Snack Attack, Baby Style

My darling daughter Ava will be 9-months-old later this week. It’s amazing how quickly time flies by. It seemed like just yesterday she never ate more than four ounces of breastmilk and then formula later on. These days she only has one, maybe two bottles a day if I can get her to eat that much.  She would rather eat the puree baby food.

Unfortunately, she isn’t too big on the green vegetables (must get that from me) but loves the sweet potatoes and corn. And anything fruit is always on the menu. She especially loves her bananas and fresh oranges and strawberries are yummy. She tried mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving and loved them too.

Formula and puree food aside, Ava absolutely loves and can’t live without her Gerber Graduates snacks. All of which are excellent sources of vitamin A, C & E, iron, zinc and/or whole grains. Whether it’s the yogurt melts, wagon wheels or lil’ crunchies, she can’t go a whole day without having a few. According to the Gerber website, as babies grow into toddlers, approximately 25% of their calories will come from snacks. Considering how much she loves her veggie dip flavored crunchies, I can understand why.

A word of caution, if your child is as independent as mine tries to be, and likes to feed themselves, do not let them pick up the yogurt melts. There is a reason they’re called melts. And since the art of moving snack from bowl to hand to mouth is not mastered in mere seconds at this point in time, the majority of the snack ends up melted in the hand.

If your child is teething and/or just learning to hold their snacks and feed themselves, I recommend starting out with the wagon wheels. They are larger in size making them easier for little fingers to grasp and practice self-feeding with. Just a word of advice with this snack, bibs are your friend. They tend to be a little on the messy side after they have been gnawed on for a few minutes and you are liable to find pieces stuck in your baby’s hair, on their fingers or wherever else their little hands touch.

Ava’s third and favorite snack in the bunch is the lil’ crunchies. They are easy to hold, don’t melt in your hand and are bite size enough that one will usually fit whole in her mouth. They even come in many different flavors: cinnamon maple, veggie dip (Ava’s favorite), garden tomato, and mild cheddar. There are only two things I will caution you on regarding the crunchies. First, they may get addicted to them. Second, if they like the cinnamon maple flavored ones (lucky for me, Ava doesn’t) be prepared to smell maple for long hours after they are done snacking.