8 Ways to Combat Endless Summer Snacking

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My kids have some busy schedules during the year, but a lot of much-needed downtime during the summer. They each do only one week of camp (whatever is required by the team they will return to in the fall); they also have a daily swim practice that is OVER at 9:30 a.m. and then they are DONE for the day. This leaves them with a lot of free time, and that time can be summed up in just 5 words: “Can I have a snack?”

“Can I have a snack?” is the new “I’m bored.” They dare not utter the B-word anymore because they know it will only result in being given a load of laundry to put away or a dog to walk, so they instead live in a perpetual state of hunger.

What’s a mom to do when enjoying a lazy, unstructured summer day at home means never being far enough from the kitchen? How can you curb the constant snacking, or at least encourage healthy choices? Below are eight ways to combat the struggle.

Set Fixed Snack Times and Stick to Them

Let your kids know that they can only have a sna…..aah who am I kidding? This doesn’t work for us, but good luck. Next.

Find Out if They are Really Hungry

In our house, this is the banana test. If they want a snack, I’ll offer a banana. The kids like bananas, but not so much that they’ll eat one out of boredom. And even if they do, at least it’s not a cookie.

Balance Junkier, Pre-Packaged Snacks with Healthier Foods

I try (though often fail) to get the kids to alternate between ‘pantry snacks’ (granola bars, chips, pretzels, fruit snacks, chocolate-chip anything) and ‘fridge snacks’ (cheese sticks, fruits, veggies, yogurt).

Orange
Luckily the baby is still in the “I love fruits and vegetables” stage.

Make Healthy Choices Quick, Easy, and Appealing

Wash the grapes, slice the cucumber, cut up that watermelon, make the celery into sticks. Have it all ready to go in the refrigerator. A hungry child isn’t going to want to wait for all of this prep work to take place if he can just grab a handful of goldfish crackers instead.

Let Them Choose a Snack to Prepare and Serve to Everyone

If you have the ingredients on hand, great. If not, hand over a cookbook (we have a few kid cookbooks but also often get new ones from the library), a pen, and a piece of paper. They can be in charge of choosing a recipe and creating a list of ingredients for the next shopping trip. Of course, they won’t get their snack right away, but it will give them the distraction of something to do, which is probably what they need anyway.

An Extension/Variation on the Above: Let Them Create a Family Meal Plan

With your guidance, let them choose what will be for dinner every day for a week, or make a meal plan for the day that includes all three meals as well as snacks. The novelty of sticking to a ‘menu’ they prepared will wear off, but enjoy it while it lasts.

More on Shopping: Give Them a (Limited) Voice About What Comes In

When I take all five of my kids shopping (unavoidable during the summer), I say “yes” to pretty much any fruit or vegetable that they ask for. When it comes to anything else, they each get to choose ONE thing. So they can choose the cereal-that-is-not-cereal-but-is-really-candy, but if later they also want the cupcakes, they need to choose whether they are going to put the candy cereal back or live without the cupcakes. Of course, this means that I will end up with at least three items of questionable nutrition in my cart (four if the toddler gets into it), but it’s a small price to pay for a peaceful shopping trip.

Who ate all of the marshmallows?
Who ate all of the marshmallows?

Turn a Snack into an Event

We do something that started as a “Fruit Tasting” in an attempt to get them to try new fruits, but you can do it with any combination of favorite or new foods.

1. Create a chart on a whiteboard: a row for each food and a column for each child (and one for yourself).

2. Have the foods prepared/pre-sliced on the table.

Washed and sliced and ready for the tasting.
Washed and sliced and ready for the tasting.

3. Have each child try each food and rank it from 1-5 (or if you have the model of child who will be obnoxious and try to give something a 4.6 and make math harder for everyone, use 1-10).

4. Let each child record their score for each food on the chart (This is why you should use a whiteboard instead of a piece of paper. It’s more fun to write on. Half the motivation to try a new food comes from getting the chance to record it on the board).

5. Tally the scores and declare a winner.

Someone wasn't being a great sport about this. A little too free with the zeros...
Someone wasn’t being a great sport about this. A little too free with the zeros…

However you choose to deal with the budget — and patience — draining constant snacking, remember summer will fly by and then you’ll be back to missing them while they are at school. One day of ice-cream-for-lunch won’t do any lasting damage.

Do you struggle with endless summer snacking in your household? What tactics have worked for you?

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Laura Ramis
Laura Ramis used to teach seventh grade English and drama, but after her first was born she switched her attention to the preschool crowd. At the moment she works from home helping to develop a local Spanish immersion program and working as a freelance educational content writer. Originally from Puerto Rico, she and her husband moved to Lexington 7 years ago. They have five children, ages 11, 10, 8, 2 and 1. You can find her gluing rhinestones on dance costumes or watching her boys play soccer. She’s the one with a baby wrapped on her back.

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