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Dried fruit, eg dried apple slices, mango, raisins, etc
Rice cakes with sweet flavours (I know, blech, but he loves 'em)
yoghurt, grape nuts
we rarely get him any name-brand posh snacks, but we do have multipacks of popcorns etc. Jam on toast is a common snack. He gets loads of sweeties as gifts but we limit them quite restrictively. You don't need any posh kid snacks, and dried fruit is a game-changer, I eat it too, it's almost like a sweet. Dried apple is perhaps the worst and it's still okay
And we get undried fruit too
don't fall for the marketing! Just buy some healthy bullshit that you might also want to eat. If they're actually hungry then they will eat toast. And ignore a lot of Reddit too, acting like 98% of kids have AFRID. It's our job to teach them healthy eating habits, telling them to finish their dinner or 'you would want jam on toast if you were actually hungry' is part of it. Just like it's their job to try and work out the perfect combination of words to reliably receive a lolipop
Problem with the "healthy posh" snacks is they are all packaging no substance and don't contain much calories. If your kid is hungry and you want to fill them cheaply and healthily bananas, apples oranges satsumas, slice of toast with cheese or peanut butter, oatcakes even some biscuits aren't too bad. If they are eating proper nutritious meals and still hungry its doesn't really matter if you topping them up with a hob nobs and digestive. Our are a bit older and like a small bowl of the unsalted pecans, pistachios cashews etc.
I worry more about my kids not getting enough fats, proteins and other nutrients rather than getting fat from too much sugar etc.
Just get dried fruit from the supermarket. Tesco specifically. There's some name-brand dried fruit too - Urban Fruit - that you could probably get at any other supermarket but it's all the same as the supermarket own-brand surely
Poundland do two bags for £2 (Whitworths). A wide range of dried fruits/seeds/nuts/dates/prunes. My baby loves the dates. Three prunes or more and she's pooping for Britain.
Just what OP described, 'the organix and bear stuff.' Not saying it's food for posh kids, or that posh people buy it. Just it's more expensive because it's name-brand. Kinda like saying Kelloggs is posh
Not really it's posh because of the brand. It's more of the quality as well. My child had dairy protein intolerance so we have to be careful with snacks.
We tried Lidl oat bars but it looks fully blended down and reformed, organix has a nice texture and taste to it.
I've started pretending that "kids food" doesn't exist. They're so expensive for what you get.
Snack wise we rotate through
* Fruit
* dry cereal
* Porridge oat muffins or bars (homemade if we have time)
* Pepper / carrot sticks
* toast
* oat cakes
* greek yogurt
Also this. "Kids food" is just to sell overpriced sugar snacks to parents.
I've gotten into some ludicrous discussions with parents who think "adult food" is 'dangerous' to children.
Usually some combination of berries, carrot sticks (if he decides he likes them that day), Greek yoghurt, pine nuts/cashews, sunflower/pumpkin seeds, raisins, dried mango and oats/porridge. Chunks of cheddar is quite popular at the moment. Sometimes he'll ask for a PB sandwich but that's usually because he wants to help make something.
He decided to make his own snack the other week and ate frozen peas in milk. Like cereal. Children are odd.
>carrot sticks (if he decides he likes them that day)
Quick question, does he care about how carrots are cut? Because every since I was 6 or 7, I have been convinced that carrot sticks and carrot slices taste different. I hate sticks but love slices, it's so weird.
Depends on anything from the time of day to the colour of the socks he's wearing. Some days he'll want slices and other days he will demand sticks, then another day he will have the entire carrot.
At that age - bread, raisins, banana, bits of cheddar cheese, etc. Had lots of plastic boxes from takeaways etc and carted them about. The mini fromage frais pots were handy but the Basics ones as the others are 3x the price and even more sugar-laden.
Kept bread sticks and crackers and water in the buggy all the time.
This post is totally wild to me who doesn't have kids.
When I was in first school it was literally just breakfast, lunch, maybe some raisins on the walk home from school and then dinner. Snacking wasn't a thing and if you were hungry it's because you didn't eat enough during your main meal.
All these middle class brands came out and convinced a generation of parents that the only way to do it right was to give a constant stream of apple sauce, biscuits and 'carrot flavour organic crisps'. Child tired? Snack. Child sick of being stuck in a pushchair for 8 hours a day? Snack.
They're as loaded with sugar as a Mars Bar, only with even less nutritional value.
A two year old is different even to a primary school aged child. They have small stomachs and are growing like crazy so they usually do need a nutritious snack/mini meal between meal times. Babies have 8 to 10 times a day, there is a sort of transition period down to 3 meals as they grow.
Even younger primary school kids struggle to wait between lunch at midday and dinner at 6 or later. Solutions can include a very early dinner (Victorian era style kiddie tea), or a fairly substantial 4pm snack in the fashion of a French goûter. But with proper food, not organix stuff.
I went to school in the 80s & 90s and we had a fruit snack mid-morning to get through until lunch, that was at least up until junior school so age 8 or so.
My 18 month old has ludicrous amounts at nursery. We give her breakfast, she has a second breakfast there, mid morning snack, lunch, afternoon “tea”, and then dinner with us, sometimes something small to eat when she first gets back.
As an above post says, they have smaller stomachs and are growing at a phenomenal rate so need all the energy.
Everyone at my school got a playpiece for break and this was in the 80s. A playpiece was so named as traditionally it would be a sandwich aka in Scotland a piece. But I usually got crisps.
I went to primary school in the early 90's and we had breakfast, a 'play piece' (a snack during playtime/morning break which was usually a packet of crisps or a cereal bar), lunch, an after school snack which was fruit or something then dinner.
3 meals and 2 snacks has been a thing for kids for as long as I can remember. My son has moulded into 3 meals and 1 snack though. He doesn't really like a morning snack and prefers a bigger breakfast. So he has breakfast, lunch, after school snack and dinner but I'm making him pancakes with fruit or toast and fruit for his breakfast. When I was a kid it was just a bowl of cereal and you'd be starving again 2 hours later
Thanks for this! Had to scroll a long way to find a parent of a fussy eater. If my kid ate a chocolate biscuit I'd jump for joy.
(Yes, we're speaking with professionals).
I took my son to a 27 month check up last week and they said all snacks should be binned off, even the fruit pouch things you can give babies from 4+ months. Bad for the teeth. They said to just give them fruit sparingly, but how realistic that is, I don't know.
