? about giving them crackers

Well, we are finally on 2 bottles a day...am/pm. so I usually give them a snack now in the afternoon with some juice or water.

I am running out of ideas on what to give them. I don't want to give them anything that I have to cook. I'd rather it be something simple and easy especially now that the weather is getting nicer and snack time may often have to be on the go.

I keep reading about people giving their babies crackers and graham crackers which I would love to do but I always try everything out first to see how it disolved in the mouth and I haven't found anything that doesn't scare me to give them. I know they tend to gum things (and my girls are finally improving on that) but I don't want anything that will be too rough or sharp and scratch their throat. Am I being rediculous? What crackers do you give them? How do you give it to them?

Currently we do all kinds of fruits, bread with butter or cream cheese and jelly (sometimes), puffs, cheerios, and a couple of other items. I just really would love to get them into various kinds of crackers since they are easy and filling enough to hold them over until dinner. TIA for your suggestions.

 

Mine love Ritz and Townhouse crackers. I do break those up for them still as they try and put too big of pieces in their mouths if I give them the whole cracker. I also really like the Club Cracker snack sticks, they are good because they really can't put the whole stick in their mouth so it's nice for teaching them to take bites. They also break much easier than regular crackers, they don't crumble as much. I have also used the graham cracker sticks.

 

I've given mine crackers for a really long time, I think it was one of the first things I gave them. Ritz, Townhouse, graham crackers, etc. Now that they have their front top and bottom teeth, they take off bites really well. But before that, those kinds of crackers pretty much just melted in their mouths when they sucked on them long enough.

There are also baby goldfish crackers, which my girls love. I buy them at Target. When our stash is gone, I'm going to try the regular size goldfish crackers.

 

My kids love those goldfish crackers.

thea
misha and cyan 17 months old

 

Our daycare teachers started giving them whole crackers at about 9 months! I was still giving them puffs and Cheerios at that point, but it turned out to be totally fine. They actually really liked having the whole cracker and being able to hang onto it and sort of suck on it. I think they were actually less likely to put too much in the mouth if they had the whole cracker -- since the whole cracker doesn't fit, they were forced to take bites, whereas if you break it up yourself, they will put a whole piece in the mouth even if it's a little too big.

I think they used regular butter crackers (like saltines, but without the salt). You can also use grahams.

When they were on more table foods, we started giving them whole-grain crackers. (You'd need to make sure they aren't sensitive to sesame seeds.) They really like those and we still use them as a stalling measure when dinner isn't quite ready.

Goldfish are also good, though you might want to find a kind that is organic or whole-grain or something -- I think the regular kind have lots of added salt & probably preservatives. We just buy the regular kind but we don't give them all that much, just as a treat.

 

I started giving them crackers around 8-9 months. I broke them into pieces at first, then I guess around 12 months started giving them the whole cracker. They eat all kinds of crackers, Club, Saltines (I get the whole grain ones), Ritz, pretty much whatever kind there is whereever they are. At home, it's usually either the Saltines or these ones called Toasteds, the wheat variety. I like them because they don't make a lot of crumbs.
BTW, around 12 months was when we pretty much went full time with table food. Just keep trying different things with them. Even if they don't have many teeth, they can eat a surprising variety of foods.

 

A lot of people give crackers as an early finger food because they dissolve easily. I've never broken up crackers -- they seem to enjoy having a big cracker to gnaw on. They weren't too excited about Cheese Nips which baffled me but mostly they love any kind of cracker.

 

I don't remember when I started giving them crackers but have been for quite a while.

Try:

goldfish crackers
Keebler makes bug graham crackers my girls love
Ritz dinosaur crackers

These are all great for small hands - I found that the bigger, whole crackers tended to get broken up and stepped on more making a mess to clean up!!! These fit in their snack cups and seem perfect for snacking.

You could also try the different flavors of Cheerios. Mine also like Honeycomb, Kix...just to name a few cereals I use for snacks.

 

Mine all love the Rosemary & Olive Oil triscuits. If you're looking for healthful crackers, stay away from graham crackers. The have a lot of sugar, high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oil in them. Well, most snack foods do, but I was surprised when I read a label on graham crackers how much crap is in them!

 

Favorites in our house have always been Keebler club crackers, baby gold fish, cheese its and those types of things.

 

We love the whole wheat Ritz crackers - and have for while. Kate likes to try and cram an entire cracker in her mouth though! Goldfish are another huge hit. And Wheat thins (go figure - I think it's only because it's my snack that they crave it!). We do teddy grahams instead of graham crackers just because they are easier.

 

Our boys are really into goldfish crackers so that's all the "cracker" I buy!

 

Interesting discussion. I really try to give the babies organic foods, but snack time is where I have broken the rules BIG TIME! I say it's their one time a day to get junk food. We do Baby Goldfish, Mini Nilla Wafers, Grahams, Cheerios (have you seen how much sugar is in these!?!), etc. Earth's Best does make an alphabet snack cracker that we use, too and it's fabulous! They are kind of expensive, though. I also use snack time to give cheese, milk and I'll throw in a fruit if they didn't get it at lunch. I know it's the bridge to make it from lunch to dinner and the cheese can give them enough protein and fat to make it through that time a little less cranky.

 

I also use Earth's Best crackers, they love the ones that are grahams and shaped like a stubby stick, they can hold them easily and take bites. I just found non-baby ones at Whole Foods that are shaped like that and are cinnamon grahams, I really try to stick to buying crackers/cookies that don't have high fructose corn syrup, I bought some arrowroot cookies at the regular grocery store one time and when I got home and read the ingredients and noticed hfcs in a baby cookie I got very upset...

 

I mainly give the boys Goldfish crackers and unsalted Saltines. And they love graham crackers, they have them everyday for a snack. I just give them the cracker and they bite it with their teeth and chew and swallow it fine. I've been giving them crackers since before they were 12 months.

 

For a small cracker mine like oyster crackers

 

Mine too, also love ritz. I think gerber may make crackers...veggie crackers to be exact. My kids liked those at that age.

 

I just want to say thank you for responding. Yesterday, I broke up some graham crackers for them and they did great with them!! I just need to get over this choking and gagging fear I have. I was so motivated that yesterday I ran to the supermarket and bought, Teddy Grahams, baby Goldfish crackers, Fruity Cherrios, Chicken nuggets, fishsticks, and a ton more stuff. I know the chicken nuggets and fishsticks aren't crackers/snack food but it was another thing I have been afraid to try with them so I'm feeling very brave now. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

 

Both my kids have a full rack of teeth so Ihave been feeding them everything my older kids get for months now.

Lots of fruit. Pretzels, crackers, granola bars, fruit bars, bread with cream cheese, noodles, cheese sticks....