Kid-Friendly Smoothies
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As we get into the thick of summer, it is a natural time of year to be introducing smoothies to your family - either again (if you haven’t been in the winter months), or for the first time (if you’re new to smoothies).
We drink smoothies several times a week here and although we have done so for years, I don’t know how I have never done a post like this until now!
Every year, I am asked about our favorite kid-friendly, healthy smoothies, the cups we use, how to get kids drinking a wider variety of flavors, how to handle smoothie waste, etc.
Here it is in one central spot, so you can find all the info you both want and need in one place!
Smoothies for Kids
Tools to make smoothies for kids
Here are a few of our favorite smoothie products plus my Pinterest smoothie board.
Kid-Friendly, Healthy Smoothie Recipes
Smoothies for picky eaters
I share several ideas to help your child learn to like smoothies in the sections below, but in short, don’t despair! Try to start with flavors and/or ingredients you know your child might find more favorable. Initially, this might be as simple as blending up a banana, their choice of milk (even if it is chocolate!), and ice.
As I encourage Academy families when they feel defeated over their starting place, you can work with this! Just get in the habit of trying to find a combination your child might enjoy enough and then you can gradually add ingredients (like little bits of peanut butter to this example), or swap out ingredients to improve the nutrition (like riced cauliflower instead of just ice or some plain milk to lessen the added sugar).
Here are some good starter smoothie options. You can start with all the ingredients listed for winning combinations or work up to them and start with the few that sound best, if need be:
Smoothies for constipation
Smoothies can be a great way to ensure that your child is getting enough fruit, veggies, and overall fiber to keep their digestive system healthy. Here are a couple of recipes you can enjoy with your child for breakfast, at snack, or an endcap before bed to help ensure that things are moving along easily.
Want to know more on how to help with your child’s constipation? Check out these posts from My Little Eater and Mama Knows Nutrition for more information on preventing or correcting constipation plus ingredient ideas to include in a DIY constipation smoothie recipe.
Smoothies with veggies
I have definitely made the mistake of adding TOO MANY veggies to my kid’s smoothies. Don’t make that mistake, particularly if you are trying to help your child learn to like them. Instead, opt for the veggies that tend to be a subtle addition to smoothies and start small. Know how much of a given veggie to include like spinach, kale, frozen riced cauliflower, carrots, or canned pumpkin. These all blend well with a minimal amount of “vegetable” taste.
These are some great starter veggie smoothies if you or your child are not too keen on adding veggies to your smoothies yet:
Several more of our family’s favorite kid-friendly smoothie recipes with veggies can be found here.
Smoothies with protein
Parents are often worried that their kids don’t eat enough meat. However, what parents don’t realize is:
How much protein their child really needs (and it being not as much as you might think!)
How many foods besides meat include protein
How smoothie-friendly many of these alternative sources of protein are like tofu, milk or milk-alternatives, seeds, nuts, nut butter, (Greek) yogurt, and/or collagen peptides.
Any of these ingredients can be used in a child’s smoothie to add staying power to a smoothie as a snack and/or to make it a nourishing option at a meal. Several more of our family’s favorite kid-friendly smoothie recipes with protein can be found here.
Smoothies without banana
Bananas offer sweetness from natural, versus added sugar. If you are without or don’t want (or can’t have) bananas, consider alternative ways to add sweetness. Such options might include kids smoothies made with pitted dates, more of other fruits, or using an all-natural fruit juice or coconut water in place of water.
The Smoothie Project has other great options for banana-free smoothie recipes.
FAQs about Smoothies for Kids
Are smoothies okay for toddlers? (and other common questions)
What age can kids start having smoothies?
Once a child has been introduced to solids (6+ months) and you have ensured they are not allergic to any of the ingredients you are using, you are welcome to begin introducing your child to smoothies. Here are a few considerations to keep in mind:
Smoothies are NOT synonymous with protein shakes. I would not advise protein supplements for most typically developing infants or toddlers.
Smoothies do NOT replace fluid milk from breastmilk or formula. That should remain an infant’s primary source of nutrition up to one year of age. In addition to that, smoothies can be an excellent complement to their diet and to help expose them to new foods and flavors.
Smoothies are an excellent way to make what you are offering as nutrient-dense as possible. With young kids and their tiny tummies, this becomes important because we want to optimize each bite (or sip!) so they get as much nutrition as possible in the small quantity they eat. The caveat to this is, be cautious smoothies are not displacing an overall well-rounded diet at subsequent meals. If it is so dense that they are not consuming as much breastmilk, formula, or other table foods, you might want to scale back on how much protein, fat, and fiber is in the smoothie (and thus, potentially filling your child up).
