Best Allergy-Friendly Snacks for Kids

For the last three years I have been on a journey to find the absolute BEST allergy-friendly snacks for my son. I have read so many articles, blog posts, done so much research, and dug deep into ingredients and different brands to find the best options for his special dietary needs.

Why We Are an Allergy-Friendly Family

As a quick backstory, my son was born with some GI issues. He was constantly having bad stools and since I was breastfeeding, I had to change my own diet. I started going dairy-free but after he turned a year, things just didn’t get better. They actually took a turn for the worse. After testing, endoscopy, colonoscopy, and many labs we decided to cut out a lot of his food allergies and intolerances. I’m happy to say that we have found a happy spot for now and continue to push for better options for him and my other two kids.

My son now is dairy-free, peanut-free, gluten-free, and also can’t have foods with hard mature seeds such as chia seeds, flax seed, sesame seeds, and not a lot of fruits and legumes with peels on it such as beans, grapes, and blueberries. To say that this wasn’t a huge adjustment is a total understatement. However, I feel that as a mom I need to share more of his story and help other moms find better options for their own kids that may be going through similar situations.

Delicious Allergy-Friendly Snacks Your Kids Will Love

Whether your child has a food allergy or a food intolerance, this snack list is perfect to prevent any health issues with the top 8 allergens. Please do note that you know your child’s allergens and intolerances so always make sure to check all ingredients before allowing your child to consume the products listed. Brands can always change the recipe so it is always good to read the label to be safe.

All of these snacks are snacks that my son really enjoys eating and even begs for more so I am sure your kiddos will love it too! I sure hope that this guide will help you find delicious snack options for your child to make snack time easier for you both.

Top 8 Allergens to Watch Out For

There are many allergens to watch out for and every child is different so I can’t speak for all kids. However, the top 8 allergens to look out for are:

• Milk / Dairy
• Eggs
• Fish
• Custacean Shellfish
• Tree Nuts
• Peanuts
• Wheat / Gluten
• Soy / Soybeans

Fruits and Vegetables that Kids Love

The best and easiest option for an allergy friendly snack for kids is fruits and vegetables. Majority of fruits and veggies are allergy-friendly especially when properly cleaned plus they taste good and your kids would love them. Be careful during prepping and cleaning that you don’t cross-contaminate with possible allergens.

Some of the best fruits and veggies to snack on are:

• Strawberries
• Bananas
• Apples
• Pears
• Grapes
• Carrots
• Celery
• Berries
• Grape Tomatoes
• Dried fruit like mangoes and raisins
• Apple Sauce
• Apple pouches
• Fruit pouches
• Fruit cups

For the pouches we like to use GoGoSqueeze (not the yogurt ones), Beech-Nut, and HappyTot.

Best Allergy-Friendly Packaged Snacks for Kids

Let’s be totally honest. We are moms and if we can make life easier by having quick, on-the-go, packaged snacks then we are all in! Best yet, these snacks are healthy too! It’s a win, win! Here are some of my favorite allergy free snacks for kids… and that my son absolutely loves!

Allergy-Friendly Bars

There are many allergy friendly options for bars but some that my son enjoys are:

• Made Good: Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Drizzled, Mixed Berry
• This Saves Lives: Chocolate Chip “Dino”, Honey and Oat, S’mores, Strawberry
• Cerebelly – Smart bars: Organic Strawberry & Beet, Organic Apple & Kale, Carrot Date. They also have an Organic Blueberry, Banana & Sweet Potato option.
• Skout Organic: French Toast, Raspberry Rush, and Apple Pie
• Larabar: Chocolate Brownie and Chocolate Chip Cookie
• GoMacro: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Cinnamon Roll, and Double Chocolate Brownie
• That’s It: Apple, Mango, Fig, Cherries
• Simple Mills Almond Flour Bars: Dark Chocolate Almond and the Chocolate Brownie
• ZBar: Chocolate Brownie and Chocolate Chip,
• BelliWelli Zero Bloat Probiotic Snack Bar: Chocolate Chip Cookie – I use these during GI flare ups as a better alternative snack
• Nature’s Bakery – Gluten FREE: Fig Bars with Blueberries or Raspberry
• Publix’s Greenwise Grain Bars: Chocolate Chip, Ice Oatmeal Cookie, and Strawberry Shortcake – My son loves these so much. His current obsession. I can’t leave the house without these.

Allergy-Friendly Jerky and Meat Snack Options

Need to add a little extra protein to your child’s diet but looking for a healthy option? Here are some to add to your grocery list.

