How much is too much? (A quesiton about Oranges)

[baileyann3]

My 20 month old daughter would seriously eat an entire bag of oranges a day. If I were to cut up 10 oranges, they would be gone by night. She could easily eat two oranges in a sitting. She asks for them constantly.

How many is too many oranges? A part of me thinks that she craves oranges so her body is telling her she needs the vitamin C, it is winter after all. But then another part of me thinks that fruit in general has a lot of sugar, and maybe I should limit her.

What do you think?

By the way, I absolutely craved oranges in my pregnancy. I ate SO many! orange juice too.

[greengirl_]

Personally, I wouldn't worry about the sugar content. Better she have fruit than candy right? One thing I've noticed though, is that too many oranges can cause diarreah. As long as she doesn't ahve diarreah then she's fine, IMHO.

[fustian]

My daughter is like this with bananas at the moment. I've watched her eat two whole bananas at one sitting, and she's not quite 2.5.

Personally, I go by the rule that you offer healthy food choices and they choose what to eat. When she asks for a second banana I usually remind her of some of her other options, but if she wants banana, then she can have it. However, I must admit that I won't go grocery shopping several times a week to pick up more bananas. We do groceries on Saturday and if she's eaten all the bananas by Tuesday she's out of luck until next week.

[cedoreilly]

As long as you are not having issues with poops! My oldest LOVED oranges but we had to cut them back because if he had them before bed he would be up in the middle of the night with a VERY messy daiper.

[mamakaikai]

My daughter is crazy for oranges too. I thought it was a passing thing but not at all. My concern is the acidity in them. Constant grazing on oranges is bad news for her enamel and tooth decay. So I let her eat a large fruit or 3 clementines at one sitting but I won't let her have them everytime she asks because then she'd be grazing oranges and have a constant enamel attack.

[KristyDi]

My DD is orange crazy too. I limit her to 1 maybe 2 oranges a day because her poop causes diaper rash if I let her have much more than that.

[Honey693]

Originally Posted by fustian

My daughter is like this with bananas at the moment. I've watched her eat two whole bananas at one sitting, and she's not quite 2.5..

This is how it's going here. My 15 month old has eaten 3 bananas a day for the last 3 days. Thank goodness they were on sale this weekend.

[flower01]

My daughter loves oranges, too. We often let her eat multiple in one day...10 is a bit much After the 2nd orange in one sitting I just try really hard to offer other things that she likes, that are still healthy. Sometimes she gets upset but I just try to explain that if we eat them all at once, we won't have any for tomorrow. Now she is 2 1/2 so gets the concept of time a bit better.

[claddaghmom]

How funny! DD was just doing this with bananas. I was buying paper bags full of bananas. She'd wake up, sit up in bed and go "ba! now!"

It was a little sickening to watch...

Now this past week she has move onto oranges, although she is only having a few a day. And not really eating them...mostly she just squeezes them into a big sticky mess and licks up all the juice. *sigh* I liked bananas better!

I am trying to 'unschool' foods with her. At a Christmas party I decided the heck w/ it, let's unschool sweets. She got a cookie w/o any restrictions. And proceeded to eat about 1/3 of it. The rest of the night she simply held it. Very cool!

[ShyDaisi]

Micah doesn't care for oranges, but he is like this about just about any other fruit...blueberries, strawberries, peaches, pears, pineapple, canteloupe, honeydew melon, watermelon, grapes, raisins...the list goes on and on and on. I try not to offer it until the end of the meal or as a sole snack, because if I don't, it is the only thing he will eat! I do occasionally worry that he is eating too much fruit, but I try to let his body decide that...

[daniturtle]

Originally Posted by KristyDi

My DD is orange crazy too. I limit her to 1 maybe 2 oranges a day because her poop causes diaper rash if I let her have much more than that.

Thalia (15 mos) is crazy for satsumas (small, sweet, incredibly peel-able and almost seedless) and she'd eat them all day long. The one time I let her have 4 in one sitting we had the worst rash EVER- blistering, painful, red...she's never cried so hard as when she had that poop... After that, I only let her have about 1 satsuma per day. Unfortunately, this means I can't have more than that either cos if she sees me with one she gets really mad and cranky that she can't have some!

[GISDiva]

Yeah, we can't have ours out in a fruit bowl, we have to hide them. Otherwise he wants one every time he passes through the kitchen. We figured one a day too, otherwise he gets a bit rashy. It never seems to bother him, but still...

[laohaire]

It might be vitamin C... but I am also thinking folate. Oranges are also high in calcium.

I'd offer her some other high folate foods too, like chick peas, kidney beans, cooked spinach.

I'd try to get her to eat a variety of sources of whatever she's seeking... but at the end of the day if it had to be oranges, I'd give her oranges. Acidity is a concern and that's why I'd try to vary the foods, but I'd rather she listen to her body if nothing else works.

[Tizzy]

I'd just let her have as many as she wants, she'll get sick of them eventually I finally gave in and used that tactic with DS2 and bananas - he never has constipation issues so I figured it would be fine. He's 20 months and ate 4 large ones back to back! I guess that satisfied him because since then he has only asked for one at a time.