41// Healthy bedtime snacks for kids
Healthy bedtime snacks for kids:
What to focus on so your kid goes to bed with a full belly
If you listened to episode 40, you know why I advise a bedtime snack being appropriate.
If your family has decided to do a bedtime snack, you might still be wondering WHAT is a healthy bedtime snack for kids? Many parents want to know if offering this is creating a bad habit or how it can be something healthfully included in your family's routine, and my answer to that focuses on these two things. Tune in for what criteria you need to consider coming up with consistently fueling bedtime snacks (so everyone gets sleep...AND stays asleep!).
Listen to this episode of The Veggies & Virtue Podcast now!
Full Episode Transcription
Please note this a raw transcription. If something doesn’t read correctly, toggle to that timestamp in the show so that you can listen in on what was actually being said!
[00:00:00] Mom. Are you struggling with how to feed your kids? Right? Do you wish that there was a way to help your child try new foods? Do you look at a pantry cluttered with pirate, booty and a fridge full of the same foods every week and wonder how you're gonna get your family's meals off the hot mess express.
[00:00:16] I know what it feels like to scroll through all the feeding accounts on Instagram and to see a bunch of Fuji food that my family would never eat. And I too have pinned all the healthy recipes. Good intentions, but zero execution. I understand as a busy mom of three, that it can feel really unattainable, especially on the days when I'm exhausted.
[00:00:34] I have a short fuse and I really just want an easy win to end the day with, well, that's where these meals made. Easy episode ideas come from. With everyday ingredients that you already have on hand, I give you one meal or snack idea a week. That's dietician mom approved and is gonna fit in your family's busy life.
[00:00:52] So get ready to press, add to cart and to make meals and snacks easy again. Okay. So if you listen to episode 40, where we talked about bedtime, You will know a lot of the reasons why I think it might be appropriate for your family to have a bedtime snack. But what I wanna go ahead and chat about today is specifically what would be some good bedtime snacks and kind of, how do you filter through thinking of some ideas of what you should offer at bedtime specifically?
[00:01:23] Because I know a lot of moms and I've been in this boat too. If your child maybe is like a younger toddler and has maybe transition. off of milk feedings, and maybe even off of the bottle and is on a sippy cup, but as a younger child, And you kind of feel that vulnerable impressionable window where you're like, they're just so little, they don't understand why I won't, you know, give them a bedtime snack or why I don't want to be feeding them milk in the middle of the night.
[00:01:47] And it can be a tricky time to be trying to implement a division of responsibility because we're transitioning from that infant feeding and how the divisional responsibility handles a responsive feeding approach in that season. To how we transition to this responsive feeding approach in toddlerhood.
[00:02:05] And then later on into childhood in my meals made easy method in the third phase module I just worked on actually was talking about how these roles change at different ages and stages of our children's lives. So if you want to know more about that and you wanna know more about what my meal times made easy method.
[00:02:25] Is, and when it's available, make sure you go to veggies and virtue two.com/waitlist. So you get all the updates as the course goes live. And then as I do like early bird discounts and things like that, just go to veggies and virtue, two.com/waitlist, and you'll know all the information on that. If this is something that you feel like we are in a really transitional season, and I don't really know how to transition our feeding approach to be conducive with this feeding foundation that I want to raise my kid.
[00:02:52] But I also don't wanna be waking up in the middle of the night. I'm tired of doing one or two milk feeds at night because my child wakes up hungry. And maybe you just wish that your, you knew your child was going to bed with a full belly and you were getting that reassurance. You were also getting that sleep as is your child, but kinda how do we format this so that our child has really clear boundaries about bedtime snacks.
[00:03:17] If snacks are offered overnight and things like that and how we as a parent can just be reassured that we're doing the right thing while also protecting our sleep and our child's sleep. So wanna dive into that today with bedtime snacks. And again, if you haven't listened to episode 40, go listen to episode 40.
