After school snack ideas

[Deweyy]

Hey there, I was hoping someone could give me some healthy, filling after school snack ideas that you do.

My 5 year old comes home and is always hungry! And no matter what I give him he just keeps complaining that he wants more food. I've asked the school and they say he eats all his lunch and his snacks during the day, so he is just a hungry boy by the time he gets home (and I don't blame him with all the running around he does!).

School finishes at 3pm and dinner is always served at 5pm. Does anyone have any ideas of filling snacks that will keep him going until dinner?

I would probably give him a sliced apple and some small cubes of cheese as a snack. Then he can wait until dinner ("it won't be long") and distract him with toy/game suggestions. It's good for children to feel hungry sometimes and he'll probably eat more at meals if he does.

Toast, peanut butter and sliced banana
Boiled egg and soldiers
Cereal (or instant porridge with various toppings in the winter)
Beans on toast
Pitta bread or bread sticks with humous
Tinned fruit and yogurt
Ham and salad wrap
Cream cheese bagel

I have a 4 and a 5 year old and many school days I feed them their tea/dinner at about 4 - 4.30pm and then DH and I eat later.

They both get age related free school meals so on the days they've had a hot meal at school I just do sandwiches fruit and crisps etc for tea.

Weekends and holidays we eat all together at about 6.30pm and on those days they have a snack at 3.30/ 4pm.

In our house you could always have fruit or toast.

I never got this mindset: It's good for children to feel hungry sometimes and he'll probably eat more at meals if he does - where is the scientific evidence that it is good to continue to feel hungry for a protracted period? Also, what is the benefit of 'eating more at meals' if you just get to the same overall calories intake and nutritional intake?

I am not controlling about food so our way worked fine. Healthy kids anyway.

Cheese and cracker
Crudités and bread sticks with hummus, guacamole, cream cheese, salsa
Nuts
Rice cake with peanut butter/ cream cheese and cherry tomatoes
Roasted chickpeas
Popcorn
Mini fritata (bake in a bun tin then freeze)

I'd either give dinner as soon as he gets in - I did this for a few years - or I'd give something like pesto pasta, peanut butter on toast or cheese and crackers

I wouldn't give a piece of fruit as an apple is hardly filling

More filling fruit such as bananas, or fruit with Greek yogurt/skyr as it has protein.

Something like an oat based cereal bar, museli bar or flapjack- better if home made

Cheese and crackers

I give mine filling food and they still eat dinner but probably a smaller portion.
If I can get dinner ready, then they'll have dinner.
Leftovers
Savoury pancakes
Wraps
Soup
Filled croissants
Muffins
Pita bread or muffin pizzas

Bowl of cereal every time.works wonders.
Really refresjing in this weather too and easy to have in.the older ones did it and decades later it's still a memory they treasure for some reason lol. That afternoon cereal in front of the cartoons.

Vegetable sticks (peppers, cucumber, carrots, celery) because they're so hungry they will eat them. In summer I might make a frozen smoothie otherwise a glass of cow's or almond milk.

Crudités / breadsticks with houmous
Chicken sausages
Greek yoghurt & fruit

Breakfast cereal is a really unhealthy food though, so not a great one.

@carefullycourageous
That’s a very sweeping statement! A bowl of weetabix and milk is not unhealthy, especially for growing kids, and has no more sugar that fruit or toast and jam/honey/Nutella. Are weetabix, fruit and fibre, muesli and shredded wheat all forbidden after school snacks in your house?

We either give: a plate of crackers, cheese, veg sticks and hummus
or v occasionally
flapjack and a smoothie

My "help yourself" snack foods are cold roast chicken, cheese, Greek yogurt, hummus, oatcakes, pitta bread, bread in general, milk, fruit, and a tupperware container with sticks of cucumber, carrots, peppers and some cherry tomatoes.

We never have them in, no. Obviously not forbidden (weird concept) but we buy/eat oats to avoid processed cereals. Muesli is a varied product.

@carefullycourageous wait until you have a 15 year old .. a couple of pot noodles is considered the gold standard after school snack ..

My kids range from secondary to adult, no little ones here any more!