For Children

Hi,

We use Xylitol now in place of sugar. it is a 5 chain sugar, so candida and bacteria don't like it. It has been said it actually helps keep yeasts and bacteria from growing! I buy the Ttrident gum because it has xylitol and it is actually anti-cavity.
I haven't tried it in drinks, but i have made desserts with it and put it in coffee. It is so close to sugar, and doesnt have the nasty aftertaste either. look it up online!

fruit is a great snack because it is healthy and it tastes great! As for the drinks what about a glass of milk? My daughter likes string cheese and apple slices with a cup of milk. Or peanut butter with celery sticks.

Hi--
They've backed off on too much juice--it use to be a serving a day was okay but now they've decided that you can have one or two. Of course, you have to be careful which juice you pick. Since high fructose corn syrup is in almost EVERYTHING (bread, ketchup, jelly/jam, etc.) you have to watch for it in juice but I found Juicy Juice and TreeTop to both by just juice. Nothing more, nothing less. My family loves it and I do keep them down to two servings a day as a piece of fruit offers more, like fiber.

I also make a combination of Wylers (like Crystal Lite but less expensive) sugar/caffeine free tea with lemon and lemonade. I use a pack of each in a gallon jug and it's wonderful (also good hot).

I pack Minute Maid's Fruit Falls (found by the Capri Sun) in their lunches. This is water with 5% fruit juice. Kids and husband LOVE it and if I'm not careful they'll drink it instead of everything else. :) If you have a WinCo near you you can get a pack of ten for $2.28.

As for snacks, my kids love string cheese and yogurt and tortilla chips (have to be careful about that), bananas, apples, grapes, oranges, blah blah blah and Costco has a fruit roll up that's organic and each one is 1/2 serving of fruit--I forget the name but it's like four letters and two of them are U's but all I can come up with is Fubu and I don't think they've branched into food yet.

A safe bet for food sources is Trader Joe's (if you have one) or Whole Foods. Trader Joe's is quite affordable and they have a high standard for the food they stock. If you have a First 5 center near you (there are a bunch in Contra Costa County--Brentwood, Antioch, Concord, Richmond) you can contact them for healthy eating choices. This is a statewide organization that is committed to creating healthy, happy children 0-5 in our communities though the information is good for everyone. You can also contact your local WIC--the one in Pittsburg is very excited about helping you feed your children nutritious food and getting them active. :)

Have fun--there are bunches of good choices out there (you just have to sort through all the cheap, not-as-good for you stuff.)

Its always a hit to make tea. Peppermint tea with a little honey or our favorite is red zinger tea sweetened with apple juice. Also homemade lemonade with agave nectar.

what about rice milk or almond or hazelnut milk (if no allergies to nuts)

Hi B.,
being a gramma myself, I can speak from experience. We have a VitaMix so I make a lot of smoothies using fresh fruit, 100% pure fruit juice watered down, plain yogurt, rice milk, protein powder, ice cubes etc. for our five grandkiddos. I use the best ingredients with no added sugar, except the rice milk. This drink takes the place of either breakfast or lunch. They love it!
Cottage cheese is a good snack. So is cut up vegetables like cucumbers, carrots, red peppers, small tomatoes, with or without a healthy dip or dressing. Whole grain and high fiber crackers with cubes of cheese is always a fun one.
Hope this helps!

My kids like hummus. You can dip whole grain pita chips or veggies in it. Trader Joes has great hummus and yummy whole wheat mini bagels(we slice the bagels in half and freeze them - because they tend to mold faster - and just defrost them as we need them in the toaster.)

My youngest loves cream cheese and thin sliced apples on any form of whole grain bread, bagel or whole wheat english muffin.

How about smoothies for drinks? Fresh or frozen berries, banana, yogurt, a little milk or water to thin.

We checked out, from our local library, the "Eat This Not That" books by David Zinczenko it was eye opening...we don't eat a lot of processed foods nor do we eat out really but it is helpful to look at some alternatives for all of those kiddie favorites.

I know you already got lots of advice, but i also know you requested info on sweets and the responses had a lot of just plain old good for you snacks. i know grammas like to treat the little ones to the goodies, so may i tell you that my son loves dried mangoes. they are like candy to him. really any dried fruit. also, i am into baking with my son. what i do is find a quickbread recipe that is trustworthy, use 1/2 the sugar and 100% whole wheat flour, then make it a little more exciting with raisins and nuts or frozen blueberries. and isnt it so much fun to bake with the kids? also, have been experimenting with the same theory with oatmeal choc chip cookies and snickerdoodles. i actually sell bakes goods this way in my cafe and the customers love them. they always say -- its not too sweet. if you want to decrease the refined sugar a little more, start to use apple juice or juice concentrate and just throw in a little oatmeal to make up for the extra liquid. mostly, just have fun with it. also, my mom just got my kid hooked on roasted almonds.

My brother and I loved "ants on a log" when we were kids. You take celery, fill the trough with either peanut butter or cream cheese, top it with raisins, and voila--ants on a log. As far as drinks go, try lemonade sweetened with apple juice. I know, I know- no juice. Got an actual "juicer" at home? The fresh squeezed, unprocessed stuff has all the vitamins you'd want, without the processed sugar. Plus, once the kids learn to use it (under supervision of course) they'll want to juice everything (carrots, spinach, you name it).

well, there''s always fruit!! and there are a few companies that do really well when it comes to tasty snack foods. my kids love the TLC crackers from Kashi. kashi also makes other foods like cereal bars, etc. give 'em a look the nest time you are at the store & see what you think.

