How to Make Crunchy Bananas Snacks

Children with Sensory Integration issues often go through phases where they are only interested in food of a particular texture, such as "squishy," "crunchy," or "smooth," and/or a particular temperature. At two years old my daughter, who is both Autistic and has Cerebral Palsy, would only eat "crunchy" food. Through trial and error I developed crunchy bananas, which became her favorite snack.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• One zipper seal plastic sandwich bag
• 3/4 cup of dried breakfast cereal (no marshmallows, dried fruit, or nuts)
• One can of anything edible (soup, vegetables) or a rolling pin
• One banana
• One utensil to cut up the banana

1. Measure out 3/4 cup of your chosen dry breakfast cereal. Open the bag, pour the cereal into the bag, and zip the bag closed with as little air left as you can.
2. Lay the bag flat on a smooth, hard surface. Use the can or rolling pin to roll over the bag, crushing the cereal. Continue to crush the cereal in this manner until you have small particles, like bread crumbs. Set the bag aside.
3. Peel the banana and use your utensil to slice it into small, manageable, bite sized pieces.
4. Open the bag, drop one piece of banana into the cereal crumbs, zip the bag closed, and shake the bag. Continue shaking the bag until the piece of banana is completely coated in the cereal crumbs.
5. Remove the coated piece of crunchy banana from the bag. Add a new, uncoated piece of banana to the bag, and repeat Steps 4 and 5 until all of the banana has been coated with cereal crumbs.
6. Serve crunchy bananas to your Special Needs (or Neurotypical) child!

Tips & Warnings

• Only add one piece of banana to the bag at a time. Otherwise, the pieces will stick together and not coat properly.