Dried fruit is the work of the devil and must never be given to children

[welshmum]

Is this true? Everywhere I go someone seems to tell me that raisins are wrong and dried mango is monstrous?
I thought dried fruit was relatively good for them...
Any wisdom appreciated

better for them nutritionally than sweets

bad for teeth though

buggerit is what I say

it tastes vile

apart fomr ma dna s rprunes and htey make your farts noxious

Well, raisins do have natural sugar in them so they are 'bad for teeth' but sod that - if you are brushing teeth in the morning and night I don't think you need to worry. Ds3 eats loads of raisins as they are very handy for keeping him occupied while I'm shopping! Better than a tube of smarties, no?

The only devilish thing about it is when you are faced with a load of poo encased raisins in a nappy.

They aren't the best for teeth, but better that that coke or oodles of sweets

dried fruit has saved my life on more than one occasion

dd keen on apple rings

Raisins are also good for getting DS to stop whining when we are out and about. They gurantee 5 mins of P &Q

dried mango is, indeed, the devil's work

what about beef jerky? Now there's a long lasting nutritious snack if ever there was one.

Beef jerky is the work of the devil. It's name sounds a bit rude, and it's like eatiung dog chews

DS loves raisins, particularly good for dropping strategically into floor to entertain the dogs!!!

Suspect the dogs get more fruit and veg portions a day than we do!!

@ beef jerky

I'm with twiglett and GDG - they have nutritional value and fibre but not great for teeth so as long as their teeth are properly brushed not a problem IMO. Mine have a small portion of dried fruit most days but only have sweets or chocolate once or twice per week.

So - are they good for them in any way - apart from keeping them quiet which is invaluable in my book.
Do they count as part of 5 a day?

dried fruit counst as a portion for 5 a day - but, like juice, only 1 of the 5 can be made up of dried fruit...

I think dried fruit can be count as 1 portion welshmum - I might be wrong though!

Jessa beat me to it!

was going to give raisins tomorrow for school!!

yes, it's one portion I think. I'm sure it says so on the organix packets

God total panic when i read this thread title - ds eats about a packet of dried apricots every 3 days, although he's substantially helped by dh and me, plus i've just started doing soda bread with sultanas. Oh sod it you can't worry about everything.

Hooray and thanks, feel loads better now.
Dried fruit has been proved work of angels as it provides one portion of fruit and also keeps children quiet for 5 minutes - as long as offset by vigorous teeth cleaning

and liquid intake

Do you mean proper fruit juice cappucino?

DD has milk allergy and her dietician recommended dried fruit because it has calcium. Not quite sure how that works but DD has at least a portion a day.

no I mean if kids eat a lot of dried fruit they should drink enough

Isn't it that sometimes the fruit is dried with sulphur dioxide, which isn't the nicest chemical? Get the dark apricots if you're worried.

What's wrong with dried mango?