Best for Allergies
Winner
Best for Picky Eaters
There are more meal kits to choose from now than ever, and while that could be seen as a good thing, it also makes it more challenging to find the best meal delivery services for your family. Toddlers are notoriously picky eaters, and making the transition from baby food to full-blown toddler meals is no small feat. Firsthand experience is why we went on a search for the best toddler meal delivery services.
These four best toddler meal delivery services have something for every age, food allergy, dietary preference, and lifestyle. Start serving meals you feel good about and that your toddler loves with a meal delivery service that’s perfect for your family!
Nurture Life
WINNER
Key Details
- Cost: Starting at $6.49/meal
- Types of Meals: Meals, snacks, and smoothies
- Recommended Ages: 10 months to 12 years
About
Nurture Life is the best kids’ meal delivery service on our list for a number of reasons. The meals, snacks, and smoothies delivered from Nurture Life are designed by dietitians to ensure your toddler is getting the right balance of fat, protein, and carbohydrates to promote healthy development.
Nurture Life makes delicious food for kids ages ten months to 12 years, so you can continue to enjoy your toddler’s meal delivery service well beyond toddlerhood!
Meal delivery services are flexible, with plans that include 6, 9, 12, or 15 meals per week. You can adjust your plan, skip weeks, and cancel at any time.
Parents know how important flexibility is when it comes to their kid’s meals. With portion sizes perfectly adjusted as your child grows and flavorful meals made from fresh ingredients, finding items from Nurture Life that your toddler will eat without fussing is effortless.
Nurture Life has a core menu of fan favorites as well as new menu items that are introduced regularly.
There are always at least 25 meals, 12 finger foods, and a number of snacks and smoothies to choose from.
Every meal is ready to enjoy with no prep required.
Meals to Try
- Pesto and cheese ravioli
- Beef taco pockets
- Chicken and mac
- Chicken dumplings
Key Benefits
- Balanced meals designed by dietitians with portion sizes for every age
- Clean ingredients, including organic vegetables and antibiotic-free meats
- Flavorful classic kids’ meals and a globally inspired variety of dishes
- All meals are made fresh before shipping
- Smoothies and snacks for in-between meal times
- No prep required
- Flexible plans can be changed, skipped, or canceled at anytime
Little Spoon
BEST FOR ALLERGIES
Key Details
- Cost: Starting at $5.99/meal
- Types of Meals: Baby food purees, meals, and smoothies
- Recommended Ages: 4 months to 12 years
About
A lot of parents who have kids with allergies are wary of kids’ meal delivery services, understandably so. When it’s vital for your child to avoid certain ingredients to stay healthy, trusting anyone but yourself to prepare their meals and snacks is a challenge.
Little Spoon uses a nutrition council to review all menu options to ensure they are allergy friendly, well-balanced, and nutritious.
Hidden veggies and superfoods make it easy to get your picky toddler the nutrients they need without a fight. All ingredients are fresh, organic, and non-GMO for added peace of mind. Meals come fresh and ready to eat!
The nutritionally balanced meals can be filtered with allergies in mind when you’re planning your menu too.
Nuts, dairy, gluten, meat, eggs, and fish are clearly labeled on all meals, so you won’t have to second-guess what you’re ordering for your child. There are also baby food options if you have a baby in the family.
Smoothie pouches offer a great on-the-go option and make a hassle-free snack for busy parents. Little Spoon has provided more than 17 million nutritious meals to parents.
All the fresh meals and smoothies come in 100% recyclable packaging with picky-eater-approved kids’ favorites and more advanced dishes when your child is ready to challenge their palette.
