Favorite toddler snacks for travel?

[sweet_pea]

We'll be going on our first airplane trip with DD (19 months) in the near future and the moms on this board highly recommended stocking up on lots of snacks for the flight.

What are some good toddler snacks for travel? I'm thinking some sort of cereal (cheerios or chex), cheese sticks, cut-up dried fruit, a jar or two of pureed baby food which DD still likes occassionally....but don't have many other ideas.

What does your toddler like? Any other ideas for something that isn't too messy and can be taken along on the airplane? TIA!

[mikala]

As fair warning TSA can still be, um, interesting with gel/liquid baby food. I took some of the baby food pouches on a recent trip and had the option of either opening each one so they could be "tested" or going for the full pat down for both me and the toddler.

It wasn't a huge deal but something to be aware of if you're taking jarred, liquid food or one of the milk boxes.

I'd go for things that are novel and might take a little while to eat. For example, my similarly aged DS loves freeze dried fruit like the kind from Trader Joe's. Not a ton of nutrition but he doesn't get it every day so it keeps his attention. String cheese, crackers, Annie's bunnies, little raisin boxes, flavored Cheerios instead of the plain ones he usually gets, pretzels with something to dip them in, etc.

If DD likes milk this could be useful, found it cheaper locally:
http://www.amazon.com/Organic-Valley...6502293&sr=8-2

It also helps to offer something to drink on takeoff and landing. The swallowing seems to ease the ear pressure.

Good luck!

[sweet_pea]

Thanks so much for the great ideas, Mikala!

[TwinFoxes]

My DDs love Trader Joe's cereal bars ("A strawberry walked into a bar") under any circumstances, and they travel pretty well. Also, individual packs of Pirate's Booty is a hit. Cheese sticks and a banana or two also do the trick for us. Good luck.

[Pepper]

We're leaving for Florida on Saturday (assuming ANOTHER storm doesn't move in!) and I just stocked up for the trip. Larabars (neither of my boys has peanut or tree nut allergies, thankfull), Babybel cheeses (they love to play with the wax wrappers), and the forbidden-fruit of our household, Chex Mix. I even bought some of the chocolate flavored one, found it in those 100-calorie bags...the boys will go nuts when they see it. Is there something that you don't usually let your DC have that would be OK for her special airplane treat?

For their lunches, I'm going to pack those little triangles of cooked rice from Trader Joe's (they're called Yaki Onigri, I think; you can find 'em in the freezer sections), Korean meatballs, and some fruit. I'll put the rice int he lunchboxes while it's still frozen and let it act as an ice pack. the boys love them and they can hold them in their hands to eat them - not too messey for the airplane. The Korean meatballs are bascially ground beef with some soy sauce, green onions, and other seasonings - but regular meatballs would be fine too, of course :-)

[♥ms.pacman♥]

i think most pp have already mentioned...cheese sticks and/or babybel cheeses (my DS loves both), goldfish crackers, cheerios and other cereals, Pirate's Booty (my DS loves regular as well as Veggie kind). my son is also a big fan of those yogurt melts.

[BabbyO]

We have food allergies so we can't do some of the things in pp's, but we travel with food EVERYWHERE we go so these are some of our favorites:

-Cut up apples - Generally not to sticky/messy and withstand not being refrigerated fairly well
-Bananas - Generally not messy and don't need to be refrigerated
-Wheat thins - not as crumbly and messy as other crackers
- Enjoy life bars (we have to do this brand for FA's, but any non crumbly cereal bar would do)
-Frozen corn or peas (they thaw quickly and travel easily)

ETA: We also like the take n toss straw cups and utensils. I'm not going to stress if any of them are lost.