Is it okay to sneak vegetables in smoothies?
As mentioned, smoothies are an excellent way to offer your child an array of nourishing options from each food group. That said, be cautious not to “sneak” foods in smoothies. As I discuss with my Academy families all the time, we want a feeding relationship that is built on trust. We also want to raise kids who are competent eaters...not children we can “pull one over on” in order to get them to eat a given food. So see the next section for ways to involve your child so that they know both what is in the smoothie and learn to like it!
Can my child have seeds?
There always seems to be a lot of questions about if/whether young kids can have seeds like hemp, chia, and flax and if so, how much. While I addressed this a bit on this post, I also want to include here that yes - infants as young as 6 months can be introduced to chia and flax seeds or hemp hearts. I would simply encourage you to start them with other foods you know have been tolerated (from an allergy perspective as well as a digestive one). Then, offer in small amounts initially to make sure the added fiber is well tolerated. Since smoothies can already have a good amount of fiber, you want to add and increase, as tolerated for your family.
What about nuts?
Under four years of age, we want to limit or avoid all whole nuts as a choking hazard. That said, they offer excellent nutritional benefits that our kids ideally still get in one form or another. While nut butters are a great option, another thing you can do is throw a handful of any raw nut into a high-powered blender. This will grind them up fine enough to not be of choking risk while still offering all the nutrition of the whole nut. Just be sure that whatever ingredients, nuts included, are non-allergenic for your child before adding to a smoothie.
Is it okay if my kid drinks from my protein shake?
In short, a sip or two on occasion is totally fine. However, I would not make a habit of your child having an adult-version of a protein shake often. Here is why:
Kids don’t need as much protein per day as adults, so by offering our adult-version of shakes to our kids, we are often giving them what could be more than a day’s worth of protein in a single serving shake.
Additionally, there are often a lot of additives in protein powders that may or may not be appropriate for kids.
Since most kids can get enough protein from the foods they are eating, I would not normally recommend giving children a protein powder unless your child’s pediatrician or a pediatric dietitian has advised otherwise. If you are looking for more pure sources of protein to add to smoothies for kids, I would encourage items like a grass-fed collagen if any supplement (which is found online or in the supplement section near protein powders). This is a great option that comes unflavored and can easily blend in. Otherwise, focus on food sources of protein first with foods like yogurt (Greek or regular), tofu, nut butters, seeds, and milk or milk alternative.
How do we not waste all the leftover smoothies?
Many parents hate to blend up a batch of smoothies only for it to barely get consumed. As with any issue of food waste, we want to think of a few things.
Could you make one single serving first and then, as needed, make another batch if it is consumed? However you need to scale this, this can be a good way to sample a new smoothie without having to worry about wasting all of the ingredients. Simply make a batch small enough to serve everyone some and then you can always whip up another as soon as you know it will get slurped up versus wasted.
How can you repurpose it? Homemade smoothie leftovers make the best popsicles! So make sure that as you go into Spring and Summer, you have some fun popsicle molds on hand to use. Then, just pour your leftover smoothie into the molds and freeze for later. Even if it is only ½ cup’s worth of leftover smoothie, that could make a couple popsicles worth for your kids to enjoy another time!
Role model. It’s true - I don’t always do a great job feeding myself as a mom, and I know I am not alone in this. Smoothies are often one of the first and easiest ways I can ensure that I am also properly fueling my body either by making enough up front for me to have some or by going around and let’s be real - drinking what is left from each of the kid’s. With all the nourishing ingredients in them, I know I am not going to waste this chance to also fuel my body with such foods.
But my kid won’t even drink smoothies…
Maybe this is where you are at, and you are frustrated because all of the nourishing foods you’d like for your child to eat (or drink) are far from being guzzled down.
There are so many positive, pressure-free ways to push past this pessimism!
Consider making a game out of it, like we did with our March Madness Smoothie Competition! Courtesy of being on quarantine, we were making smoothies one day and decided to do a competition between two different ones that were on request. That gave my husband the creative idea to make a bracket on our now-homeschooling-white-board so we could put 16 different smoothies up against one another. Since we didn’t have traditional brackets to do nor basketball to watch this year, this became a week's worth of entertainment for all of us - all in the name of learning to like new smoothies.For those who are interested, you could print out this free bracket PDF or make your own!
Remember SMALL. As with any learning it food, we want kids to have permission to sample learning it foods, not feel forced to EAT them (in larger amounts). So using a small taster cup (like a medicine cup or a shot-glass-style cup) with a tiny straw can be a less intimidating way for them to approach a food they may or may not eat or enjoy. This invites a taste test and often leads to them asking for more!