Meals to Try
- Chicken pot stickers with brown rice, quinoa veggie stir fry, and edamame
- Turkey rice balls with sweet potato mash
- Mac and three-cheese with invisible butternut cheese sauce and carrots
- Whole wheat penne with veggie marinara and mini turkey kale meatballs
Key Benefits
- All ingredients are fresh, organic, and non-GMO
- 100% recyclable packaging
- Meals are delivered biweekly to cut down shipping costs
- Egg, dairy, and gluten-free meals are available
- All menu items are clearly labeled for allergy-conscious families
- Perfect for picky eaters with hidden veggies and superfoods
- Smoothies for in-between meal times and on-the-go snacks
Hello Fresh
BEST FOR PICKY EATERS
Key Details
- Cost: Starting at $7.49/meal
- Types of Meals: Meals, additional snacks, and drinks can be added
- Recommended Ages: All Ages
About
Hello Fresh may not be marketed as a kids’ meal delivery service, but it could still be a great fit for your toddler.
Hello Fresh is different from the other kids’ meal delivery services on our list because the food doesn’t come ready to eat. Instead, you get pre-portioned fresh ingredients delivered to your door in 100% recyclable packaging.
Each meal comes with everything you need to prepare it from scratch, with nothing extra, eliminating food waste.
Along with the ingredients, you’ll get an instruction sheet that shows step-by-step instructions from opening the box to serving the meal. These instruction sheets even include pictures!
While using kids’ meal delivery services usually has a lot to do with convenience, making your meals doesn’t have to be time-consuming or difficult. The simple recipes are an excellent way to get your toddler engaged in the kitchen.
Kids are never too young to start learning about what they eat and how it becomes the meal they see on their plates. You’ll be amazed how quickly your picky toddler starts to try new things when it’s a fun activity they’re a part of!
From tasting bites of fresh vegetables while you cut them to even helping you move the food to the plate, Hello Fresh invites picky eaters to get comfortable with new foods gradually.
A lot of picky eating in toddlers comes from uncertainty. If a kid is in a routine with certain foods and then suddenly sees a new food on the plate, it can be scary. If they helped prepare that food, though, it’s suddenly not so scary!
Meals to Try
- Pork teriyaki meatballs
- Cheesy beef tostadas
- BBQ rubbed chicken
- Sausage and roasted bell pepper pasta
Key Benefits
- New chef-curated menu options weekly – at least 30 easy-to-prepare meals are offered each week
- Flexibility to substitute ingredients, skip a week, and change your plan at any time
- Step-by-step cooking instructions with pictures
- Quick, easy recipes for the whole family to enjoy
- Premeasured ingredients eliminate food waste
- Recyclable packaging
- Bond with your child by involving them in the process and brush up on your cooking skills at the same time
Tiny Organics
BEST ORGANIC
Key Details
- Cost: Starting at $3.36/meal
- Types of Meals: Breakfast bowls, lunch and dinner meals
- Recommended Ages: 6 months and up
About
Tiny Organics serves kid-friendly meals made with non-GMO, organic ingredients. Busy parents can stop worrying if their toddler is getting the right nutrition with these plant-based, allergy-friendly meals.
Unlike other kids’ meal delivery services, the meals from Tiny Organics arrive frozen, not fresh. The quality of the food is still high, with a lot of flavor and textures that even a picky eater won’t fuss at. Frozen meals can be heated in the microwave or on the stovetop before serving.
Meal kits from Tiny Organics start as early as pureed baby food and go up to toddler-sized servings. This is a great way for busy families to teach their children healthy eating habits from a young age.
Menu items include breakfast, lunch, and dinner bowls. Meals are made using fresh, seasonal ingredients, so the menu never stays the same for long.
Meals to Try
- Berry Best Buckwheat Oatmeal
- Bananas foster
- Baby burrito bowl
- Coconut curry
Key Benefits
- Fully prepared meals ready to heat and eat
- Recipes created by neonatal nutritionists and pediatric experts
- Transition meals for introducing a child to solid foods
- Introduce flavors from cultures around the world
- All ingredients are healthy, whole foods that are never processed
- All meals are organic and non-GMO
- None of the big eight allergens
Toddler Meal Delivery Buying Guide
Allergy Friendly
If you have a toddler with allergies, finding a meal delivery service that caters to allergies is an important part of keeping them safe.
