Cereal
A classic! There’s a reason so many parents give their children cereal to spread all over high chair tables. It’s fun to play with, delicious to eat, and if you can avoid crushing little pieces beneath your feet, it’s also easy to sweep up anything that falls on the floor. Babies can start eating cereal like Cheerios when they can sit up and pick up food by themselves, so it’s a great starter snack.
Raisins
Grapes are an awesome snack, but their juice makes the aftermath a little sticky. Raisins are often packaged for maximum portability, and they’re already adorably bite-sized. They can often stick together and form large clumps, but breaking them up into individual pieces makes them easier for Baby to eat. Since they’re smaller than grapes, they pose less of a choking hazard, but it’s still important that Baby is only eating one raisin at a time.
Cheese
Cheese is such a fun, versatile snack. You’ve got pull-apart string cheese, cheese that comes in those wax wheels, little cubes of cheese. The world is your cheese oyster. It’s solid enough that it’s difficult to make a mess with, but it’s soft enough for Baby to eat. Larger pieces of cheese can pose a choking hazard, but cutting it up into small pieces reduces the risk of choking. It’s recommended that all of Baby’s food be smaller than half an inch. Cheese can typically be introduced between 8 and 10 months.
Granola bars
Baby probably doesn’t have all of their teeth yet, so a soft granola bar made just for kids will probably be easiest for them to chew. The messiness of this snack really depends on how crumbly the bar is, but by breaking it into bite-sized pieces for Baby, you’ll keep them safe from choking hazards and keep control of where most of the crumbs fall, all at once.
Because nuts can be a choking hazard on their own, sometimes crushed bits of nuts in granola can be one of babies’ earliest exposures to them. Nuts can be a serious allergen, especially for babies with family histories of allergies. Your healthcare provider will be able to discuss the right time to introduce allergens to Baby, but it’s generally a good idea to introduce new allergens one at a time, and if Baby is considered to be at a higher risk than average for food allergies, it’s a good idea to have a plan in place in case of an allergic reaction first.
Fruit snacks
These will be popular among your friends and Baby’s, so you might want to pack some extras when you go to the playground. However, fruit snacks that are too chewy will be hard for Baby to eat at this age, and ones that are too big will be hard to swallow. Fruit snacks made for babies are smaller and easier to chew, but pretty much all of them have high sugar content, so it might be a good idea to save these snacks as an occasional treat.
