School Bars and alternatives.- are they a good choice?

[Frasersmum123]

DS2 is a very fussy eater, and has a small range of what he will eat. He likes School Bars and HumZingers, and they claim to be equal to portion of fruit a day. He would eat them for every meal if he could!

Are these a good choice, or could I get something thats better?

He is 2 BTW.

They are very sugary, high in calories and processed. Will he eat dried fruit ? Then it is a little more like real fruit and identifiable. And keep offering proper fruit

I think, like juice, they only count as one portion of fruit, no matter how much they eat

No, he wont eat anything wet (or too dry either)

He loves raisins, but my HV said he shouldnt eat too many of them. But he does eat alot.

did your HV say why he shouln't it too many raisins? they are probably better than the school bars.

I presume the basis is that if you let him eat a lot of the easy food such as school bars and raisins, he will get enough calories from those to not be hungry enough to eat other foods.

My nephew filled up on fruit juice, and so could get away with eating very little food. He has never grown out of being a fussy eater

raisins are just as bad for the teeth as sweets, because they are very sticky the suger sticks to the teeth, which is probably why HV did not recommend to have too many.

I prefer the Humzingers to school bars as they are just fruit (so do my kids) DD is very fussy but will eat these quite happily - I always have some in my handbag for trips out!! She also likes dried apricots. They are not too wet but nicely chewy - have you tried those?

Ho does like Apricots but he has a fascination with food and takes it in and out of his mouth and so makes such a mess.

He has SN which makes him a fussy eater. He likes Yoghurts and Ham, but not much else apart from the fruit bars, raisins and oranges (satsumas)

I didnt realise raisins were bad like sweets, and am glad you mntioned it, as we always have real problems cleaning his teeth, so will have to cut down his raisins

A friend's DD has just had to have 4 teeth removed as a result of eating at least one box of raisins a day between the ages of about 1 and 2. My friend was devastated to find out from the dentist that she'd have been better off giving her chocolate buttons rather than raisins. I believe the problem with raisins particularly is that they stick in the teeth, thereby giving the sugars in them longer to act on the teeth. Chocolate buttons dissolve so don't have the same effects.

4 teeth removed! that's really bad. I thought people just exaggerated about the risks of tooth decay in children.