Family Briefs

Just as the Pavlovian effect is associated with dogs, so is the afternoon snack associated with waking from a nap at our house. This wouldn’t have been a problem if we felt like our kids ate a reasonable supper, but often times they didn’t. To make matters worse, they often wanted the all-popular “fruit snacks;” but these never filled them up and left them wanting ANOTHER snack! If I didn’t give them SOMETHING to snack on, they were whiny until dinner time :twisted:. We needed a change!

In the midst of trying to figure out how to change our snacking habits, I stumbled across a blurb in a parenting magazine. One mother submitted her idea of putting snack items in plastic containers to let the kids create their own “trail mix.” My wheels began spinning and my husband and I quickly revamped our snack cabinet and snack habits!

Instead of having all our snacks crammed in a cabinet, we moved all the acceptable snack items to the two lower shelves of the pantry. This allowed us to spread out the available options to make them easier to see and access.

The biggest change we made was in the options that we made available. Fruit snacks have become something we use only on vacation when we need a highly-portable snack. We now stock mini bags of microwaveable popcorn, grape/cherry tomatoes Cheez-It crackers, chewy granola bars, fig newtons, raisins, graham crackers (sometimes in fun shapes like Scooby snacks or Tigger), peanut butter crackers, and oatmeal breakfast bars and cookies (made by Quaker).

We keep the fruit basket handy and stocked with apples, oranges, and bananas. Grapes are in the fridge along with other fruit that is already cut up (pineapple, mango, melon). We keep baby carrots on hand and cucumbers when they are in season.

In a large Ziplock bag (with the zipper-type closure to make it easier for the kids to help themselves), we mix up our own trail mix. We have corn chex and wheat chex cereals, goldfish, raisins, dried cranberries, yogurt-covered raisins, mixed nuts, pretzels, and whatever else looks good to throw in. We keep a scoop in the bag to make it easy to self-serve.

Snacks are no longer a big deal in our house. If someone is hungry, I’d rather them have a snack than be whiny until the next meal. I’m not worried about how it will affect their appetite because what they are eating is pretty good for them. (Mind you, I don’t get crazy and let them snack if we’re going to be eating in less than an hour :lol:.)

I still never know if they need a snack because they are hungry or just because they got up from their nap, but at least I feel good about what they’re eating. Besides, I’m usually ready for a snack then too!