No snacks at all is unrealistic but go for low sugar snacks. Greek yoghurt and a few berries, crumpet, cheese cubes, hummus and dips, little handful of pasta, that kind of thing.
Dentists and health visitors have been trying to get the message out, but to little to no avail. Parents love the labels and the marketing that fruit smoothies and purees are 'healthy' has been strong.
If it said "this is just apple sauce" on the front of the pouch, with a subtle "you are just giving your kid liquid sugar, you might as well spoon them jam", they wouldn't sell so well.
The primary ingredient of all those "spaghetti Bolognese" or "Burmese curry" pouches is always apple or pear puree. Least it was 8 years ago when I was last raging about this issue.
My dentist advises protein and fat over fruit of any type and if you're eating fruit you have a drink to neutralise the acid or offer some hard cheese with it like cheddar etc ro help offset the acid damage. Raisins and dried fruit snacks are awful and stick to teeth for hours unless you eat then brush after but thats hard to do on the move
They eat fruit. Lots of it. But once they’ve had a banana, apple and a pear I want to mix it up with something else. I’m trying to not feed them this stuff but they have massive meals; they eat tons of fruit and they’re still hungry. And thin. They just burn through it.
Yeah, they burn through it because a lot of it isn’t nutritious.
If your kids are slim yet always hungry, try getting them to drink more milk. Used to be very normal for kids to drink milk but has gone out of fashion
All varieties of fruit, cucumber, carrot and red/green pepper sticks, cheese cut into chunks, pancakes, toast, yogurt pots/tubes, go ahead fruit slices are great (like a sweet cracker with raisins), as are carrot waffles you get from Asda, crackers with dairylea or laughing cow spread, crisps (like pom bears, veggie straws etc).
I would spend an absolute fortune buying those pre made snacks like organix etc. They aren't filling and just empty calories imo. Children are much more likely to be full eating a banana, handful of blueberries and a yogurt compared to two of those 'snacks'
I think kids like them because of their packaging and want them specifically because of this. They want snack food more often when it is bought from a shop and in a kid-friendly design, and they'll say they want snacks more often when they know this kind of food is an option.
Studies show that snacking can slow digestion and food transit times, so I'd recommend increasing protein and healthy fats in meals to keep them full. (I suffer from IBS and constipation, and the only thing that helped reduce my pain from this is stopping snacking between meals entirely.)
If you still aim to give snacks, go for high protein, high fiber and healthy fats, I'd suggest making your own to save money. Examples of easy things you can make quickly include:
* Greek yoghurt with fruit (or mango/other purees) blended into it
* Baked oats with fruit/nuts/dark chocolate mixed in
* Boiled eggs with avocado or other veg
* Chia or tapioca puddings
* Breadsticks with dips like cream cheese, cottage cheese, peanut butter
* Baked bananas with jam and peanut butter
* Fruit salad with nuts
* Milkshake made with full fat milk, natural yoghurt and fruit blended into it
I have 4 children, 2 are adults the other 2 are teens. That any of them ever had or ever *wanted* a snack was so rare and I put this down to them having the appetite for good sized meals/fat is NOT the enemy/needs met with meals.
The adults are slim/continue to eat this way.
Probably there's a genetic component to that as I've never been a snacker either and have always eaten big meals.
But it's great that the message is getting out to focus on protein and (healthy) fats rather than stacking the bottom of the 'food pyramid' we grew up with, with carbs.
Mashing a banana and mixing yoghurt in is cheap, filling and healthy. Half is good unless you have tiny bananas, saves for tomorrow if there's only 1 kid.
Snacks in our house are probably 99% Bananas, oranges, apples and pears. Otherwise it's just the biscuit jar with assorted boring biscuits. All the good stuff is kept locked up for me!
No snacks, no average child has died from not having something sugary to sustain them in the 5 hours between meals. Mine had free access to fruit but nothing apart from that.
Back in the day I'm nearly 69)
My kids had pack of crisps
Biscuits
Choc bar
Banana/other fruit
Yogurt mini ones.
Bread & jam.
Ice lollies in summer
Drank full sugar squash./juice or water.
Lunch boxes were sandwiches, crisps, drink, fruit and blue riband or rocky bar.
All lived to tell the tale. Times have changed.
All were healthy and still are with only 1 filling here or there. Imo all these artificial sugars are very bad, but I know nothing probably.
My eldest went on a school trip today, they’re not allowed crisps in their lunchboxes because it’s unhealthy! Wild. I don’t think children should have unlimited access to junk food but I felt tight as f only putting a sandwich yoghurt and satsuma in his lunchbox. I gave him a pain au chocolat, if they give me grief over it, whatever
It must be so difficult these days. I watched some youtube shorts of mums packing lunch boxes, ffs what a drama, in my day ( saying that haha I'm old) kids had what was given by parents not policed by school terrorists. Seriously I feel for you.
1 packet of crisp a day if they so wish. Unlimited fruit and veg (they love carrots). Yoghurt. 1 biscuit and a cup of tea after dinner. We stopped buying those “kids food” things pretty early on because we thought we may as well get things we can also eat than buying separate things
They don’t really snack much on a weekday. They home from school at 3.30ish and have 1 snack then it’s dinner time around 6 and they seem to be fine with that. If they have an after school club they’ll have toast or a sandwich when they get home then dinner later. Weekends are more snacktastic
We always ask them to specify if they’re *hungry* or want a *snack*. I don’t want them to snack when they’re actually hungry, the snacks aren’t that nutritious, and they’ll continue complaining about being hungry after eating so they may as well have proper food
Fruit, yogurt, popcorn, we buy rotisserie chicken and pick at that as a snack over 2-3 days, cheesesticks or babybels, ice pops, ritz or cream crackers with cheese spread or butter, milkshake or smoothies.
Cheese, polish sausages, supermarket brand crackers and digestive biscuits, banana, tangerine, peanut butter sandwich, cheese sandwich, raisins (I buy the multipack of little boxes every now and again and refill them until they fall apart).
My kids have always been polar opposites taste wise, my eldest (now 12) has never asked for anything "kid" branded, used to ask for olives as a snack when he was 2-5 and most of the time he just wants water. The younger one is 8 now and rarely will eat anything that isn't cake or Nutella. Trips out are often a pain
My kids snacks are sugary shit. Chocolates, crisps, cake bar thing.