• Chomps: Turkey Jerky
• Mission Meats: Kids Beef Sticks

Allergy-Friendly Cookies

My little one is a big cookie monster. However, I like to have healthy cookie options that are allergy-friendly stocked in my pantry. Here are some of our favorite allergen free cookie options.

• Partake: Chocolate Chip, Vanilla Sprinkle, Birthday Cake, Cookie Butter (Yes! It’s dairy free!)
• Simple Mills: Crunchy Chocolate Chip Cookies, Nut Butter Stuffed Sandwich Cookies with Cocoa Cashew Creme, Crunchy Double Chocolate Chips, Sweet Things Honey Cinnamon, Sweet Thins Chocolate Brownie. – Tip: Eat the Sweet Thins with your favorite nut butter. You can also use them for s’mores. – Note: The Sweet Thins are more of a graham cracker versus a cookie but my son devours them as if they were cookies.
• Thrive Market: Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix (adjust recipe accordingly)
• Sweet Loren’s: Chocolate Chunk Cookie Dough, Fudgy Brownie Cookie Dough, Sugar Cookie Dough – Note: These are just the dough so you will have to bake them ahead of time but they’re really good. You can purchase these at Publix.

Allergy-Friendly Muffins

Muffins are another healthy and delicious snack that you can find without the food allergens. Here are some of our favorite muffins to enjoy.

• Simple Mills: Chocolate muffins, Banana Muffins, and Pumpkin Muffin – Note: They sell the baking mix in a box. Adjust recipe accordingly. The mix is gluten free and I’ve made these for my son allergen free.
• Bobo’s: Strawberry Stuff’d Oat Bites, Chocolate Chip Oat Bites, and Apple Pie Stuff’d Oat Bites. – Note: They do sell some items with peanut butter so make sure to check the ingredients on the other items. I didn’t mention them on this post though.
• Thrive Market: They have various gluten-free muffin mixes to choose from but our favorite is Banana Muffin

Other Allergy-Friendly Snacks

The snack list continues. Here are some of our favorite snacks from chips to popcorn and everything else in between.

• Thrive Market Veggie Sticks or Garden Veggie Straws
• Siete: Grain Free Tortilla Chips (with your choice of dip), Sea Salt Potato Chips
• Potato Chips that are plain life Tortilla chips, Lays, Ruffles, Sea Salt chips, etc… are usually allergy friendly options.
• LesserEvil Organic Popcorn: Himalayan Gold – This popcorn is delicious and healthy.
• Thrive Market Organic Popcorn: Himalayan Gold (in collaboration with Lesser Evil)
• Lesser Evil Lil Puffs: Sweet Potato Apple Asteroid
• Three Wishes: Cinnamon, Frosted, and Cocoa – This is cereal but my son likes to also munch on it as a snack throughout the day or in the car.
• Heavenly Hunks: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip is my son’s favorite.
• Rice Cakes: We haven’t tried this one yet but it has been recommended to us a few times.
• Popscicles: Good Pop, Outshine, DeeBee’s
• Ice Cream: So Delicious, Talenti, Ben and Jerry’s, Planet Oat, Oatly, Beyers, and there’s a few other big brand names that have a dairy free option which covers all top 9 allergens as well
• Plant-based or Dairy-free yogurt: Silk, So Delicious, Once Upon a Farm, Stonyfield Organic, and Kitehill.

Allergy-Friendly Drinks Options for Snack Time

Can’t have a snack without a drink, right?! Here are some allergy-friendly drinks that you can serve during snack time:

• Almond milk
• Oatmilk
• Juices – I make sure to use juices that are 100% juice with no added sugars, high fructose syrup, or other sugar alternatives. The more real the juice is the better!
• Chocolate milk – There are a few dairy-free options out there. Nesquick chocolate powder is dairy-free but does contain a lot of sugar. I usually buy the chocolate Malk or Ripple.
• Ripple Kids Orginal Plant-Based Milk (made out of pea protein blend).
• and of course water

Allergy-Friendly Drinks Options for Snack Time

Can’t have a snack without a drink, right?! Here are some allergy-friendly drinks that you can serve during snack time:

• Almond milk
• Oatmilk
• Juices – I make sure to use juices that are 100% juice with no added sugars, high fructose syrup, or other sugar alternatives. The more real the juice is the better!
• Chocolate milk – There are a few dairy-free options out there. Nesquick chocolate powder is dairy-free but does contain a lot of sugar. I usually buy the chocolate Malk or Ripple.
• Ripple Kids Orginal Plant-Based Milk (made out of pea protein blend).
• and of course water

Easy Swaps to Make Snack Time Allergy-Friendly

Having to find alternatives for foods can sometimes be challenging. Here are a few swaps that you can find for snack time.

