Healthy Birthday Snack Ideas:
A child’s school birthday celebration should be centered around the child; instead, it has become centered around cupcakes. Parents bring in these unhealthy treats and kids rejoice. Yet with the current child obesity crisis, many are rethinking this caloric tradition. In response, I have created this list of healthy birthday school celebrations. Enjoy them! And please, let me know if you have any additional suggestions.
Non-Food Options:
1) Allow extra recess time in honor of each student’s birthday and allow the birthday child to choose an active activity or game. The birthday student’s parents are welcome to participate.
2) Craft project: Bring in supplies so each student can make a birthday card for the birthday child.
3) Craft project: Decorate a balloon with stickers and glitter. Each child gets to take their creation home.
4) Bring in a large balloon bouquet and let each child pick a balloon to take home.
5) Parent reads selected book of choice to class.
6) Create a birthday book for child; each classmate creates a special page about the birthday child.
7) Provide goodie bags with stickers, pencils, pens, school supplies, crayons, noise makers etc.
8) Arrange a classroom scavenger hunt with small non-food gifts for each child.
9) Decorate a birthday crown.
10) Bring in coloring books for each student. Have each child color a page from their book and then hang up the masterpieces and have a ‘gallery showing’.
11) Bring in small fun activity gifts for the students, i.e. jump ropes, mini-Frisbees, waffle balls. Allow some time for the students to play with their new gift.
12) Give each child elastic bracelets with birthday child’s name stamped on it.
Healthy (Or At Least Healthier) Food Options:
1) ‘Make your own’ yogurt parfait with fat-free yogurt, low-fat granola, and fresh berries.
2) Fruit Kebobs: Cut fruit into interesting shapes and let children put the fruit onto skewers with a few marshmallows.
3) Frozen Banana Krispie Treats: Cut a banana in half. Put a Popsicle stick in the banana and then smear with low-fat vanilla yogurt. Roll in rice krispies, freeze.
4) Fresh fruit topped with low-fat whipped cream.
5) Waffle topped with fruit and chocolate syrup.
6) Low-fat pudding with low-fat whipped cream.
7) Frozen fruit bars.
8) Create a trail mix: Let each child choose their own mixture of whole grain pretzels, multi-grain chex, and dried fruit.
9) Yogurt covered raisins.
10) Apples slices dipped in caramel dipping sauce.
11) Baked apples with cinnamon.
12) Sorbet.
13) Orange frizzes: Mix chilled orange juice with carbonated water and a scoop of sorbet.
14) One scoop of low-fat ice cream with sprinkles.
15) Exotic fruit of choice.
16) Jell-o topped with low-fat whipped cream.
17) Baked tortilla chips with salsa.
18) Homemade low-fat rice krispie treats.
19) Yogurt covered pretzels.
20) Baked potato chips.
21) Low-fat pita with hummus.
22) Baked tortilla with guacamole.
23) One scoop of fat free ice cream in a wafer cone.
Tags: child diet, Child Obesity, child weight gain, cupcake war, cupcake wars, diet, exercise, MeMe Roth, mothers, obese baby, obese child, obese toddler, obesity, overweight child, overweight mother, overweight parent, overweight toddler, overweight woman, parenting, school birthday, school cupcakes, school parties, weight gain, weight loss
Thanks for these ideas. These options are really going to help in my decision for my sons birthday next year in school. I had the hardest time figuring out what to send in. Now I have some great options to choose from. Thanks again!
Yikes! Nearly all of the options you posted are as high — or higher — in sugar as the cupcake you are trying to replace it with. You do realize waffles, fruits, chocolate syrup and ice cream are all basically sugar, right? Especially since you keeping harping on low-fat options so there is nothing to slow the conversion to glucose. Plus, I am confused, I thought in another blog post you stated restricting fat in children slows vitamin absorption and brain growth? Oh, and while we’re at it, I would like to know exactly what low-carb research you’ve done? You stated that low-carb dieters are deficient in vitamin B, but I don’t see how that could be since meats, eggs, nuts, and dairy (the staples of a healthy low-carb diet) are all high in B. You also stated that because low-carb dieting isn’t safe for teens it probably wouldn’t be safe for little ones either — where did you see that it wasn’t safe for teens? Please provide a link as the research I’ve seen suggests otherwise.
Thank you for writing. The options I suggested are not higher in sugar than cupcakes. Whole grain waffles are a very healthy source of whole grains, an important part of the diet. And even white (frozen) waffles are significantly lower in sugar than cupcakes. The sugar in fruit is a healthy, natural sugar and comes with lots of heart healthy fiber. Fruit is clearly a healthier option than a cupcake. Adding a small amount of chocolate syrup to fruit or another food item adds a small amount of sugar and keeps children happy. Kids feel like they are having a treat without all the sugar in a cupcake. The ice cream I suggested was low-fat ice cream which contains less sugar than a large cupcake. Plus, the ice cream has a bit of calcium going for it.
I have always maintained that extremely low-fat diets are not healthy for children. A child’s diet must have be at least 20% fat. That does not mean, however, that we should try to give our children as much fat as possible. A moderately low-fat diet (between 25-35% fat, depending on age) is what is recommended. There is clearly a middle ground. Don’t forget that this is not a meal- this is a snack. And practically all of the options I gave have some fat in them.