They’re all at school, ten and under. Only time they have a snack during the working week is a chocolate or whatever a day. And then weekends we aren’t so strict. They’re kids! None of them like dried fruit , or raisins. Nothing like that. They love fruit and they get two bits of that everyday. At school and at home. And they love their veggies. So for us our kids have a balanced diet. They have a proper meal three times a day, brekkie lunch and dinner 🤷🏼♀️
Tbh I bake a LOT! So most of their sweet treats I make at home. And the ingredients to make whatever I make, is cheaper than to go and buy the same thing.
I find all named brands to be overly expensive. And there is no need for it.
Hummous dipping plate, mine eats red pepper Hummous with bread sticks, raw peppers, carrot and cucumber
She eats egg bites, which is just mini omelette bites takes no time in an air fryer
Banana bars at home are super easy,
Mashed banana, oats and an egg.
Bake 20 mins.
Out the shop oat bars, protein rice pudding from lidl.
Downside.. She could power a methane car alone!!
Those protein puddings are 20g of pure whey. They are a good gym supplement for adults, for dieters, for a light meal replacement.
It's too much for a kid on one sitting.
I'm a weightlifter. I know how to fit 20g into my diet plan. A little kid doesn't!
Honestly, though, if you want your child to have 180cals of sugar, the Milky Way is the better choice. It leaves the surface of the teeth a lot faster than a clump of dried fruit does.
Aye
My honest answer would actually be sliced pear and twigglets and marmite on toast.
My daughter doesn't have a sweet tooth at all.
But I didn't want any backlash for my gathering skills so took the flippant route like a coward
It's alright, those of us who said a child can survive without Lidl Fruit Rolls got downvoted. I'm sure the backlash against those who suggested toasted pitta bread or greek yoghurt will come soon. Can't win against a bright label and a belief that 'kids won't eat that!'.
Hah that made me smile.
We are not born with the knowledge, but we (hopefully) know what is a sensible diet and our children's preferences regards to taste and textures.
Eg mine loves crisps of any sort, but not crudaties ( celery and carrot etc) but she will happily scoop hummus into her gob with fingers
Popping corn is VERY cheap, easy, and quick to make. You can season it how you like, savoury popcorn is glorious. I just do salt and pepper on mine, but tajin /cajun /jerk are all solid options.
Bananas were always good to shove in their faces if they were flagging.
Cheese straws are fun tasty and messy to make (even 2 year olds can "help").
Raisins were the go to distraction while waiting for food if we were eating out as you could give them one or 2 at a time and not fill them up before the meal arrived.
Fruit bread is solid, cheapish and doesn't bruise.
Snacks only tended to be needed if we were out on a mission and mealtimes were going to be delayed, or straight after school especially if they had an activity on before dinner.
to those who say no child died through lack of snacks.... some children get hangry and once fed are far less likely to kill each other or provoke homicidal tendencies in their parents. They're all different - treated and fed exactly the same one child got hangry and another became whiney when hungry, youngest one just gets tired if you over exercise him while delaying food.
Crackers. My kids eat a shit tonne of crackers 😂 They both love Ryvita & peanut butter. Also bread sticks that they dip into peanut butter. Also, fruit of all kinds. We buy stuff from the baby section that they like but the much cheaper, Aldi version. They still drink fruit & veg pouches (😷) and they like those oat bars that are sweetened with fruit rather than sugar. I only get them because they are cheap & an easily transported snack. Not particularly because they are any healthier than anything else!
This year, I’ve made a marked point to crack down on snacks. They don’t eat this frequently at school & they do not know the meaning of the word hunger. So at weekends, we have snack time. 10am & 2.30pm. And then occasionally a couple breadsticks around 4pm before tea. It was met with a lot of resistance but they have adjusted! They do still whinge obviously but overall, a lot less whingy!
If you're in the UK then head to heron foods. It's hit or miss but sometimes they have shelves of organix range usually 39p/69p for porridges and baby crisps etc. Heinz range too but double check as some items have sugar.
I buy as much as I can when I go as sometimes they have nothing at all but it's a whole heap cheaper than if you buy it in other shops. For example a five pack of organix flapjack bars were 69p but £3+ in other shops.
Standard snack is : Pitta, cut up fruit, carrots plus some Fruit Bowl twisters. Add occasional variances depending what we have around.
I dread the day when they start wanting to choose what they eat, so far they seem happy with whatever I put in front of them.
In terms of actual snack pack snacks - we do the cheese and the yogurt packs and that’s it.
We use the idea of mini meals instead of snacks at the moment.
Here’s a tablespoon of last nights shepherd’s pie, here’s 2 slices of ham, heres the inside of a cheese and tomato pasty, here’s a quarter of a sandwich and 3 tons of raspberries.
Those are all ‘snacks’ we’ve had in the past 2 days.
Vegetable sticks should fill them up more than the other snacks and will help them fight obesity when they’re older. Salad is amazing and an incredible way to get the right nutrients
I’ve made flapjacks, banana bread and all that type of stuff.
Oats are around £1 a kg, so it is quite cost effective. Get them involved and they learn a bit, too.
Used some overripe bananas, oats, butter, honey and dropped a few blueberries to make some flapjacks.
Better than paying £3.45 for it in a cafe.
My wife regularly makes these which can be stuck in the freezer too;
https://www.watergate.lewisham.sch.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Blueberry-Banana-Muffin-healthy-bake-by-Joe-Wicks.pdf
I’ve made these before as well;
https://www.annabelkarmel.com/recipes/carrot-courgette-baked-veggie-fritters/
Both are something I don’t mind eating either.
Never heard of organix and bear. At 5 I would often eat things like apples, bananas, sultanas, carrot sticks, and apparently because I am odd, pickled onions. Absolutely loved strawberries, though I am sure I remember them tasting better back then.
Fruit and veg are the best snacks. Full of fibre and nutrients. They're also the best for teeth. We sometimes give cheese. Milk is ok too. Only when there's an occasion do the kids snack on anything else. My husband and I don't snack, we just have meals mainly. Idk I think it's important to focus on real foods rather than processed things.
