How to Use After School Snacks to Get Picky Eaters To Try New Foods

If you’re like the parents of picky eaters who’ve I’ve helped for the last 6 years, you’re constantly on the look out for ways to get your kids to eat more (healthy) foods. After school snacks are a great (and often overlooked) opportunity to contribute to kids’ nutrition.

Here’s why after school snacks are such a great time to get kids to eat more foods, how to do it, and some snack ideas.

Why it Works:

Many kids have big appetites at after school snack time. Appetite is a great motivator for kids to try new foods.
Have you ever tried getting a child to eat a new food when they aren’t hungry? It’s a lesson in futility.
Take advantage of this natural window of opportunity and use after school snacks to offer your child new foods.

How to Do It:

Step #1: Plan snacks that include foods from 2 or more food groups. Often we think of snacks as a time for junk food. Or, as a time for a single food – e.g. an apple. But kids have big nutrient needs and small tummies. They need healthy foods more than just at 3 meals per day.

Step #2: Consider meals and snacks to be equal opportunities to eat. A mistake that many parents make is to give their child healthy foods at meals and favourite foods at snacks. This stacks the odds against kids eating well at meals. Instead, frequently, give your child a snack that includes either a new food or a food that your child has seen many times but hasn’t tried yet.

Step #3: Think outside the snack aisle. When looking for snack ideas, it seems natural to look in the snack aisle of the grocery store. But this aisle is mostly filled with highly processed, junky foods. Instead, look for easy to eat versions of meal foods. Focus on providing foods from the food groups where your child isn’t meeting the recommendations. To see the recommendations, check out Canada’s Food Guide  http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/food-guide-aliment/index-eng.php

Snack Ideas:

Edamame and an orange (2 food groups)
White Bean Dip* with a variety of raw veggies such as snow peas, carrots, and zucchini (2 food groups)
Yogurt with pomegranate and hemp hearts (3 food groups)
Sliced banana on top of whole grain crackers/rice cakes/corn cakes spread with peanut butter, nut-butter, or non-nut butter. (3 food groups)