Toddler Treat Boxes

I keep seeing treat boxes like this one popping up on the internet. It's such a cute idea to fill a craft organizer with treats, but my children (ages 3 and 1) are a little young for it. It would make a gigantic mess because they'd open the box and stuff would fly everywhere.

So, I set off in search of something that would work. Disclaimer: Use this idea at your own risk.

I found....



Pill organizers! See what I mean about use at your own risk? They work well for us, but use your own judgment about whether this is a good idea for your children.

If you get the extra large size (referring to size of compartments not number of compartments), they fit snacks and little fingers perfectly. The best part about it is that only one compartment is open at a time so you don't have to worry about everything spilling. Bonus: We can work on letter recognition.


This one worked the best for my kids. It's a 7-compartment organizer with standard lids. My 3-year-old can pop them pretty easily and eats one compartment at a time. She does eat through the compartments rapidly, though, so two or three of these are better than one with more compartments because I can give the boxes at intervals. My 1-year-old can't open the lids so I'll open one, she'll sit quietly and happily eat her goldfish or cheerios and then bring it back to me when she wants the next one opened.

This was my next choice. It has 14 compartments and locking lids. Neither of my children can open it, which gives me a little bit more control.

This one has arthritis-friendly lids that are very easy to open. I didn't like it because they got bumped in my bag and spilled.

We've used these for church and in the car and my kids have loved them. I'm excited to take them on our plane trip in November. Here are a few ideas of things to put in them:

Goldfish crackers
Cheerios
Dried blueberries
Hard candy
M&Ms
Fruit Snacks
Yogurt-covered raisins
Craisins
Marshmallows
stickers

So, after trying out a variety of containers, I liked this style (less than $3 at Amazon). Here is what worked for me:

*an extra large pill organizer was the perfect size for little fingers and snacks

*seven compartments was the right size for us (for most things, that was plenty of snacks, but for very long trips two or three of these were better than one larger organizer)

*the large letters for the days of the week were nice because we could work on letter recognition

*2 kinds of snacks (like goldfish and cheerios) worked better for me than filling every compartment with something different