Young children require energy to help them grow, develop and reach their maximum potential. Often, though, their tummies are too small to get all their energy requirements from meal times alone. Research has shown that regular snacks can be a useful way of ensuring that young, growing bodies are meeting their energy requirements [1]. It\u2019s often easy to forget how much extra nutrition kids may need during this period of rapid development \u2013 it can be up to double the energy requirements, per kilogram of bodyweight, compared with adults. Offering a variety of healthy snacks can help a child meet their nutrient requirements.<\/p>\n
Snacking, good or bad, cannot be ignored as it happens so regularly. You could say that Aussie kids are committed snackers! In Australia, around 66% of children aged 2-16 years old have 2 or 3 snacking occasions every day, and 99% have at least one snack a day [2].<\/p>\n
The foods and drinks you provide your little ones in between meals can have a huge impact on their daily dietary intake. Snacks make up 28% of the total daily energy intake of an Australian child and each snacking occasion contributes 12% of total daily energy intake [2].<\/p>\n
There are many snacks that provide good nutrition rather than the \u201cempty kilojoules\u201d we often associate with many snack food products. These \u201cgood snacks\u201d actually provide a significant contribution to the essential nutrients required by children. Research has shown that amongst Australian children at least 28% of daily dietary fibre intake comes from snacks and around 21% of protein. Many snacks also often provide vitamin C and E.<\/p>\n
However, snacks often come with negative connotations: \u201cempty kilojoules\u201d, high sugar, salt and fat levels, and foods with this nutritional profile offer very little benefit to your child\u2019s health. In fact, for every 1 MJ increase in total intake of energy every day, a quarter will come from snacks your kids eat and drink. Therefore, it\u2019s very important to watch what your kids consume each day as 35% of total sugar intake comes from snacks [2]. It goes without saying that it\u2019s very important that the snacks you provide your children are healthy and nutritious, and low in sugar, fat and salt.<\/p>\n
It makes sense that healthy snack options should be prioritised both in and out of home, particularly as snacking behaviours are developed\u00a0throughout childhood and into the teen years. Whilst it\u2019s great to get a range of macronutrients into a child\u2019s diet, it\u2019s also important to offer a variety of flavours, tastes and textures (including vegetables) at snack times. This will increase a child\u2019s familiarity with a wide range of foods and encourage healthy eating habits as they grow up.<\/p>\n
Diana Austen works for Whole Kids as a Nutrition Advisor. With a Master\u2019s degree in nutrition, she has spent over six years\u2019 experience working with a range of companies on innovation, strategic insight and regulatory and scientific affairs. Fascinated by the nutritional requirements of infants and young children she focuses specifically on products for this age group.<\/p>\n
Young children require energy to help them grow, develop and reach their maximum potential. Often, though, their tummies are too small to get all their energy requirements from meal times alone. Research has shown that regular snacks can be a useful way of ensuring that young, growing bodies are meeting their energy requirements [1]. It\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2153,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"templates\/custom-resources-st.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[61,54],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wholekids.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2152"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wholekids.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wholekids.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholekids.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholekids.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2152"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholekids.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15571,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholekids.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2152\/revisions\/15571"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholekids.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wholekids.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholekids.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholekids.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}