Healthy Snacks For Kids

People thing that their kids can be fed junk food because they are young and have faster metabolisms than adults. This is not true. They are just as vulnerable to weight gain as we are.

A recent large study about kid's eating habits from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (part of the National Institutes of Health in the United States) found that about one-third of a child's total daily calories come from desserts, pizzas and snacks.  This is why it is important to find alternative snacks for your child to eat. 

Here are some ideas for some healthy snacks: 

Trail Mix. Your kids can help you make this trail mix as part of a home cooking lesson. Simply combine coconut flakes, dried fruit, nuts, raisons, sunflower seeds and soy nuts and put them in small 'candy bags'.  Store these in the freezer until they are ready to use. 

Fruit and Dip.  Kids are natural 'dippers' and do it anyway so why not let them dip healthy things like fruit segments into a healthy homemade dip. A tasty dip is yogurt sprinkled with cinnamon. 

Frozen Grapes:  Put a bunch of grapes in the freezer and let them go rock solid. This is the healthy version of the kid's jawbreaker that you used to buy in candy stores!  Teething kids or kids with a toothache like this too! 

Vegetables and Dip.  Vegetables are harder to get kids to eat but not if you sprinkle a bit of salt of them. Combining yogurt with Ranch Style Dressing can also encourage your kids to eat more vegetables and stop begging for the big bag of potato chips.  If you are a lazy mom who hates cutting up vegetables then buy those baby carrots. 

Lean Milkshake.  With today's high-speed blenders you don't have to make a milkshake using ice cream. You can blend milk and ice together and whip it into a shake. You can also do the same with fruit and yogurt or fruit and milk to make a nutritious smoothie. 

Meat Roll Up:  Rolling up a piece of luncheon meat around a sprig of lettuce or a thin stick of cheese makes a healthy, quick and filling snack for a kid. I know a mom who calls these Kid's Cigars. 

Baby Bel Cheeses:  These are expensive but kids just love them. They are little round edam and gouda cheeses that come in bright red and yellow wax casings. The kids have to unwrap them and peel them, which makes them into a food that is more like project. The only thing about this suggestion is to remember that you are better off to peel the wax off of the cheese for younger kids. 

Cheese and Cracker Packs:  Kids see these in stores and always want them but you can make your own packs at home by putting crackers, cheese and meat in your own plastic container. This is a lot cheaper then buying these store-bought kits, which unfortunately have become like a status symbol for many kids at school.

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You Can’t Always Control Your Kids’ Diet

I want my kids to have the best chance in life by giving them the healthiest diet I can provide. Furthermore whatever this diet it is I also want them to like it. I know that kids need to eat the right stuff to grow up slender, smart and emotionally well off. However sometimes children have other ideas. Sometimes they want to eat food that is unhealthy for them because: 

-They have seen an advertisement on television for a food they find absolutely irresistible.

-Their peers at school put pressure on them to eat in the cafeteria or pay for lunch because it is more 'adult-like'

– it's just not cool to carry a brown bagged lunch.-Some foods are considered uncool (especially cut up vegetables) because the kids seem them as symbols that you are poor.

-They are already so addicted to sugar and carbohydrates they simply have no taste for healthy things. Some of these bad eating habits are in your control and others aren't. It is hard to hand your child a salmon and lettuce  sandwich when their head is filled with visions of sizzling Big Macs slathered with white sauce or exploding microwave Pizza Pops.  This kind of eating you can discourage even if your child is protesting the whole time. Here are some examples of situations where you may not be able to control what your child or adolescent is eating. 

-You are at a restaurant and healthy foods are just not available on a menu.-Your kid is subject to a lot of peer pressure from friends (this is especially true of adolescents in high school who will choose that fat laden chocolate milk shake or glass of Coca Cola with 14 tablespoons of sugar in it rather than an orange at lunch

-Your child is having dinner or lunch at the neighbours and you have no idea what's being served, how it is made or how healthy it is. 

I am not suggesting that you be a control freak and try and correct the above situations. I am merely pointing out what you can't change. 

However you do have more control over your kids eating habits at home.  Keep in mind that people don't like change and the more that you try to make these healthy foods a regular item on your menu the more likely you are to be called a control freak by your kids or husband. I bring up the matter of being a control freak because your neighbours, mother or husband may accuse you of it as you subtly try to sneak in more fruits, vegetables, grains and healthy grilled foods into their diet and somehow make it seem like a bad thing. This is because women, in particular tend to be very neurotic..

Even I sometimes wonder whether all of this neurotic obsessing with food is simply an extension of women obsessing over their own dietary intake.  Sometimes women control their kids when they can't control themselves.  God knows I don't want to be one of those but I do want them to eat in a healthy way.

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