Diet and Autism, Get Them To Eat Healthy

Welcome To AuSumness,

We understand how difficult it can be to continuously come up with healthy snack ideas that the kids will love.  We've got lists, charts, printables and links to supply you with ideas.  We also want to remind our readers of the importance of eating healthy.  Believe me, we get how difficult it can be encouraging your Autistic children to eat healthy food, but you CAN'T give up.  You just can't.

It's been proven that diet certainly has an effect on behaviour.  You truly can minimise some of the symptoms of Autism through diet.  Well be back with another blog speaking more scientifically and in depth on this very important subject.

Let's just jump right in to healthy, fast, kid approved snacks.

Quite possibly the easiest way to curb the tummy growls is with a tray like this one.  Freshly washed fruit and or dried fruit, vegetables like cherry tomatoes, cucumber, carrots and olives, coupled with some nuts and pretzels.  

Serve it up in smaller portions or a larger one for a party idea.  It's so easy.

This fast, easy, healthy snack idea below, has got to be the best one.  I use these canisters to store nuts and dried fruit. It's right out in the middle of our island.  It's easily accessible for all of us and it's kept stocked nice and full with a changing array of various nuts, seeds and dried fruit. I use the stash for in  lunches and school snacks.  I also allow the boys to help themselves to the contents when I'm too busy to prepare them something.  We often say, ''It's that or nothing" and it often stops the whining.  They love having control of what they eat and I don't have to worry about sugar rushes. The image below is hooked up to a great site, Nuts.com. They have tips on healthy snacking, recipes, an amazing supply of delicious snacks that will make your mouth water and much more.



  

A great way to get the veggie haters to eat their veggies is to sneak them in there.  I puree carrots, zucchini, nuts, seeds and dried fruit and add them to a plain muffin recipe with a sugar substitute or low sugar quantity.  They have no idea! I also change it up by using the batter in a donut pan because my boys love donuts.  We've got a darn good Dessert Board on Pinterest where you can find healthier types of sweet treats.  Click on the image to get there and find your family's favourite.

Go further by making the food look fun, like we did here.  We use seasonal pumpkin, raisins and sunflower seeds in these muffins and in Halloween spirit, added some crazy eye balls to help distract them from all of the healthy fruit, veg, nuts and seeds in there.  

Don't be put off by adding delicious, dark chocolate chips in your cookies, cakes, waffles and pancakes.  5 grams of dark choclate is actually really healthy for you.  Seriously!  Check out the benefits of dark chocolate right here.  Then consider other snacks with dark chocolate like dark chocolate covered nuts and my favourite, dark chocolate covered raisins.

There are several blogs dedicated to healthy, fast and easy kid favourites as well as a couple of special entries for special needs children on The Cherry On Top blog.  Check out this free printable chart with lunch and snack ideas by clicking on the preview.

This is an in depth blog for the parents out there that need help getting their children not only just to eat, but to eat healthy foods as well.  We've got two boys with Autism and they both have a lot of food issues and here we share some of our successful tips to get'em to eat.

Take a gander around nuts.com the blog and our Pinterest and you'll be set with an arsenal of goodies for the lil'uns.

Thanks so much for dropping by AuSumness. 

Happy snacking!