Snack Tips and Ideas for the Whole Family
By Anna Lutz, MPH, RD/LDN, CEDS-S
Snacks are an important part of a child’s nutrition. With early risers, a morning snack may be important to fuel a child until lunch. Many kids come home from school hungry or low on energy. School lunch may be at 10:30 AM and by 3:00 PM, their growing bodies need to fuel up after a long day. And, depending on dinner time, some children need an evening snack after dinner to fuel their bodies until the next morning. Each family’s schedule is different, but overall, snacks are important for children to meet their bodies’ needs.
What does “snack” mean to you?
I love talking with parents about snacks and what the word “snack” means to them. We all approach food in different ways, shaped by our own upbringing, relationship with food, and the nutrition information we gather throughout our lives.
People have certain images that they think of when they hear the word “snack.” I find, many people think of “snacks” as particular foods, such as crackers and chips. Others, when they hear the word “snack,” think of “snacking,” a verb that seems to mean mindlessly eating between meals.
We have a fast-paced culture that often doesn’t support the idea of taking the time to stop and re-fuel and, for many, snacks can be an afterthought.
At Sunny Side Up Nutrition, we like to think of a snack as a mini-meal, just as important as any other eating time. We have some simple tips to help support you at snack time.
I think dinner is often elevated to a higher status in our minds than other eating times. We expect children to try new foods and eat the largest amount of food at dinner. Dinner can be tough for young children.
5 Tips for Snack Time:
- Prioritize Sit-Down Snacks: It’s important for food to be given a certain amount of time and energy in our days. Food is one of our 5 basic needs, but all too often falls to the bottom of our to-do list.
Snacks do not need to take long, but it’s important to stop, sit down and enjoy refueling, while not doing other things. This helps children retain their innate ability of eating intuitively. They can listen to their hunger and fullness if food is prioritized.
This can be at a park, “Let’s sit down for a minute and have a snack.” or at the swimming pool, “Come sit on your towel and have something to eat.” As the parent, you are determining when it’s time to eat, what is served, and where. If you want to read more about your feeding jobs as parents check out our blog post – Family Feeding: The Long Haul.
- Consider the Timing of Snacks: It’s important to think through the timing of meals and snacks. Many children do well fueling up every 2-4 hours. To encourage eating a variety of foods, it’s important for children to arrive at meals and snacks hungry. Arriving at a meal hungry is like going to the grocery store hungry, everything looks good and it’s hard to stick to the list. Right? If we arrive at a meal hungry, we’re more likely to eat a variety of foods to meet our energy needs, rather than sticking to just familiar foods.
On the other hand, if a well-balanced snack is close to a meal time or children “graze” between meals, it can interfere with food acceptance. By having meals and snacks every 2-4 hours, you are providing a structure to assist your kids in arriving at eating times hungry, but not famished.
- Pair Protein and Carbohydrates: The 3 macronutrients, carbohydrates, protein, and fat, each affect our blood sugars and energy levels at different rates after eating. Carbohydrates give us quick energy and, depending on the amount eaten, provide energy for the next 30 – 60 min. Fruits, vegetables, and starches provide carbohydrates. Protein takes longer than carbohydrates to empty out of our stomachs and doesn’t give us immediate energy. Protein kicks in when carbohydrates fall off and provides more long-lasting energy. Yogurt, milk, cheese, meats, nuts, eggs, and beans contain protein.
Lastly, dietary fat provides the most long-lasting energy. When we include fat in a snack, the snack can stick with us for 3-4 hours, again depending on the amount eaten. Many of the protein-rich foods such as nuts, cheese, yogurt, nut butters, eggs, and meats also contain fat.
So, if you pair a protein/fat-rich food with a carbohydrate-rich food, such as apple and peanut butter and cheese and fruit, you have a mini-meal with long-lasting energy.
