Beat Snack Boredom: Fun Fruit Snacks for Kids

Getting bored with apples and peanut butter as a snack for your kids? Check out these fun options for that afternoon snack!

Stretch Island Fruit Strips

Remember Fruit Roll-Ups and Fruit by the Foot? Fun snacks when I was a kid, but as a parent, I’m not as willing to dole out “fruit” snacks where the ingredients include corn syrup and sugar. Enter the Stretch Island Fruit Co.! The strips are chewy versions of the childhood snack, and offer up to half a serving of fruit in just 45 calories per strip. The only ingredients are the fruit-puree concentrates, so there are no scary mystery ingredients to contend with.

The strips come in a bazillion flavors, from Ripened Raspberry to Mango Sunrise, Autumn Apple, Orchard Cherry and more. They’re really tasty, too: a little tart and a little sweet, and fun to bite into. They’re not as filling as having the real fruit, of course, but as an occasional treat, these were fun. The FruitaBu fruit rolls, which came in long strips a la Fruit by the Foot, were thinner and fun to eat as well. They clocked in at 80 calories for a roll though, and had a longer ingredient list as well. Still fun as a sometimes snack!

Sharkies

With a similar ingredient list as the Stretch Island Fruit Strips (no high-fructose corn syrup or artificial dyes), Sharkies Organic Fruit Chews are as tasty as they are fun. Your kiddos (and you, honestly) will love playing with the little shark shapes, and with 70 calories a package, it’s a sweet fruit-based treat that you can feel pretty good about.

Also be sure to check out Sharkies’ Omega-3 Smart Twists (Berry Surf was our fave!) that also have 70 calories apiece, along with a full serving of fruit and 20 milligrams of omega-3 fatty acids (pretty appropriate since Sharkies live in the sea, no?). If you and your little ones love Fruit Roll-Ups, I can pretty much guarantee that you’ll love these, too.

Do you pass out fruit snacks to your kids or go for the real thing? —Erin & Jenn