EASTER
How to make Easter healthier for your children this year!
Easter is nearly upon us and the supermarkets are crammed full of Easter eggs to encourage our children to completely overindulge in chocolate and sweets during the holidays.
Last year my children counted 8 large well-known branded Easter eggs each. That is over and above the little eggs we used for the Easter Egg Hunt. Did you know, 100g of chocolate egg contains between 40 and 60g of sugar and around 550 calories alone. That is without the inside of the egg, which is now often filled with sweets!
Here at SPR Juniors, we want to give you our alternatives on how to still have lots of fun this Easter with your children, without filling them up with sugar:
Active Easter egg hunt
All children love an Easter egg hunt. Try and make it as active as possible by adding in physical activities during the egg hunt course. We suggest you write down activities for the children to find instead of leaving a chocolate egg at each point like 10 star jumps or 10 knee lifts and they can only move onto looking for another egg once an activity has been complete. It makes the whole egg hunt last much longer and gives the children a bit of exercise before they consume their find!
Top tip: Replace large eggs with smaller individually wrapped eggs to cut down on sugar intake.
Make your own treats
A fun activity to do during the holiday and an easy way to reduce the sugar intake of those Easter treats. We suggest simply baking a batch of fairy cakes and topping with a little icing and a shop-bought mini Easter egg. You can even hide fruit and vegetables in your cake mix like blueberries, apple or bananas to make them tasty and healthy.
Replace your Easter egg with a gift
Whether it is a new favourite toy, a pot of slime or a new book, by making your treat a present that your children can open on Easter Sunday, it reduces the number of eggs they will receive.
Eat like an Easter bunny
Lots of children will steer away from carrots, lettuce and other vegetables that bunnies love. Make the most of Easter and actively encourage your child to consume Easter bunny treats like carrots for their dinner so they are allowed to have a little bit of the Easter egg for pudding!
Decorate your eggs
Get creative and decorate some real eggs. A fun way to entertain the children and perfect to have as a boiled egg for breakfast or tea! All you need is eggs; salt; food colouring; white vinegar and a white crayon. Check out how to do this from Safefood Website.
Swap out a chocolate Easter egg for the zoo
Most children love animals.
Why not make their Easter treat a visit to their local petting zoo to cuddle a bunny.
Plus, it is lambing season, so many open farms have lambs to view!
Get crafting
I don’t know one child that doesn’t like a bit of crafting occasionally and, the Easter holidays are the perfect time to get creative!
It doesn’t need to be expensive and, there are so many Easter egg crafting ideas from Easter bonnets to Easter bunting.
Most supermarkets have bumper Easter crafting packs, reasonably priced, to get you started.
Change4Life App
We can’t thank NHS Change 4 Life enough for their sugar app. Easter is a great time to get your children educated on how to control their sugar intake.
It can actually be fun scanning different foods at the supermarket and will help your child understand what is healthy and what other food alternatives they can choose.
