" - cereals, gerber puffs, etc. but we LOVE the freeze-dried fruit pieces by Gerber or Safeway - little tiny pieces of freeze-dried fruits and you can get apple, strawberry, pineapple, banana, or sweet corn.  Then you're not doing a carbs-only snack.  If you are looking for protein and think yuck when you hear tofu, you can try edamame, which is the soy beans.  Some LOs will take those before peas.  Just some thoughts, as we go through the same things here (although dd is much younger...)

[Mom to M&M]

As for the veggie booty, in addition to recently being recalled for salmonella concerns, they found prior to that that it's not nearly as healthy as they claim. Still better than chips or cheetos, but the amount of veggies actually in there is almost nil.

Wendy - if he's ok with peanut butter, what about some almonds? Do you have him on a multivitamin with iron if you're concerned?