Children’s party food with no fruit?

[Yessiryessir3bagsfull]

AIBU not to include fruit in party food for 1-4 year olds? There will be sandwiches, crisps, cocktail sausages, chicken bites. Carrot and cucumber sticks, popcorn, party rings and chocolate fingers. Will fruit be missed - it’s so expensive for 20-25 kids.
thanks 🙂

At the end of the day, it's a kids party, not a restaurant. Have plenty of the beige basics plus sweet stuff and you're fine. No parent takes their kid to a party expecting them to have a healthy, balanced meal full of fresh produce unless they're completely mental.

Just going to the totally opposite end of the spectrum, this thread reminded me of this recent Youtube channel that baked a number of children's birthday cakes from the 1980s.

It's pretty much universally recommended by health and nutrition advisory boards that you don't give sugar-sweetened foods or foods with added sugar to under 2s. There's lots of reasons to this, including allowing the taste buds to develop without the influence of processed sweet foods - babies are already introduced to sweet flavours from breast milk in particular, but need time for the palate to adjust to really liking other flavours (like the bitterness from vegetables). There is growing evidence that this can lead to reductions in obesity, type-2 diabetes, heart disease and cholesterol for life. Promoting good dental hygiene before introducing sugar also leads to less lifelong tooth decay. Practically, it also leaves more room for nutrient-rich food where you have a fussy toddler going through the stage that they will only take 2 bites of anything.

Eh. Occasionally at parties isn’t going to do any harm.

I think moderation is key.

Not on mumsnet!!!🤣

Cheese & pineapple hedgehog !

It’s ridiculous and is too far extreme on the other end.

It will cause issues in the future for sure.

@SouthLondonMum22 absolutely agree. Yes you wouldn't be healthy if all you ever ate was sweet stuff but nor would u be healthy if you only ever ate fruit and veg. Variety is key

The trouble with the concept of a continuous stream of fruit is that it is very acidic, in addition compared to veg it is not very nutrient dense. It will also fill a child up which leaves little room for protein, dairy, grains, fat, veg etc

And the problem with chocolate fingers is that they in fact cause chocolate fingers. Too messy to be honest.

I'm kind of in the mood for gooseberries now.

My 3-year-old shuns seeds, so we had galia and canteloupe melon at his party. One £2 melon sliced up would be enough for token fruit and most of the toddlers I know would eat it alongside sandwiches, crisps and chocolate fingers. Don't forget if it's 1-4 year olds it'll mostly be the parents putting the food onto plates for their kids, and most will just put a mix of things they know their kids will eat. It's not the same as older kids helping themselves from the middle of the table, in which case obviously they are just gorging themselves on crisps and chocolate fingers and ignoring the fruit platter (once witnessed an 8-year-old eating three packets of hula hoops in a row).

DS also hates strawberries (weirdo) but I got the last large punnet left in the supermarket because I know normal children like them and they all got eaten. Vegetable sticks were put on plates by parents and ignored.

Some posters seem to have forgotten that this is about a children’s party. It’s meant to be fun, exciting and with a sugar rush and not normal healthy fruit and veggies diet.

Its not even about it being a childrens party, parties are celebratory and all cultures use rich/sweet/expensive foodstuffs for parties and gatherings and have done since time began to mark that

Our modern day culture in the UK means that is things like chocolate fingers, party rings, crisps, sweet things etc etc

This is fine, at that age you’ll be lucky for them to eat one of those things! The rest will get squished into the carpet.

if you feel you must, I like the idea of a watermelon, but honestly you’re good to go.

Def wouldn't bother..they won't eat it.

I wouldn't bother with chicken bites or popcorn for that age group. Popcorn is also an issue with allergens. I'm not even sure it's worth making sandwiches!

I'd be buying cherry tomatoes and grapes cut in half instead. Or blueberries. Don't get strawberries as it's a common allergen in small kids.

I am hosting a party soon, and was thinking of just having a fruit bowl. Bananas can be around 15p each, which isn't too bad, and just get the cheaper apples and tangarines

What’s the obsession with having fruit at a children’s party - they will prefer chocolate fingers.

I'm all for party rings, but if there are one year olds, they like fruit! My nephew picked all the berries carefully off his first birthday cake and made a face at the icing (tbf, it was lemon).

I know. It’s what, 2 hours or so? I don’t think they will combust if they don’t have some berries.

Don't bother with fruit. Everything will be sticky enough without it.

If you are getting fruit, Tesco do crates of strawberries for about £4. You could cut into quarters.

Why can't healthy food be viewed as fun?

Healthy food is what you feed your children every day. For a party we always served fun food which isn’t a part of an everyday diet- pizza, crisps and chocolate biscuits. Something special to look forward to.
What child would choose strawberries over chocolate fingers?

Healthy can be also my fun. Not mutually exclusive terms 😂
This thread clearly shows many children prefer strawberries......to your idea of "fun".