- Offer New Foods at Snack Time: Do you have a picky eater and feel frustrated with the lack of food acceptance at dinner time? Snacks are a great time to offer new foods. Sometimes, we can get in a rut of only offering easily accepted foods (think fishy crackers) at snack times. Instead, we can capitalize on snack times by offering new or not readily accepted foods.
I think dinner is often elevated to a higher status in our minds than other eating times. We expect children to try new foods and eat the largest amount of food at dinner.
Dinner can be tough for young children. Dinner is close to bedtime and their fatigue may play a role in not eating very much and not trying new foods. It’s typical for young children not to eat a lot at dinner time, they are tired and have eaten enough at their other eating times.
Knowing this, it may make sense to expose children to new or not as accepted foods at other eating times of the day and snack time can be a great time to experiment in a low pressure way.
5. Keep it Easy: These suggestions are meant to make things easier, not more complicated. I’m a big fan of keeping food simple. We need to spend some time thinking, preparing, and eating food, but food doesn’t need to take up all of our time and energy. I loved Elizabeth’s snack suggestions, because they are quick and take little prep time. My favorite snack is apple with peanut butter (we do sunflower butter at our house because my oldest daughter has a tree nut and peanut allergy).
20 Easy Snack Ideas:
Here are 20 easy snack ideas to help fuel you and your children! Of course, consider your child’s age and developmental stage when choosing food for your child. This list is great for school aged children and can be adjusted for younger children.
- Cheese and crackers: Explore cheddar cheese, spreadable goat cheese, swiss cheese, or gouda. You may try different toppings like cherry or fig preserves, thinly sliced apples, or an herb mixture stirred into the goat cheese.
- Yogurt and/or fruit and/or granola. You may want to try drinkable yogurts, Greek yogurt, and fruit-on-the-bottom yogurt
- A meat & cheese or peanut butter (or other nut or seed butter) sandwich
- Hummus and pretzels and/or veggies (carrots, mini-cucumbers, broccoli) Experiment with different flavors of hummus or vegetables. Purple carrots are always a hit at my house.
- Leftovers:
- Spaghetti and meatballs
- Macaroni and cheese
- Pizza
- Taco meat or beans rolled up in a tortilla
- Grilled cheese or cheese toast (melt cheese on a piece of bread or english muffin) or a quesadilla.
- Avocado toast (toast bread, smash some avocado on top, sprinkle with salt and/or lime juice), with or without an egg
- Sliced hardboiled egg or scrambled egg on toast or crackers
- Energy Bar (Look for >5 or so grams of protein) or Sunbutter energy bites
- Banana or apple slices with nut butter or soy nut butter
- Smoothie – Include yogurt or nut/seed butter
- Cereal or oatmeal packets and milk
- Frozen chicken nuggets heated in the air fryer (I like Just Bare from Costco) with veggies and ranch dressing
- Celery with nut butter and raisins and/or chocolate chips
- Graham crackers with nut butter and chocolate chips
- Egg salad or chicken salad or pimento cheese and crackers
- Bean Salsa or bean salad and tortilla chips
- Muffin (blueberry/morning glory/banana nut) or cookies and a glass of milk
- Pinwheels – turkey or ham and cheese rolled up and then sliced into small circles
- Trail Mix – Try different combinations of cereal, fish crackers, nuts, dried fruit, popcorn and chocolate chips.
Looking for more information on how to feed your family? Check out Sunny Side Up Nutrition.
Anna Lutz is a Registered Dietitian with Lutz, Alexander & Associates Nutrition Therapy and specializes in eating disorders and pediatric/family nutrition. Anna practices from a Health at Every Size® approach and supports individuals in breaking free of diet culture for themselves and their families. Anna is a national speaker and delivers workshops and presentations on childhood feeding, eating disorders, and weight-inclusive healthcare. Anna writes about nutrition, cooking, and family feeding, free of diet culture, at Sunny Side Up Nutrition. She is the mom of 3 very different eaters.
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