Snacks are almost as important as meal time for kids so why not make sure they are eating the right kinds of food at snack time.
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I think my son has a hollow leg because I don't know where he puts all the food he eats! He is constantly telling me he is hungry (can you relate?) and asking if he can have a snack. Honestly, he asks so often that I found myself feeling a little overwhelmed with the constant bombardment of his hunger. I thought I was failing him as a mom because I couldn't keep the poor kid full.
Grabbing whatever was within reach in the cupboard for him to consume became my common reaction. That is when I realized and started to wonder if my reaction to his unending snacking was the right thing to do for him.
I started questioning what he was snacking on and decided to take a closer look at what really was going into his growing body. I decided to become a proactive snack planner and got busy educating myself on what kinds of food I should be feeding my children at snack time. I was amazed at what I learned.
Grabbing whatever was within reach in the cupboard for him to consume became my common reaction. That is when I realized and started to wonder if my reaction to his unending snacking was the right thing to do for him.
I started questioning what he was snacking on and decided to take a closer look at what really was going into his growing body. I decided to become a proactive snack planner and got busy educating myself on what kinds of food I should be feeding my children at snack time. I was amazed at what I learned.
(Before I go further I want to make sure you know that I am in no way an expert or registered dietitian. I am just a regular mom who cares about what her kids are eating. Like you, I just want what is best for my children especially when it comes to their health.)
Into the kitchen I went grabbing a box of store bought Granola from the cupboard to begin my "research" to see if I could determine from the nutritional label if this snack was truly healthy like the box claims it is.
I learned that just because a popular store bought snack says "Healthy" or "Sugar Free" or even "All Natural" this might not be completely true. This granola for instance, while claiming to be packed with protein (which it is) is also packed with a lot of sugar! This is definitely not what I would consider a healthy snack.
Reading the nutritional label can be a bit confusing especially the section of the label containing the breakdown of the types and totals of fat. Don't be mislead by the marketing ploys on the front of the box that claims the product is "low fat". Low-fat it may be but it might not be low in calories or even nutritious to eat! Beware of low-fat foods that are high in sugar.
The KidsHealth website does a fantastic job explaining to parents the nutritional food label in a simple and understandable way. Make sure you spend time educating yourself on how to properly read and understand nutritional food labels - it is well worth your time.
Now you might be wondering which popular snack foods you should avoid serving to your child. Before completely eliminating these foods from your cupboard and your kids diet spend some time reading the labels to find out what goes into making it.
To get you started Kitchen Cabinet Kings put together a great list of popular snacks you might want to consider avoiding including a list of the ingredients and reasons why they recommend avoiding them.
Below are the snacks they consider unhealthy. To read their reasoning behind this decision click HERE for the full article.
11 Popular Snacks You Should Avoid Feeding To Your Child
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Healthy Snacks Help Make Kids Healthy
By now you must be asking what should I give my kids to snack on?
A great place to start learning about healthy food is the USDA guidelines (find HERE). Remember this information is for children age 2 to adult.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has published guidelines specifically applicable for children and adolescents. Their guidelines are consistent and with the USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans however the AAP extracts the information that is applicable to children and adolescents and excludes the adult guidelines. I found the daily caloric intake graphic super helpful since my children are all in different stages of growth and age.
The USDA guidelines stress a diet for children that relies primarily on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat and nonfat dairy products, beans, fish and lean meat with a low intake of saturated and trans fat, cholesterol and added sugar and salt.
A great place to start learning about healthy food is the USDA guidelines (find HERE). Remember this information is for children age 2 to adult.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has published guidelines specifically applicable for children and adolescents. Their guidelines are consistent and with the USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans however the AAP extracts the information that is applicable to children and adolescents and excludes the adult guidelines. I found the daily caloric intake graphic super helpful since my children are all in different stages of growth and age.
The USDA guidelines stress a diet for children that relies primarily on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat and nonfat dairy products, beans, fish and lean meat with a low intake of saturated and trans fat, cholesterol and added sugar and salt.
Instead of filling your cupboards with processed foods from the store try filling up the fruit basket or stocking the veggie drawer with pre-cut veggies or even a bag of baby carrots.
Read the labels of other products in the store to make sure you keep a close eye on the sugar content and look for the whole grain items.
Making small changes like this won't go unnoticed by your children. Show them how to snack healthy by setting a positive example and eat healthy snacks with them.
Make snacking on good healthy food fun. Be creative with picky eaters. I used to hold a contest with my youngest to see who could make their baby carrot snap the loudest when bitten in half. He loved this "game" and without even realizing it he would have finished off the entire bowl of baby carrots I had served him without me having to nag him to eat them.
Win! Win!
Teaching your child to make good choices when it comes to snacks and meals is a valuable lifelong skill. I've been using the USDA's tool called MyPlate: A Yummy Curriculum.
Win! Win!
Teaching your child to make good choices when it comes to snacks and meals is a valuable lifelong skill. I've been using the USDA's tool called MyPlate: A Yummy Curriculum.
The first portion of the program uses a cool visual picture of a dinner plate broken into sections that represent the five food groups. The sections show the child how much of each food group they need in order to fill their plate in a healthy way.
A discussion of each of the five food groups and subsections is next teaching what specific foods fit into each of the groups.
The program also includes a fun quiz, meal planning template for the child to complete, poster and catchy songs all geared at teaching children to eat healthy.
My kids are really enjoying this simple curriculum and I instantly saw them begin to think about what to snack on or eat at meal time in a more intentional way. This could be life changing and I'm all for it!
My kids are really enjoying this simple curriculum and I instantly saw them begin to think about what to snack on or eat at meal time in a more intentional way. This could be life changing and I'm all for it!
How Do You Do It?
How do you get your children to eat healthy? What is their favorite healthy snack? Share your comments and feedback with me!
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