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6 Healthy Snacks for Your Kids

 Healthy Snacks for Your Kids

Kids get hungry between meals, especially young ones who are still growing rapidly. It is important to sneak some extra nutrients into your child’s diet but many of the packaged snacks you can find at your favorite shops are full of added sugars, artificial ingredients, and refined flour which are not good at all.

Instead of relying on heavily processed foods, you can fill your kid’s tummy with a healthy snack made of whole ingredients that can provide him or her with a healthy dose of energy.

Yogurt

After the age of two, the percentage of children who get enough calcium decreases drastically together with the intakes of vitamin D and potassium. All these minerals and vitamins are found in yogurt which is a tasty and healthy food that will help your child’s bones grow quickly. Yogurt also has a lot of protein to help with bone and muscle health.

If you can’t make homemade yogurt, you should choose plain full-fat yogurt. Don’t go with many of the yogurts marketed to kids that are available in stores since those are high in sugar and unhealthy. You can sweeten plain yogurt with honey or fresh fruit to make it more appealing to your kid.

Celery

Celery is one of the healthiest snacks that you can give to your kids but chances are that they won’t like it plain. Don’t worry since you can cut a stalk of celery into pieces and spread some peanut butter inside and sprinkle a few raisins on top.

It is a very tasty snack that provides a good balance of protein, fat, and carbs. The only thing to be careful about is the type of peanut butter that you use. Get peanut butter that doesn’t have added sugar or vegetable oils.

Nuts

While some doctors recommend withholding nuts from children since there is a risk of them causing an allergic reaction, recent studies have suggested that by introducing nuts at an early age, you can lower the risks of your kids developing these allergies.

Furthermore, nuts are also high in fiber, antioxidants, and healthy fats. These fats are very important and they should be present in your kid’s diet since they help support growth in young children.

Oats

Oats are rich in soluble fiber and they can increase the number of beneficial bacteria in the digestive tract. You can even buy bulk oats and use them to make oatmeal which is a very healthy breakfast meal but it can also be used as a snack. When purchasing oats or pre-made oatmeal, you should avoid flavored packets since they are generally very high in sugar.

You can also use oats to make healthy pancakes by placing the oats into a food processor to ground them until you get a powder-like consistency and use that instead of flour. You can also use almond milk instead of regular dairy milk, and use fruits and pure maple syrup instead of sugar. Take a look at this article if you want to prepare quick and healthy pancakes.

Smoothies

Another way to pack a lot of nutrients into a small snack is to prepare your own fruit or vegetable smoothies. While your kids might not enjoy a veggie smoothie, you can add a few vegetables into a fruit smoothie since the sweetness of the fruits will mask their presence, yet your kid will get the full benefit of the nutrients.

Don’t buy fruit juice from the store since even products that try to advertise their natural ingredients still have a lot of added sugar. Furthermore, when choosing the ingredients for the smoothie, it is important to make sure that they are fresh.

Sandwiches

You can also use sandwiches as a snack as long as you don’t make a large one and use healthy ingredients. When building a healthy sandwich you should pick whole-wheat bread, choose your kid’s favorite source of protein and include some veggies or fruits whenever possible.

Some combinations that you can try include peanut butter and banana slices, cheddar cheese and apple slices, cream cheese and cucumber slices, hard-boiled egg, tomato, and avocado, and many more.

There are plenty of ingredients that you can play with and as long as you avoid pre-made sauces that are high in saturated fats, your small sandwich will provide your kid with enough nutrients to last him or her until the next meal.