It’s important to have a nice healthy snack waiting for your child after school. During a long day with only lunch, your child can become grumpy, tired and burnt out. It’s important to balance your child’s meals with healthy snacks. Healthy snack ideas don’t need to be complicated. The following are fun healthy snack ideas with a twist.
Toothpicks can be fun
There’s something about bite-sized food on miniature skewers. It’s fun for kids to see food in a different presentation. Make homemade chicken fingers and skewer them onto toothpicks. Use delicious applesauce which you can easily whip up for dipping sauce. Store the rest of the applesauce in the fridge and use for fruit and vegetable dips. Toothpicks can be a fun way to introduce new food combinations such as sweet potato cubes and blue cheese dip, cherry tomatoes and cream cheese and melon along with cottage cheese. Use interesting combinations to encourage new tastes and textures. Toothpicks can be a great way to get kids to taste something they normally wouldn’t.
Play with cookie cutters
It’s easy to make a sandwich interesting with cookie cutters. You can use a variety of breads and cheese to cut out favorite shapes and stack them together. Have a fun snack theme for younger kids. For example, turn sandwiches into sailboats using a toothpick on top with slices of tomatoes as the sail. Cut out cheese in the shapes of fish and place alongside the sailboat sandwiches. For older children, make a tall sandwich using leftover meatloaf and lettuce cut out in circles with a toothpick to hold it together. Have small containers filled with ketchup and mustard for dipping sauce.
Make a colorful pattern
All children are drawn to bright colors. It’s easy to make a healthy patterned snack using a tall clear glass. You can make fun yogurt treats ahead of time and keep them in the fridge for the kids to take out. In a tall clear glass, layer yogurt with jello cubes, fresh fruit and top it off with granola or oatmeal. Get creative and try different things such as rice pudding or pudding with berries topped off with toasted coconut. You can make frozen snacks layering frozen yogurt ice cream, melon and top it off with fresh cream. Add a colorful spoon for younger kids and you’re set with a scrumptious snack.
Having your kids wash their hands on a regular basis not only helps prevent sticky handprints from getting on furniture, it also prevents illness. This is why getting children into the habit at a young age is so important. But, often children are resistant and find hand washing to be a chore that intrudes on their playtime. Making hand washing a fun activity helps teach kids how and when to wash their hands, and makes it a habit.
Ideas to Make Hand Washing Fun
Which game or activity you use to make hand washing fun will depend on your child’s age and interests. With babies and toddlers, you can “fly” them to the sink making airplane noises. Older kids can sing the “Happy Birthday” song twice to time how long to wash their hands. Other ideas include setting a timer, using a kid’s soap that changes colors and putting toys in the sink for your child to soap up and rinse.
What Kids Need to Learn About Hand Washing
The ultimate goal is to get children to wash for at least 20 seconds and wash thoroughly. Children should learn to use soap and warm water and dry their hands after with a towel. That seems like a lot of steps for a child in a rush to be done with hand washing. This is why children are tempted to skip steps. If your child is skipping steps, find ways to make each step more fun. For example your child may be more likely to dry his hands if he gets to pick out a special hand towel.
When to Teach Hand Washing
It is never too early, or too late to start teaching hand washing. Babies and toddlers will enjoy fun games. With older children, you can slip some fun facts into hand washing time by asking questions. One question to discuss is how many kids your child thinks do not wash their hands after using the restroom.
Proper Set Up
Give children as young as three easy access to the sink. For younger children this means keeping a stool in the bathroom and towels within easy reach. Kids of any age find hand washing more fun if they can do it by themselves.
The Kids Health website reports that in a study of middle school aged children, 42 percent of girls and 52 percent of boys did not wash their hands after using the bathroom. If hand washing is not fun or important to your child, they can easily become one of the 40 to 50 percent that do not wash his hands when out of his parent’s sight. Start early using fun games to help make hand washing a habit that lasts into adulthood.
References:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Clean Hands Saves Lives
cdc.gov/cleanhands/
Kidshealth.org: Defensive Hand Washing
kidshealth.org/teen/your_body/skin_stuff/handwashing.html#
Tips for Make Children’s Bath Time Fun
Bath time can be the least favorite time for both kids and mothers. Almost every child goes through a stage where they don’t want anything to do with baths and will fight till the bitter end just to not go in the water. There are some tricks though to help get them on board and actually make it an activity that they look forward to.
Change Children’s Shampoo
Sometimes, the reason that children don’t like having a bath is because they don’t like the shampoo in their eyes and really, who can blame them. There are lots of children’s shampoos out there that don’t sting when they get in kids eyes. Try and find one that they like, even if it means buying one with their favorite cartoon character on the bottle. If your kids are excited about the shampoo you are going to use, they will be more willing to have a bath.
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You probably turned your nose up at broccoli when you were ten too. The trouble is that fruit and vegetables are essential for our health and when it comes to kids, we ignore this at our peril. Reluctant adults may be able to force a few salads down, but kids can be vegetable-resistant to an astonishing degree. Nor does ‘You won’t leave the table till you’ve eaten your greens’ wash with most kids. So how do we get our kids to eat the five portions of fruit and veggies a day that health authorities worldwide recommend?
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The home is full of accident potential, but there are many measures and gadgets to help minimize the risks. Below is a short list of some home safety tips that you should consider :
- Eliminate access to toxic substances. Prime causes of toxic accidents are household cleaning and DIY products, medicines and poisonous garden plants.
- Childproof locks or fasteners for cupboards and drawers serve a dual purpose. Kids sometimes manage to get to high cupboards containing medicines or other potentially dangerous items, including sharp objects. Injuries can also be caused when kids pull out heavy items that fall onto them. Childproof door and drawer fasteners cover most bases. Note: kids can get past childproof caps on bottles, so don’t count on them. Lock them away as well.
- Childproof Gates. It’s very important that all stairwells in your home have a child proof gate blocking both the top and the bottom of the stairs. We sometimes forget how dangerous it can be to not block the bottom of the stairs.
- Small slips and trips can lead to nasty injuries. Rugs and runners can be given a slip-proof backing. Corner guards for sharp edges, furniture and units are a useful protective measure for smaller children. Use cable organizers to get wires and leads out of the way.
- Kitchens are danger zones. Devices are available to stop kids being able to open fridge, dishwasher and oven doors. Childproof oven knob covers prevent fiddling. Oven doors can be covered with a transparent material that reduces heat by half.
- Electricity is a major home hazard. Socket covers stop kids from self-electrocution. Unplug electrical items after use and store out of reach. Heaters are a well-known danger. Get rid of bar heaters in favour of safer types and if you have open fires consider a childproof fireguard.
- Kids can drown in just a few inches of water. Make sure small kids don’t have unsupervised access to ponds, water features, water butts and the like (also secure manhole covers). Limit unsupervised bathroom access. Childproof hot tap covers and even toilet lid locks can be useful for smaller children.
Hopefully this list of home safety tips is helpful.