In terms of Vitamin B, clearly not all low-carb dieters are deficient in Vitamin B. But many are. Also, dairy is a type of carbohydrate. Carbohydrates include all fruits, vegetables, starches, and dairy products. A low-carb diet is not simply a low-starch diet. Here is a citation to an article from the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. Adolescents’ low-carbohydrate-density diets are related to poorer dietary intakes. Greene-Finestone LS – J Am Diet Assoc – 01-NOV-2005; 105(11): 1783-8.
There was one study (out of many) that did show benefit from low-carb diets for teens. But even the article itself maintains that they used a very small sample size and followed the teens for only a short period of time. In the article, the authors state that “more research is needed before you can recommend low-carb diets for teens.” Further, this study was not a randomized trial. Patients who signed up were extremely motivated to lose weight and do not represent the standard teen population, according to the authors of the article.
Thank you for writing. I think healthy debate is a great thing as it focuses everybody to go back to the facts. Thanks for reading and for your thoughts.
Thank you for your kind response. Whole grains are really only healthy in comparison to plain ol’ white bread, but they both create an insulin response and contain no nutrients that can’t be found in other sources. In a serving size comparison of steak and whole wheat bread, steak comes out on top in every nutrient, except calcium, with twice the iron and almost three times the potassium. Of course, so many people are unnecessarily terrified of saturated fat that they’ll happily scarf down the waffle and fruit and chocolate syrup and feel virtuous because they ‘saved calories and fat’ by skipping a nice juicy burger, not realizing that they just elevated their blood sugar, spiked their insulin, signaled their body to stop burning fat as fuel and/or store it.
While there is no such thing as a ‘healthy sugar’, you are right that the sugar in an apple is processed differently, which is good because it doesn’t trigger an insulin response, but the fructose is processed in the liver and once the liver has had it’s share it will convert the remaining fructose into triglycerides — not so good.
Some dairy does contain carbs, milk for instance, but most contain only small amounts — heavy cream and many cheeses contain none. And the calcium absorption would be much greater due to the fat content — vitamin D being a fat soluble vitamin.
>>Adolescents’ low-carbohydrate-density diets are related to poorer dietary intakes. Greene-Finestone LS – J Am Diet Assoc – 01-NOV-2005; 105(11): 1783-8.<>In the article, the authors state that “more research is needed before you can recommend low-carb diets for teens.”<<
One would think that the millions of years humans thrived on the planet before the advent of the low-fat/high carb craze and the increased incidence of obesity and Type II diabetes since would be long enough.
My response, which is awaiting moderation, appears to have left something out…weird…I am going to repost it here if you would like to delete the previous one, thanks! Repost:
Thank you for your kind response. Whole grains are really only healthy in comparison to plain ol’ white bread, but they both create an insulin response and contain no nutrients that can’t be found in other sources. In a serving size comparison of steak and whole wheat bread, steak comes out on top in every nutrient, except calcium, with twice the iron and almost three times the potassium. Of course, so many people are unnecessarily terrified of saturated fat that they’ll happily scarf down the waffle and fruit and chocolate syrup and feel virtuous because they ‘saved calories and fat’ by skipping a nice juicy burger, not realizing that they just elevated their blood sugar, spiked their insulin, signaled their body to stop burning fat as fuel and/or store it.
While there is no such thing as a ‘healthy sugar’, you are right that the sugar in an apple is processed differently, which is good because it doesn’t trigger an insulin response, but the fructose is processed in the liver and once the liver has had it’s share it will convert the remaining fructose into triglycerides — not so good.
Some dairy does contain carbs, milk for instance, but most contain only small amounts — heavy cream and many cheeses contain none. And the calcium absorption would be much greater due to the fat content — vitamin D being a fat soluble vitamin.
~Adolescents’ low-carbohydrate-density diets are related to poorer dietary intakes. Greene-Finestone LS – J Am Diet Assoc – 01-NOV-2005; 105(11): 1783-8.~
Bah. I see several problems with that report, the first being that the children filled out a food-frequency questionnaire which would be limited to the foods the authors chose to include. They don’t say whether this was a one-time deal or if they had to recall menus over an extended period of time or filled it as they went along. They say their diets are lower in vitamin C, but don’t say lower than what — maybe the other group was getting too much, who knows? We don’t because they don’t give those details. Plus, fiber is totally over-rated. It moves through the system because our bodies can’t digest it, if we can’t digest it (i.e.: gain nutrients from it) the only other thing it could be good for is scraping along our delicate intestinal tract — no thanks! Also, they base their biggest reason for calling it ‘poor nutrition’ on the high amount of meat and fat consumed. Since modern science has failed yet once again in proving saturated fats relation to heart disease, I will disagree with their conclusion.
~In the article, the authors state that “more research is needed before you can recommend low-carb diets for teens.”~
One would think that the millions of years humans thrived on the planet before the advent of the low-fat/high carb craze and the increased incidence of obesity and Type II diabetes since would be long enough.
Thanks for your comments. Let’s agree to disagree! I recommend a diet of moderation, including foods from all food groups. I believe that fiber is extremely beneficial as it has been shown to lower the risk of many chronic diseases.
But I do thank you for your thoughts!
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