How much fruit for kids a day?

[TeenyWeenyPolkaDotPeeny]

Typically how much fruit do your kids eat?

I think if it was up to my kids, my son especially would eat 50 pears and 20 oranges a day 🤣 my daughter would eat her weight in apples and between them they’d clear an American Costco of their berries.

I’m constantly having to say no to more fruit, but I’ve been redirecting them to the snack cupboard.. so cereal bars, soreen, crisps, dried fruit snacks ect 🤣 which just defeats the object of trying not to give them too much sugar as I’m just telling them no to natural sugars then filling them with processed shite. Ahh!!

With that in mind, I’ve decided to stop buying said processed shite. Both kids eat really well, aren’t actually ‘fussy’ but are refusers if they know something better is in - so if offered carrot sticks.. they’ll refuse and want something from the snack cupboard. But if there’s nothing in it, they’ll eat a bunch of carrot sticks🙄

I’m also sick to my teeth of “mum im done with dinner, im full!” Then 3 minutes later “can I have something from the cupboard”

So processed crap? Gone. I’m sick to death of it over conscience and speed 🫠

please tell me what your kids eat as a snack between meals?! The only things I’ve really got in my head are crudities, fruit and cheese 🫣

I’m too unorganised to make the whole egg cheese ham muffin things, I want to be that person.. but I am not😓

No idea. My DNephew aged 7 ate 2 nectarines and an orange yesterday with me. Snack was peanut butter sandwich. However when he was out with me recently he had hot chocolate with marshmallows, sausage roll and half a bag of hula hoops. He likes hot cross buns. He will eat anything really.

Fruit is always unlimited - loads of blueberries and raspberries, protein bars (gym fanatic teenagers), rice cakes, bowls of cereal - DS18 will eat a big bowl of bran flakes with banana and blueberries when he gets home from school. Also they make smoothies from the fruit (including frozen) and porridge oats, protein powder and oat milk.

Decent bread or toast, plain yogurt, veg, banana.
Things like sweetcorn or plain cooked pasta are easy.

The muffins and things aren’t hard. It’s just a case of mixing ingredients then putting into muffin tray. I once made some sort of veggie celery savoury loaf at 11.

Isn’t the pasta more dinner food?

Mine eat 50 million apples per day. The dentist says that in an ideal world, we would limit fruit to mealtimes, but conceded that since they don't have any other bad habits, brush regularly, and their teeth are fine, it's probably okay.

Fruit is really the only thing I won’t say no to unless it’s getting ridiculous.
My kids love a snack, the youngest wld rather snack all day than eat proper meals! It’s a bit of a battle to be honest. I should really buy less but am guilty of it myself.
Fruit is the only thing I don’t say no to. Some days they eat one or 2 pieces other days it’s lots. More so in summer when the fruit is much more ripe and tastes sweeter.

"I’m also sick to my teeth of “mum im done with dinner, im full!” Then 3 minutes later “can I have something from the cupboard”

Give them their unfinished dinner back.

otherwise give them things like plain yoghurt, plain nuts, seeds, cheese or whatever.

It doesn't matter when you eat what if what you get overall is healthy.
A bit of plain pasta was a good in between snack at times.

This is going to be an entertaining thread. In one corner, the competitive fruit eaters have already shown their hand, but the 'fruit is full of sugar' contingent will be along soon.

Theres a massive difference between natural sugars in fruit and veg and added sugars in other foods.

fruit and veg sugars are not included in your total daily sugar intake recommendation.

if they aren't finishing meals, leave it there and when they ask for a snack offer to heat it up for them.

my kids aren't allowed to leave food then ask for snacks, theyre told to go back to that food and eat it, re heat it etc.

snacking is a habit, its a habit alot of children have got into over a number of years, snacking was unheard of 30 years ago.

my nephew is constantly eating, he has a punnet of grapes a day plus a full melon etc etc but then he picks at his main meals. Children should be hungry for their main meal, well that includes adults actually, but if they’re snacking inbetween meals then thats when its most likely that the main meal doesn't get eaten.

i would limit snacks to an apple or banana or portion of grapes etc no more than twice a day (if you dont want them to stop snacking) and then they will more than likely eat their main meals.

Don't limit fruit. There is so much goodness in a piece of fruit that totally outweighs any worries about sugar! Fibre, polyphenols, vitamins etc. I would try to ensure they eat a range rather than 50 pears - apples, pears, bananas, berries etc. these are much better for them than most of the alternatives you have mentioned. If you want to give them healthy non fruit snack alternatives you could try homemade popcorn or nuts

If it’s the natural sugar in the fruit that you object too, would your DC eat raw vegetables instead - carrot, cucumber, sweetcorn, peppers? Remember that fruit has many nutritional benefits that can outweigh the downside of the natural sugar in the fruit - it’s high in fibre and vitamins.

If you are finding the fruit expensive shop in Aldi or Lidl and buy the cheap fruit that’s aimed at kids.

Fruit will always be better for your kids than processed snacks as long as they clean their teeth regularly.

