5 Tips for Healthy Snacks for Kids

Children love to snack and they usually turn up their noses when it comes to healthy snacks. After they have filled their stomachs with greasy, salty chips or chocolate, you will be lucky if they will eat a nutritious meal. Grazing on unhealthy snacks is a habit that can be broken, but the kids actually need some help with that. They need to be presented with healthy kids snacks as an alternative to munching on foods that have no nutritional value or are harmful to their health. Here are some ideas to present nutritional snacks to your kids: -

1) Keep fresh fruit on hand and easy to access.

Most kids cannot resist a bowl full of fresh fruit. Provide a variety of fruits, some of which they have never tried. A variety of fruit is bound to appeal to even the pickiest eaters. Take the kids on a shopping spree to pick out fruit that looks interesting to them. For special treats, you could help the kids to make chocolate dipped fruits or banana popsicles.

2) Kids love milkshakes.

Smoothies are a great alternative to milkshakes and are actually healthy snacks that kids love. You can use yogurt, fresh fruit and low fat milk and whip up a smoothie in the blender in seconds. Many children will enjoy making their own smoothies so it might be a good idea to get them involved.

3) Help your kids to plant a garden full of veggies.

Believe it or not, children are more likely to eat vegetables if they grow them themselves. Gardening is an excellent adventure and a great way to spend quality time with your kids. At harvest time, prepare a snack tray with veggies and low-fat dip. You might even try preparing celery with peanut butter as a snack.

4) Replace the chips with a healthy snack mix.

Grain based and granola cereals and whole wheat crackers are a lot healthier than other snacks that are a choice of children. Mixing these cereals with nuts, raisins or other dried fruit can make a healthy kids snack that they can munch on.

5) Juice it.

If your children refuse to eat fruits and vegetables for snacks, you can always pass it off as juice to ensure that your kids get the nutrition that they desperately need. You can run fresh fruit and veggies through a juicer and come up with a homemade juice that is sure to get attention. You might even try making a slush out of the juice by running it through a blender full of ice. You can also make popsicles out of freshly made fruit and vegetable juice.