Questions and answers - healthy snacks

We get lots of questions from parents about how to help their kids eat well. Here’s a selection of some of the most common ones we receive.

My kids have been used to having as many sweets and biscuits as they like. How can I start saying ’no’ now?

The best policy is probably honesty, as long as your kids are old enough to understand reason. So sit them down and explain that sometimes the things we like to eat are not good for us and can make us ill in later life, so we shouldn’t eat too many of them.

Explain that you’re all going to try together, as a family, to eat more healthily and you’d like them to help you do this. If they feel involved in choosing and preparing more healthy snacks, and helping to decide on nutritious meals, they’ll be much more likely to stick to the new plan.

My little girl is quite a fussy eater and I can never get her to eat enough at mealtimes. She often asks for a snack during the day and I don’t want to say no because at least it’s getting more food into her.

First of all, make sure you give her small portions at mealtimes, so she doesn’t get intimidated by a big plate full of food - better that she asks for more if she does finish it. It's OK for her to snack in between if she’s not eating enough at mealtimes - the only thing to make sure of is that the snacks are nutritious and give her the vitamins she may not be getting from her meals as she’s not finishing them.

 Carrot dip with crunchy vegetables, ham and tomato crumpets or any of the other healthy snack recipes in our recipe finder, are all good balanced options.

My kids snack too much on junk but I don’t think I can go from the amount they have now to nothing at all. Is there a compromise?

Yes, you can try weaning your kids off the junk and replacing it with other snacks. To start with, just replace one of their daily snacks with something more healthy to get them used to it, then gradually introduce more fruit, veggies and lower fat yoghurts.

You can also cut down on the amount of sugary or salty food they have for each snack - for example, just give them half a chocolate bar instead of a whole one, or a handful of crisps instead of the whole bag. Once they are used to more of the good stuff and less of the bad, they won’t crave the junk so much and you can slowly increase the healthier options. Have a look at healthy snack alternatives for more ideas.