Have to push fruit on one, other have to cut off- he’s eaten nearly a tub of grapes, three mandarins and two bananas in a small amount of time before and I’m sure it’s as bad for him. The other I make eat a banana and apple or a mandarin and some grapes - basically two lots a day, he says he hates all fruit and I know he would live on crap if he could. He has orange or apple juice which is something

I try to keep fruit to meal rather than snacking on it all day so they tend to have fruit with breakfast and lunch and then maybe one piece in the afternoon. There's always carrot and cucumber sticks available though.

My DC probably have three pieces of fruit a day on average. I'm also trying to cut down on the ultra processed stuff and I've found they like those squeezy pouches of plain greek yoghurt. They don't want plain yoghurt in a bowl but let them suck it out of a pouch and suddenly they think it's a treat!

We also do things like oatcake crackers with cheese, or just toast with butter or peanut butter. Savoury muffins are easy to make and easy to grate carrot and courgette into so occasionally I'll make a big batch of them then freeze them and bring them out to defrost or reheat in the air fryer as needed.

My DD would eat all the fruit she can get her hands on, if left to her own devices. I do wonder if it’s because we limit processed sugar in kids, that fruit is viewed as their treat.

What age are they? Do they need to eat between every meal?
My kids will generally not have a morning snack although oldest has one in preschool. Then they have lunch and an afternoon snack in order to hold off dinner until their dad gets home. They either have cheese, crisps, nuts, hot chocolate, fruit, crackers or things like a soreen bar. Either a some what substantial serving of something or a little snack plate.
They don’t graze all day long on fruit though or anything else though.
If they ask for a snack right after not eating dinner I say no.

My other DNephew 2, struggles to get any food down him let alone fruit. He does like watermelon though. Still prefers his mop (milk).

I try not to give fruit as a snack, but give it after a meal.

For snacks, I encourage cereal, toast and peanut butter, rice cake cakes and peanut butter, Bagels with butter a large glass of full fat milk with the snack. They do also have a small amount of biscuits or chocolate.

Sometimes I go through phases and bake muffins, flapjacks or biscuits as I feel they are less processed than shop bought ones.

Actually a good breakfast often cuts out the need for snacking. If DNephew (7) has eg boiled egg and soldiers or scrambled eggs he’s less likely to snack. Whereas his dad gives him croissants sometimes which to me aren’t filling.

Do you have any recipes for your baked goods?

One of each kind has always been the rule here. We always have oranges, apples, bananas and a rotation of pears, nectarines, grapes, melon, berries, depending on the season.

Only apples and satsumas/ easy peelers are in the free access fruit bowl here. Bananas also available though she only likes bananas on one or two random days out of any given month and impossible to predict when these days will fall.

If I can get a melon reasonably priced and have been organised enough to chop it up ready in the fridge can have at that too I guess. Likewise grapes - she can have them but I still insist on halving them so she has to come through me first.

Everything else she likes - berries, mango, pineapple I can't afford to replenish at the rate she'd go through them if left to her own devices, so we'll only have one of those in at a time and it will be portioned out by me!

Overall though, yeah she gets through A LOT of fruit - always has some with breakfast, gets a piece for snack time at school and usually after lunch too, after school snack generally includes snack (though I always try to put it with something else) and fruit and yoghurt always an option after dinner.

As I say, I always try to put it with something else rather than just on its own, though if she's swiping apples/ oranges from the fruit bowl then she'll just eat those on their own obviously. I put it with other stuff because I read it was better for their teeth, but also because if she's after a 3rd apple I assume it's because she's actually hungry and could do with something a bit more filling.

Other stuff - baby cucumbers, carrots, hummus, crackers/ oat cakes, breadsticks, cubes of cheese, pumpkin seeds, sometimes if I think on I'll cook up a packet of the heck chicken sausages and chop them into a container to use for snacking purposes. Piece of toast - which feels more virtuous when I've been organised enough to make bread, and less so when it's a white toastie loaf but still. Nut butter on anything and everything because my daughter is obsessed with it. Also olives.

My husband has been known to refuse more fruit and tell her to have a bag of crisps or a cereal bar instead, which like you I find nonsensical. If I feel the need to say no to fruit and redirect I'll usually offer either carrot/ cucumber or an oat cake with nut butter. Most times she'll take both, and then still ask for the fruit.

@Gonnagetgoingreturnsagain
they won’t win any awards… it’s literally a Victoria sponge cake recipe…

4oz of butter, sugar, and flour and 2 eggs and a teaspoon of baking powder. Cream butter and sugar, add beaten eggs and mix in flour and baking powder.

I then sometimes add something like raisins or chocolate drops or chopped up bits of chocolate or cocoa powder, spoon into fairy cake cases and bake in the oven on 190 degrees for about 18 minutes. You can ice them for a bit of colour - I get the DC to add water icing and sprinkles sometimes, then they feel like they have made them!

The biscuits are simple too, if you google 123 biscuits recipe they will come up and you can add extra bits for variety or cut them in various shapes.