Healthy Snacks

My family enjoys the Quaker Granola Bites. I buy them at Costco and the box has 3 varieties. All come in individually-wrapped packets of 90 calories each. Good for the kids and you too! :)

Hi K.! I too feed my son breakfast on the way to preschool/work. I always give my son a tuperware container with a variety of different things such as - cut up fruit, Nutrigrain waffle with peanutbutter/jelly folded in half like a sandwich, half a hard boiled egg, dry cereal, half a peanutbutter and jelly sandwich, and then a water bottle with juice or milk. I find that if I put it in the tuperware then I can pop the lid on and off and contain some of the mess. I've also tried a couple of those new organic breakfast cookies but he wasn't a huge fan. Good thing - because I loved them and ate them all. Hope this helps - I can't wait to see the responses so I can get some new ideas too. Take care!

Check out Brotherallnatural.com Great healthy dried fruit.

I do have a long drive but I try to give her food @ home but not always possible. For those day I have cou[ple of options, that my daughter (2.5 Years) likes and they work real good for me:
1. Pepperidge Farm Cinannomon brown sugar Bread - straight from the pack.
2. Mini Pancake - heat and keep them in ziploc and give it to her no Syrup.
3. Austins Peanut butter, cheddar crackers, Grahm Honey Carckers.
4. Fruit Snack - available at Costco She like Welch's best.
5. Cheese Toast gve it to her in hand with Ziploc to keep remainder in case there are left overs.
6. Tetra pack juicy juice with Straw.

All of these are not so messy options and work good for her.

I am keeping my eyes open for other ideas. Thank you for your question.

Regards
V.

Warm (not too hot!) hot chocolate in a sippy cup is good on cold mornings (in fact I give this to my 8 year old in a thermal coffee cup now)

Go-Gurt snacks

Toaster strudel (the egg & bacon ones - not so sugary)

Hash browns (these keep little hands warm on cold mornings)

I had this same commute when my son was little. I have to say, we did do the McDonalds drive through for pancakes everyonce in a while! Most breakfast cereal is vitamin fortified, if they will eat the ones without too much sugar, like Kicks. My son would eat the cereal dry and have either a juice box or a reusable sippy cup with milk. A string cheese stick with an apple is great for a meal any time of day, or a toaster waffle (also fortified I think) with PBJ in the middle like a sandwich. If you want to avoide the mess by your daughter, get her ready first, set her in the high chair infront of the cartoons on PBS to eat while you and your son get ready, then he can eat in the car since he is the "big boy" and does not make such a mess. Good luck!

What about granola bars w/dried fruit in them? My son loves them and they aren't very messy in the car. Another option is like a snack mix w/cereal, dried fruit and etc.

Teething biscuits or graham crackers.

I have the same problem but I tend to give a smaller amount in the cup so when it does get thrown down there is less or none to clean up. You can always keep several small portions handy. Mine manages to crumble and smear fruit cereal bars.

My son is also a terribly picky eater. We found dried apple and pears in a snack size bag at Costco. They are called Crisps and are made by a company called brothers all natural. My son loves them! Good Luck!

My son threw his snacks a lot, and he still does it occasionally. I reach back to him to give one piece of whatever so it limits the mess if he throws.

Does your daughter like milk? I changed the schedule of when I gave my son milk when we had a flight somewhere; he drank the milk in the car on the way to the airport. He was full on the 8 or 10 ounces of milk and didn't want to snack for a couple of hours. Maybe this would be a sufficient way to fill her up and avoid a mess.

Crackers and snacks like those are a staple in the diaper bag. Variety and allowing him to pick his own cracker from the tupperware are the tricks I pull when he's jumpy. Kashi makes three or four different cracker flavors and they are super healthy.

The only other thing I do is the same as every other mom: cut up fruit. If this is getting too boring for your little ones, sprinkle the apple slices with some cinnamon.

I'm looking forward to hearing other people's responses!

Have you tried dried fruits(raisins, cranberries, apricots, banana chips,etc.)? Mix them up in snack size zip bags.
Cheese sticks are also good and kids ususally love them. How about rice cakes? They come in lots of flavors. Bread sticks and oyster crackers are also good to munch on.

Based on your kids ages, it sounds like you might be dropping them at a child care facility on your way to work? If that's the case, do they eat breakfast when they get there? If so, I would just give them milk or a milk/kefir smoothie on the way. Letting your kids eat in the car is very dangerous. Just having them eat while you drive increases the risk of choking, and should your child choke while you're driving, you would not be able to assist he/she immediately. If they absolutely must eat something, it should be cereal like Cheerios that dissolve easily. You can put it in cups that they can hold while in their car seats.

I also had a long commute when I used to work. My daughter loved eating raisins, goldfish crackers (which come in a million varieties including pretzels & whole wheat), cheese sticks, and baby carrot sticks. You could also try any type of dry cereal that your kids like. Any of these things can be given to your kids in either little plastic ziplock bags or little plastic reusable containers that they sell in the aisle by the sippy cups at Target. Good luck.

Get one of those snack holders where the kid has to stick their hand in to retrieve the snacks but if they drop it or spill it, it won't be all over the car. If she throws it, the opportunity for snacking is gone. When you're driving it is unsafe to try to constantly retrieve snacks or dropped items. If she's truly hungry, she'll learn that she needs to hang on to her food if she wants to eat it. It's like the throwing of the food off the high chair tray. You throw it, it's gone.

can you feed her her food in the highchair at home while you get your son ready then give her her cup/bottle in the car? Just switching which is the first thing offered may be the solution.

Cereal is great, look for highest fiber content

Protein bars might be a hit, try the non chocolate coated to keep down on messes, but there are tons of flavors from carrot cake to chocolate chip.

I like Fiber One products as they are high fiber content. I finally let my kids have toaster pastries (Pop Tarts type things) because Fiber One came out with them and they were so high in fiber I let them have it.

You can always give her dinner as breakfast too. If she likes grilled cheese cut that up and give that to her. If she likes noodles that are sauceless that is an option.

I think if you think outside the norm you may find tons of options. I JUST threw out the list of easy things to eat that I had posted from when my dd was 2.

my two year old is a HUGE snacker so we are always on the lookout for new snacks...he loves fruit so we do that quite a bit, but we also do cheese...cheese sticks are good, but so are the cubes...also we make a snack mix with the toddler dried fruit pieces(easier to chew and harder to choke on than regular dried fruit pieces) pretzel sticks, and goldfish crackers(a HUGE hit)...I also think the milk idea was good...if she won't drink it plain maybe a little bit of ovaltine in it(just enough to taste)...that might fill her up...good luck. :)