Hi!

We give our son only water or milk to drink. Occasionally he gets calcium-fortified orange juice at breakfast, but we try to stay away from juices and just give him fruit.

At the top of my snacks/treats list is fruit. Blackberries, strawberries, pears, oranges, bananas with peanut butter, canned mandarin oranges, applesauce, dried apricots, dried mango, frozen mango chunks from Trader Joe's.

We also do string cheese, cubes of cheddar cheese, whole grain crackers, whole grain "goldfish" crackers, Japanese rice crackers, onigiri with brown rice, sticks of flavored tofu with teriyaki sauce for dipping, hummus for cracker dipping, and cream cheese on crackers.

Sometimes we'll steam broccoli florets and dip them in teriyaki sauce. Veggies are the hardest for snacks though, as my son doesn't like to eat them raw yet. For kids that do, carrot and celery sticks are super easy and you can dip them in just about anything.

Hope this helps!

Hi B.

My son who is now 7 pretty much only drinks water, on occasion, I might squeeze some fresh lemon into the water and or honey (very little) but for the most part, he enjoys water. That being said, why not just stick with giving them water? I send my son to school with filtered water every day. He loves it...
As for snacks, we do mostly raw veggies (organic) like red bell pepper, fresh fruit. My son also enjoys a stick of string cheese and a few (healthy non-trans fat) crackers.
In addition, I might include a few slices of grilled chicken and or turkey, Basically, I try and keep it lean. I also make fresh popcorn in COCONUT oil (requires very little oil and can survive high heat temps and not turn to a trans fat... it also gives a subtle coconut flavor which my son enjoys. I NEVER add butter but just a touch of celtic seasalt .. this makes for a good snack..

Hi,
we do herbal teas watered down or just left to cool. He is 2 and likes the fruity ones but they have no added sugar etc. and we get the organic brands. helps me drink more fluids during the day too! In the summer we juice organic fruits and veggies and water those down too. We also do smoothies with plain organic yogurt, a banana and a few frozen blueberries plus water. He loves those. Hope some of this works for you.
~L

My new favorite drink to take for "parties' is Crystal Light's Pink Lemonade. It is sugar-free, and the kids love it.

I bring my Pitcher, my spoon, Crystal Light, and some small cups. Then I mix it together at the school. You can buy it at Target, Walmart, anywhere and it's only $2.75 for 6 pitcher packets. Well worth it!

Snacks are more difficult because you want them to be "fun" and not healthy. But we need to follow the school rules.

I have done Graham Crackers with a topping; either marshmellow creme, or sugar free vanilla frosting. It is yummy! The kids think they are getting something with "frosting", yet it is all still healthy.

I hope that give you some ideas :O)

~N.

Herbal tea. Warm or cold is good and there is lots of choice and it's really not that expensive (in relative terms and you don't need to make it that strong). You can make a big pitcher of it and will last for the day. Just be careful not to give too much mint, it hypes you up like caffeine, well, me anyway.

p.s. of course, fresh squeezed juice is fun, too, and healthy.

My favorite is home-made ice cubes. We do koolaide, but you can do water, and we drop a piece of fresh fruit - a grape, a slice of melon even celery - into it and pop it into the freezer. As it's melting in your glass of water it really tastes good.

Go to Trader Joe's. There is a TON of good snacks for kids (I get most of my snacks there for my kids). Also, juice is good for kids, as long as it's 100% juice (and I like to even water it down like 1/4 juice and 3/4 water). Trader Joe's has a great selection of juices to pick from as well. Look for treats that are made with Pure Cane Juice Sugar (or make your own cookies and treats with Pure Cane Juice Sugar). Stevia and blue agave can both be used in place of sugar in homemade treats.

Hi B. W,

Brewed fruit and herb teas are good as an alternative to water. I like to use something like pomegranate or raspberry mixed with a mint tea bag or two (this is especially good on a hot day). You can use a little honey or stevia if you want to make it a bit sweeter. There is such a variety of teas that it's very simple to make an interesting blend of flavors that are nourishing as well because of the trace elements and special herbal type of oils that are found in the plants. Try out the different flavors and then mix and blend to your fancy! Lavender is also a nice herb to consume as a food. There are also teas that are mixed fruit flavors that are usually all natural.

As for snacks; baby carrots, my kids love a crisp wedge of purple or white cabbage anytime, baked squash (butternut, kabocha, acorn) or yams with a brush of butter or oil and honey then sprinkled with a dash of cinnamon is good, boiled potatoes dipped in a yogurt/herb sauce, boiled eggs, sunflower seeds, a crispy white tuberous vegetable called jicama that you can get in the "exotic" foods section usually; just peel it and slice it into strips or cubes and flavor it with lemon juice and *chili powder* optional if your kids like spicy foods, peeled cucumber, broccoli, raisins (black or golden), dried cherries are really yummy, any kind of dried fruit like papaya, pineapple, rolled dates with the big seed removed,etc.,figs (calymyrna's are my favorite) tangerines are easy for little kids to peel, celery sticks with peanut butter spread down the middle and with or without dots of raisins, pears are good for little children cause they arent too crispy and hard on the teeth, and bananas dipped in peanut butter and rolled in graham cracker crumbs are a good chicken nugget substitution, plain yogurt sweetened with honey or stevia and/or fruit, popcorn flavored with brewers yeast and/or parmesan cheese and whatever herbs you like or even a salt substitute, I hope that's good enough to get you started for now.

Happy grazing!
-M