If you are a busy parent, you must have dealt with this often: your child expecting a different snack or food each time. Also, children can be picky eaters at times and can go from saying, "I am not feeling hungry," to "I want something to eat", in a matter of split seconds. As a parent, you must be looking to stock some instant snacks for kids who are ready to eat all the time in your pantry.
No doubt, it’s easy to fry some frozen french fries and nuggets and serve them to your kids. They are tasty, and children approved; but are they healthy? Nope!
A child usually asks for snacks at least three to four times daily, and you can use snacks as a way to contribute nutrients to their diet. To help you out, here are a few healthy and easy snack ideas for kids, which easily engage their taste buds and ensure good health as well.
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5 Healthy After School Snacks Ideas For Kids
After 8 long hours of school, munching on a snack when reaching home is a joy in itself. We all have a few fond memories of relishing our favourite snacks as children. Munching on homemade potato chips, rice crisps, or sabudana papad, which were made during Holi and other festivals, still have a place in our hearts.
Oftentimes, you must want the same for your kid. But, with our busy lifestyle, it is not feasible to make everything at home. Fret not, we are here with a variety of options to let your child have a bite of a healthy snack with homely flavours.
Make way for some easy and instant healthy snack ideas for kids!
Laddoo - The Traditional Sweet of Health And Happiness!
Laddoos, or sweet balls, are traditional sweets crafted and passed down by our great-grandmothers, keeping in mind the health and nutrition requirements of growing kids. Laddoos are loved by all kids, especially those with a sweet tooth.
Laddoos are made of ghee, dry fruits, jaggery, edible gum, millet, gram flour, and other nutritious ingredients. High in fiber, protein, vitamins, and healthy fats, laddoos are an ideal source of nourishment for kids.
One laddoo is enough to satiate their hunger pangs and fill them up with nutrition. They have a higher shelf life and can be made in small batches. However, if you don’t have the time, here are a few readily available organic and preservative-free laddoos you can buy Khajoor Laddoo, Nachni Laddoo, Sattu and Jaggery Laddoo, Dink|Gondh (Edible Gum) Laddoo, Aliv Laddoo, Besan Laddoo, etc.
Fun Fact! You know, there is a laddoo for every occasion? Yes! For instance, gur and sattu laddoo is perfect for the Khichdi festival, also known as Satuvaan in U.P. and Bihar, besan laddoo is made during Diwali, etc.
Organic Cereal Mix - The Quick Fix For When the Kids Are Hungry, But Not Too Hungry!
Organic cereal mixes are a great way to include millet, dry fruits, seeds, and other nutrients in your kid's daily diet.
Cereals are an essential part of a balanced diet, and every parent struggles to get their kids to eat them in the form of chapati, parathas, or other generic recipes.
Cereal mixes can be an easy and quick breakfast for your kids and even yourself. They are filling, healthy, protein-rich, and carbohydrate-fueled to give your kids a morning energy boost. Try out these cereal mixes to add variety to your child’s menu: Almond Rajgira Crunchy Cereal, Ragi Almond Crunchy Cereal Mix, etc. They are delicious and healthy, made from natural ingredients to ensure the best nutrient levels in these cereals.
Nutri-Bars - Yours And Theirs Easy Way Out For Instant Energy!
All kids love chocolates and chocolate bars and are always demanding those as a treat. Nutri Bars made from dry fruits, and natural sweeteners like jaggery and millets can easily help you replace the highly processed and flavoured chocolate bars in your kid's snack box. Nutri bars are wonderful in taste and are true to their label, 'Nutri-Bar', which is short for a nutrition bar. The organic Nutri bars contain no refined sugar and, hence, will not cause any sudden sugar rush in your child.
Your child will feel energised and happy after eating them. Here are a few options for your kid's new energy bar snack: Dates Almond & Rajgira Nutri bar, Palm Jaggery Oats Nutri Bar, and Almond Oat & Mishri Nutri bar.
Nuts and Dry Fruits Spreads - For Effortless Sandwiches And Chapati Rolls!
Every kid loves peanut butter, fruit jam, and Nutella spreads. A dash of these is all they need to gulp up anything without blinking. Won’t it be great if there were healthier alternatives to these highly processed products?
Well, here are nuts and dry fruit spreads made of peanuts, almonds, cashews, jaggery, and dates: Almond butter with jaggery (Crunchy), Cashew butter with jaggery (Creamy), Peanut Butter with Jaggery( Crunchy).
They are easy to use, and with close to zero rejection, they are perfect for your kid's school snack or lunch alternative. Just spread them on bread slices, parathas, pancakes, chapati, or puris and roll them to treat your kids to nutrition.
Crispies or Fryums -The All-time Favourite Munching Snack
You would be surprised to know that you can serve jowar, bajra, and other cereals in the form of fryums and snacks. You don’t have to solely rely on potato, rice, and sabudana chips to satisfy your kid’s munching demands!
They are far healthier than potatoes and rice and good for bone, brain, and muscle health. Here are a few easy alternatives to highly processed chips and munchies:
Cranberry & Millet Super Snack, Nutty Haldi Super Snack, Jowar Papad (Fryums) I Gluten Free, Bajra Papad, and Spiced Chatpata Makhana.
