Amazing Healthy Snacks for Kids
By Liana Vazquez & Avital Kessner
Water bottle, yes. Homework, yes. Snack…maybe. You can turn almost any food into a snack, like the banana on the counter. Yet, there are snacks made just for kids that are healthy and delicious!
As parents you want to give your kids the best nourishment to keep them going at school, camp, and the thousand other activities your children sign up for. This list shows you the best healthy snacks in the grocery store that are ready-to-go, nut-free, and low in sugar .
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Kids are messy, especially when they eat. They get crumbs and grease on their hands, then they touch things, and parents end up having to clean up.
Snack bars are a great way to avoid big messes. Happy Wolf has a variety of flavors to choose from, ranging from strawberry to coco-banana. These bars are also school safe, organic, gluten-free, dairy-free, and plant based!
Granola bars are often a great source of fiber and one of the all-time classics when it comes to healthy snacks. Made Good granola bars have a variety of flavors with hidden veggies in each bar! Your kids will never know.
The amount of sugar is a manageable 6g and there are vitamins such as A, C, D, and E. Plus, these bars are organic and gluten-free! You can buy Made Good bars on their website or use their store locator to buy them in-person.
Yogurt is a great snack to pack in lunch boxes, especially when you have a cold pack. Yogurt provides extra dairy and probiotic to keep your little one’s body on track. Stonyfield has a lot of variety, from pouches, to cups, to bottles.
However, their pouches are the best option because they combine fruits and veggies. Each pouch has 5g of protein and kids love the flavor. Stonyfield milk is sourced from small farms, and takes numerous measures to ensure their dairy products are completely organic. Plus, they have tons of low-fat options!
Chips are hard snacks to replace. They are addictive. However, Popcorners are made with only 3 ingredients (yellow corn, sunflower oil, and sea salt) and they still satisfy that desire for crunch.
It is best to stick with the sea salt option, because extra flavoring will lead to more calories and salt. You can buy these chips on Amazon, in most grocery stores and on their website. It is also gluten-free!
Another addictive crunchy snack are crackers. There are a multitude of crackers available, but Annie’s Cheese Cracker with Hidden Veggies are a great organic substitute .
While these crackers are made with sweet potato, pumpkin, tomato and carrots, they still taste like cheddar. Your kids won’t even know that the veggies are there! Annie’s also offers a lot of other organic products .
Ready made snack packs are a huge time saver and they promise a balance of protein, dairy, and fruit. That is why Sargento Balanced Breaks are perfect when your child deserves a big snack with 6-9g of protein.
The original packages include nuts, but there are also nut-free sweet versions that have dried fruit. A new version of Balanced Breaks include popular crackers. You can use the website’s store locator to find the specific combination you want!
These hummus packs can be paired with crackers and pretzels, but when paired with veggies they make a super-rounded snack. These singles promise potassium, iron, calcium, and fiber.
If your little ones prefer avocado to chickpea Sabra also sells guacamole singles. Not to mention, both dips are vegan , dairy-free, gluten-free and kosher! You can use the website’s store locator to find them.
Cheese, like yogurt, is another great snack to pack with lunch. You can’t go wrong with the well-known brand, Babybel. These kid-sized snacks are great for pairing with crackers, veggies, or fruits. Plus, they promise calcium and protein.
The light version, which has 2g less fat, is a great alternative. It also comes with wax packaging that kids love to play with! Babybel cheese can be found in most grocery stores, but you can also check the website’s store locator.
Fruit by itself is a naturally healthy snack. Yet it can be messy and some kids just don’t enjoy fruit in its purest form. That is why less processed fruit snacks like dried fruit are well-known substitutes. California Sun-Maid Raisins are a classic for a reason.
They are naturally sweet and child-sized! The raisins promise some fiber and iron too. Plus, Sun-Maid offers other types of dried fruits , their newest products being dried mango and mixed berries, both popular snacks for kids!
An innovative fruit option is Wild Made Fruit Rolls. They are organic, vegan, gluten-free, and they have no added sugar, which means they rely solely on natural sugars from fruit. There is half a serving of fruit in each roll.
If you want to sneak more veggies into your child’s snack time then try Wild Made’s Veggie-Go’s Strip. There are a ton of creative flavor combinations available! You can buy Wild Made products on their website or use the store locator.
Some children avoid veggies at all costs. Harvest Snaps Snapea Crisps are primarily made of green peas, which means your kids will get the veggies they need in a new, fun way.
These crisps do not include a long list of ingredients and they are oven baked making them a much better option than other snacks. They also promise 5g of protein , and are both nut-free and gluten-free! Snapea Crisps are available on Amazon, but you can use the website’s store locator as well.
Dried seaweed is an up and coming healthy snack and that kids surprisingly enjoy. It may be the crispness or the natural saltiness, but dried seaweed can be as addictive as chips.
Gimme roasted seaweed is made of only 3 ingredients; organic seaweed, organic sunflower oil, and sea salt. They also come in several flavors. A major plus is seaweed being naturally gluten-free and vegan.
For kids, eating a fruit roll up is like a game. Rolling it all the way out, then pretending they have a long tongue makes eating this snack fun. Bear Snacks have a great alternative to the famous (and unhealthy) Fruit Roll Up. They have five different flavor options, one of which is sour!
What makes buying Bear Fruit Rolls even more fun than just a regular fruit roll up is that they come with collectable cards featuring different animals! These snacks are made with just six ingredients, all of which are real fruit.
We all know how good Pringles taste, but we also know how unhealthy they are. The Good Crisp C0mpany is a great alternative to these chips. These “crisps” taste just as good as the Pringles version, and are gluten-free.
They even come in the same cylinder container! They have a variety of flavors, but I suggest sticking with the original, as the flavoring adds more calories.
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