Healthy food is important for a child’s development. When you pack your kid’s lunch, you need to make sure to include some healthy snacks. However, it can be tough to know what to put in your child’s lunch box. It seems like every week there’s some new report about food dangers. Food that we thought was healthy is all of a sudden classified as unhealthy. It can get very confusing. Read the rest of this article to find out some ideas of healthy snacks to send to school with your kids.
Healhy snack ideas for the lunch box
Fruits
Fruit is usually a good thing to send to school with your kid. Fruit is high in vitamins that the kids need to grow. If you fill them up with fruit, that will cut down on the cravings for unhealthy alternatives such as chips and candy.
Veggies
You could also send vegetables with your kid to school as a snack. You could send carrot sticks or celery sticks with some salad dressing for your kids to dunk them in. Sometimes it can be hard to get a kid to eat a whole serving of veggies, but if you dress it up as a snack, you may be successful at getting your kids to eat vegetables that way.
Snacks high in protein
It is important that kids get enough protein in their diets. You can send things like peanut butter crackers or peanut butter bites in your kids lunch to accomplish this goal. Also if your child can eat nuts, you can send almonds or peanut to school with your kid. Another idea would be to send some celery and peanut butter as a snack. This combines vegetables and protein for a one two punch!
Remember to read labels. Just because a snack says it is healthy does not mean it is healthy for your child. Always always always read the label in the store before you buy it. Check for allergens. You also want to check for the amount of fat that is in this supposed healthy snacks. Also watch out for preservatives when you read the labels of supposed healthy snacks.
If a snack does not meet your criteria for healthy do not be afraid to tell your child no they can’t eat that. They may pitch a fit, but you are responsible for turning your child into a healthy adult.
Include a variety of snacks. Try not to send the same snack everyday. There aren’t many adults that like to eat the same foods everyday. Kids are no different.
It can be a challenge to get your kids to eat healthy foods. They are bombarded with ads for unhealthy foods all day if they watch television. Also, their friends may have unhealthy snacks that they can trade their healthy snacks for. While you can not be with your child every second of the day, you can make sure that you at least teach them the right foods to eat. You can make sure that healthy foods are accessible to them. Remember that they are forming their eating patterns now. If you instill healthy eating habits in them now, they won’t have a lot to change in their diet when they get older.
DeAnna Troupe is a small business coach. She runs her business while she works a part time job and raises four kids with her husband.
