Ten Healthy Snack Tips for Picky Kids

Parents often struggle to get their children to eat healthy foods. Healthy snacks are no exception. Many kids are picky eaters and won’t willingly try new foods. Parents might purchase healthy snacks only to have their child refuse to try them.

Advertisements for unhealthy snack choices undermine parents’ efforts to help their child make healthier snack choices. Is it any wonder finding healthy snacks for picky eaters can be a real parenting challenge? Here are some useful tips for parents trying to encourage a child to eat healthier snacks.

Tip #1–Children love to have fun. Many picky eaters enjoy playing with their food. Parents generally discourage this at the dinner table, but whenever it comes to informal snacking, I say lighten up! Whole wheat crackers may be a healthy snack choice, but many kids view them as “boring.

Squirt on some smiling cheese faces; suddenly a healthy snack choice becomes more “fun” to eat. Use this same concept with individual servings of low-fat cottage cheese or vanilla yogurt by adding raisin eyes and using a little imagination.

Tip#2–Young children have more taste buds than adults. Certain flavors and textures may not taste the same to your child as they do to you. That new healthy snack you just bought might truly taste “yucky” to your child. The good news is that taste preferences change over time. Your child may “learn” to like a healthy snack.

Children steadily lose taste buds as they grow older. This makes many healthy snack choices more palatable if you can get your child to try them. According to noted nutritionist Ellyn Satter, author of Child of Mine: Feeding with Love and Good Sense, children need exposure to new foods 7 to 10 times before they will usually try them.

Just because you unsuccessfully introduced a new healthy snack choice to your picky eater once doesn’t mean you should give up and not serve it again. With repeated exposure, many children learn to enjoy healthy foods they previously disliked. While you should encourage your child to try new healthy snack foods,never force them. Picky eaters forced to try a new food will likely be unwillingly to try it again later.

Tip #3–Young children love do things themselves. Any healthy snack is more highly favored by a picky eater whenever they are allowed to help create it. Even a three-year old can spread low-fat peanut butter onto a slice of whole wheat bread with minimal training and supervision. Being able to help make their own healthy snacks increases a preschool child’s self-confidence and independence. Parents can turn healthy snack time into an age appropriate learning activity with their child.

Tip #4–Children love learning new things. Counting, sorting and learning colors are examples of fun learning activities easily incorporated into a child’s healthy snack time. Slicing red and yellow apples and having them identify the colors or count the slices is an easy healthy snack choice that doubles as a learning activity.

Tip #5–Science is fascinating to children. Incorporating science into a child’s healthy snack time doubles the pleasure and learning fun. Think of things like using fruit juice to freeze into fruit pops. Even picky eaters more readily eat a healthy snack they watched change from liquid to an “amazing” frozen solid. The same is true for solids turned into liquids such as fruits blended into fruit smoothies.

Tip#6–Children love being allowed to make their own choices.Getting to go grocery shopping with a parent can be a teaching opportunity for parents. They can allow their picky eater to choose their own snacks from several healthy snack options. Parents may need to remind the child later that this was their healthy snack choice.

Some grocery store produce departments even give tours to young children. It makes a fun field trip and is an opportunity for children to learn about healthier fruit and vegetable snacking choices.

Tip #7–Kids love gardening and growing plants. If you don’t have a place to grow your own garden you can still encourage your child’s appreciation for fruits and vegetables by letting them grow their own potted vegetable plants. Kids enjoy eating healthy snacks more when they got to grow and care for the plant themselves.

Tip #8–Kids love dipping food in ranch dressing. After working as a Head Start health/nutrition coordinator for eight years, I have seen very few kids who do not love the flavor of ranch. Raw veggies always taste better with ranch. We made our own low-fat ranch recipe at Head Start using non-fat yogurt to reduce the fat and calories.

One day at Head Start a little girl used ranch dressing to dip her green beans. Before I knew it, every child at her table was doing the same thing. These children had all previously refused to even try green beans. We ended up having to call the kitchen for a second and third bowl to accommodate their new found “love” for green beans dipped in ranch.

Tip #9–Parents need to set a good example by “practicing what they preach.” Parents should let their child see them eat healthy snacks, too. Your child will not be happy eating a healthy snack of carrot sticks and low-fat ranch dressing if they are see you eating chocolate or cookies instead. Can you blame a child for not wanting to eat healthy snacks whenever they are receiving conflicting messages from their parent?

Tip #10–Try healthy snacks yourself before telling your child they taste good. You shouldn’t lie to your child and tell them something tastes good if it doesn’t or if you haven’t tried it. Just because something sounds unappetizing, doesn’t mean it won’t taste good. Kids can read your body language and will instantly be unwilling to try a new food or healthy snack if they feel their parent isn’t telling them the truth.

When parents willingly try previously disliked food choices, they may even find themselves pleasantly surprised. One of my favorite healthy snacks is raw cabbage leaves spread with peanut butter and rolled up. These “cabbage rolls” are a perfect blend of cool, crisp texture and yummy peanut butter flavor. I never liked peanut butter sandwiches as a child and still don’t because they stuck to the roof of my mouth. These peanut butter cabbage rolls eliminate this “texture” issue and you don’t even taste the cabbage flavor, just the crunchy texture.They go great with ice cold low-fat milk.Try it, you might be pleasantly surprised as well.

Enjoy healthy snacking, everyone!