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Dinner On the Go

Feeding Babies and Toddlers When You're Out and About

By Renee Roberson

(Fair Winds Press, 2007), suggests cutting up sweet potato chunks, apple or banana slices or packing oat crackers, cheese cubes, cucumber slices and carrot sticks and a homemade or good quality oatmeal cookie to offer young children for mid-morning or afternoon snacks. (Adult supervision is required as any small food could be a choking hazard.)

Dr. Mary Ellen Renna, author of the upcoming book, Growing up Healthy the Next Generation Way: How to Add Years to Your Child's Life, and Life to Your Child's Years (SelectBooks Inc., 2007), recommends snacks such as yogurt with cut-up fruit and whole-grain crackers rather than the processed treats that are available in abundance at the grocery store.

Koff also believes that children today are consuming far more juice than they should be. "Juice raises the issues of being less hydrating, containing more concentrated sugar and less fiber," she says. "I believe juice to be at the core of the obesity issue as it is possible to drink many more calories before feeling full as well as to consume many more grams of sugar, both of which contribute to the expansion of fat cells."

Instead, Koff recommends that children should eat fruit rather than drinking the juice. Learning to chew helps children control their intake as well as optimize their digestive function. She says that water with a splash of juice or plain milk are better alternatives to juice and juice boxes.

Parents should try to offer healthier choices from the very beginning of their children's lives so they will learn to make better eating decisions later on, Dr. Renna says. She believes that with careful meal planning and buying food ahead of time, parents can make family meals at home part of the everyday routine more often. Snacks should really be the only thing babies and toddlers eat while out and about with their families.

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