Healthy Snacks for Kids

It can be difficult to think of a variety of healthy snacks for kids, especially when they would prefer to have crisps or chocolate instead.  So this article gives some ideas of healthy foods that kids might enjoy snacking on.

For children with a sweet tooth healthy snacks could include dried fruits such as raisins or apricots.  If they prefer fresh fruit there is a whole range of foods they can have from small oranges and apples, to soft fruits like strawberries, grapes or melon slices.  You could even prepare them a fruit salad that you can put in the fridge so they can eat it over a few days.  If your child likes biscuits, try replacing them with flapjacks. If you make them yourself you can make sure they are low in sugar and contain fruit such as cooked apple and sultanas.

If they like crunchy crisps for a snack you could replace them with crunchy raw vegetables like sticks of celery, carrot or cucumber.  They could dip them into salsa or hummus. If they don’t want to give up crisps, try corn snacks instead as these are healthier especially if they are low or no salt varieties.

Instead of roasted salted nuts, try to give them unsalted ones, and give a variety of different nuts so they get a range of vitamins from them.  If they wont give up the salted ones, try to mix them with dried fruit to make them more healthy.

For more filling snacks, how about rice cakes with peanut butter on, or water biscuits topped with low fat pate and salad.

There is no real replacement for chocolate, and if your child has a lot of this, it can be very difficult to persuade them to give it up.  So you can always let them have a small square of plain chocolate that is a lot healthier than milk chocolate especially if the milk chocolate is wrapped around caramel and biscuits or other fillings.  It is a good idea to make sure they have had some fruit before they have their chocolate.

If they find the plain chocolate not sweet enough, you can make little healthy sweets. Take an equal amount of apricots and cashew nuts and blend together until they are are a thick paste. Then form into round balls, cover in plain chocolate and put in the fridge to cool. These sweets are a lot healthier than any you can buy in the fridge.  You can also make your own chocolate covered raisins with low sugar plain chocolate to make them healthier than ones you can buy in the shop.

Good snacks are also low sugar yoghurt, crackers with cheese, cucumber and tomato or a mini salad with oil free French dressing.

So healthy snacks for kids can be easy to make. The hard part can be persuading your child to eat healthy foods, but if you let them help you make the food they are much more likely to want to try it.