To think that the middle classes have an unhealthy obsession with fruit?

[FunnysInTheGarden]

DS1 won't eat so much as a grape. So many other parents (and schools) seem to be obsessed with getting their children to eat fruit. AFAIR we ate biscuits as children, as a rule, and not raisins.

BTW the acid in fruit rots a childers teeth faster than you can say 'coke'

sorry should have added copious before anyone gets angsty about children eating their 5 a day

well, i giv e my children a bit of cheese after their fruit. i tell them to have their fruit fir
st and then their cheese sandwich. i don't know if they do that when i'm not there though.

LOL yep I remember eating biscuits and very little fruit. But then our generation didn't tend to snack constantly like children do now.

I agree, it was rich tea and figgy rolls all the way when I was a child. My kids will eat fruit, but only if they're really starving.

i ate loads of fruit as a child. only got biscuits if my mum had made them
i guess fruit must have been cheaper

My children are 'meh' about fruit

Toast far superior

As with most things in life too much of something tends to be unhealthy.

I agree, people are obsessed with fruit. And dried fruit in particular often has more sugar in it than some biscuits. I still push fruit on DS, mostly to get him used to the new textures and flavours. It's also a good source of fibre.

I'd also suggest (not that you asked!) trying different fruits randomly with your DS. My son refused grapes for ages, then one day decided to eat them. He has days when he won't eat them still, but some days he eats them like he loves them. He also hated solid apple for, well, ever, but one day he was inspired to take a bite from an apple I had, and since then he's actually liked apples.

Lest you get the wrong impression, I should probably add that he still refuses most vegetables. We just keep trying, though. Sometimes we get them in there.

my kids are at opposite end, ds will only have frui in smoothies but dd will happily graze all day on fruit

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I used to get dried apricots (yuk) and fresh grapefruit as a kid (yuk again).

I had some fruit as a child but not loads. But really it was 3 meals a day (quite substantial ones) but nothing in between when I was a child.

E.g. breakfast would be cooked stuff plus cereal. Lunch would be meat & 2 veg, then a pudding. Tea would be sandwiches or equivalent (crumpets, something on toast etc) then cakes.

But nothing in between. I remember when I was about 7 at school, you could buy a biscuit at playtime. My Mum would never give me the money for one, because she said it would "spoil my lunch". What she meant was you are supposed to eat massive meals but nothing in between.

We did sometimes have fruit as a dessert in summer (strawberries etc) or satsumas, apples etc as an extra breakfast item.

Ds probably eats more fruit than I did, because he has it as snacks or part of a packed lunch.

Agree with fruit rotting teeth I had to stop DD2 eating so much fruit as her teeth where getting awful dentist had a go about sweets she denied eating them she rarely had them I mentioned the fruit and he told her to cut back she was having as many as 10 -15 pieces a day it cost a fortune as well DD1 never really ate fruit from about 6, DS only eats apples, oranges and bananas.

i was raised on tinned mandarins in syrup. does that count?

there might have been sultanas in the vesta curry though...

I grew up in a deprived part of the North East and I never even saw a salad until I was about 18 and went to uni where I clearly got ideas above my station. Despite this I've still got all my teeth and I'm not malnourished or overweight. I've never knowingly fed my DCs crap but I don't obsess about what they eat... DD in particular will have enough opportunities to develop food ishoos, without me going "eat this, don't eat that" etc.

DS loves fruit (and veg for that matter) and would graze at it all day given half a chance.

It is the only food he ever asks for, he never requests anything else - just fruit.

Oh Ds goes insane for dried fruit . I though this was a good thing. S'naturalinnit? He still eats a load of cake but he really likes fruit. Never thought to discourage it

DD1 is a pain for fruit. We have to hide it or she eats it all day and gives herself a bad belly. She picks and eats the veg in the garden too if she thinks we can't see - little madam. Same on walks with blackberries or whatever.

We never had a fruitbowl as a child- it was always something the posh kids had, so I'm always a bit about restricting it now.

Dried fruit has to be hidden on a high shelf and rationed v strictly - again, she would eat it all if she could.

I get funny looks when people see me trying to get her to eat cake instead, but she needs stodge as well!

Kids who don't eat fruit- is it because they prefer savory? I can't imagine not liking fruit, but I have a massively sweet tooth!

Ah ha cakewench, while DS1 won't eat fruit, he loves vegetables, and recently asked if he could have some cooked broccoli as his snack at school[ . I had to say no simply due to the logistics of it.

We eat a lot of vegetables and not much fruit, so perhaps he is following suit.

Yes! The children's nursery was obsessed with fruit- making them taste it, draw it etc. dd1 was fine, but dd2 is almost fruit-phobic (won't be in the same room as ds if he has recently been eating a banana!), so I had to ask them politely not to force the fruit thing with her. She is great with veg, thankfully- much better than my other 2 fruit lovers, so probably not so terrible as it seems!

BTW, this AIBU all stems from DS1's school saying the children can only have fruit at snack time. I tried homemade banana cake, but he was told (aged 4) that he could have it for lunch, but not snack. Snack has to be fruit FFS

Actually ds will eat fruit - but much prefers veg! If you give hime the choice between an apple and a bowl of Brussels sprouts, he would choose the sprouts every time. And my older sister is much the same. She will eat a small amount of fruit - but will demolish any veg.

There is a rumor that the whole 5 a day thing was invented by the Californian fruit growers federation.
As yes fruit rots the teeth but it does have nutritional value unlike coke.

Don't get me started on the "5-a-day" thing!

That just strikes me as being one of things that people are brainwashed into trotting out. Why 5? Who the hell decided on 5, and where was the scientific study that preceded it?? Might as well add "You are what you eat"

My friend lets her daughter have unlimited access to the fruit bowl; some days her daughter has been known to eat 10 pieces of fruit in one morning. I wouldn't be able to afford for my kids to eat that much at one go, and also I really wouldn't have to deal with the after-effects on their toilet habits.....