Healthy Food and Snacks

What I pack at Grandmas or in my diaper bag...

-dried strawberries
-fruit chews (dried, flat fruit)
-Fiber one chocolate bars
-Z bars

oh, shame on Grandma! Once a child is ruined by the overpowering artificial flavors and sugary foods out there,it's hard for them to be happy with good basics. Try some of these:
Yogurt with fresh or frozen blueberries, or the yogurt tubes (get the ones without added colors or flavors) and freeze them. My kids love that. A cinnamon raisin bagel is sweet, and very tasty with cream cheese or peanut butter. As many fruits as you can try: apple slices, grapes (cut in half so not a choking hazard), pears, berries, kiwi, bananas. Try whole wheat graham crackers with peanut butter and jelly, or plain and dip in yogurt. Cereal can be a great snack, but buy the kind that does not have sugar as one of the first four ingredients...harder than you might think. Granola bars are quick and easy to bring along, but just like cereal, read the box before you buy because some are as junky as candy bars. Pretzels are better than chips and come in a variety of shapes which can be enticing to a picky toddler. Try flavored rice cakes, like apple cinnamon or carmel corn. (These do have some artificial flavors, but better than twinkies or cheetos or candy).
Good luck with this. Habits take a long time to form, so don't give up right away if it takes her a little while to come around. Please see if grandma can show your daughter her love in ways that don't involve food!

You have two real options here-

1) let her eat whatever she wants at Grandma's house. This is what my mom did with us- and boy did we eat the junk. My grandmother really thought that those candy orange slices was FRUIT! LOL

2) You can set boundaries with Grandma and tell her she can have, say, one serving of junk food and the rest of the time she can have water, fruit, ect. You could even buy some healthier snack options to leave with her such as raisins/dried fruit. In the healthfood section of grocery stores they have all kinds of snacks like fruit leathers, fruit smooshes (which can be put in the fridge or freezer!) fruit 'tapes' and cookies with unrefined sugars and other natural ingredients.

But this isn't going to work unless she's on board with it! My kids are on a special diet so they can't have anything with wheat in it. But my mom will often give them a piece of candy when they are over. ONE piece of candy. She raised us eating well and she does the same for her grandkids.

Hope whatever you decide works well for you!

I always pack the organic brown rice rice cakes, the "Just Fruit" line of dried fruits is AMAZING - soooo good - no xtra garbage it really is just fruit - i.e. Just Pineapple, Just Apples, Just Mango, Just Berries Just Strawberries etc. I buy the organic cookies w/no fructose or addatives etc. For hot snacks, I buy the Boca meatless chicken nuggets (soy & taste really good, the texture & taste really is like chicken - in the frozen section) there are some other vegetarian snacks in the frozen section for kids that are sweet potatoes & spinach shaped like dinosaurs - fun shapes yet healthy & the Cinnamon French Toast sticks w/no gluten, wheat etc. You can get ALL of these snacks/foods at whole foods or Central Market - they're easy & healthy - healthier than sugary or fried food snacks.... Good luck!
M.

I would have to agree with some of the other moms. You need to talk with Grandma. My mother in law used to pick up my daughter from school. Every day she would stop and get her a Jelly doughnut. I had to tell her to stop. It was not the most fun conversation in the world but now she understands how I feel. Some grandparents feel its their duty to spoil the kids when they come to visit, but as I said to my MIL, That would be fine if the visits were three months apart but when you see them regularly there has to be some limits.

As for healthy snacks, my daughter loves fruit of any kind, Cherri tomatoes, those baby bell cheeses that come in the wax circle, Kashi honey sesame wheat crackers, Stonyfield farm's Organic Yogurt, Wheat Crackers with peanut butter, Frutabu fruit snacks and roll ups, and central market sugar free organic applesauce. The healthfood section of HEB has these little "fig newton" looking things that are whole wheat with organic fruit inside. My kids love those. Sometimes I make bran muffins and mix in mashed banana and Cinnamon. My girls think that's a treat. Good luck!

It is never easy to tell grandparents what they can and can not do. The in laws live next door and they believe in eating and it started to interfer with my oldest eating now that he is 3 he just does not need alot to eat. i had to just yester day tell them he could have no snacks between breakfast and lunch and after lunch the cut off time is 3:30. i explained why and they fortunately understood. This time to my husband had been there to back me up also so that may have helped a little more! also fortunately mine do give healthy snacks cause of his egg allergy, but still the 3 main meals are important and that is family time no matter what age. Just find a nice way to tell them and give them a time frame you do not want your child to eat after like a 2 hour window between snack and meal time and that way you will not be taking their fun away!

We are fortunate that my MIL (in-laws live live just around the corner) gives our two-year old reasonably healthy snacks, but my FIL insists on junk. We had a bit of a hurdle when my daughter kept asking for "fruit" but wouldn't eat any of the bananas, peaches, grapes, etc. that I gave her. Turns out Pop had taught her that "fruit" meant gummy snacks, and we had to re-teach her the difference between "fruit" and "gummies." I would suggest finding out if you and Grandma are using the same vocabulary, as it might help with your daughter's not wanting to eat when she gets home. She might not understand what you're trying to give her!

My best suggestion for a healthy snack to send is Cheerios in a sippy cup, or there are plastic "jars" in the canning section of the grocery store that contain a perfect serving of a snack. Plus, Cheerios are something anyone can find; if Grandma realized that little one likes Cheerios, she might start buying her own to keep at her house.

Individually wrapped cheese snacks (Tillamook and Horizon make good ones). Dried fruit (inexpensive if you get them in the bulk foods aisle at Central Market or Whole Foods). Clementines (perfect kid-size orange!), cherry tomatoes, fruit cups - that's what immediately springs to mind.

One thing we did to handle the grandparent thing was to discuss the issue with our pediatrician. He gave us the go ahead to invoke his name when limiting the junk food and/or things we didn't want the boys eating yet (like nuts). Very handy!

How often does she go to Grandma's house? If not often, then I would let her have that joyful memory of getting wonderful treats at grandma's. If daily, then you need to discuss with Grandma and send other stuff with her.

cheese cubes/sticks, peanutbutter crackers, cheerios, apple slices, breakfast bars, grapes (when being observed), popcorn, yogurt, bananas, seasoned wholegrain crackers,

My 19 month old son loves to eat raisins. We also buy ritz minis peanut butter crackers, organic fruit sticks, fruit cups, and yogurt. These are some easy take along snacks. Good Luck.

I'm sorry, I don't have any food suggestions. I'm sure you will get plenty of great ones from the other mothers with older children but if the grandparents are anything like mine, the minute you send your child over with healthy food it's going to be looked at like it's "not real food" and your kiddo's getting a cookie. You need to make sure the grandparents are fully on board with your wishes otherwise your 2 year old will pull at those grandparent heartstrings and get the junk food she's used to.

I just remember doing this myself as a kid. I could get anything I wanted from my grandparents and I know I gave my parents fits too when I got home.

Good luck! I hope you get lots of healthy answers. I'm going to be watching to see what would be good to give my own daughter later on.

Smiles,
Jen
http://www.mommysjoy.com