• Instead of using peanut butter you can use Barney Butter – almond butter.
• Substitute regular flour for gluten free flour, oat flour, chickpea flour, rice flour, casava flour, almond flour, or brown rice flour.
• For cheeses I recommend using the dairy free options like Violife (our favorite), Daiya, and Follow Your Heart
• For gluten free breads we really like Canyon Bakehouse and Base Culture

Best Allergy-Friendly Brands for Food and Snacks

It took me a while to familiarize myself with all the good brands that were allergy-friendly or partially allergy-friendly (gluten free, peanut free, or dairy free in my case). Here are some of our favorite food brands that we’ve found throughout our journey that we’ve really enjoyed.

• YumEarth
• Simple Mills
• Thrive Market
• Made Good
• That’s It
• Nature’s Bakery (They have some gluten free options making it allergy-friendly)
• Enjoy Life
• Partake
• Blake’s Seed Based (I am cautious with this one because my son can’t have seeds)
• Sunbutter
• Free2b
• Safe + Fair
• Lesser Evil
• Daiya (they have dips too that you can use to dip the vegetables in)
• So Delicious (dairy-free)
• Barney (almond butter)
• Glutino (gluten free)
• Bobo’s
• Bear
• Skout Organic
• Cerebelly
• This Saves Lives
• Three Wishes
• Seven Sundays
• Larabar
• GoMacro
• Schar (gluten free)
• Glutino (gluten free)
• Base Culture (gluten free)
• Canyon Bakehouse (gluten free)

Note: Not all of their products are allergy-friendly for everything but these brands do carry allergy-friendly products. Please always read the label to make sure it is safe to consume for you or your child.

Best Places to Shop for Allergy-Friendly Snacks and Foods

I love how more convenient allergy-friendly foods are growing to be. Best of all, many big brand grocery stores are starting to include more allergy-friendly, gluten-free, dairy-free, and even peanut-free options for everyone. I have started to search high a low in my area and online to find the best food options for my son. It wasn’t easy at first reading all the labels and nit-picking each every single ingredient found on those labels (even the ones that didn’t make sense) but I am glad cause after a lot of research and label reading, I can rest assure that we have found a nice list of foods and snacks that my son can have.

Thrive Market

I absolutely LOVE Thrive Market. I love having the convenience of finding so many amazing options for my son right from their app and getting it shipped to our house every month. It makes the process so much easier versus having to go to the store and reading all the labels there.

Thrive Market also makes it easy for your to search on their app by clicking the allergens you wish to NOT have. All of their products also have a list of ingredients to help keep your mind at ease about the products that you are purchasing.

Thrive also has their own line of food and snacks that are mostly safe to use at a lower cost making it more affordable to buy my son his favorite snacks.

Sprouts and Whole Foods

Sprouts and Whole Foods are two great places to go too for healthy and allergy-friendly snacks. Both of these stores are slightly similar and carry similar products in their inventory. You can check your local area to see if there is a Sprouts or Whole Foods store located near you.

Target

Target has some good allergy-friendly options as well. They have yet to dissapoint me with their selections. They don’t have a lot like Thrive, Sprouts, and Whole Foods, but they definitely have a good variety from milks, pizzas, to some very good snack options too. I tend to find brands like YUM Earth, Simple Mills, Daiya, and a few others.

Wal-Mart

Surprisingly Wal-Mart has gotten better over the last few years. They have started to add more vegan and allergy-friendly options to their selections. Some of the options I find at Wal-Mart include Glutino, Nature’s Bakery, Schar, Daiya, Violife, and a few others.

Note: With Glutino remember that it is a mainly gluten-free brand but a lot of their products also don’t have some of the other allergens like dairy and peanuts listed as well.

Happy Snack Time!

As a mom I know how overwhelming it can be having a child with allergies and/or intolerances. Trying to find the right snacks to keep them going throughout the day. I hope that this allergy-friendly snacks for kids guide helps you find some good options for you and your kiddos.

Are there any that you use that I didn’t add to my list? Let me know in the comments below. I am always open to learning of new options for my kiddos and other’s can learn too for their own families.