Have Pre-packed Snacks Available for Your Kids

As the average parents work more and more hours per week, keeping the refrigerator and cabinets stocked with healthy foods can be a demanding task—demanding, but not impossible. It just takes a little planning, and it's important enough to try to make a little time for. After all, we can't expect our children to make healthy food decisions if we don't supply them with healthy food choices!

When children come home from school, they inevitably go in search of a midafternoon snack. Anticipate this and pre-pack snacks for the home cabinet just as you would for your younger children's school lunches. Small children like having their own designated snacks, and you can be assured they are eating healthy because you packed the snack yourself. Instead of just one type of snack, pack an assortment of goodies. Each portion should be small. A few crackers, a few chips, some celery sticks or carrot sticks, and so on. The important thing with small children is that you provide them with variety. Just as when packing lunches, putting a sticker or something small in the pack provides positive encouragement for your child. (Remember, children choose cereal for the prize in the box!)

These pre-packed snacks are also great for when you are out and about performing your errands. Taking a healthy snack along will keep you from having to buy your kids fast food to handle their mood swings, which may be driven by hunger.

More on: Healthy Meals for Families

Excerpted from:

From Raising Healthy Eaters: 100 Tips for Parents by Henry Legere, M.D. Copyright © 2004. Used by arrangement with The Perseus Books Group.

To order this book visit perseusbooksgroup.com.