Cultivate Healthy Habits With the Snack Drawer
Every day after school in my house the same scene: my son asks for a snack, I propose an idea (usually starting with the one he chose yesterday or the day before yesterday), which he immediately abandons. He may come back to this in a few minutes after I’ve exhausted all other possibilities, but he never agrees with the first sentence. He holds on until he finds out what options he has.
I always have healthy foods close at hand – grapes, yogurt and pretzels – but I’m also to blame for buying Party Mix , which is clearly unhealthy (and therefore usually my son’s best choice).
Nutritionist writer Casey Seidenberg suggests this in the Washington Post : Create “snack boxes.”
Create a snack drawer in your fridge full of foods like hard-boiled eggs, blueberries, carrots, and yogurt, and keep a bowl of fresh fruit on the table at all times. Also make a snack box outside the refrigerator. Fill it up with mostly healthy snacks like applesauce, raisins, and nutritional bars, but add in a few less healthy foods like leftover Halloween candy. Explain that they can eat in any of these places during a snack.
My child has already eaten enough sweets (I put him a piece at lunch for dessert and he gets a little dessert after dinner most of the time), so I would adjust that part. Instead, I could pack small portions of such a good, but not very healthy, party mix alongside large portions of pretzels or muesli and let him choose for himself. If he wants to pamper himself, he can, but with a smaller portion. If he is hungrier, he will have to make a choice in favor of more and healthier.
In any case, this is his decision, and I can stop repeating his versions from day to day.
Seidenberg offers some more tips for teaching kids healthy snacking habits, including teaching them to spot the signs of hunger, setting specific snack times, and deciding on a family rule for sugary foods. Admittedly, I don’t stick to this kind of regimen when it comes to snacking, but the drawer seems like a quick and easy way to cut down on the bite-size argument.
As with everything about parenting, you can act as quick and dirty as you want to be as sophisticated as you want. I searched Pinterest for “snack box ideas” and found everything from boxes full of Mott drinks, fruit snacks, and Cheez-It bags to beautifully organized boxes with tiny containers, perfect portions, and wholesome labels. I’d rather fall into the first category than the second, but it’s worth a try anyway.