How to Make a Toddler Sandwich

While I like to encourage toddlers to eat without help, a problem they seem to have is gauging how much food to put in their mouth while taking a bite. I know from experience that it’s certainly not cool to have to stick a finger into the mouth of a gagging shark to try to retrieve half a sandwich.

Here’s a tip to help them with their eating independence:

When making sandwiches, use scissors to snip the sandwich into bite-size pieces.

I like this method because:

• it’s less tedious than when using a serrated knife for the same task
• you don’t need a cutting board (yet another dish to wash) – just hold the sandwich in your hand
• it’s FAST.

To make about 1/2 inch sized cubes, I cut the sandwich into rectangles and then cut the short side into strips, almost all the way to the crust. It resembles paper “fringe” for a craft project. Then, cut the “fringe” in half going lengthwise (detaching the pieces from the sandwich into cubes). Next, snip the remaining strips all the way through the crust.

This method works well with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or other types of sandwiches with a moist filling (like finely cut chicken or tuna fish salad, egg salad, etc.).

It only works with meat and cheese sandwiches if there is “glue” involved, like mayonaise or mustard. An extra “glue” layer between the meat and the cheese and pressing down on the sandwich prior to snipping are tricks to making meat and cheese sandwiches hold together.

Here’s some PB&J trivia from Wikipedia to share with your kiddies while preparing their lunch:

Both peanut butter and jelly were packed with United States Army K-rations in World War II. The combination proved so popular that returning GIs made peanut butter and jelly a standard American food… Peanut butter and jelly has been available in the military instant food Meal, Ready-to-Eat (MRE) for many years. The sandwich can survive in the field for up to three years.

For more on the invention of the sandwich, including their how they got their namesake after the Earl of Sandwich, click here.