Non-Dairy Snacks

[mamaemily81]

My son is very sensitive to dairy and I have been struggling to find him easy to eat finger food snacks. Seems like so many people give string cheese or goldfish crackers. I have been giving fruit and graham crackers, but would love any other ideas. My son is 15 months old. Thanks!

[SashaE80]

My son is the same age, he's a little sensitive to dairy, not too much but we don't like to overload his diet with it.
Our snack staples tend to be dairy free
Hummus and crudites
Guacamole and rice cakes
bread sticks
sausage rolls - we have veggie but no reason not to have the meaty ones...
I'm sure we have more variety but it's been a long day and my brain has turned to mush!

[mamaemily81]

Oooh, thanks. Definitely things I have not thought of! Is your son good at dipping, (the crudites in the hummus, for example) without throwing the bowl or trying to stick his fingers in the hummus and just eat it off of his fingers? Or do you feed it to him? I'm afraid that I might have a little troublemaker. I've seen some of my friends kids, same age, eat so nicely. I guess I just need to work with him more, I get frustrated and avoid letting him try, so probably my fault.

Does he eat the guacamole and the rice cakes together? That's a yummy idea!

Also, what are sausage rolls? Where do you get them?

Thanks for your ideas, I really appreciate them!!
Emily

[SashaE80]

We did baby led weaning so he's quite good at dipping/ feeding himself. They are at about the age where they just 'get it' but i'll admit we had a long time of very very messy meal times. I have an wipe clean table cloth on our table and one on the floor. If the weather is good for you I can highly recommend feeding outside, with a naked baby. Much easier to clean. It's worth persevering!

Rice cakes are brilliant, lather anything on top and it's a good vehicle to get it to the mouth! I tried just giving avocado on it's own but it's a bit slippery and he got very frustrated...

I guess sausage rolls are a British thing! They are basically sausages wrapped in a thin layer of shortcrust (flaky) pastry. The sausages are precooked (not an issue with veggie ones), wrapped and then put in the oven again for about 20 mins or so. If you can buy them premade they are really quick to warm up.

One more, I think the favorite of the moment is ice lolies, chop a banana in half, put a lollipop stick up the middle of each half and freeze.

[natesgirl]

fruit
veggies
(steam anything hard and cube it)

[mookie]

The original flavored Goldfish are safe (at least they were 8 years ago)
Soy yogurt
Dip the graham crackers in soy pudding (messy but oh so fun)

[bigfamilymama]

I havent read the others but my youngest is 12 months and allergic to dairy and this is what I give him

Fruit
homemade muffins and soft bars that are dairy free
dairy free cookies that are homemade so I know what kind of nutrition goes in them
do delicious coconut yogurt
rice crackers
homemade diary free bread sticks
cucumber chunks

And thats about it for now...he dont eat too much now but geesh now that I think of it...it is going to be harder the older he ets without giving him the same thing all the time!!

I would reccomend finding a dairy free kids food blog and bake homeade goodies and keep them in the freezer for on hand use!

[skolbut]

Yeah, I think original (not cheddar) and pretzel goldfish are fine.
Black beans
Meat and mayo (or just meat) on tortilla rolled up and sliced into wheels
Pretzels
Fruit (blueberries and raspberries are H's fave!)
Hard boiled egg
Veggie straws/chips by sensible portions
Air popped popcorn with cooking spray and mrs. dash original
Applesauce
Chips or crunchy breadsticks and mild/homemade salsa or guac
Quaker Oatmeal Squares cereal... mmmmmm.....
Bagel with PB

We don't really follow the 'rules' for what foods go at what meals... we often have PB and J for breakfast and eggs for dinner, so snacks are sortof 'whatever' at our house.