Healthy sweet treats for kids

[tammybear]

This time of year reminded me of something that I have been wondering for a while. Kids love sweet treats, but you can’t just hand them candy all the time, since it’s very unhealthy and nobody wants to cause their child to become obese.

Are there any sweet treats that are actually good for you and that will appeal to a child.

[suzie]

Mixes of different berries are great. Try to get as many in there as you can with some familiar ones and some that the children may never have tried before. This way, there will be an array of flavors, colors, and textures for them to try. Because they’re very sweet, kids love them.

[Beth]

Dried fruit is good, too, but you need to be really careful about sweetened ones. Sometimes it's hard to find dried fruits that don't have added sugar, which is really frustrating.

You can always give a mix of unsweetened dry fruit and dark chocolate chips. A small palm full of chocolate chips seems like it's a lot more than a square of chocolate, even though they're about the same. And they’re fun!

[char]

I haven’t tried them, but I’ve seen fruit chips in stores. Like dried apples and bananas that you can eat like chips. If those are good, they could make a really good snack for kids

[bruceH]

Dried fruit is good, too, but you need to be really careful about sweetened ones. Sometimes it's hard to find dried fruits that don't have added sugar, which is really frustrating.

Also, even when you get the unsweetened, it's easy to eat too much and end up having to run to the bathroom a lot

[Penny]

They're not healthy, but still they're really low in calories and have zero fats: jelly beans. Just give them three of them and it won't do any harm, plus it's really fun. Nobody needs a whoel bowl of them, but three will be enough to try different flavors.