The ultimate snack hacks

With a little imagination, you can enjoy ‘days out’, without leaving the house and keep those little ones occupied. With so much time to fill, even the most creative caregivers can find this tricky, so Mini Babybel has teamed up with expert dietitian Juliette Kellow to share top tips, home-school hacks and convenient fun time fillers to make every day snack time a little less frazzled and a lot more fun.

With research commissioned by Mini Babybel before the lockdown unveiling that 82% of parents say they would love to spend more time playing with their children, with one in four (23%) parents spending less than just three hours one-to-one with them during the working week, now’s the perfect time to make the most of time with your little ones!

Registered dietitian Juliette Kellow’s top tips will help to ease some of those stay-at-home struggles, with home-school hacks and expert advice on how to keep the mundane munchies at bay, Juliette says:

Get crafting

Encourage children to unleash their creative side. Cover an empty toilet roll with cotton wool balls, add cocktail stick legs and draw on some eyes and a mouth to make a fluffy Spring lamb. Or, use the wax from Mini Babybel to create spring flowers or animals that the children have seen during their time in the garden.

Put a twist on a traditional treasure hunt

Hide Mini Babybel around your house and garden, for children to find. Chances are you already have them in your fridge, making them a convenient prop to use. Made from cheese only, they’re a great snack and alternative if you want to cut down on your child’s sugar intake. Plus, they pack a punch of protein and calcium, both important for children’s bone growth and development.

Maintain a normal routine for meals

When everything else has changed – home schooling, not seeing friends and missing activities such as cubs, sports or music lessons – the one area where children can experience some normality is around meals. So, continue with breakfast, lunch and dinner, ideally at the usual times, and add in a couple of healthy snacks each day – one in the morning and one in the afternoon. This will instantly help to provide some structure to your child’s day, as well as yours.

Make a snack pack each day

Like adults, children will often say they’re hungry and seek out food when, in fact, they’re bored. Putting aside a set number of snacks for the day for each child will help to get around this. Each morning fill a basket, bowl or container with the snacks for that day and let children know that once they are gone, there’s nothing else. Good choices include fruit, vegetable sticks, breadsticks and a Mini Babybel (it doesn’t need to be refrigerated).

 Remember to encourage plenty of fluids

Most schools have a water-only policy so stick with this at home rather than allowing squashes or juice. Get children to fill their usual water bottle and drink from this during the normal school day.

Encourage children to be as active as possible at home

Free online workouts, games in the garden or even active console games, are a great addition to government advice that recommends going out to exercise once a day.

For more ideas on how to keep the kids entertained, click here. Over the next few weeks, Mini Babybel’s Saving Snack Time At-Home Hub will be filled with ideas to help feed your Mini Bels’ creativity, imagination and appetite, with Babybel sharing new ideas across the coming weeks to add mini portions of positivity to each day.