As I discuss more below, get your child involved in making smoothies. Even if it is just helping make one for you, this can help them become more interested in and engaged with them - particularly when they know there is not pressure to eat it.
Getting kids involved
As stated above, smoothies do not give you permission to sneak food. Instead, consider getting your child involved from early on. Smoothies tend to be rather resilient “recipes” if you will, so they are an excellent first option to include your child in helping prepare from early toddlerhood on.
Let them help measure, add, or pour ingredients. Or, if they are intimidated or uncertain about an ingredient being added, take it as an opportunity to help them interact with it, smell, touch, and taste it outside of the smoothie. Then, consider if you could support them in adding a single [insert learning it food]. This might be one blueberry or a single spinach leaf. The point is, you help them work up to more by seeing how a small amount isn’t that offensive afterall.
Also, don’t forget a child’s love for buttons. Even if you just let them help with the final transformation from formed foods to blended and drinkable, let them flip the switch and use that as your starting point to have them help working backwards.
Branching out
Flavor Mapping
In The Academy, I talk to families about knowing what features your child’s love it foods have. In the professional feeding world, this is known as flavor mapping. But as a parent, you can also ask yourself, “Are the foods my child loves most a certain color? Taste? Texture?” Consider such questions when picking what smoothie to start with. You can start with an easy combination to get them on board, and then branch out. Even if it is simply frozen strawberries, a drizzle of honey, and almond milk at first (known as Pink Milk here), you can expand greatly on that winning flavor over time (known as food chaining) - especially if you know your child favors the original smoothie’s flavor (taste + texture).
Start Safe
I am known for putting a whole bunch of random stuff in a blender and hoping for the best. There have been points where my kids would oblige and drink most anything I put a straw in. That didn’t last long though and I had to ensure we were adding nutrient-boosts to smoothie bases that ultimately were successful on their own. So rather than shoot from the hip and wish for the best, I encourage you to find recipes that are simple staples your family enjoys and then gradually branching out to include new ingredients. We have had a lot of luck doing that using this kid-friendly smoothie recipe cookbook. It gives us the base recipe (that we know is successful) and then several ideas for ingredients we can later add when we want more of a nutritional boost and/or have the ingredients on hand.
Smoothie Challenge
Now this is seriously so fun...particularly if say, you happen to be quarantined with three small kids for several months and need something to do! Why not kill some time and experiment with all the smoothie options out there? You could make a 8-, 16-, or 32-smoothie bracket depending on how many you want to branch out to. This could be a simple attempt to food chain a known favorite and make one change that is big enough to notice but small enough not to care about, or it could be made up of entirely different smoothies (like we did by picking 16 we had the ingredients for from The Smoothie Project during our COVID quarantine). Do what seems like a successful starting place for your family and then go from there.
For those curious, below is a look at the original smoothies the kids chose to put up for the challenge plus the winner of each round!
Making routines
Be it a quick breakfast the whole family can consume on the run, a fast snack to take outside in the afternoons, or to fill in nutritional gaps at night as a bedtime snack, smoothies are a nourishing option throughout the day. Consider where they would help best satisfy your need for nourishing options best.
Smoothies for Breakfast
Be sure to include options that offer protein, fat, and fiber to help hold everyone over until morning snack.
Smoothies as a Snack
If you are just needing something light to prevent hanger but not fully fill tiny tummies before a meal, keep your smoothies simple with fruits, veggies, and maybe one source of added fat or protein. This will give them nutrient-density without the caloric-density that can fill them up so much as to displace their next meal.
Smoothies for Dessert
Why not spin dessert into something that is a smoothie or smoothie-esque? You could do a “nice cream” you eat with a spoon or something that is a bit more drinkable for a “milkshake?” Many taste just as sweet and creamy as an ice-cream based option, so don’t be shy to make nourishing, nutrient-dense smoothies a staple in your dessert rotation - particularly if it is one like the Banana Split from The Smoothie Project!
Smoothies before Bed
Oftentimes, families might offer a snack at night to help their child sleep through the night, to help promote growth (i.e. weight gain), or to help establish a Division of Responsibility at dinner by offering another eating opportunity without having to wait all the way until breakfast. Smoothies can fill a lot of nutritional gaps before bed to help round out the nutrition for the day and send kids to bed with satisfied tummies for sleep.
Cheers!
Welp, I am sure several questions will continue to come in and overtime, I will use this post to continue to add favorite smoothie recipes and ideas to. But for now, I hope it encourages you to start trying these as a simple yet novel way to include more nourishing foods in your family’s diet.
