Snacks for Post Soccer Game

I may get an earfull.....
We did (and received) granola bars, fruit snacks, cookies, bag drinks, gatorade, donuts, crackers....
L.

I would take it easy with peanut snacks and sugary juices. If everyone is cleared for peanuts, fine. Skip the sugar products - no value even if there is a little fruit juice in it. Kids should be taught to bring their own water bottles - it's a good sports habit to get into. I would make a few simple baggies of basic trail mix - a few pretzels, a few wheat chex or mini shredded wheat cereal (unsugared), some raisins, maybe some small teddy grahams if you can find them not too sweet, and a few peanuts if all are cleared. Take a separate pack of baby carrots, and a bag of grapes. You could make individual baggies, or take a large container and serve each kid in a paper cup. Nothing sugary, nothing messy/sticky. Older kids do orange slices but it's too messy for 4 year olds and they don't always eat them. The 100 calorie packs of cookies are expensive and bad for the trash situation. The experts are asking people to make their own bags to save money and control the contents. Most sports leagues are asking people to get away from juices, Gatorade/PowerAde (high sugar & salt & dyes), and even bottled water (very expensive to transport, plus the hazards in the bottles). If you get them started on the right foot, it sets the tone for larger and older teams. Then the next set of coaches doesn't have as much to "un-do"! As a sports mom, I've been down this road - I've seen parents overdoing the junk food and the athletes themselves telling them to back off!

Some of the snacks I've seen and or taken are
individual packs of Goldfish, pretzels, Cheezits, trail mix, granola bars, fruit and cereal bars, raisins, string cheese, 100 calorie packs of cookies, teddy grahams. Drinks - caprisun, juice boxes, yoohoos, mini sunny ds, bottle water, bug juice, those plastic bottle shped koolaid drinks called mondos I think.
It's usually something you pass out to the kids when the game is over and everyone is saying goodbye and heading for the car. So, I go for things that are not messy and mom has the option to tell them to wait until they get home to open. I've never seen fruit that wasnt prepackaged or donuts for just that reason. If someone handed my kid a sticky donut or juicy piece of fruit we'd have to throw it away before we got in the car.

For our soccer games we rotate who brings the snacks for afterwards. I always take the kids to the store and let them pick what they want to take. We have taken so far this year, sliced apples (pre bagged), rice crispy treats, pop tarts, beef sticks, small bags of potato chips, cookies and I can't think of what else. As for drinks we ususally do the Hi-C juice boxes or small bottles of water. We try to keep the snacks healthy to some extent.

I'm a new soccer mom/team mom this year for my 5 yr old boy & we rotate w/all the parents for bringing snacks. It was my turn last Sat & I brought sliced oranges, grapes & a case of bottled waters for half time as I was told this was the norm. Then I also made little goodie bags with a capri sun, granola bar, sun chips & fruit snacks for the kids & their siblings to be able to take w/them after the game. I personally don't agree giving the kids donuts, potato chips, candy or other junk food & since I didn't know what other moms give their kids, I decided to go semi-healthy, but still be appetizing for the kids...the granola bars had choc chips &/or peanut butter &/or raisins, the chips were multi-grain & the capri suns were 25% less sugar, so the fruit snacks were probably the "junkiest' snack, though they did have real fruit juice in them :-)

gold fish crackers, cheese crackers, graham crackers etc, cookies, fruit roll ups juice boxes. i would skip peanut butter anything.

As a coach, it bothers me that people say donuts! Sorry...but really mostly just a bag of pretzels, granola bars, Capri Sun (i'd much rather see those than the Kool Aid ones). Even cookies are better than donuts...

I guess I try to have them turn to something more healthy...kids are what they eat. And if they ever do use snacks at halftime having them get all sugared up or fattening will hinder their play.

Oh my this is a potentially touchy subject!

Check with the other parents and get a feel for what is acceptable. Things are way different than when you or I were kids and we got a can of pop and a bag of chips or a little huggie and a twinkie.

Some parents get completely weird and crazy about this. Some are in the camp of "Gasp - how COULD you even THINK of giving my child a sugary junk food treat after a fitness activity?" and some are in the camp of "Hey, it's fun so lets throw a bunch of candy and cola at them!"

It may be different everywhere you go so check locally to feel out the climate. Some micromanaging parents will throw a fit no matter what you bring, so be warned!

