Healthy Kids Expo

Archive for the ‘Snacks Kids’ Category

Kids love snacks. After school, in the late evening, or just about anytime, kids want snacks. You may be struggling with snack ideas for your kids that are healthy and inexpensive.

Here is a list of healthy snacks to give your kids.

Some of the healthy choices for kid’s snacks are unsweetened
applesauce, bottled water, fruit cups or snacks, raisins and other dried fruits, granola bars, low fat or fat free milk, and pure fruit juice.

Meat and Cheese: Low fat lunchmeats such as chicken, turkey, and ham make fun snacks when rolled around a small slice of cheese or on whole wheat bread, cut into finger size sandwiches. Cheese and low fat or fat free crackers served with low-sodium pickles are favorites as well as turkey hot dogs with mustard.

Fresh fruit: Kids love fresh fruit peeled and sliced into bits size pieces with some low-fat yogurt on the side for dipping. Peanut butter sandwiches on whole wheat bread with a little sugar free jelly are great ideas for a healthy snack that your kids will enjoy.

Fresh veggies: Fresh vegetables cut into bite size chunks with some low fat salad dressing are fun snacks that your kids will love and not even notice that they are healthy.

Finding healthy snacks that your kids will actually eat is not
impossible. Give your kids healthy choices and arrange the various food items in a fun, colorful way on their plates as extra incentive to enjoy the healthy foods.

Childhood obesity is a major problem in our society. Make sure your kids eat healthy, fun snacks that give them some nutritional benefits and set an example of healthy eating from a young age.

My experience on choosing snacks for kids has been interesting. I am lucky to have discovered the right healthy habits earlier on in my children’s lives.

For me, even when I wasn’t health-conscious per se, I was conscious of not having too much sugar in my diet and in my children’s diets (more so because my father’s diabetic). And I knew that good nutrition from main meals and from snacks for kids is a must. It’s kind of common sense too though.

So what I would do is dilute any drinks or fruit juices I was giving them with water, so that it would not be sweet. It wouldn’t exactly taste horrible, but it wouldn’t be the sort of drink a child would crave for.

I wouldn’t buy juices or drinks in the house unless we really had to. After all, if the drinks are not in the house, they wouldn’t ask to drink them.

I wouldn’t get the urge to drink them either unless I wanted to get dressed and go to the corner shops, which I found a chore!

And that really helped me too not to crave or want drinks!

Get rid of the habit of stocking up on sugary drinks and sugary snacks for children to start with. They wouldn’t have them if they are simply not available.

It is not that they can’t be indulged at all, remember the occasional chocolate, cream, crisps or ice cream is not the problem, it’s the habit of allowing them to have unhealthy foods that the problem will be.

I recently studied the food labels of a packet of Walker’s Ready Salted crisps, and I was quite impressed to see that there were no preservatives added.

That’s not to say that you should start feeding your children with crisps though! It’s VERY fatty. But it’s nice to know that they contain no preservatives for when you find yourself with no choice, or for the occasional once-in-a-while treat.

Try not to label any foods forbidden. Otherwise, you may end up with a situation in which the ‘forbidden fruit’ is what they’ll always want to try out. And when they get hold of it by chance or when out, they’ll probably tuck into it and consume it like crazy.

There’s a wide variety of healthy snacks for kids that are healthy enough, and that would provide kids nutrition and more good calories to keep their blood sugar levels in between meals.

Children are normally quite hungry after school. So here are a few healthy snack ideas for children:

• Smoothies made with fruits and yoghurt. Simply blend a variety of fruits together. Add grated apples for natural sweetness.
• Brown toast with low-fat cheese spread.
• Sweet corn and peas
• Yoghurt, preferably natural.
• Fruits, cut up really nicely (make a variety of them).
• Home-made biscuits with wheat flour, you can finely grate in some vegetables and fruits too.
• Oat cakes and oat biscuits
• Raw vegetables such as carrots, or baby carrots.
• Raisins
• Oranges
• Seeds and nuts
• Eggs
• Salads with healthy salad dressings.
• Cherry tomatoes
• A plum
• A pear

Regarding drinks, teach your child to drink water often. If you do that, they won’t crave sugary fruit juices. And even when they drink them, as it’s not a habit they won’t like them, or will need them diluted because it’ll be too sweet for them. It’s not a good idea to allow your child require a fruit juice always at meal times. Water is by far the best drink for them.

Healthy snacks for kids can be incorporated in your family’s lives easily enough. You will quickly find that you can make them at home without much fuss. Just try to ensure you always choose healthy, fresh, whole foods. Not processed.

Consuming snacks is very important part of every child’s daily meal plan. But this is especially true for kids with diabetes. Most diabetic meal plans will include at least 2 to three snacks daily in order to maintain a balanced diet. Of course this is dependent on the meal plan that as been specified by your personal physician or dietician.

The key to maintaining healthy blood glucose levels in active children is to find the balance between a child’s insulin, food intake, and physical activity. Insulin and exercise lower blood sugar levels, whereas, foods can raise blood sugar levels, especially carbohydrates.

Children who have diabetes food needs change as they grow and become more physically active. Studies from doctors and nutritionist from clinics indicate that snacks for children with diabetes should come from the following food groups: grains, dairy, fruits, and vegetables. Additionally, they recommend using the Food Pyramid for Kids as a reliable guide to understanding food groups and portion sizes.

Creative snack ideas:

A piece of fresh fruit is always a good idea.

3 to 6 cups of low fat popcorn

A handful of pretzels

A couple of rice cakes

Flour tortilla filled with low fat shredded cheese or a slice of lean meat.

Ants on a log: celery stick with peanut butter.

English muffin pizza: halve of an English muffin, pizza sauce, and low fat shredded cheese.

Bagel bites: Mini bagel with fruit spread.

Kids with diabetes either have tendency to over snack for fear of low blood sugar levels. Or they try to sneak snacks that they are not supposed to eat. If parents or teachers are not aware of either situation it can cause problems as they try to respond to the child’s elevated blood sugar levels.

That is why it is so important that their meal plans are followed and monitored by all responsible adults. If you find that your child is over snacking or trying to sneak snacks talk to your child about why this is not a good thing for them to do. Always be supportive and seek outside counseling when needed.