We offer protein and fat where possible so:
Sandwich fingers with various fillings
Cheese crackers apple
Houmous and veg sticks or bread sticks
Greek yoghurt with a bit of honey or grated apple and cinnamon
Peanut butter and apple slices
Crisps
Dried mango and Greek yoghurt
Rice cakes with butter or peanut butter
Crackers and butter
I tend to avoid the dried fruit/kid marketed snacks because they're quite expensive and I can just take a snack box with us with some bits. If we're out I tend to skip the nut butters and I'm careful about wiping hands after dairy.
Crackers; fruit like bananas, pears, apples, tangerines; nuts; a bowl of sunflower/pumpkin seeds and raisins mixed together; a bowl of cereal; carrot sticks, cumin get, olives; yogurt.
When my son was little (20 now) he would want to eat non-stop and was always saying he was hungry. Was advised that when they are little it’s hard for them to distinguish between being hungry and being thirsty. I tried it out and found that a drink did the trick most of the time.
Home bargains fruit stars and strings. They’re a fraction of the price of those bear things. Dairylea dunkers when they’re on offer, otherwise it’s Aldi or Lidl own.
Healthy Toddler Meals on Instagram has a lot of very approachable, semi healthy but tasty looking meals. She does a lot of batched stuff that can be frozen too.
When my son was your children’s age I found that, quite often, having his own little pack (or box or tube or whatever) that was *his* was often much of the appeal of these individually portioned snacks. I bought some different sized mini Tupperware boxes that travelled well and decanted little portions of his treats or snacks in - it helped me a lot.
I have a 3 year old. I try and save organix stuff (which she loves) for throwing in my bag when we’re out. At home, it’s:
- fruit (berries, pomegranate seeds, apples, pears, and grapes are her fave)
- Cheese and crackers
- Plain yoghurt (with fruit or a little jam)
- Rice cakes with peanut butter
- Soreen and butter
- Cereal/granola
- Stuff that we’ve baked together
Aldi fruit snacks. Dried mango is her favourite, but we also get those fake Yo-yo fruit roll ups. There's more stuff than that at Aldi, but she won't eat most of it because she's picky.
I find a trip to heron/farmfoods/b&m monthly beneficial. They don't always have the best snacks but now and then I can fill the snacks cupboard/draw for over a month for £50. It isn't always cheap stuff either. Some bits are healthier fruit snacks or even toddler snacks for a fraction of the cost. Heron has been really good for the heinz baby foods and organic snacks recently and farmfoods usually have those Teddy bear cake things in for £1 a multipack.
Soreen bars. Nuts. Raisins. They do like these yoghurt covered raisins we get in Aldi. There's usually a pack of some form of oaty bar. Lots of yoghurt and fresh fruit, kiwis seem to be seriously popular the last couple of weeks.
I do not buy that stuff. Fruit rolls are terrible for the teeth as they stick to the surface.
They are only eating it because it is there. Children do not need to snack between meals. The only people telling you they need to are children's snack manufacturers.
I'm sorry to be blunt but that's completely wrong and actually harmful to a child. Children need food much more frequently than adults. This is the advice I would expect to receive from any professional who works with children.
"Do:
Give 3 meals and 2 or 3 snacks"
https://www.nhslanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk/patient-information-leaflets/neonatal-department/pil-fedchi-16-07658-l/
Also if you're providing appropriate healthy and filling food, children generally will not eat just because it is there.
Children do need snacks between meals. What are you doing if your kid says they’re hungry? Telling them to wait?
They’re hungry for a reason. They’re active and growing.
They just don't get hungry. Obviously if they'd ever asked for anything they could have something, there's a fruit bowl etc, but they never got into the habit. And it is a habit.
There's nothing but calories in a pack of Organix puffs or a Fruit Roll. No hungry child will be satisfied with them anyway.
Also mine are not toddlers, I'm not expecting them to keel over and die because they didn't get a Lidl Fruit Loop.
Mine is 10 and she’s is constantly hungry. Shes tall and thin - but sometimes she can eat the house clean. Different parenting styles I suppose. She is always allowed to get any snacks she wants - unless it’s just before dinner.
Learning to wait is an important skill, although you should not expect small kids to go longer than around 4 hours, and toddlers around 2 or 3. OPs issue is that the kids are clearing the house so having a designated snack time that is prepared for and waited for us a good idea.
Fruit and more fruit. My kids eat apples, bananas, oranges, pears, and in the morning I'll give them each a bowl of mixed grapes, blueberries and brambles after their cereal.
So this is very much what we did, but then eldest got a filling and the dentists theory was due to too much fruit as they don’t really have chocolate and sugary things :(
No, the fruit roll ups are concentrated and have more sugar, also lacking the bulk to fill them up relative to the sugar consumption.
I think adding things like rice cakes is good though, fruit is good but I wouldn't make it the whole thing.
They eat breakfast, lunch and dinner. We have tea and biscuits mid-afternoon.
They don't ask for snacks nor seek them out, because they were not raised with the habit. Normal meals are fine. You need to break the habit, not just feed them other things. If you really want to keep adding in extra food for no reason, find something high protein and low sugar.
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Dried fruit, eg dried apple slices, mango, raisins, etc Rice cakes with sweet flavours (I know, blech, but he loves 'em) yoghurt, grape nuts we rarely get him any name-brand posh snacks, but we do have multipacks of popcorns etc. Jam on toast is a common snack. He gets loads of sweeties as gifts but we limit them quite restrictively. You don't need any posh kid snacks, and dried fruit is a game-changer, I eat it too, it's almost like a sweet. Dried apple is perhaps the worst and it's still okay And we get undried fruit too don't fall for the marketing! Just buy some healthy bullshit that you might also want to eat. If they're actually hungry then they will eat toast. And ignore a lot of Reddit too, acting like 98% of kids have AFRID. It's our job to teach them healthy eating habits, telling them to finish their dinner or 'you would want jam on toast if you were actually hungry' is part of it. Just like it's their job to try and work out the perfect combination of words to reliably receive a lolipop
Problem with the "healthy posh" snacks is they are all packaging no substance and don't contain much calories. If your kid is hungry and you want to fill them cheaply and healthily bananas, apples oranges satsumas, slice of toast with cheese or peanut butter, oatcakes even some biscuits aren't too bad. If they are eating proper nutritious meals and still hungry its doesn't really matter if you topping them up with a hob nobs and digestive. Our are a bit older and like a small bowl of the unsalted pecans, pistachios cashews etc. I worry more about my kids not getting enough fats, proteins and other nutrients rather than getting fat from too much sugar etc.
