Forget Candy! Fill Easter Eggs With Healthy Treats

March 24, 2009

Traditional Easter egg hunts and baskets are a dentist's nightmare. I suggest asking the Easter bunny to pack your baskets with reading material, bath toys or tiny stuffed animals, but you may have to get more creative if you hope to fill your hunt eggs with something other than chocolate. For a list of healthier items you might consider putting in your eggs, read more.

Cereal such as Cheerios, Fruit Loops, or Pops
Trail mix, mixed nuts, or Chex pretzel mix
Raisins, dried apricots or other dried fruit
Coins or dollar bills
Marshmallows or cookies
Granola or popcorn

13 Comments

Amanda2542359 1 year 6 weeks

Thank you for posting this!! I've been looking for things to put in my 1 year old and 2.5 year old's eggs and this is perfect :)

2 years 4 weeks

I did Cheerios and granola this year, my kids loved it. The hunt was half the fun. I love the shaving cream idea, I'll have to save that idea for next year. Thanks

3 years 7 weeks

Why even comment if you are against healthy snacks in the eggs?? I'm glad this is here to give me ideas. They get plenty of candy other times and it is NOT once a year... do you go to all posts every holiday bashing people who want to give their kids healthy snacks? I see candy every single holiday that passes... to me candy once a year is HALOWEEN... even then, it is stored and given as treats just as any other candy. I don't even buy candy for my house, they get PLENTY other places. WOW. Thank you for posting this and I wish people would have just moved on instead of wasting their time bashing this post. I read through all the comments looking for more ideas and now I have wasted time because you had nothing good to say.

3 years 10 weeks

A few treats, yes - but these are wonderful suggestions on how to round out an Easter basket. So perhaps a chocolate bunny, but raisins or craisins! how about some bubble bath! or a can of shaving cream (now THAT is a bathtime treat for every toddler) new bath toys, squishy balls - c'mon these are treats too! No one needs a basketful of sugar.

4 years 6 weeks

Seems this thread got started out on a negative note. My friends and I think these are great ideas and were searching more healthy things to put in the kid's eggs as a treat for a 2 and under day care group. Something they don't get every day. The problem is that babies 2 and under should not be having sugary crap. The once a year theory is great, so long as you never have to hear them wine about wanting candy in the grocery store and for meals and if it does not interfere with their medication or behavior, which it is pretty much guaranteed to do. On top of filling them up so that they don't have room for the correct amount of the right foods and the sugar high and subsequent crash that their little systems should not have to be coping with, parents are also teaching their kids that these holidays are about getting candy. Being a foster parent, we are required to sign a document that includes 6 pages for their diets. We are required to follow a specific diet plan with mostly fresh fruits and veggies, dairy, a little meat or meat alternative, and bread or alternative. At the very end it says "The following should be limited or omitted." It includes "sugar-coated cereal, potato chips, snack chips, bacon, sausage, candy, doughnuts, fruit-flavored drinks, coffee, tea, soft drinks, brownies and cookies with icing, rich pastries and other food high in sugar, fat, and salt." Foster children get more food thrown at them than most kids, because the parents try to buy their love and make up for their absence during their weekly hour long visits on top of the kid's events that we take them too. How are you suppose to get them their full serving of fruits and veggies if their little tummies are filled up on junk food? If they never experience junk food they will never know what they are NOT missing out on. Don't you want your kids to have a better diet than you did? Think of all of the health problems, including obesity, that our generations are having to face because of the sugar and corn syrup added to our diets? If you give them the right start they will not care for the taste of sodas, candy, cookies, fried stuff and other junk foods. Most babies will think that prunes and other fruit pieces are a treat and it counts toward their total fruit and veggie intake for the day. It would be nice if this were really a once a year event, but in most cases it is not. Most boxed, canned and frozen items come with high fructose corn syrup, the worse kind of sugar available. So while we should be reading our labels and boycotting cereals, condiments, and even seemingly "healthy" snack that sneak the sugar in, we are encouraging these unhealthy habits and companies by buying even MORE of their junk multiple times each year all for the sake of overindulging our kids. Who do you think decided that you HAD to have candy for every single holiday and even holidays that were never before celebrated before? Candy companies have HUGE advertising budget just for people like us and our kids. You kid will not be missing out if they skip the candy and go back to basics during most if not all of the holidays. Unfortunately, every holiday has been severely over commercialized and overindulgent. Kids think they get something whether it's gifts, toys, or candy for every holiday. One of you mentioned that it was "just for the hunt" when you got your eggs. Did that really ruin your Easter? Kids think that the holidays are when you "get candy" or "get presents." Ask any 2 or 4 year old. Just like we need to teach our kids the true meaning of Christmas, we also need to teach them the true meaning of all of the other holidays too. I am not religious AT ALL. I can still tell them what the holidays represent and how we should celebrate and it has nothing to do with getting toys and candy to make up for something. It would be so nice to go to an event that parents would not have to worry about their kids eating their way into happiness. There are so many things that children could enjoy eating and even DOING that are exponentially better for them than candy and chocolates. Have we lost all creativity? So we just want the easy way out by stocking our kid's baskets with junk that we know they should not be eating? All events including school, city, and church run events during the holidays include candy. If parents had the option to buy the candy or give it to their kids out of their own pockets at home or at the event that would be a lot easier to encourage America's healthier eating habits. The government seems to claim to encourage a healthy diet, but it does not appear to have the trickle down effect. We should all lead by example, that include the government, city, school, and church run events. We should fill their baskets with toys with an emphasis on physical fitness that everyone knows is a necessity for a healthy life style.

milosmommy 4 years 8 weeks

*much

milosmommy 4 years 8 weeks

I kinda like these ideas. Not that I'm in any way against indulging your kids with candy once in a while, but I have an 18month old and I think that some of these would be better treats for him. I'd be more afraid that he would choke on candy not as mich worried about the sugar factor.

Sarana 4 years 8 weeks

Really cereal in your easter egg?? I would be shocked! This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. As the others have said, chocolate in moderation is ok. There is nothing wrong with eating chocolate once in a while. By the way our egg hunt was always for real eggs, not for eating but just hard cooked painted eggs. The hunt was just for the hunt, how many can you find, not about food (healthy or not) at all.

lindssaurussss 4 years 8 weeks

lol. gigimama your funny. yeah jeez give the children candy! i would throw a tantrum if my egg was filled with granola!

gigimama 4 years 8 weeks

Oh, no. You can always tell a holiday is here when the candy police spring into action. Easter, Christmas, Halloween----I totally indulge my kids. We have the other 362 days a year to be boring. Childhood is dead. My goodness, they eat Cheerios for breakfast in the mornings, finding Cheerios in a plastic egg out in the yard would be baffling and weird.

runningesq 4 years 8 weeks

OR we can teach our kids that treats are just fine in moderation, and let them enjoy some chocolate on easter.

MommaChel 4 years 8 weeks

I think this idea is so cute! But some of them should still have candy in them, like fat free even.

CaterpillarGirl 4 years 8 weeks

its once a year, cmon dont fill it with "good for you" crap. Listen you should be feeding your kids nutritious meals daily anyway, so when easter, christmas, halloween come around you can give them a treat, Fill that basket with chocolate eggs, jelly beans, peeps, whatever! Seriously, coins? what are you that creepy neighbor you dont trick or treat anymore because he only gives a half roll of pennies?

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13 Comments

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