[00:03:32] It'll give you a lot of good background on kind of why back bedtime snack might be appropriate, but for today's episode, I wanna jump right in and share with you. Basically the two things you need to focus on when it comes to bedtime snack. And that is you wanna make it filling, not thrilling. That's a quote that I shared from Ellen Satter in episode 40.
[00:03:52] And number two, with that you wanna be thinking of how can you fill nutritional gaps? Snacks ultimately are intended to help us make it from the larger meals or the larger, more mainstay eating opportunities during the day so that we have. regular offerings of food available. However, oftentimes we see this as kind of a hold me over, which is why our kids often get more dependent on snacks than meals because we're offering kind of those filler foods instead of focusing on how can we use snacks to fill nutritional gaps.
[00:04:26] So we're gonna dive into that as well, but I want you to think about first of all, if your, if you have made your basic love it, like it learning it. And I've shared this in previous episodes. I go into this in a deep dive in the meal times made easy method. And I share with you, you know, the basic list of just what foods does your child love?
[00:04:47] What foods does your child like and what foods does your child still learning to? Like, so first and foremost, when you're focusing on what foods are filling and not thrilling, I wanna make sure that you have that list. So if you Don. Pause this episode real quick. If it's chicken scratch on the back of a grocery list or on the notes tab on your phone or wherever you might be able to just jot this down.
[00:05:07] I want you to start making sure that you're thinking through the love it, like it learning at framework when feeding your child, because at nighttime snacks, you can just as easily offer a Lovet food, a like it food and a learning it food so that, you know, you're continuing to expose them to new options.
[00:05:22] What I don't want you to do at a bedtime snack is always offer. exclusively love it. Foods. And predominantly here, I'm talking about like the really top of the list, love it foods. So those foods that your child would find thrilling. We want these foods to be filling again. That means protein fat fiber is the focus.
[00:05:43] So foods that are rich in protein, fat and fiber. I have a whole cheat sheet on this in the mealtime's made easy course, but you wanna be emphasizing those foods, cuz those are what are going to fill your child for longer to carry them over overnight. What I don't want you to do is be looking at that Lovet category of foods and to be offering exclusively love it foods and like their most favorite.
[00:06:04] And the reason for this is because it can become competitive with say dinner. They might say, well, why would I want to eat your. You know, lasagna at dinner. When I know that you're gonna give me my most favorite Z bar and yogurt pouch for bedtime snack every night, when I'd rather have that, I'll just hold out.
[00:06:23] So we wanna create some sort of routine where we're offering something that's filling and not thrilling. And again, that can be something that's the same every night. It's a yogurt cup every single night. Or it could be, well, some nights we have yogurt cups, some nights we have this, you might be depending on that snack drawer.
[00:06:38] If you've listened to my episode on how to build a kid friendly snack drawer, you might just say, we're gonna pull that out. Those are things that are filling, not thrilling. That's, you know, something I really go off of when I'm filling that drawer. But that would be the number one focus I want you to think about is what is something?
[00:06:52] And this is gonna change for every kid, right? Like my kids are not super into pouches, but if your kids are, that's probably not the food that I would. But, you know, my kids, I know love Z bars. That's not something we have often, but I know that they love them. I would not offer that as a bedtime snack cuz for my kids, that would be too thrilling of a food.
[00:07:10] So, you know, thinking of what foods are thrilling or excuse me, filling and not thrilling. I shared some examples of this and the bedtime snacks, episode, episode 40. But I want you to think through that and then think through what are some protein fats and fibers that you could be offer. This gets us into the second point of filling nutritional gaps in the mealtime's made easy course.
[00:07:31] I take you from the basic, love it, like it, learning it list, which is just kind of your brain dump of any and every food that your child may love, like, or still be learning. And I hope you categorize it. based off of food group and also based off what your child's nutritional needs are. And so you begin to kind of see what food groups do.
[00:07:49] We have no love at foods in what food groups are there. A lot of learning at foods in, and a lot of us probably share some commonalities here, but this can be especially helpful when it comes to planning bedtime snacks, because we can see, okay, my child loves. carbs and fruit. That's great. There's no problem with that.