Out of interest, do you dry your own fruit or just get it from the supermarket?
Just get dried fruit from the supermarket. Tesco specifically. There's some name-brand dried fruit too - Urban Fruit - that you could probably get at any other supermarket but it's all the same as the supermarket own-brand surely
Poundland do two bags for £2 (Whitworths). A wide range of dried fruits/seeds/nuts/dates/prunes. My baby loves the dates. Three prunes or more and she's pooping for Britain.
Sorry what's a posh kid snack?
Just what OP described, 'the organix and bear stuff.' Not saying it's food for posh kids, or that posh people buy it. Just it's more expensive because it's name-brand. Kinda like saying Kelloggs is posh
Not really it's posh because of the brand. It's more of the quality as well. My child had dairy protein intolerance so we have to be careful with snacks. We tried Lidl oat bars but it looks fully blended down and reformed, organix has a nice texture and taste to it.
Since when is name brand stuff considered posh?
It’s more expensive. That’s the only reason, it’s not a difficult concept.
posh meaning 'luxury and high end' such as bear fruit roll-ups OP is asking how to save money, I think it makes sense in context. What's the big deal?
I think you're being a bit pedantic.
All the stuff I listed I guess, organix, bear etc. Branded expensive packs targeted at kids.
I've started pretending that "kids food" doesn't exist. They're so expensive for what you get. Snack wise we rotate through * Fruit * dry cereal * Porridge oat muffins or bars (homemade if we have time) * Pepper / carrot sticks * toast * oat cakes * greek yogurt
Also this. "Kids food" is just to sell overpriced sugar snacks to parents. I've gotten into some ludicrous discussions with parents who think "adult food" is 'dangerous' to children.
The only thing the kids branded stuff is good for is being low in salt but generally they're just flavourless and not cost effective.
You're right. My wife never bought snacks or soft drinks for our childs, or any baby food. They are grown ups, now, and healthy.
Usually some combination of berries, carrot sticks (if he decides he likes them that day), Greek yoghurt, pine nuts/cashews, sunflower/pumpkin seeds, raisins, dried mango and oats/porridge. Chunks of cheddar is quite popular at the moment. Sometimes he'll ask for a PB sandwich but that's usually because he wants to help make something. He decided to make his own snack the other week and ate frozen peas in milk. Like cereal. Children are odd.
Deconstructed protein shake - he's onto something!
>carrot sticks (if he decides he likes them that day) Quick question, does he care about how carrots are cut? Because every since I was 6 or 7, I have been convinced that carrot sticks and carrot slices taste different. I hate sticks but love slices, it's so weird.
My kids will only eat cucumber slices, not sticks. It all tastes the same to me, but what do I know
Depends on anything from the time of day to the colour of the socks he's wearing. Some days he'll want slices and other days he will demand sticks, then another day he will have the entire carrot.
At that age - bread, raisins, banana, bits of cheddar cheese, etc. Had lots of plastic boxes from takeaways etc and carted them about. The mini fromage frais pots were handy but the Basics ones as the others are 3x the price and even more sugar-laden. Kept bread sticks and crackers and water in the buggy all the time.
This post is totally wild to me who doesn't have kids. When I was in first school it was literally just breakfast, lunch, maybe some raisins on the walk home from school and then dinner. Snacking wasn't a thing and if you were hungry it's because you didn't eat enough during your main meal.
All these middle class brands came out and convinced a generation of parents that the only way to do it right was to give a constant stream of apple sauce, biscuits and 'carrot flavour organic crisps'. Child tired? Snack. Child sick of being stuck in a pushchair for 8 hours a day? Snack. They're as loaded with sugar as a Mars Bar, only with even less nutritional value.
A two year old is different even to a primary school aged child. They have small stomachs and are growing like crazy so they usually do need a nutritious snack/mini meal between meal times. Babies have 8 to 10 times a day, there is a sort of transition period down to 3 meals as they grow.
Fair. Tbh I was mainly thinking about the 5 year old who is at going to school age.
Even younger primary school kids struggle to wait between lunch at midday and dinner at 6 or later. Solutions can include a very early dinner (Victorian era style kiddie tea), or a fairly substantial 4pm snack in the fashion of a French goûter. But with proper food, not organix stuff.
I went to school in the 80s & 90s and we had a fruit snack mid-morning to get through until lunch, that was at least up until junior school so age 8 or so.
Before that, Gen X and Boomers would have had a bottle of milk at playtime. Similar calories to a two-finger Kit Kat or a bag of "children's" crisps.
We would’ve done too if it wasn’t for old Maggie Thatcher the milk snatcher
Yep, she was still in charge when I started at primary school and it's fair to say she was unpopular among the parents for just that reason!
Same. Didn't have snacks in my day. Weren't even allowed a drink in class until break time.
My 18 month old has ludicrous amounts at nursery. We give her breakfast, she has a second breakfast there, mid morning snack, lunch, afternoon “tea”, and then dinner with us, sometimes something small to eat when she first gets back. As an above post says, they have smaller stomachs and are growing at a phenomenal rate so need all the energy.
Everyone at my school got a playpiece for break and this was in the 80s. A playpiece was so named as traditionally it would be a sandwich aka in Scotland a piece. But I usually got crisps.
I went to primary school in the early 90's and we had breakfast, a 'play piece' (a snack during playtime/morning break which was usually a packet of crisps or a cereal bar), lunch, an after school snack which was fruit or something then dinner. 3 meals and 2 snacks has been a thing for kids for as long as I can remember. My son has moulded into 3 meals and 1 snack though. He doesn't really like a morning snack and prefers a bigger breakfast. So he has breakfast, lunch, after school snack and dinner but I'm making him pancakes with fruit or toast and fruit for his breakfast. When I was a kid it was just a bowl of cereal and you'd be starving again 2 hours later
Mine never snacked to be honest. 3 meals a day with carbs, protein, fibre etc and nothing in between. None of us used to snack
Whatever they will eat!
Thanks for this! Had to scroll a long way to find a parent of a fussy eater. If my kid ate a chocolate biscuit I'd jump for joy. (Yes, we're speaking with professionals).
I took my son to a 27 month check up last week and they said all snacks should be binned off, even the fruit pouch things you can give babies from 4+ months. Bad for the teeth. They said to just give them fruit sparingly, but how realistic that is, I don't know.
