These fast and healthy bedtime snacks will help keeps your kids’ hunger satisfied through the night and even help them sleep!
Do your kids beg you for food before bedtime? Mine go through stages, but the challenge is knowing when they’re truly hungry and do need a bedtime snack versus when they’re just stalling. If it’s the former and your child didn’t eat their dinner (distraction or digestion issues can be factors), try these foods and strategies to help satiate them quickly so they can get their zzz’s! The key is keeping it boring and choosing foods that not only satisfy their hunger, but actually can help them get to sleep!
- I’m typically ALL about keeping food fun when feeding your kids, but when it comes to bedtime snacks, avoid your children using it as a stall tactic by keeping these snacks as “boring” as possible while still keeping it dense in nutrients
- choose foods that are (again) nutrient dense and contain serotonin or melatonin which make you feel good and promote sleep
- offer 2 choices that work for you to keep it simple. No negotiating!
- keep it to a small amount. When you eat too much before bed it can actually have the reverse effect and keep you awake
Now, for 12 of my go-to pre-bed snacks sure to keep your child’s hunger at bay and help them get their sleep on!
- pistachios (protein, vitamin B6 and magnesium)
- cheese and crackers (protein)
- nut butter (protein)
- oatmeal (rich in melatonin)
- cherries (natural source of melatonin)
- banana (the potassium serves as a muscle relaxant)
- pumpkin seeds (boost serotonin levels)
- eggs (can make you sleepy due to tryptophan)
- kiwi (full of vitamin C and E, serotonin and folate to help you snooze).
- edamame (rich in isoflavones which increase serotonin levels.
- strawberries (B6 can promote melatonin production into high gear)
- camomile tea (you can even put a little cool tea in your babies bottle which I did with all 3 of my kids)
How do you do bedtime snacks? Share any of your strategies in the comments!
Warm milk helps my 2 year old son! I used to give cold milk to him first thing in the morning and he then refused to eat for hours because his belly was full from milk. Switching it to bedtime and warming it just a bit has made a world of a difference not only in eating full meals and snacks but he sleeps alot better! Bonus if they have a cold dribble some honey in the warm milk!
Thanks for commenting! Great idea. Anything to help the little ones sleep 🙂
This is such a great list, thank you for sharing it. My children have been drinking chamomile tea since they were only months old, it’s a miracle worker.
Do you mean tea on its own in the bottle or with formula/milk?