The following guest post is by Lisa Cain, co-founder of SnackSnoop.com. Her website, devoted to healthy snacking, is written for mamas like me who want our kiddos to enjoy eating, but want to feel good about what we’re serving them, too!
Tips for Healthy Kid Friendly Snacks
Feeding children snacks on a daily basis is a really big challenge. First, you want to feed them something healthy. Secondly, you want to feed them something that they like. Finally it can’t be too expensive.Healthy snacks, especially ones that aren’t in packages, aren’t hard to find. You just need to be organized and a little creative. Here are five tips to help you choose well:
1. Shop the perimeter of the supermarket. Since we are in Summer, it is easy to find peaches, plums, watermelon, cherries, and cantaloupe for a reasonable price. Yes, you will have to wash them off and cut them up, but any whole food that you choose will be much more healthy than anything you buy in a package.
2. If you only shop once a week, buy a collection of fruits and vegetables that you can serve immediately and some that you can serve later. For example, strawberries or peaches should be eaten right away, but you can store cantaloupe or watermelon for over a week (even cut up!). Keep canned pineapple on hand for when you run out of fresh fruit.
3. Use dips. Kids love to dip. If you are feeding them carrots or broccoli, have a little cup of dressing for them to dip in. Hummus, yogurt, and peanut butter, are also good choices for dips.
4. Make it a game for children to eat their snacks. Pretend the broccoli is a tree and everyone in the room is a dinosaur. Or fashion little faces out of apple slices, raisins, and add carrot sticks for the legs. Give them the raw ingredients and then let them “make” their snack.
5. Read the label carefully of any packaged snack. Too often, the label will say “all natural” or “make with real fruit” and you think you are buying something healthy. A good indicator of whether it should be considered a healthy snack is if it contains high fructose corn syrup. If it does, that food item is more likely a treat than a healthy snack.
Check out http://www.snacksnoop.com for other snack tips and great snack suggestions.
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Good tips! I have that “Eat This! Not That!” book…the kids’ version, and it says much of the same thing, esp. regarding “all natural” products.
Visiting from Jen’s party. 
Great guest post with good info. Thanks.
Lol! Love the name – SNack Snoop!
It is so much easier to get them to eat the fruits and veggies when they are readily available and cut. We got some wonderful cherries recently for a good price. 
Great ideas–keep it healthy and keep it fun. Good post! Thanks for participating in Food on Fridays!
I have found that we eat healthier snacks if they are in the house! Go figure…… lol. It does take some thinking on our part to make sure that we have fruit and veggies in the house, cleaned and ready to eat for snacks. Thanks for reminding me of the great opportunity I have to give my family a greater choice of nutritious snacks.
Shari
My Food on Fridays Post
Happy Friday! Great tips–we do little dip containers too. I hope you’ll stop by my Friday Feast link/recipe exchange and share this recipe.
http://momtrends.blogspot.com/2009/07/friday-feasts-couscous.html
Many children tend to eat frequently through the day as their bodies require. One should not force children to eat more and more like adults do. A child under the age of four or five might eat six to seven times a day. One can give fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grain crackers, cheese cubes, peanut butter-cheese sandwiches into daily snacks. Also can try can try a yoghurt shake with fruit of choice. Try to avoid pre-packaged snacks because its unhealthy. One can go for milk-based drinks because it rich in proteins, calcium, iron, also fruit juice will be good.
These are great snack ideas. Mixing Disney characters with yogurt should help to persuade kids to eat healthy. Breyers Yogurt has Disney themed, low-fat yogurts with flavor swirls – good way to sneak in some calcium, and vitamins A & D. Toy Story characters will be on the package this summer. Check out http://www.breyersyogurt.com.