The “good news” is that there are many easy, tasty and nutritious alternatives that you can choose to give your kids. Make smart snack choices and your kids will reap the health benefits.

It also pays to teach your children about the healthy choices available to them.  You might be surprised how well they accept your ideas about healthy snack foods.

Timing Matters
Children, especially younger children, can have small appetites, a reality that makes it difficult for them to get all the nutrients they need from meals alone.  As a result, snacks play an important role in helping kids eat well, provided the snacks they enjoy are nutritious.

Aim to provide your kids with two or three small snacks each day.  Ideally, snacks should be offered at about the same time each day. 

• Think about offering one snack mid-morning, a second mid-afternoon and a third before bedtime (if your child is hungry). 

Young children sometimes struggle to know when they are hungry and a regular “schedule” of snacks can help them to understand the hunger cues their body is sending.

Keep in mind that snacks should be small tasty treats, rather than full meals. 

• Be sure to avoid serving large portion sizes which may fill your child up and interfere with meal time eating.
• Instead, offer moderate portions of food and let the child guide the amount that s/he eats, based on true hunger. 

Encourage Your Kids to Veg Out
Vegetables and fruits are ideal snacks for growing children. 

• Did you know that vegetables and fruits are naturally low in fat, calories and salt?
• They also provide vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients essential for good health.

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Try offering vegetables and fruits in a variety of different ways and encourage your children to taste, try and enjoy! Here are some great ideas:

• Make or buy a platter of “kid-friendly” vegetables and keep it in the middle of your fridge for easy access by hungry snackers.  Good choices include carrot sticks, snow pea pods, cherry or grape tomatoes, broccoli or cauliflower florets (pieces).  Make your own dip by blending herbs such as garlic or dill with plain yogurt.  Hummus (chick pea dip) also goes well with raw vegetables.
• Try Ants or Lady Bugs on a Log.  Fill celery stalks with peanut butter.  Top with raisins or dried cranberries for a quick snack.
• Bite into fresh apple slices and peanut butter.  Core and slice apples.  Serve with peanut butter.
• Fill a fruit bowl.  Place a fruit bowl filled with fruits like bananas or kiwis on your counter.  Encourage your children to help themselves when hunger strikes. 
• Serve something frosty.  Fruits such as grapes, bananas and berries are delicious frozen.  Simply wash and, if necessary, peel the fruit and place it on a baking sheet lined with wax-paper.  Place the sheet in your freezer.  Once frozen, the fruit can be stored in plastic freezer bags or containers.  Serve frozen.  For a real treat, roll frozen bananas in lower-fat yogurt and whole grain cereal!

Back Away from the Snack Food Aisle
In recent years a multitude of speciality snack foods have been introduced.  Unfortunately, while many of these foods may seem like healthy choices this is often not the case. 

In fact, many of these “snack foods” are rich in fat, sugar, salt or calories; the types of nutrients both children and adults need to limit. 

Examples of these kinds of snack foods include whole grain taco chips or snack crackers; low fat cookies, granola or cereal bars; milkshake type drinks; and “healthy snack packs” that contain processed meats, cheeses and crackers. 

Reducing Salt Intake
The salt content of many snack foods is something parents need to consider.  Salt contains sodium, a nutrient that can increase our risk for heart disease, stroke, kidney disease and osteoporosis if we take in too much. 

Unfortunately, recent scientific studies indicate that our kids are taking in far more sodium than they need. Nutrient recommendations from Health Canada set the tolerable upper limit (UL) for sodium intake for children and youth between 1500 and 2300 milligrams per day.  However, data from Statistics Canada show that 76 percent of children aged 1 to 3 and more than 90 percent of children aged 4 to 8 exceed the UL for sodium in their age group .  Similarly, 97 percent of adolescent boys and more than 80 percent of adolescent girls also exceed the UL for sodium for their age group.  Given this research, it makes sense that parents should offer foods that are low in salt. 

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Many pre-packaged snack foods are rich in salt.  Read the labels of foods you are thinking of buying to see how much sodium they contain, and avoid the foods with high salt content.

Alberta’s Nutrition Guidelines for Children and Youth provides concrete information on the maximum amount of salt that various types of foods should contain.  Use the guidelines to help you identify lower salt choices.  The Guidelines also contain information on label reading that can help to simplify the process!

Things to Remember
Keep in mind that there are a wide variety of inexpensive, delicious and healthy foods that you can choose that are not labelled as “snack foods.”  Steer clear of the snack food aisle and shop the perimeter or outside sections of the grocery store where you’ll find wholesome vegetables and fruits, lower-fat milk products and whole grain breads.

Healthy snacks will help to keep your kids energized, alert and active.  Nutrient-rich snacks such as vegetables and fruits can also help to ensure that your children get the nutrients they need to grow and develop.  So toss out those high fat, high salt or sugary snacks in favour of more naturally nutritious foods!

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Learn More
Alberta Nutrition Guidelines for Children and Youth 

Food Serving Sizes for Children 6 to 12 Years 

Fuel Children with Smart Snacking Habits 
Online article from Eatright Ontario.

Healthy Snack Facts for Kids
Online information from Alberta Health Services.

My Amazing Little Cookbook