(Personally, I'm a healthy eating freak but honestly don't care what kids get at the end of the game)

I always go with the side of healthy. It seems weird to me to have our kids getting healthy in sports then giving them donuts for a snack. I have done water bottles and oranges, juice box (the no sugar added ones) and granola bars, bananas, grapes, crackers, cheese, etc.

Hope this helps!

My son's favorite post game snack was fruit snacks, a granola bar, and a juice box. He also enjoyed fruit slices, low sugar sports drink, and some other "candy"-ish snack like a fruit roll up or trail mix with m&m's. All the kids brought water bottles with them, but really loved having the extra treat of a special drink at the end.

I'm new to the soccer thing and my hubby said we had to take a snack for the team. I didn't know why. I don't remember my oldest taking a snack for football.

Hi L.,
We always did fruit and drinks. Oranges slices are great. Kids love watermelon too. You might want to bring wet wipes or something to pass out for thier sticky hands. Any of the fruit juice boxes or capri suns work well for the drinks. Usually bring extra in case they have siblings at the game, it never fails, all the children will come for the food! :-)
If you are thinking about anything with peanut butter or nuts, please check with the other parents first for allergy information. I know my son is allergic to nuts and would be very sad if he couldn't participate in the snack part with his teammates.

The kiddos on my daughters team love some Kool-aid drinks (you know the ones in the plastic containers) and we buy pre-packaged apple slices, or fruit snacks, or goldfish, or pretzels... Hope this helps!!

Hi--
We usually do granola bars and a banana and real fruit juice. Ditto on the peanuts (both my boys are allergic--as well as to gluten and dairy). I'd say keep it healthy--they've just been running around--their bodies needs good stuff, not junk food. Just my thoughts :-)
J.

If you want to be "healthy" maybe do a little veggie platter with Ranch....kids LOVE to dip. Make sure you take little plates to put the dip on for all the double dippers out there!

Gogurts

Roarin Waters or G2 are good choices for drinks...low in sugar.

I personally am not a fan of home cooked/baked foods....you just don't know what some people's habits are or how clean their kitchen is.

Maybe you can get pre-packaged rice krispie treats, cookies from a bakery (maybe they will decorate with soccer balls on them!!) or mini donughts if you want something a little on the fun side.

Go for Fresh fruits and cheese squares (Munster, mozzerella, Jack, Colby, not cheddar) on a stcik such as sturdy straws.

Kabob stocks can become dangerous at that age.
Or just offer the fruits and cheese squares as is, with little plates.
You could even add a few small strawberries previously dipped in dark chocolate for fun. Contact me for that recipe----it is easy

R./The Muffin Lady
www.themuffinlady.com

I have played soccer mom for 6 years with 3 kids. So that is many many many games. Alot of my snack choices depend on the time of the game. I hate going to a 9AM game and the kids get a brownie. So if it a morning game i usually go with fruit (most kids like bananas and grapes) or muffins, granola or ceral bars are ok too. And juice for the younger kids (as your son is).
Mid day games (post lunch) you can go abit more sugary but I still usually go with things like goldfish, pretzels, string cheese,even little bags of chips are ok from time to time,etc.
If it is an evening game that gets tricky too because you don't want to spoil supper if it is an early game. Fruit snacks are a good choice. If you do cookies or something I would get something packaged so that parents can say you have to wait to eat that.
Little kids do not really need anything like gatorade but they don't usually like water as an after game snack. So juice is usually the best option. Or you can do the capri sun roaring water time things.
Hope this helps.

Hi L.,
Ditto what some of the other moms have written about nut allergies - especially peanuts. It seems so prevalent these days and simply reading the packages can prevent an emergency trip to the hospital. I know, when my son was 2 he was diagnosed with a peanut allergy. We carried his epi pen everywhere and I lived in dread of every birthday party/gathering for years.
Secondly, try to avoid chocolate or anything else that could melt outside in the heat. And finally, I know parents will appreciate if you avoid the stickier choices as well. We found the kiddos loved the juice boxes or bags, golfish or cheezits, cheese sticks, pretzels, fruit, lower fat chips, graham crackers, popcorn, celery and carrot sticks, Go-gurts, muffins, etc. It's always a good idea to bring extra for siblings to avoid meltdowns. Have fun!

fruit is always good. We do fruit as the halftime snack. The after game snack, I have seen everything from fruit snacks, to fruit by the foot, mini cookie sacks, and granola bars. For drinks I've seen the mini cool-aid bottle, the capri-suns and other juice drinks. I try to look around at what is semi healthy and what wont be given every game. Good luck!