Kids are hungry when they come back home from school. Offering them healthy and nutritious snacks during this time is advisable. Read on to learn everything about after school snacks for kids.Just like any kid, your child might be hungry when she comes back after school every day. Many parents feel worried about what the after school snacks should be. You definitely want your child to have something nutritious and healthy as well as have enough room for dinner also.
Why Do Children Need Healthy Snacks After School?
As kids grow older, they require snacks less frequently. So, depending on your child’s age and routine you should plan and prepare after school snacks. But no matter what age your child is, she will feel hungry when she is back from school. This is mainly because most of the schools have lunch break very early and after that they have afternoon classes. So, by the time children get back home, they feel hungry.
Most of the parents find it difficult to control their hungry kids. So, keeping something healthy as well as tasty is very important. Kids come home from school hungry and at the same time tired. If you serve them healthy snacks they will find the energy of doing their homework and self study as well. They will also be in good mood till dinner time.
Understand the Timing
Recall your school days and put yourself into your kid’s shoes. You will understand how it feels when returning home from school. If your kid is very young, she will feel hungry because she needs feeding in few hours regularly. But if your child is a little bit older, she will feel hungry because most often school do not give mid morning snacks for older school kids. The duration after lunch time is also long and so it is obvious that your child feels hungry after school.
You should also need to understand what your child had for lunch and whether she finished the lunch or skipped it. There are many factors through which children go every day and things cannot be the same, obviously. So, if your child is very hungry every day, in addition to having something healthy and filling for her after school, you should also pay attention to giving her something good and filling for lunch. This will help her feel full for long or at least till she gets back home.
Plan Dinner Accordingly
If your child comes home feeling hungry and you serve a heavy and healthy meal for her, you should plan your dinner accordingly. However, it also depends on the duration after which the dinner would be served. For example if you have dinner very early, you should try giving something that makes your child feel full for some time and she is ready for the dinner. But if you have dinner at 8.30 pm or later, you can offer healthy and filling stuff to your child once she comes back home from school.
Keep Healthy Options at Home
It is good to talk with your children what kind of snacks they would like to have after they get back from school. You can come up with some healthier options. Do not forget to add fresh fruits and vegetables in the list. However, there is no need to forbid a slice of cake or some potato chips that is taken once in a blue moon. Just make sure that these low nutrient snacks are not in the menu of everyday after school snacks.
If you get some time, it is good to go to the grocery store with your kid. Spend some time reading the details of the nutrients on the label of foods and then comparing them with others. Pay attention to the important nutrients like protein, fibre, calcium and others. You can also talk on portion sizes and together you can choose snacks that are not high in sugar, salt or fat content.
You will be surprised to see how much your child enjoys this. On the other hand when your kid will be involved in decision making, she will get prepared for making better and healthy choices in future.
Keep Healthy Snacks Easily Accessible
You cannot expect your child to cut fruits or veggies when she feels hungry. Kids are more inclined to eat food that is handy. So, you should make and keep
healthy snacks easily accessible so that your child has something healthy whenever she needs a snack. You can prepare healthy snacks and pack in her lunch box and also prepare nutritious and tasty snacks for her when she gets back from school.
If your child does not want to eat traditional or monotonous food items when she comes from school, try presenting her the same food in different form. You can make stuffed
parathas, smoothies and roles of different veggies, eggs or even non-veg roles. Depending on the choice of your child, you can even offer whole-wheat pizzas, pastas and burgers especially if you can prepare the stuffing and topping at home. Children will never know that the burger or pasta contains healthy ingredients until the taste is good and appealing for them.
In addition to the above tips, there are many things that you can think and prepare for your child when it comes to considering healthy
after school snacks for kids. If you are planning dinner late any day, you can offer slightly heavy after school snack to your child.
In fact, you will see that when you start thinking and take some time out from your hectic schedule, you come up with many amazing and wonderful options. One of the most important things that you should remember is, ‘preach what you can practice’. Even if you are a working mom, you can prepare and keep healthy snack in the front rack of the refrigerator. Just keep in mind that your main intention is to serve healthy food and help your child make healthy options in her life when she grows up.
Why do children need healthy after school snacks? What kind of snacks can be given to children when they return from school? How often can children eat junk food? Discuss here.
