Dairy free baby snacks? Looking for an alternative to rusks or cruskits

[Santosha]

DS getting to that age when too long in a pram queuing at the bank or highchair / lap at a cafe and he's getting grouchy. DD at the same age was happily preoccupied for a while with a cruskit or rusk and I loved both as they'd keep for a while and were easy to chuck a couple in the nappy bag on the way out the door.

Problem is, they both contain dairy and DS is intolerant. Anyone know of an alternative - ideally no/low salt, no/low sugar and additive-free?

TIA

[sweetpea678]

Organics4kids, organic gluten free teething rusk. They are gluten, dairy go free, no added sugar, no persevitves. Not sure where to buy from, can get online.

[onthefly]

corn cakes

[meow]

homemade jerky

[HotI]

cucumber sticks

[Santosha]

Thanks ladies. MadB I did contemplate corn cakes/rice cakes but wasn't sure if they dissolve and go mushy the way cruskits do or if they'd break off into hard chunks?

My paranoia and parental self-doubt feel the need to add that I do only give him fruit and veg and aim to keep that as the vast majority of snacks... Just looking for that non-perishable alternative for emergencies.

[Aussiegirl777]

Santosha, have you looked at the corn cruskits. I think they only have maize and salt as the ingredient. I think maybe less salt in the corn ones than the orignal flavour but I can't remember of the top of my head.

[~me~]

Does he eat cereal? My kids love dried cereal. So a dairy free cereal is great out and about.
Sakata rice biscuits. Home made polenta fingers, I used to make mine up using soy and add vanilla essence to make them taste nice.

[onthefly]

they get mushy and stick to everything

[wysiwyg]

Puffed Corn - you can buy a big bag of it (and is just corn) and just fill a little container - or puffed rice (rice is smaller) - if you don't put near any liquid or next to fruit they stay firm enough. I prefer the corn as are bigger - DS copes fine with them, but maybe try the puffed rice first till you see how your DS handles it. I just went by the rule that he can pick them up himself so should be ok to move round his mouth.

[MrsFabuloso]

Dried fruit
Veggie sticks (par boiled for littlies)
Fruit like grapes, mandarin segments, strawberries
Ritz crackers (no milk!)
Paradise malt biscuits
Home made bread sticks (over-bake some dairy free bread until crisp and dry, you can sprinkle on your own flavours- herbs/salt...)
Arnotts big Teddy biscuits (NOT tiny teddies)

[Lisa B]

I'm interested too as my bub is dairy free. Currently my staple snacks that I carry around is wholemeal bread cut as soliders (with vegemite and nutlex - we are also on a high calorie diet), rice rusks and banana.

[~me~]

Santosha..my suggestion is to go a Gluten Free shop or Organic Health Shop. I have my DS2 on elimination diet at the moment and he can't have dairy, soy, wheat, gluten, nuts, corn/maize or egg. In the Gluten Free shop I go to, everything is coded with stickers explaining what they are free of. The local organic shop has also been wonderful.
I believe there is a huge one in Ormond if that is is near you anywhere near you.
There is a website a friend got me onto called gluten free goddess, she has some great dairy free snacks to make up. Another alternative to dairy if he is also soy free is coconut milk.

[Sagres]

You can buy little rice cakes for kids, like adult sized rice cakes but smaller and I think they 'dissolve' in the mouth more than adult rice cakes.

[christy]

I used to take a piece of bread, and cut the crust off, roll it up and mush it together in my hands so it was nice and gross, then microwave it for 1 minute. Then let it cool until its rock hard and pop it in a zip lock bag.... I would put 2 in the nappy bag when I needed something to hand her... both my girls are dairy free, we used those but mostly I would have fruit slices like apple or vege sticks in our bag as well... Good luck!

[Snacks]

I was going to suggest bread/toast too. You can make croutons in the oven - I imagine oven-cooking some bread soldiers would make them firm and they'd probably keep a couple of days in a snap-lock bag (or Tupperware t-bar container )

[BlackRose]

Vege 'flats' by fine fettle are yummy!