Meal delivery services should not only offer allergy-friendly options, but they also need to know the importance of preventing cross-contamination with common allergens. This is especially true for tree nuts and dairy allergies and those who require a gluten-free diet for medical reasons.
A meal delivery service that allows you to filter meal selections by allergy and clearly labels foods that are allergy-safe, such as Little Spoon, takes the guesswork out of meal planning for a toddler with allergies.
Organic Ingredients
Clean foods are important for a toddler’s small but rapidly growing body. Most meal delivery services for kids do a great job of minimizing processed foods and even find creative ways to add more produce and whole grains to their kids’ meals. Taking clean eating one step further to include organic produce is even better.
You might not be able to feed your child organic produce and other organic ingredients for each meal, but getting in a few clean, organic meals per week is a huge step in the right direction. Our top choices, including Nurture Life and Little Spoon plates, use organic ingredients whenever possible.
Portion Sizes
It’s no secret that different ages need different portion sizes. Meal delivery services for kids that offer different portion sizes for different ages are ideal for preventing unnecessary food waste.
Serving the right portion sizes to your toddler is one of the best ways to ensure they’re getting the right amount of vitamins and nutrients from their meals to promote healthy growth and development.
Finger Foods
Toddlers are at a unique stage where they crave independence, but they’re also always in a rush. Sometimes using silverware will deter toddlers from eating the nutritious meals you serve them.
That’s why the best kids’ meal delivery services are those that offer plenty of finger foods!
Finger foods have the potential to be an excellent addition to a nutritious meal. Sweet potato carrot poppers, chicken taco pockets, and shepherd’s pie with a rainbow vegetable medley are among the finger foods offered by the top meal delivery services for toddlers.
Picky Eaters
It isn’t unusual for toddlers to have food preferences, but some are pickier than others. Finding a meal plan that includes a version of your toddler’s favorite foods is essential to getting them interested in the rest of the food offered. Chicken nuggets and mac n cheese can be made surprisingly healthy with the right additions.
Involving your child in the meal prep process is another way to get your toddler to try nutritious food they’d otherwise turn their nose up at.
Some meal delivery services offer foods that are prepared fresh and shipped ready to eat, while other meal delivery services come as a meal kit that gives your picky eater more of an opportunity to get involved with preparing meals.
Meal Preparation
Before choosing a meal delivery service, decide how much meal preparation you’re willing to do. If you want to heat and eat meals, stay away from services that require you to prepare and cook the meals yourself.
There are plenty of meal kit options with no prep or cooking required to feed your little one fresh foods. Who says foods need to be cooked in your home to be considered home-cooked meals?
Budget
It can become a little overwhelming when you start adding up how much it will cost to get meal delivery services for your younger kids.
If you’re struggling to justify the cost, consider how often you want to be serving meals from a delivery service versus meals you make yourself.
Adding meal delivery meals to your weekly menu will cut down on traditional grocery costs, making it easier to fit into your budget.
Flexibility
Meal delivery services that offer flexibility tend to be more popular among families. Being able to choose what meals you want, change the number of meals per week, and skip weeks as needed is a huge perk!
Bottom Line
Our top choice is Nurture Life, but ultimately, the best kids’ meal delivery service is the one that works for your family. Consider children’s ages, food allergies, dietary preferences, meal selection, and meal prep before choosing a meal delivery service.
It may take some trial ad error to determine how many prepared meals and healthy snacks your toddler needs each week. That’s why we love delivery services for kids that have flexible plans to meet your needs.
Finding the best meal delivery service for your toddler can make mealtime exciting and fun again! Spend more quality time enjoying delicious, nutritious food and less time trying to convince your toddler to take a bite with the help of meal kits delivered to your door.