To give my kid fruits for every meal?

[MadeinHarlem]

Hi

I have a kiddo that is very picky. Tried everything. Bribing, punishing, "you will eat when you're hungry". Finally found the solution. She tried some mango, and loved it. She loves fruits. What I do now is incorporate fruits at every meal. E.g. Chicken/Raisins with rice, mango and green beans ( it sounds nasty I know). But she eats it, her greens and meat with fruits.

I am visiting my in-laws and my hubby's mum was horrified. She said we should be more strict, and that giving her fruits at every meal was unhealthy.

She does not eat chips ( not fries, forgot the British word for chips) , candies or even chocolate. She only wants fruits for snack time.

Am I being a sh*t mum?

I'm sure the anti sugar squad will be along in a moment but no its fine, sounds great to me.

Crisps.

You sound like a great Mum! Just do whatever you can to help her eat.

Fruit is great - just make sure she’s having her teeth well brushed twice a day.

We took DS to the dentist last week, and asked about fruit and juice. The dentist said have no juice whatsoever, because of the natural broken down sugars in it - but whole fresh fruits are absolutely fine.

how old is your child? I'd be careful with the mango.

What's wrong with mango? 🤔

Yanbu. Don’t listen to people who tell you it’s too much sugar. Fruit has a low glycemic load due to the water and fibre, and is obviously full of essential nutrients. As long as you’re brushing her teeth properly (acid as much as anything else) it’s totally fine.

I can't see what the problem could possibly be tbh.

Probably not a grate idea as you are using it as sweetener so your child never eats savoury food.

You're not being a "shit" mum. You cannot force your child to eat, you've done everything you can and have managed to find a way to encourage your child to eat a more varied diet. I think that is wonderful.

Besides, natural sugar is infinitely preferable to refined sugar. And your DD will certainly be regular 😂

It's absolutely fine. It's great she's getting a balanced diet. It's no different to giving her fruit for pudding if she's eating the rest of her meal too.

She will be 7 soon. Yes, I make sure she brushes her teeth. She refuses to eat anything that has no fruits in it. I wouldn't say it is 100% sweety, because I'd make chicken curry , then put raisins or pineapple in it. So there is still salt/seasoning.

Too much can cause diarrhoea as I found out after my toddler had eaten a massive pack of it. It has something called sorbitol in?

I think that's genius adding raisins I'm going to nick that idea for my DSC.

What's wrong with mango?

She eats any fruits , oranges, melon, watermelon and grapefruits are among her favorites.

As long as it's not having a laxative effect do what works for you. I'd personally try to cut it down as you are sweetening every meal, which isn't great long term. Also not great for teeth.

It could make school dinners and play date teas trickier in the future too. (Especially mango which is incredibly sweet.)

I used to have to give one of my kids this salty medicine sachet. I'd mix it with mango lassie as lassies can be served salty so absorbed the taste better than water and juice. I slowly replaced the exceptionally sweet lassie with mango kefir but the sweeter stuff was a life saver at first.

I was an incredibly fussy eater as a child and I've known people who only ate 3 things all through school who are very adventurous eaters as adults. So I wouldn't worry too much.

chillipenguin

Just saw your reply. Thanks

7 may be different obviously. Just i had no idea until it happened then googled it and felt a bit silly. But my fault for letting toddler lose with a packet of it!

Anyway. I think you're doing fine, you've worked out a genius way of getting your child to try things many wouldn't touch.

It sounds perfectly fine, OP (and is also none of your in-laws’ business!) It’s very likely just a phase anyway - your DD is still very young. I’ve always given my children masses of fruit and their teeth are absolutely fine - our dentist recommended getting them to rinse their mouth with water after each snack/meal and leave 45 mins or so between eating and brushing, so that’s what we do and we’ve never had any issues.

I tried everything. To give her fruity juices instead, punishing her.

She even steals fruits from the kitchen , so we stopped buying fruits, she'd go bananas and stop eating. I feel like a terrible mother now. She goes to school, but she has a lunchbox , she doesn't eat at the cafeteria.

I thought you were going to say she was 2 years old or something

I think at 7 you probably need to stop pandering to her as much

how she go on with school dinners, when she’s at a friends hoUse for tea, when family members look after her etc?

It’s no different than savoury and then fruit for dessert nutritionally, so relax on that side, you’re doing fine.
Behaviourally it would be good if she could eat without it sometimes. You’ve got time.

One thing grapefruit can impact insulin production so I’d limit that.

My middle son was like this. Go with mango rather than raisins. He only wanted raisins. He had fillings by the age of 5 😭

Try watermelon and feta - delicious!
Sounds great.

We have a difficult eater, under the advice of dieticians she has her ‘pudding’ served at the same time as dinner, usually fruit or yogurt. It has made a huge difference to the amount and variety of other foods that she’ll eat because she isn’t holding out for something better afterwards.

This course has helped us immensely, more than the NHS dieticians. It is expensive but they’ll provide free access no questions asked if it isn’t affordable. It was honestly life changing for our daughter, written by leading specialist paediatricians and dieticians - solidstarts.com/guides/reverse-picky-eating/