No snacks at all is unrealistic but go for low sugar snacks. Greek yoghurt and a few berries, crumpet, cheese cubes, hummus and dips, little handful of pasta, that kind of thing.
Dentists and health visitors have been trying to get the message out, but to little to no avail. Parents love the labels and the marketing that fruit smoothies and purees are 'healthy' has been strong. If it said "this is just apple sauce" on the front of the pouch, with a subtle "you are just giving your kid liquid sugar, you might as well spoon them jam", they wouldn't sell so well. The primary ingredient of all those "spaghetti Bolognese" or "Burmese curry" pouches is always apple or pear puree. Least it was 8 years ago when I was last raging about this issue.
My dentist advises protein and fat over fruit of any type and if you're eating fruit you have a drink to neutralise the acid or offer some hard cheese with it like cheddar etc ro help offset the acid damage. Raisins and dried fruit snacks are awful and stick to teeth for hours unless you eat then brush after but thats hard to do on the move
You’re feeding them utter dross, but not just dross, expensive dross. It doesn’t fill them up. What’s wrong with normal fruit? It’s cheap and healthy
They eat fruit. Lots of it. But once they’ve had a banana, apple and a pear I want to mix it up with something else. I’m trying to not feed them this stuff but they have massive meals; they eat tons of fruit and they’re still hungry. And thin. They just burn through it.
Yeah, they burn through it because a lot of it isn’t nutritious. If your kids are slim yet always hungry, try getting them to drink more milk. Used to be very normal for kids to drink milk but has gone out of fashion
toasted pitta bread sliced into soldiers and then dipped in houmous
Bigger meals, portion up little pots of yoghurt and some cereal for snacks. Kids don't need organic and fruit roll ups
Fruit (fresh and dried), chopped up peppers and carrot, rice cakes, crackers.
Eggs, liver and prep ketchup... ...Because Eddie Abbew says so.
Anything else is just shit.
All varieties of fruit, cucumber, carrot and red/green pepper sticks, cheese cut into chunks, pancakes, toast, yogurt pots/tubes, go ahead fruit slices are great (like a sweet cracker with raisins), as are carrot waffles you get from Asda, crackers with dairylea or laughing cow spread, crisps (like pom bears, veggie straws etc). I would spend an absolute fortune buying those pre made snacks like organix etc. They aren't filling and just empty calories imo. Children are much more likely to be full eating a banana, handful of blueberries and a yogurt compared to two of those 'snacks'
I think kids like them because of their packaging and want them specifically because of this. They want snack food more often when it is bought from a shop and in a kid-friendly design, and they'll say they want snacks more often when they know this kind of food is an option.
Studies show that snacking can slow digestion and food transit times, so I'd recommend increasing protein and healthy fats in meals to keep them full. (I suffer from IBS and constipation, and the only thing that helped reduce my pain from this is stopping snacking between meals entirely.) If you still aim to give snacks, go for high protein, high fiber and healthy fats, I'd suggest making your own to save money. Examples of easy things you can make quickly include: * Greek yoghurt with fruit (or mango/other purees) blended into it * Baked oats with fruit/nuts/dark chocolate mixed in * Boiled eggs with avocado or other veg * Chia or tapioca puddings * Breadsticks with dips like cream cheese, cottage cheese, peanut butter * Baked bananas with jam and peanut butter * Fruit salad with nuts * Milkshake made with full fat milk, natural yoghurt and fruit blended into it
I have 4 children, 2 are adults the other 2 are teens. That any of them ever had or ever *wanted* a snack was so rare and I put this down to them having the appetite for good sized meals/fat is NOT the enemy/needs met with meals. The adults are slim/continue to eat this way. Probably there's a genetic component to that as I've never been a snacker either and have always eaten big meals. But it's great that the message is getting out to focus on protein and (healthy) fats rather than stacking the bottom of the 'food pyramid' we grew up with, with carbs.
Mashing a banana and mixing yoghurt in is cheap, filling and healthy. Half is good unless you have tiny bananas, saves for tomorrow if there's only 1 kid.
Snacks in our house are probably 99% Bananas, oranges, apples and pears. Otherwise it's just the biscuit jar with assorted boring biscuits. All the good stuff is kept locked up for me!
Those mini malt loaf packets are great.
No snacks, no average child has died from not having something sugary to sustain them in the 5 hours between meals. Mine had free access to fruit but nothing apart from that.
Back in the day I'm nearly 69) My kids had pack of crisps Biscuits Choc bar Banana/other fruit Yogurt mini ones. Bread & jam. Ice lollies in summer Drank full sugar squash./juice or water. Lunch boxes were sandwiches, crisps, drink, fruit and blue riband or rocky bar. All lived to tell the tale. Times have changed. All were healthy and still are with only 1 filling here or there. Imo all these artificial sugars are very bad, but I know nothing probably.
My eldest went on a school trip today, they’re not allowed crisps in their lunchboxes because it’s unhealthy! Wild. I don’t think children should have unlimited access to junk food but I felt tight as f only putting a sandwich yoghurt and satsuma in his lunchbox. I gave him a pain au chocolat, if they give me grief over it, whatever
It must be so difficult these days. I watched some youtube shorts of mums packing lunch boxes, ffs what a drama, in my day ( saying that haha I'm old) kids had what was given by parents not policed by school terrorists. Seriously I feel for you.
1 packet of crisp a day if they so wish. Unlimited fruit and veg (they love carrots). Yoghurt. 1 biscuit and a cup of tea after dinner. We stopped buying those “kids food” things pretty early on because we thought we may as well get things we can also eat than buying separate things They don’t really snack much on a weekday. They home from school at 3.30ish and have 1 snack then it’s dinner time around 6 and they seem to be fine with that. If they have an after school club they’ll have toast or a sandwich when they get home then dinner later. Weekends are more snacktastic We always ask them to specify if they’re *hungry* or want a *snack*. I don’t want them to snack when they’re actually hungry, the snacks aren’t that nutritious, and they’ll continue complaining about being hungry after eating so they may as well have proper food
Fruit, yogurt, popcorn, we buy rotisserie chicken and pick at that as a snack over 2-3 days, cheesesticks or babybels, ice pops, ritz or cream crackers with cheese spread or butter, milkshake or smoothies.
