On the go

When you're trying to feed your child a high calorie diet, snacks can be very challenging. Most easy snacks aren't high calorie AND easy to transport. Below is a list of snacks we find easy to travel with and aren't too nutritionally lacking.

• Cliff Z bar - 120 calories, 2.5g fat, 3g protein

• Cliff Twisted Fruit - 70 calories

• Cereal

Can be kind of messy to transport, but we use these reusable snack bags. They're super easy for Emma to use and they're very easy to clean.

Some Cereal Options:

Kix – (1 ¼ cup) 110 calories, 1g fat, 2g protein

Trix – (1 cup) 120 calories, 1.5g fat, 1g protein

Cheerios – (1 cup) 100 calories, 2g fat, 3g protein

Fruit Cheerios – (3/4 cup) 100 calories, 1.5g fat, 1g protein

Yogurt burst cheerios (3/4 cup) 120 calories, 1.5g fat, 2g protein

Chex (rice) (1 cup)- 100 calories, 0 fat, 2g protein

Wheat Chex (3/4 cup) – 160 calories, 1g fat, 5g protein

Quaker Granola (the oats and honey variety does not have corn) (1/2 cup) – 210 calories, 6g fat, 5g protein

• Granola Bars

Nature Valley – 90 calories, 3g fat, 2g protein

Quaker – 100 calories, 3g fat, 1g protein

• Dried Fruit

Raisins (1/2 cup) 217 calories, 0 fat, 2g protein

Apricots (1/2 cup) – 157 calories, 0 fat, 2g protein

Apples (1/2 cup) – 104 calories, 0 fat, 0 protein

Cranberries (1/3 cup) – 140 calories, 0 fat, 0 protein

• Popcorn

Oil Popped (1 cup) – 55 calories, 3g fat, 1g protein

• Squeezable packets

GoGo Applesauce – 60 calories, 0 fat, 0 protein

Revolution Foods Mashup Strawberry Banana – 60 calories, 0 fat, 1g protein

Peter Rabbit Fruit Pouches Apple Grape – 80 calories, 0 fat, 0 protein

• Crackers

http://www.latejuly.com/late_july_organic_snacks/2008/01/our-bite-size-c.html

Cheddar bunnies snack packs – 140 calories, 6g fat, 3g protein

Graham bunnies snack packs – 120 calories, 4g fat, 2g protein

Meal Supplements

Pediasure or Boost are very popular options for meal replacements or supplements that doctors and nutritionists recommend when children have trouble gaining weight or are poor eaters. If you've ever looked at the ingredient list there is a lot of ingredients that make a lot of moms wonder what exactly they are putting in their child's body. I'm not knocking them at all, they are very convenient and provide great nutrition, however sometimes parents are looking for a more natural option. I've put together a couple options that include more natural ingredients while keeping a good calorie, fat and protein ratio. My recommendation is that if you're using these as a meal replacement (i.e. your child won't eat and they drink instead) you should include a multi-vitamin to make sure they are getting all the vitamins and minerals they need. However, if you're just using it to boost calories then you shouldn't need a vitamin.

Basic Recipe

1 cup whole milk Kefir

1/2 cup banana (approx. a small banana)

2 Tbs Nestle Nido

1/2 Tbs honey

Kefir is more sour than milk, which is why I've added honey. You could also add fruit juice, sugar or anything a little sweeter.

The best part of this recipe is that you can really substitute anything. If you can't find kefir, you can use equal parts milk and yogurt. You could also just use milk or half and half. If your child has a milk allergy you could use coconut milk kefir or any milk substitute that you like.

If your child doesn't like bananas you can use any fruit, you could also forgo the fruit and add a splash of vanilla or chocolate if your child likes that. Again you can also use formula in place of the nido, which would make it a more balanced option if you're using it as a meal replacement.

You'll notice in the nutritional information below that the kefir options appear to have more sugar, but it's unrefined sugar - a mixture of fruit, honey and milk sugars. You'll also notice that there isn't vitamin information for the kefir options, it's because they are listed as adult servings on the package and I didn't want to do the math.

meals on the go

I have a hard time figuring out what to pack for my daughter when we're on the run because so many high fat foods also need to be kept refrigerated. PB&J (or honey) is an obvious choice, but Emma will only eat that if a friend is eating it and she can steal it away, she won't eat it if I pack it.
Cereal bars have become our new "go to" because they travel easily and don't require any utensils to eat. We usually buy the Kashi ones because they seem to have less sugar than other brands, but Kellogg's also makes one, as does 365 Organic... there should be a couple varieties to choose from at your market.
Ritz Crackers are also a good choice to carry around. You can get the Ritz Bitz in a variety of bite size flavors and they have quite a few more calories than goldfish or bunnies. (FYI, Ritz does contain HFCS if that is a concern, but there is an organic version you should be able to find that does not)
As far as fruits and vegetables go, avocado, bananas and raisins all travel very well and are more calorie dense than other choices.
Sometimes it doesn't matter how calorie dense your options are, if your child won't eat them then they do you no good. Obviously if your child will eat 15 goldfish and only one ritz, the goldfish is the better choice for you. However, it does take kids up to 20 times to like a new food so keep trying!

Quick Snack Idea

One of the hardest meal ideas for me is snacks. Since my daughter only eat a couple bites at a time I really want to be sure that everything she puts in her mouth is as calorie dense as it can be. That means no puffs, which is probably one of the most common snack ideas but most of them have less than a calorie each. Our favorites right now are stuffed fruit (I put a little cream cheese in each raspberry), ritz crackers and "Fatty Cheerios". If I'm giving her fruit it's alway tossed in olive oil (same with veggies) or has cheese on it. Basically nothing goes in her mouth "plain". She seems to enjoy each one and I feel better about her getting a couple extra calories.

Fatty Cheerios

3 tbs butter, melted
1 tbs worcestershire sauce
1 tsp seasoned salt
2 cups cheerios (any cereal would work)

Mix the first 3 ingredients and then stir in the cheerios, making sure to coat as evenly as possible. Spread them out on a baking sheet and bake them at 250F for about 10 minutes. Let cool and enjoy!

You can do about any flavor combination that you want. I've tried this with butter and vanilla agave and it was fantastic as well!