Kids need to develop healthy eating habits from an early age. The only way to ensure your children will grow up to eat healthy or not turn his nose up to green beans is to make an effort from the time he eats his first meal. Parents who are concerned with eating habits usually display good habits for meals. Where many fall short is snack time. Snack time is the time we want to offer something quick and easy. Too often the quick and easy snacks are those which are high in calories, sugar or fat.
Here are some suggestions for healthy snacking:
Dips and veggies: Children love to dip their food and will eat just about anything covered in ketchup or ranch dressing. So purchase some low fat or fat free ranch dressing and give your children a supply of colorful healthy veggies.
Little Chefs: Children are more likely to eat something they had a hand in making. So, allow snack time to be a fun and creative time for you and them. A fun healthy snack that is easy for children to make is fruit kabobs. Provide a variety of your children’s favorite fruits cut up and ready to skewer. Then allow them to make the kabobs. You can provide a low fat yogurt mixed with fat free whipped topping as a dip.
Cookie Cutter Sandwiches: This is a fun treat my little ones love. They even love to make their own. Get some healthy whole grain bread, lean meat, low fat cheese, lettuce, tomato, and in our house we must have pickles. Now you have all the fixings to make some yummy sandwiches. The twist on this sandwich is to use fun cookie cutters to cut out shapes in the bread and meat!
You would be surprised how healthy a child will eat if you make it fun!