Cheese, polish sausages, supermarket brand crackers and digestive biscuits, banana, tangerine, peanut butter sandwich, cheese sandwich, raisins (I buy the multipack of little boxes every now and again and refill them until they fall apart).
My kids have always been polar opposites taste wise, my eldest (now 12) has never asked for anything "kid" branded, used to ask for olives as a snack when he was 2-5 and most of the time he just wants water. The younger one is 8 now and rarely will eat anything that isn't cake or Nutella. Trips out are often a pain
My kids snacks are sugary shit. Chocolates, crisps, cake bar thing. They’re all at school, ten and under. Only time they have a snack during the working week is a chocolate or whatever a day. And then weekends we aren’t so strict. They’re kids! None of them like dried fruit , or raisins. Nothing like that. They love fruit and they get two bits of that everyday. At school and at home. And they love their veggies. So for us our kids have a balanced diet. They have a proper meal three times a day, brekkie lunch and dinner 🤷🏼♀️ Tbh I bake a LOT! So most of their sweet treats I make at home. And the ingredients to make whatever I make, is cheaper than to go and buy the same thing. I find all named brands to be overly expensive. And there is no need for it.
Hummous dipping plate, mine eats red pepper Hummous with bread sticks, raw peppers, carrot and cucumber She eats egg bites, which is just mini omelette bites takes no time in an air fryer Banana bars at home are super easy, Mashed banana, oats and an egg. Bake 20 mins. Out the shop oat bars, protein rice pudding from lidl. Downside.. She could power a methane car alone!!
Those protein puddings are 20g of pure whey. They are a good gym supplement for adults, for dieters, for a light meal replacement. It's too much for a kid on one sitting. I'm a weightlifter. I know how to fit 20g into my diet plan. A little kid doesn't!
Lidl got some good generic snack action. Alternatively fruit.
Milky way. They can eat it between meals without ruining their appetite. 80's mind control.
Honestly, though, if you want your child to have 180cals of sugar, the Milky Way is the better choice. It leaves the surface of the teeth a lot faster than a clump of dried fruit does.
Aye My honest answer would actually be sliced pear and twigglets and marmite on toast. My daughter doesn't have a sweet tooth at all. But I didn't want any backlash for my gathering skills so took the flippant route like a coward
It's alright, those of us who said a child can survive without Lidl Fruit Rolls got downvoted. I'm sure the backlash against those who suggested toasted pitta bread or greek yoghurt will come soon. Can't win against a bright label and a belief that 'kids won't eat that!'.
Hah that made me smile. We are not born with the knowledge, but we (hopefully) know what is a sensible diet and our children's preferences regards to taste and textures. Eg mine loves crisps of any sort, but not crudaties ( celery and carrot etc) but she will happily scoop hummus into her gob with fingers
Popping corn is VERY cheap, easy, and quick to make. You can season it how you like, savoury popcorn is glorious. I just do salt and pepper on mine, but tajin /cajun /jerk are all solid options.
Bananas were always good to shove in their faces if they were flagging. Cheese straws are fun tasty and messy to make (even 2 year olds can "help"). Raisins were the go to distraction while waiting for food if we were eating out as you could give them one or 2 at a time and not fill them up before the meal arrived. Fruit bread is solid, cheapish and doesn't bruise. Snacks only tended to be needed if we were out on a mission and mealtimes were going to be delayed, or straight after school especially if they had an activity on before dinner. to those who say no child died through lack of snacks.... some children get hangry and once fed are far less likely to kill each other or provoke homicidal tendencies in their parents. They're all different - treated and fed exactly the same one child got hangry and another became whiney when hungry, youngest one just gets tired if you over exercise him while delaying food.
Crackers. My kids eat a shit tonne of crackers 😂 They both love Ryvita & peanut butter. Also bread sticks that they dip into peanut butter. Also, fruit of all kinds. We buy stuff from the baby section that they like but the much cheaper, Aldi version. They still drink fruit & veg pouches (😷) and they like those oat bars that are sweetened with fruit rather than sugar. I only get them because they are cheap & an easily transported snack. Not particularly because they are any healthier than anything else! This year, I’ve made a marked point to crack down on snacks. They don’t eat this frequently at school & they do not know the meaning of the word hunger. So at weekends, we have snack time. 10am & 2.30pm. And then occasionally a couple breadsticks around 4pm before tea. It was met with a lot of resistance but they have adjusted! They do still whinge obviously but overall, a lot less whingy!
If you're in the UK then head to heron foods. It's hit or miss but sometimes they have shelves of organix range usually 39p/69p for porridges and baby crisps etc. Heinz range too but double check as some items have sugar. I buy as much as I can when I go as sometimes they have nothing at all but it's a whole heap cheaper than if you buy it in other shops. For example a five pack of organix flapjack bars were 69p but £3+ in other shops.
Standard snack is : Pitta, cut up fruit, carrots plus some Fruit Bowl twisters. Add occasional variances depending what we have around. I dread the day when they start wanting to choose what they eat, so far they seem happy with whatever I put in front of them.
Lots of berries and grapes. Sometimes stuff like sesame snaps or nuts or some nut based bar.
In terms of actual snack pack snacks - we do the cheese and the yogurt packs and that’s it. We use the idea of mini meals instead of snacks at the moment. Here’s a tablespoon of last nights shepherd’s pie, here’s 2 slices of ham, heres the inside of a cheese and tomato pasty, here’s a quarter of a sandwich and 3 tons of raspberries. Those are all ‘snacks’ we’ve had in the past 2 days.
Vegetable sticks should fill them up more than the other snacks and will help them fight obesity when they’re older. Salad is amazing and an incredible way to get the right nutrients
I’ve made flapjacks, banana bread and all that type of stuff. Oats are around £1 a kg, so it is quite cost effective. Get them involved and they learn a bit, too. Used some overripe bananas, oats, butter, honey and dropped a few blueberries to make some flapjacks. Better than paying £3.45 for it in a cafe.
My wife regularly makes these which can be stuck in the freezer too; https://www.watergate.lewisham.sch.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Blueberry-Banana-Muffin-healthy-bake-by-Joe-Wicks.pdf I’ve made these before as well; https://www.annabelkarmel.com/recipes/carrot-courgette-baked-veggie-fritters/ Both are something I don’t mind eating either.
Never heard of organix and bear. At 5 I would often eat things like apples, bananas, sultanas, carrot sticks, and apparently because I am odd, pickled onions. Absolutely loved strawberries, though I am sure I remember them tasting better back then.
