A few weeks ago, my Kindergartner had the “Snack Box” for the first time.  Now, the snack box is a big tub with a lid that you fill with snacks for the following day for all of the kids in class.  Naturally, I wanted to gain an idea of what had been sent previously by other parents to make sure that my child’s first snack day cuisine was a hit with the class.  Little did I know, I was up against some pretty stiff competition.

It turns out, my son had previously had cookies, chips, candy and chocolate for snacks at school.  Of course, wanting to make sure that he wasn’t pulling one over on me trying to get me to send something like that, I called my friend whose son is in the same class.  She concurred saying that her son had reported similar snacks.

I was simply shocked!  I realize that not every parent on the planet is trying to undo pervious mistakes because they have an overweight kindergartener, but even I had never allowed my child to dine on such snacks throughout the day.  It doesn’t matter whether your child is overweight or not.  Those refined sugar products are simply terrible for our children’s health.  Okay now and again, sure.  But five days a week, twice a day?  No.

So, what does one do?  How do you convince other parents to send healthier snacks?  How do we send healthier snacks?  Understand that “home-made” is out anymore because of the potential for food borne illness.  So, the snacks need to be store bought.  And, they need to be something that 5-year-old’s enjoy (which of course is the biggest challenge).

So, I brainstormed with a few other moms that shared my concerns.  Through my experiences with children’s summer fitness camp, I’ve learned a ton of great snack ideas.  Implementing them for an entire class was a bit difficult, but once we figured out how to do that, we printed up a take home sheet that the teacher was more than willing to send home with the kids.  She too had been battling the sugar snacks (what teacher wants 20+ five year olds hopped up on sugar all day?).

Here are some of the ideas: (obviously, some of these won’t work for classrooms with peanut allergies, check with the teacher)

Kinder Mix — Yogurt covered raisins, cashews, soy nuts

Strawberries and Creme — Plain vanilla yogurt, sliced strawberries or unsweetened frozen strawberries for simplicity.  Call a local restaurant and ask if they’d be willing to donate disposable “take-home” ramekins with lids that you can easily put the yoghurt and strawberries in separately and allow the child to mix.  Your local deli might donate a bunch of those little tester spoons as well.

Toffee/sugar coated nuts (true, there’s sugar involved, but more protein, vitamins and even omega 3 fatty acid in some nuts as opposed to sugar through and through) & grapes (rinse the whole bunch and snip little clusters of five grapes or so)

Turkey cheese rollups — Take one piece of mild cheese, one piece of lean turkey from the deli and roll it up!

And remember:  These are snacks, not meals.  They may seem like a small amount, but 5-year-olds have small stomachs too!  Let’s keep it that way!

For more ideas and ways of dealing with all of the challenges of parenting an overweight or obese child, check out some of the fabulous weight loss camps for children!