Important Tip:
Those are a few healthy snacks for kids. You can serve them as per their liking and needs. An important tip would be to serve these snacks for kids in between meals. So, they don’t skip their meals and are hungry enough to enjoy them, too!
Also, monitor the serving size of these snacks for kids. They are rich in nutrients and kids don’t require large quantities of these. You can easily create a weekly menu and include at least three different types of snacks daily. This leaves enough room for the kids and you to experiment with their taste and address any health issues.
Let’s learn more about the benefits of consuming healthy snacks for kids.
Six Amazing Benefits of Healthy Snacking For Kids
Who can forget a quick snack prepared by our mothers or granny to calm our hungry nerves? Be it ready-to-eat laddoos or gur dana chikki, or some heartwarming poha and quick chaat. They used to fill our stomachs with the goodness of healthy fibres, proteins, minerals, and vitamins and recharge our bodies for another few hours of mischief, right?
Here are six benefits of eating healthy snacks for kids that will encourage you to try out the above-listed organic snacks.
1.Helps in Overcoming Nutrient DeficienciesA child deficient in nutrients is often less active and prone to lethargy. Snacks like Ragi or Nachni Laddoo, Gur Dani Chikki, Spiced Chatpata Makhana, Sattu Jaggery Laddoo, Cashew Butter, etc., increase iron and other nutrient levels in the body. They also improve muscle mass in kids and help with weight gain.
2.Keeps the Child Energetic And Active All DayChildren are always on the run. Consuming healthy snacks provides their body with adequate energy to do that. Snacks like Nutri bars – Dates Almond & Rajgira Nutri bars, etc., and dry fruit spreads like Peanut Butter, Crunchy with Jaggery, etc. are loaded with energy.
3.Improves Memory And ConcentrationSnacks such as Khajoor Laddoo, Gulkand, Almond Oat & Mishri Nutri Bar are full of vitamin E, Calcium, Phosphorus, Magnesium, Phytonutrients, etc., which are known to relax the mind and improve concentration. They are excellent brain food!
4.Boosts Health And Reduces The Chances of IllnessEating gondh, almonds, cashews, amla, turmeric, etc. in the form of snacks strengthens a child's health and makes them resilient to the ever-changing seasonal flu. Try out these snacks: Dink|Gondh (Edible Gum) Laddoo, Nutty Haldi Super Snack, Ragi Almond Crunchy Cereal, etc. to boost your child’s immunity.
5.Keeps Them in a Good MoodWe know that eating delicious foods induces the release of happy hormones, serotonin, and dopamine, in the body. These hormones ensure that the kids are in a good mood, resulting in fewer shenanigans for you. Now you know that healthy snacks aren’t just loaded with nutrients but are a source of happiness too!
6.Protects Them From Eating Junk FoodRegular consumption of homemade snacks in childhood helps develop a taste for homemade food. In the long run, whenever the children feel hungry, they will opt for home-cooked meals and snacks over the highly processed junk food available on the market.
FAQs: Healthy and Easy Snacks ideas for kids
What can you do as parents to make sure that our children learn to eat healthy?
As a parent, you can try out the following practices to instill healthy eating habits:
Eat without distraction (meal time is screen-free time); talk to your child about food and involve them in making healthy snacks like smoothies, pancakes, laddoos, cutting fruits, etc.; ask your child about the flavours they like and dislike to understand and modify their diet plan. Limit junk food to once a week or when you are travelling. Let them taste a variety of foods from a young age; this will develop a familiar memory of taste in their mind and will help them easily adapt to several flavours as they grow.
Which are some healthy food items for snacks and desserts for children?
There are many healthy food items for snacks and desserts. You can serve gram, puffed rice, peanut/groundnut chikki, sprouts, nuts, cheese, curd/yoghurt, and fresh fruit or vegetables. Idli, upma, dhokla, apple, pancake, cereals, as snacks. For dessert or sweet snacks, you can serve them: fruit custard, carrot halwa, laddoos, yoghurt, and homemade banana bread, nuts with honey, etc.
What can happen if your child snacks a lot of fast food and cold drinks?
Junk food, highly processed foods, and carbonated drinks are high in salt, saturated fats, and sugar and low in fiber and nutrients. Consumption of these on a daily basis increases the risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and nutrient deficiencies in children. They can cause tooth decay, cavities, stunted growth, poor digestion, poor absorption of nutrients, and loss of appetite.
Conclusion
It’s time to conclude “Healthy and Easy Snacks Ideas for Kids”.
A child’s health is every parent's concern, especially now when the kids are flogged by junk food. An easy way to reduce the consumption of junk food in our kids' lives is by introducing healthy and tasty snacks from an early age. Healthy snacking has a myriad of health benefits, like strong growth and development of the body, combating malnutrition and other health issues, improving immunity and cognitive abilities, and promoting an active life.
We hope that now you have a better perspective on using your child's munching habits for their own benefit by serving them these healthy snacks. You can rotate them in school and in between meals to make their eating time more fun and interesting.
For more snacks for kids, check out Two Brothers Organic Farms’ Breakfast and snacks page. Explore our organic snacks and buy them to avail their goodness now!
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