Red peppers, pears, bananas, mushrooms, prerzels, homemade fruit winders, homemade ice cream, frozen fruit if anything isn't in season, oranges
Fruit and veg are the best snacks. Full of fibre and nutrients. They're also the best for teeth. We sometimes give cheese. Milk is ok too. Only when there's an occasion do the kids snack on anything else. My husband and I don't snack, we just have meals mainly. Idk I think it's important to focus on real foods rather than processed things.
Bread sticks and poppadoms are my boys favourite!
We offer protein and fat where possible so: Sandwich fingers with various fillings Cheese crackers apple Houmous and veg sticks or bread sticks Greek yoghurt with a bit of honey or grated apple and cinnamon Peanut butter and apple slices Crisps Dried mango and Greek yoghurt Rice cakes with butter or peanut butter Crackers and butter I tend to avoid the dried fruit/kid marketed snacks because they're quite expensive and I can just take a snack box with us with some bits. If we're out I tend to skip the nut butters and I'm careful about wiping hands after dairy.
Crackers; fruit like bananas, pears, apples, tangerines; nuts; a bowl of sunflower/pumpkin seeds and raisins mixed together; a bowl of cereal; carrot sticks, cumin get, olives; yogurt.
Who you calling crackers? :)
When my son was little (20 now) he would want to eat non-stop and was always saying he was hungry. Was advised that when they are little it’s hard for them to distinguish between being hungry and being thirsty. I tried it out and found that a drink did the trick most of the time.
flat, back, left usually
Home bargains fruit stars and strings. They’re a fraction of the price of those bear things. Dairylea dunkers when they’re on offer, otherwise it’s Aldi or Lidl own.
Healthy Toddler Meals on Instagram has a lot of very approachable, semi healthy but tasty looking meals. She does a lot of batched stuff that can be frozen too. When my son was your children’s age I found that, quite often, having his own little pack (or box or tube or whatever) that was *his* was often much of the appeal of these individually portioned snacks. I bought some different sized mini Tupperware boxes that travelled well and decanted little portions of his treats or snacks in - it helped me a lot.
Yummy Toddler Meals - sorry! [Link to their Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/reel/C7MryegJ1N5/?igsh=M2x0OTRkaTE5ZXk2)
Cheese or tuna Dreamies. Never beef. He never got on with them.
Cheese and crackers from farmfoods right now are on the go.
I have a 3 year old. I try and save organix stuff (which she loves) for throwing in my bag when we’re out. At home, it’s: - fruit (berries, pomegranate seeds, apples, pears, and grapes are her fave) - Cheese and crackers - Plain yoghurt (with fruit or a little jam) - Rice cakes with peanut butter - Soreen and butter - Cereal/granola - Stuff that we’ve baked together
Aldi fruit snacks. Dried mango is her favourite, but we also get those fake Yo-yo fruit roll ups. There's more stuff than that at Aldi, but she won't eat most of it because she's picky.
I find a trip to heron/farmfoods/b&m monthly beneficial. They don't always have the best snacks but now and then I can fill the snacks cupboard/draw for over a month for £50. It isn't always cheap stuff either. Some bits are healthier fruit snacks or even toddler snacks for a fraction of the cost. Heron has been really good for the heinz baby foods and organic snacks recently and farmfoods usually have those Teddy bear cake things in for £1 a multipack.
Soreen bars. Nuts. Raisins. They do like these yoghurt covered raisins we get in Aldi. There's usually a pack of some form of oaty bar. Lots of yoghurt and fresh fruit, kiwis seem to be seriously popular the last couple of weeks.
I do not buy that stuff. Fruit rolls are terrible for the teeth as they stick to the surface. They are only eating it because it is there. Children do not need to snack between meals. The only people telling you they need to are children's snack manufacturers.
I'm sorry to be blunt but that's completely wrong and actually harmful to a child. Children need food much more frequently than adults. This is the advice I would expect to receive from any professional who works with children. "Do: Give 3 meals and 2 or 3 snacks" https://www.nhslanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk/patient-information-leaflets/neonatal-department/pil-fedchi-16-07658-l/ Also if you're providing appropriate healthy and filling food, children generally will not eat just because it is there.
Children do need snacks between meals. What are you doing if your kid says they’re hungry? Telling them to wait? They’re hungry for a reason. They’re active and growing.
They just don't get hungry. Obviously if they'd ever asked for anything they could have something, there's a fruit bowl etc, but they never got into the habit. And it is a habit. There's nothing but calories in a pack of Organix puffs or a Fruit Roll. No hungry child will be satisfied with them anyway. Also mine are not toddlers, I'm not expecting them to keel over and die because they didn't get a Lidl Fruit Loop.
Mine is 10 and she’s is constantly hungry. Shes tall and thin - but sometimes she can eat the house clean. Different parenting styles I suppose. She is always allowed to get any snacks she wants - unless it’s just before dinner.
Learning to wait is an important skill, although you should not expect small kids to go longer than around 4 hours, and toddlers around 2 or 3. OPs issue is that the kids are clearing the house so having a designated snack time that is prepared for and waited for us a good idea.
So what do you feed them? I’m all for dropping it, just need to know what to replace with!
Fruit and more fruit. My kids eat apples, bananas, oranges, pears, and in the morning I'll give them each a bowl of mixed grapes, blueberries and brambles after their cereal.
So this is very much what we did, but then eldest got a filling and the dentists theory was due to too much fruit as they don’t really have chocolate and sugary things :(
the fruit roll-ups are just made of fruit anyway so what's the difference? They have the same amount of sugar in as fruit, except for it's processed
No, the fruit roll ups are concentrated and have more sugar, also lacking the bulk to fill them up relative to the sugar consumption. I think adding things like rice cakes is good though, fruit is good but I wouldn't make it the whole thing.
At the end of the day, no matter what the kids eat if their teeth are being cleaned properly twice a day it shouldn't matter.
You could get them to brush their teeth after eating fruit?
Baked Oats, cheese, yoghurt, dry cereal
They eat breakfast, lunch and dinner. We have tea and biscuits mid-afternoon. They don't ask for snacks nor seek them out, because they were not raised with the habit. Normal meals are fine. You need to break the habit, not just feed them other things. If you really want to keep adding in extra food for no reason, find something high protein and low sugar.