I really dislike having to prepare snacks. They are such an annoying “meal” to prepare and getting the serving size right can be so fickle - you want to offer enough to make it through to the next main meal, but not so much that they’re not hungry come that meal.

I’m personally not a huge fan of packaged snacks as they typically contain lots of added ingredients. I prefer to offer fruit, veggies, homemade muffins, veggie slice, yoghurt etc. However, rice cakes are a winner in my books, when it comes to packaged snacks.

The rice cakes themselves aren’t abundantly nutrient dense (although plain is a hit with Franklin and no mess), but they are a brilliant vehicle for more nutrient dense toppings - hummus, nut butter, avocado, mashed veggies or fruit.

I recommend avoiding snacks until after 12mo, as they’re typically not required before, instead gaps between meals should be filled with milk feeds. When choosing a snack like rice cakes, you want to aim for established chewing and swallowing, and crackers that become nice and soft, or crumble, in the mouth.

If we refer back to the article on how to read a nutrition label, we can make the following analysis:

Ingredients - two (rice and puffed grains) —> fabulous

Fat - 3.3g per 100g —> good

Sugar - 1.2g per 100g —> very low

Sodium - 1mg per 100g —> extremely low