[00:08:07] And fruit can, if carbs for that matter too, like any grain or fruit can help cover a lot of other. Food groups while your child may not be learning it. But what I would be focusing on here is, okay, has my child had enough protein for the day? Have they gotten enough fat? You know, are they a dairy drinker or consumer of, you know, yogurts and other dairy foods or non-dairy options and the nutrition that comes with that and where maybe the nutritional gaps that are happening in their day to day diet and how can I use bedtime snack to help fill those nutritional gaps?
[00:08:39] This is your end cap. As I mentioned in episode, You have a bigger buffer here that whatever you offer at bedtime snack is not going to displace their next meal because they have, you know, eight to 10 to 12 hours overnight to digest those foods and to regain their appetite before breakfast. So what I want you to think about with bedtime snacks is what.
[00:08:59] Options would fill nutritional gaps for your child. Again, this is specific for each child. This is something that I work directly with families on to kind of identify what are those nutritional gaps for a child. But if you know that, you know, maybe it is like I mentioned before a yogurt cup, or it could be a glass of milk with something else that might be something.
[00:09:18] If you know that you need to get some protein and fat and some calcium or some vitamin D in your child. If you know, your child doesn't eat any veggies, you might be offering veggies as part of a snack. You might be putting veggies into a smoothie at night to just kind of cover some of your nutritional bases.
[00:09:35] You also might be offering fruit because fruit offers a lot of the same vitamins and minerals as vegetables. So maybe you're offering some fruit along sign of vegetables and that yogurt cup or that glass of milk. So there's a lot of ways you can do this. But the thing that I want you to focus on is what are you doing to fill nutritional.
[00:09:53] The goal here is not to offer a bag of gold fish crackers, or a bag of pirate booty. At the end of the night as the night cap, there is again, nothing wrong with those foods and chances are those foods may be a love it food for your kid. But going back to the first point I know for my kids, those foods would be more thrilling and much less filling.
[00:10:12] They're lacking that protein fat and. Additionally their day to day diet isn't in need of the nutrition that those foods offer. They are foods that my kids enjoy. They're totally something that we can include on a regular basis, but they're not something that I'm going to be really intentionally offering at night as kind of that option to help fill their tummy before they go to bed.
[00:10:34] So I want you to work through that. I want you to, you know, think through what foods for your kids with that basic love it. Like it learning it. Would be filling and not thrilling. And then I want you to take a step further. And if you can, with, you know, what you're comfortable with from a nutritional perspective, start to kind of identify what are those food groups that they're not eating as much of?
[00:10:55] What are those things that I might be able to offer at night that are helping fill some of the nutritional gaps? That my child doesn't eat as much of during the day. If this is something you want help with, or if this is, you know, if you've heard me mention different aspects that I've been working through in building out my meal times made easy method, I would love to help you with this.
[00:11:13] I would love to show you some of the resources and the tools and the tutorials that I've been. Busy at work on so that I could help you in things like planning, bedtime snacks and all 24 hours of the day outside of just bedtime snacks. So make sure you're signed up on veggies and virtue.com/wait list.
[00:11:31] So, you know, as soon as mealtime's made it easy launches, it'll be late August, but again, I'm gonna offer some early bird discounts. So I wanna make sure that if this is something that you feel like would be helpful for your family, some of these template. And, you know, protein, fat fiber cheat sheets, and, you know, the nutritional gaps, things, all of those things are things that are gonna be covered in this course.
[00:11:52] So make sure you're signed up there, if that would be helpful for you and make sure to tune back in on Wednesday. For another veggies and virtue episode. If these meals made easy, ideas are helping you in any way, or this show is encouraging you in the messes. In the meal times of motherhood, I would love to hear about it.
[00:12:11] All you need to do is scroll down on an apple podcast and tap, write a review. I check each and every one of these, and they truly bless me to read. And to know how this show is helping shape your family's relationship with food so that I can continue to create content that serves you best. Thank you in.
[00:12:28] For taking the time to leave me a review. And I look forward to seeing you back here next time.
