Making Snacks Healthy and Fun for Toddlers

Toddlers can be picky eaters, or they can be like garbage disposals and eat whatever you give them. Snack time is an important time of the day, and you should be choosing healthy, fun snacks for your toddlers. Here are some ideas to help you out.

Goldfish Crackers - one of the favorite snacks of my toddlers at my daycare, it's also one of the most common snacks too. Goldfish crackers come in a variety of flavors, including the popular Cheddar, along with Pretzel, Pizza and Colors (which are fun to give to toddlers). With Goldfish as a snack, you can never go wrong.

Cheese Slices & Crackers - a fun way to serve this snack is to cut a slice of American cheese into a fun shape, like a heart or star. Use cookie cutters to shape the cheese, and then serve along crackers, like Ritz or saltines. Besides American, you could serve Mozzarella slices or Swiss slices. Slices work best, since cubed cheese can pose a choking hazard to toddlers.

Nutri Grain Bars - a lot of people think these bars are just for breakfast, but they make a delicious, healthy snack on to go too. Nutri Grain bars come in many varieties, like strawberry, blueberry and apple cinnamon. You can also find yogurt bars, in vanilla or strawberry. They are also a great source of 9 essential vitamins and minerals.

Fruit Snacks - these may not be the most healthy option for your toddler, but they are fun to eat. My favorite fruit snack variety is the Sunbelt Fruit Jammers fruit snacks, which are shaped like the fruit they taste like. They are cheaper than most other fruit snacks, and can also help your child learn his or her fruits. Just be careful, because larger fruit snacks can be a choking hazard. Make sure your child chews them up thoroughly.

Cottage Cheese with Sliced Peaches - when I was little, I thought the mixture of cottage cheese and fruit would be gross, but it's actually pretty good. Sliced peaches go well with low-fat cottage cheese, and can provide a healthy snack for your kids. Other fruits can be added to cottage cheese as well, as I've seen sliced strawberries and apricots too.

Cinnamon Applesauce - normally, you can find small cups of cinnamon applesauce at your grocery store, for about $2.00 for 6 cups. If you are feeding a larger amount of kids, like I do, that really isn't budget-friendly. Since cinnamon applesauce can be more expensive than plain, you can make your own cinnamon applesauce at home. Buy a large jar of applesauce, and add some cinnamon to it. Mix well and serve in small bowls. Stay away from cinnamon sugar though, as it adds an unnecessary amount of sugar to the snack.

Sugar Free Jell-O - sugar free is the way to go with Jell-O, and it really doesn't taste much different. For a fun idea, you could add sliced bananas to strawberry Jell-O, or other another fruit.

English Muffins with Pizza Sauce and Cheese (Mini Pizzas) - my kids like when we serve this at daycare. Simply spread sauce on an English muffin, top with cheese and bake for a few minutes, until the cheese is melted and the edges of the muffin are lightly browned. It will be hot when it comes out of the oven, so make sure to cool the pizzas before serving them to children. For an extra touch, you could add sliced pepperoni and/or sliced mushrooms, as long as the pieces are cut up small enough.

Small pieces of fruit - you can never go wrong with fruit, especially bananas! This is a very healthy snack option for your kids, and doesn't cost much either. Some good ideas for toddlers are sliced bananas, sliced peaches, sliced strawberries and sliced pineapple.

Graham Crackers - another simple snack to serve to toddlers. The cook at my daycare even made a snack with graham crackers topped with butter and cinnamon, like cinnamon toast. Yummy!

Cheerios - this is a common snack, as with any low-sugar breakfast cereal. You could even serve cheerios with yogurt if you wanted to.

You should decide on an appropriate snack time for each day. Develop a routine for your toddler to get used to. Remember that snacks are just snacks, not a full meal. Portion control is important, and you don't need to over feed your child with snacks, especially since meal times are the key times of the day to eat healthy. Enjoy!