Think about Your Children's Health

Have you ever found that your child doesn't want to eat in the morning, brings untouched snacks back home with the excuse that there was no time, or turns their nose up at a healthy snack and prefers to eat at an unhealthy cafeteria? The first eating habits are acquired by children in the family. Therefore, it is important for them that the family sets a good example.

It is certainly not appropriate to give children money to buy their own snacks, as they will usually replace healthy food with cookies, chips, chocolates, hot dogs in a bun, and overly sweet drinks, thus indirectly supporting your child in acquiring poor eating habits. The health of your children is undoubtedly the most important thing for you, so take the time to ensure they have a healthy, substantial, and balanced snack in their lunchbox.

How to prepare snacks

Whole grain bread

It is appropriate to include dark and whole grain bread in the snack, topped with cheese or quality ham and a portion of vegetables. Thanks to the cereals, you will provide complex carbohydrates from which your child will draw energy, as well as a significant amount of fiber and some vitamins and minerals.

Fruits and vegetables

Add a piece of cut fruit or vegetables to the snack. To make the form more appealing to children, you can create playful shapes from the fruit or vegetables. Fruits and vegetables are an essential part of our diet due to their content of biologically valuable nutrients, vitamins, minerals, and also fiber, including the highly sought-after inulin.

Dairy products

Another option for snacks is to include dairy products, such as yogurt, yogurt drinks, hard cheeses, cottage cheese desserts, or kefir. Dairy products are an excellent source of calcium, which plays an irreplaceable role in the growth and development of bones in children, and they are usually enriched with at least a small amount of vitamin D, which contributes to the absorption and utilization of calcium. In connection with milk, we must also not forget the presence of beneficial bacteria from dairy fermentation with probiotic effects.

Bars and snacks

As a supplement to the snack, you can also include muesli bars, which are usually filled with useful cereals, can be enriched with vitamins, and are a good source of fiber, for example, in the form of inulin. To diversify children's snacks, you can add various types of nuts, dried fruits, or variations of pastries, especially poppy seed and cottage cheese ones, which are a beneficial source of calcium.

Smoothies

Getting enough fruits and vegetables in a day is often a Herculean task even for us adults. Smoothies represent a tasty alternative, which is often supplemented with nuts, seeds, milk, yogurts, and similar ingredients, in addition to fresh fruits and vegetables. Another advantage of smoothies is that we use only raw ingredients in their preparation, which allows the smoothie to retain maximum vitamins, minerals, trace elements, and antioxidants.

Spreads

Spreads are very popular among children. A great advantage is that you can prepare them from seasonal and healthy foods, such as carrots, celery, avocados, tuna, red beans, or chickpeas. Another option for spreading on whole grain bread or just a piece of fruit can be nut butters rich in beneficial unsaturated fatty acids.

Hydration

Children often forget to drink while playing, so it is important to actively offer them drinks and have them always on hand. Avoid overly sweetened sodas full of artificial colors and preservatives. Much more suitable is diluted 100% fruit juice, fruit drinks, or spring clean water.

Interesting facts about children's nutrition

• Studies and research in recent years show that 90% of 2nd graders bring snacks from home, but this number gradually decreases, and only 54% of children in 8th grade receive snacks.
• More than half of children in grades 3–8 often buy sweetened carbonated drinks at school, and more than 30% of children regularly consume fast food products.
• Less than half of children consume at least one serving of fresh fruit or vegetables daily, while the recommendation is 5 servings per day.
• The latest nationwide anthropological research shows that over the past few decades, the percentage of obese boys aged 7–11 has increased by 2.6% and obese girls by 1.7%.
• Nearly half of children in the Czech Republic have elevated or borderline cholesterol levels.

Tips on how to teach children to snack

• Discuss their snack with the children and give them a choice.
• Try to involve your children in the food preparation. It will then be somewhat their food, which they will definitely enjoy eating.
• Explain to them the importance of healthy eating for their bodies.
• Be creative and playful in the preparation. Everyone knows that we eat with our eyes first, and this is doubly true for children.
• Add some crunchy elements to the snack. Crunchy food becomes much more interesting for children.
• As mentioned at the beginning of the article, it is very important to set an example for children.

Which NUTREND products are suitable for your little ones can be found in the article Products suitable for children.

Sources:
Kejvalová, Lenka. Nutrition of Children from A to Z. Prague: Vyšehrad, 2005.
Society for Nutrition. Reference values for nutrient intake in the Czech Republic. Prague: Nutrition Service s.r.o., 1st edition, 2011.
Kalač, Pavel. Functional Foods. České Budějovice: Dona, 2003.
Publication Healthy School Snack from the website of the State Health Institute.