snacks for toddlers

snacks redefined

When eliminating snacks was unsuccessful for improving dinnertime, I was back to the drawing board. First, I considered our goals for dinner, and with feeding in general.

We wanted the kids eating a well balanced diet that was adequate for health and growth. This was critical since our family has experienced chronic constipation, food allergies, and our children are much smaller than same age peers.
We wanted the entire family to have pleasant mealtime experiences.

Since banning snacks basically created hangry children, I decided it was time for everyone (adults and children) to redefine snacks. Over the past few years, we developed poor snacking habits. The majority of the time, snacks consisted of food with minimal nutritional value. Snacking wasn’t the problem itself, the bigger issue was these foods often became substitutes for meals and the kids weren’t getting adequate nutrition. Keeping this in mind, I tweaked the snack menu.

When our typical afternoon snack time arrived, I started offering several choices that included primarily fruits and vegetables, and other sources of protein such as nuts or dairy. In the beginning, the kids were NOT pleased with these options, and often on their own volition skipped snacks altogether. On many occasions they demanded off menu items. Instead of catering to their whims, I continued offering a variety of options that included items I knew they’d enjoyed before. We have two tiered basket on the counter top that is always full of fruit (often chosen by the kids during shopping trips), and these were consistently offered as snacks. In addition, if someone didn’t eat part of a meal, and it was an item I knew they liked, I put it into lidded containers color coded by child. Leftovers could then be added to the snack menu.

Here, we had left over Greek yogurt, apples, and pasta that was untouched at lunch.

After the weeks trudged on, the kids finally started trying their new snack options and enjoying them. I could not believe it when Sydney chose apples for her snack, and then gobbled them with a huge smile on her face. This was a BIG deal, people. Sydney is a self proclaimed “carnival” (e.g. carnivore) who loves to nosh meat and carbohydrates. Fruit and veggies have never been atop her preferred foods list, yet she decided apples were indeed tasty. While we were shopping, she requested grapes. This was huge for her.

Raw carrots for snack? Why yes! And look at those smiles!

During this process of redefining snacks, our snack menu is somewhat limited. At the same time, our previously enjoyed foods are not “forbidden” either. I want the kids to learn how to enjoy a variety of food and feel satisfied with some of the most nutritious foods, but to also appreciate treats. I enjoy desserts and salty snacks, why shouldn’t they?

Even with better snacking habits underway, improving the kid’s nutritional intake, my second goal was not yet achieved. The kids were often fussy at dinner, claiming to be “very hungry” then refusing to eat anything presented to them. It was not uncommon for one or more children to proclaim something such as “This is DISGUSTING!” (Thank you, Pixar for Inside Out, and adding “disgust” to the children’s emotional vocabulary.) It seemed that the kids took turns having a dinnertime tantrum so we’d experience at least one per night. Even worse, tantrums occurred even when we served favorite meals and despite the fact we told them they didn’t have to eat anything they didn’t want. Dinner was an exasperating experience most nights.

At this point, we were on the cusp of accomplishing both of the feeding goals, but weren’t quite there. Stay with me, I know many others are having similar struggles and are eager to discover what finally made all the difference in the world.

Hugs!

Amber

With each passing day, I find myself trying to solve some new challenge with raising four toddlers, aka “quaddlers”. They are a cunning lot who inspires a little ingenuity on my part (and George’s) just to manage day to day life. While my ideas are born from being surrounded by four toddlers, I think many of them could be helpful to any parents of little ones so I’m sharing.

Being independent toddlers, the quads refuse to let me spoon feed them anything. For the most part, it’s not a problem because they are highly skilled at finger feeding and are using utensils a little better each day. Some foods such as applesauce and yogurt don’t lend themselves to finger feeding and aren’t ideal for novice utensil users. This led me to find some alternative solutions, especially for yogurt.

I snagged this little gem from Gwen’s Nest. I put a little yogurt in the bottom of a bowl or plate and top it with dry cereal. This is one of my favorite ways to serve yogurt because it helps the babies work on spoon-feeding themselves. The yogurt sticks to the dry cereal, making it easier to scoop. Sometimes they pick up the cereal as a finger food, and it’s a bit sticky, but it’s not terrible.

I also found a recipe for Orange Dreamsicle Bites from Cookies & Cups, which used Greek yogurt and orange flavored Jell-O. I experimented with it and found that other Jello flavors make tasty yogurt bites for the wee ones (and adults too!). Plus, using other flavors creates fun colors, which is helpful when teaching toddlers about colors. The best part- Greek yogurt transforms Jello-O into a snack packed with probiotics, calcium, and protein that is easy to serve and clean up!

You'll need just two ingredients to make yogurt bites: 1 1/2 cups Greek Yogurt 3 oz. box of Jell-O

You’ll need just two ingredients to make yogurt bites:
1 1/2 cups Chobani Greek Yogurt
3 oz. box of Jell-O

Note: I’ve experimented with various brands and flavors of Greek yogurt for this recipe, and Chobani vanilla results in the right texture.

Mix the yogurt and Jell-O in a microwave safe bowl

Microwave the mixture 1 minute then stir well. Microwave another minute then stir again.

Spoon the mixture into molds, or muffin tins with cupcake liners. If you use a mold, be sure to spray it with cooking spray first.

I forgot to spray my mold and only two of our animals came out clean. I found that mini muffin tins are just the right size for a snack, and clean up is easy.

I forgot to spray my mold and only two of our animals came out clean. I found that mini muffin tins are just the right size for a snack, and clean up is a cinch. I made these as a toddler snack so I didn’t get fancy, but at Cookies & Cups, she topped these with whipped cream and candy, which would be cute to serve at a party.

I’ve been serving banana milk shakes for a while, but recently began adding Greek yogurt to them. I also like adding yogurt to whole milk as a drink. This is by far the easiest way to serve yogurt to toddlers! I do this often for Mason and Sydney because they are so tiny and often need extra calories that are nutritious rather than empty junk food options.

Toddlers absolutely LOVE dipping. They recently discovered they joys of ketchup and sour cream so I began using yogurt as fruit dip for the quads. Sometimes they spear fruit with a fork, which is good utensil practice. They also do well just dipping fruit as a finger food.

The yogurt I used for this was white, but I added a drop of red food coloring to make it pretty for the picture. Rylin is currently obsessed with pink things and thought it was fantastic. I think I’ll experiment with making our yogurt other colors such as green and orange to help teach colors.

Do you have any clever ways to serve yogurt or otherwise messy foods to toddlers? I always enjoy tips for feeding toddlers, and have been enjoying the Tyke Bites series at Texas Tales.

hugs!

Amber

P. S. Since the original writing of this post, I began using plain Greek yogurt as a sour cream substitute as a condiment (e.g. over chili, tacos, in veggie dip), to add creaminess to pasta dishes, and in baked goods. There are so many creative ways to use Greek yogurt in your family’s meals. In fact, Chobani has an entire site devoted to such recipes!

These recipes are some of our family favorites-

Greek Yogurt Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Oatmeal Blueberry Muffins

7 Up Biscuits (for this recipe just substitute the sour cream with Greek yogurt)

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