Picking and preparing nutritious snacks for your toddler or older child may seem like a daunting task.

If you follow some simple guidelines, choosing healthy, nutritious snacks for your children can become a daily habit and part of your healthy lifestyle.

Most of all snacks should be nutritious, easy to prepare and fun.

These "Tips for a Healthier New Year" from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) are ways for Parents to ensure that their children and teens have both a Happy and Healthy New Year.

Some of the tips include, Pay attention to nutrition, Make sure immunizations are up to date, Provide your child with a tobacco-free environment and perhaps the most important of all Make your children feel loved and important.

While New Year has come and gone for this year, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) have compiled some very good tips that preschoolers, kids, tweens and teens can follow to help keep them healthy.

The following twenty New Year's and Year 'Round tips come from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). They have three health and safety tips for Preschool aged children, seven for Kids ages 5 - 12 and ten for Teens (Kids older than 13).

Obesity is rapidly becoming the leading cause of preventable death in the United States. Recent statics indicating that 3 out of 4 Americans will be obese by 2015 are alarming to me as a physician who has seen the impact of obesity, diabetes and heart disease on adult patients.

These trends are concerning to me as a mother of two young daughters because my daughters will be young teenagers by 2015.

These projections are for 2015, a mere 8 years away. Plus I want to ensure that I am one of the 1 in 4, or the 25 % who are not in the overweight category, a weigh challenge that I have been facing since having my two daughters and experiencing several major lifestyle changes.