A good snack contains something filling, meaning protein or fat, and something with fibre, such as fruit, vegetables or wholegrain. Crispbread with cheese and a clementine. Natural yoghurt with banana. Egg and cucumber. It takes under five minutes, keeps your child going until dinner and needs nothing labelled as a children's snack in the shop.
Four o'clock on a Thursday in Hammarby sjöstad, a five-year-old comes home from förskola (municipal preschool, from age one) and he is not hungry, he is angry. He had lunch at eleven. What he needs is food within ten minutes, not a discussion. This is the snack our nannies have worked out on the way home, and here is their list.
What a snack should contain
Children under six need to eat roughly every three hours. A snack that is only fruit gives energy for half an hour and then another meltdown. Add something filling: cheese, egg, yoghurt, nut butter, beans, meat from dinner. And give it before your child is hungry. A child who has got to the point of tears eats badly.
Twenty snacks that work
Quick, at home
- Crispbread with butter, cheese and cucumber slices
- Natural yoghurt with sliced banana and oats
- Hard-boiled egg (boil six on Sunday, keep them in the fridge) with a piece of bread
- Carrot sticks, cucumber and pepper with hummus
- Rice pudding or oat porridge in one minute in the microwave, with unsweetened apple sauce
- Toasted wholegrain bread with peanut butter and banana, for children over one with no allergy
- Cottage cheese with pineapple or peach, fresh or tinned in juice
- Leftovers from dinner: a cold meatball, a piece of chicken, a potato with butter
- Mini pizza on polarbröd (soft Swedish flatbread): tomato purée, cheese, three minutes in the oven
- Apple wedges with a piece of cheese
To keep in the bag for pick-up
- Clementine or apple, peeled or cut so it is quick to eat
- Crispbread with cheese wrapped in sandwich paper
- Unsalted nuts or almonds in a small tub, only for children from four or five who can chew properly
- Dried apricots or raisins in a small amount, sweet but still whole fruit
- A sandwich on wholegrain bread with liver pâté or cheese, in a small box
- Edamame beans or chickpeas in a tub, children pick at them and eat slowly
- A piece of rye bread and a small piece of hard cheese from a block kept in the fridge at förskola, if they allow it
- Water in a bottle, always
When it needs to be a bit more
- Pancakes with cottage cheese in the batter, made at the weekend and frozen, one in the microwave
- Overnight oats: oats, milk and grated carrot or berries in a jar in the fridge overnight
Which snack for which age?
| Age | Works | Keep in mind |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 2 years | Yoghurt, banana, a soft sandwich, porridge, boiled egg | No whole nuts, no whole grapes, no raw carrot sticks |
| 2 to 4 years | All of the above plus crispbread, hummus, cottage cheese | Cut grapes and cherry tomatoes lengthways |
| 4 to 6 years | Nuts if the child chews well, raw vegetables, beans | The child can butter their own bread, let it take time |
| 6 to 10 years | Substantial: a sandwich with topping plus fruit plus milk | After school and fritids (after-school care) the child is often very hungry |
Snacks at the weekend and on outings
Weekend snacks can take longer. That is when the children can make their own: buttering crispbread, cutting banana with a child's knife, mixing yoghurt with oats. On outings to the park or the woods the same rule applies as for the bag: robust, not messy, and always water. A child who has been running around Parks in Stockholm with great playgrounds for an hour needs more than a piece of fruit, so pack sandwiches too. And always keep a spare snack in the bag that you do not plan to use. That is what saves the journey home on the day everything took longer than you thought.
What does not work as a snack
- Fruit purée pouches. Fast sugar, no fullness, and the child does not chew.
- Fruit yoghurt and drinking yoghurt. Think of them as dessert.
- Juice and squash. Thirst is quenched with water.
- Sweet biscuits and children's biscuits. They are biscuits, whatever the packet says.
- Milk in large amounts as a substitute for food. One glass is fine, three glasses mean your child will not eat dinner.
What to drink with the snack
Water. One glass of milk a day with a snack is fine, but three glasses of milk between three and five mean your child will not eat dinner, and that is the most common reason dinner gets refused in families with children between one and three. Squash, juice and flavoured milk have no place here at all. A child who does not want water is not thirsty. Keep a bottle in the bag and a jug on the table, and let your child pour for themselves from the age of two. It spills, and it is worth it.
Two children, one snack
The one-year-old and the four-year-old can eat the same thing if you think about the form. Crispbread becomes soft bread for the little one, nuts are swapped for banana, the carrot sticks are cooked for one and raw for the other. Put everything on a plate in the middle of the table instead of on separate plates, so both can choose and nobody compares. The older one can butter their own bread from about four, and that is a task that makes the snack take ten minutes instead of two, which is usually an advantage on an afternoon that needs filling.
The timing of the snack matters more than what is in it
A child who has a snack at half past four and dinner at half past five eats no dinner, and then the snack gets the blame. Put the snack as close to pick-up as possible, ideally straight away at förskola or in the hall at home, and keep it modest if dinner is within two hours. If dinner is not until half past six, the snack can be considerably bigger. Count backwards from dinner, not forwards from lunch.
How we do it with our families
Doaa brings the same box every time she picks up her four-year-old from förskola in Solna: two pieces of crispbread with cheese, a cut-up clementine, a bottle of water. The child eats on the bench outside the preschool before they go to the playground, and it takes five minutes. The afternoons got calmer the week she started doing it, because the crying in the hall stopped. The note to the parents says what was eaten and when, so they know whether dinner can wait until six or needs to come earlier.
Would you like a nanny who comes on the same days every week and whom the children know? Book a free first meeting with the nanny in your home, and we will work out a plan around your hours.
Read more: Sugar and children · Breakfast for kids · Packed lunch for children · Prices
Frequently asked questions
How many snacks does a child need a day?
Two for most preschool children: one in the morning and one in the afternoon, on top of breakfast, lunch and dinner. Children have small stomachs and need to eat roughly every three hours. School children usually need a snack after school, ideally a substantial one, since school lunch is often eaten early and quickly.
What is a good snack to keep in the bag?
Something that keeps for three hours without a fridge: crispbread with cheese in paper, a clementine, an apple, unsalted nuts for children over four, a piece of hard bread, a small tub of chickpeas. Plus water. Banana works if the bag is not shaken about.
Should the snack be big or small?
Big enough that your child lasts until the next meal, small enough that they eat dinner. A snack at four for a child who eats dinner at half past five can be a piece of fruit and a sandwich. A snack at half past two for a child who eats at six can be considerably bigger.
Is a smoothie a good snack?
Better than juice, worse than the whole fruit. Your child gets the fibre but does not chew, and three pieces of fruit are drunk in no time. Make the smoothie with one piece of fruit plus natural yoghurt or oats, so it is filling. A smoothie with honey or juice in it is dessert.