Healthy Snacking for Toddlers & Preschoolers
In my life before Mommyhood, I led a very active lifestyle and balanced my activities (running, bike riding, swimming, tennis etc.) with healthy eating habits. I always had a natural love for healthy foods like fruits and veggies. What I can't quite figure out is how to pass on my taste buds for nutritious healthy foods to my kids. And don't get me wrong, I'll delve into a good ice cream sundae and I crave chocolate chip cookies, but on a day to day basis the Mom in me feels very guilty about eating unhealthy!My 3 year old would eat non-stop goldfish around the clock. Or preferably she'd love endless cookies! Luckily, I've been able to pass on my love of fruits to both Kenzie and Kyle. I've found slicing an apple, mini boxes of raisins, half a banana, grapes, and clementine oranges to be convenient favorites for our busy days at home or even when we're traveling and on the go.
Unfortunately, I'm having less success in the veggie department. Especially for my preschooler. Both at meal time and especially when it comes to trying to incorporate veggies at snack time. I'd love for my kids to eat celery, red peppers, carrot sticks, grape tomatoes. Delicious and nutritious right?
The good news: 3 year old Mackenzie eats 2 veggies. Canned green beans. (Yes only canned green beans. And if I buy the "no salt added" version she won't eat it!). And she's gaga for corn on the cob. The bad news: The texture or taste of just about every other veggie is unacceptable to her.
Maybe I should keep on serving up these favorite veggies as a snack option? What healthy snacks do you feed your picky eaters? Do you teach your kids about portion control? I'd love your advice as I find it is a real struggle for me to get my kids to adopt my eating habits. Maybe demonstrating the healthy habits myself and continually putting out veggies as an option for snack time is my best bet - and then one day when I least expect it their taste buds will be finally be ready for the healthy stuff!
Disclosure: This blog post is sponsored by Healthy Choice. Please visit http://www.spokespersonwanted.com/ for more information on Healthy Choice and to print a free $1 off coupon.
posted by Classy Mommy at 3:01 AM
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I give my daughter celery, carrots, broccoli. Luckily she's a pretty good veggie eater. She just started eating peanut butter so she likes to dip veggies in peanut butter or ranch dressing.
For kids who don't like the texture of veggies (um, yeah, right over here!), use your blender (or food processor). When I make baked macaroni and cheese, I add pureed steamed cauliflower. When I make mac and cheese from a box (GASP! I know, but it's Annie's...), I add some canned pumpkin. To spaghetti sauce, you can add ANY pureed vegetable (sweet potatoes, broccoli, squash, spinach, carrots, etc.). I even puree almonds.
these tips are fabulous. keep them coming. thank you!
My kids love veggies so I don't have this problem but I totally feel for you. I do know that they love them even more when I smother them in cheese - have you tried that? Esp broccoli, or cauliflower with melted cheese... they barely notice what's underneath!
I too find that sneaking the pureed versions into foods my daughter already likes is a good idea. I also just keep offering the food to her in a low-stress environment. I put it on her plate and ask her to take her "thank you" bite. If she doesn't like it, we move on. She is slowly coming around to each veggie in her own time. Around the third or fourth time she sees her "thank you" portion, she'll eat it all instead of just one bite. Once she figured out the routine for new foods at the dinner table, dinner became less of a battle for all of us.
One thing my kids will eat is frozen peas. When I first gave them some I played it up like they were a cousin of ice cream basically and ever since they really love them.
My daughter LOVES veggies. And lost of other foods that are great for her. She ate an entire piece of salmon for dinner last night and asked for more. At the farmer's market over the weekend, she went right to the last row where the sprouts vendor is. (It's cool because they use scissors and cut them off for you right then. Sunflower sprouts and snow pea sprouts are very sweet!)
My son, he would eat organic yogurt and bananas for every meal if I would let him.
I think you have to keep offering up good foods, asking that they try at least a bite or two, and hopefully they will develop a taste.
Let them pick out a few veggies from the store or farmer's market. Or even let them grow some of their own.
And definitely model the behaviors you want to see. If you enjoy a plate of grilled asparagus, they make follow suit.
Something that makes mealtime fun is to use kid chopsticks. They come in animal and dinosaur shapes. They are connected at the top, so they are easy to use.
I have a video of my daughter at 2 eating an entire bowl of steamed broccoli with her horse chopsticks.
Good luck!
Colleen - Perhaps we should move in together!? LOL! I have to say, I love Whitney's comment about smothering in cheese. My boys like cheese, so it may be an easy thing to do. How were you as a child!?
Audrey
I was just thinking about this recently! I'm a HUGE snacker and I've passed on that trait to my 2 year old. Fortunately, she's an extremely active little girl and she's quite petite so I don't really control portions. She seems to "self-regulate" pretty well.
That said, I have been trying to brainstorm healthier snack options. We currently eat bananas, raspberries, pears, oranges, crackers, teddy grahams, peanuts, cheese sticks, popsicles, etc. Oh, and fruit snacks! She LOVES those. I know they aren't the healthiest, but I figure there have to be worse things...
It sounds to me like you are doing all the right things already. I think picky eaters are very normal--look at all the articles in baby mags about them! My kids love peas...and that's about the only veggie they will eat consistently right now! I offer other veggies at every opportunity, sneak them in when I can, and they watch my hubby and I eat them, but what more can you do? I can speak from experience--I was a VERY picky eater as a child, but now I LOVE veggies and although it wasn't until high school that I started to like them I've always been very healthy! Don't fret about it, just keep on keepin' on!
-Jessica