To be shocked by this government dietary advice for babies and children?

But does any of that mean that the government should be actively recommending rice crispies?

High sugar, fast absorption spiking blood sugar, zero nutrition and zero fibre. Nothing right with rice crispies - for anyone never mind children.

It rots teeth.

Well, it’s not because they have rice crispies and diluted apple juice for breakfast occasionally.

This won’t be popular but I think most of it is lifestyle related - too many snacks, too much screen time and not enough exercise and time out of the house.

But surely that's exactly why the government messaging should be clear: the ideal is nothing added to a newborn's bottle. Anything else is just confusing the issue. Same with healthy food for toddlers.

There’s loads of families in this country who can barely afford the weekly shop, so when it comes to giving their children breakfast they’re going to choose a 90p box of cereal over a £3 pack of salmon. Even eggs are expensive now.

DGS is 2. He sometimes has Rice Krispies, but he has them alongside berries and toast with peanut butter or marmite. He won’t eat white bread, it has to be seeded bread. He has a really good diet. He eats ways more than his 5 day, he never has biscuits, only has cake at birthdays, doesn’t drink anything other water or milk. If he sees a bottle of squash he says “adult drinks…” I really don’t think that he’s being harmed by a bowl of Rice Krispies for part of his breakfast.

This. Guidelines are often for those who lack basic awareness and they are often from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Whilst cornflakes aren't going to be a breakfast food for mumsnet children, you need to be aware that not everyone has the budget for organic homemade muesli.
I'm Irish and working in a deprived area and was very shocked to discover that in some communities adding rice and custard to a newborn's bottle is very much a thing. Your head would blow off if you knew what is in the bottles of toddlers.

You're laughing but the obesity rates in the UK are worse than mainland Europe. The percentage of ultra processed foods in children's diets is also much higher (from what I remember signs 60% in UK and only 25% in Italy). Why is that then in your opinion?

Perish the thought

What on earth would you do if your child didn't want your eggs or yoghurt?

Ok that's nice for you. But in baby aisles in supermarkets they literally sell 'baby cereal' so obviously it does cross some people's minds. The advice is for everyone.

@BeWiseTurtle - yep. My parents were super restrictive and very focused on whole foods, healthy eating and not allowing anything like crisps, chocolate etc. They basically fed the ideal MN diet.

As soon as I had access to my own money it all went on snacks, fizzy drinks and fast food. As an adult I have had to work really, really hard to sort my diet out and not see those foods as a treat or reward.

@vanillalattes why are UK children obese?

We've never done cereal in our family, partly because my husband and I don't like or eat it so it's never around.

Breakfast here is either porridge (which is of course technically a cereal but is more nutritionally dense than rice crispies) with fruit like banana or raspberries, or toast with boiled or poached eggs. I make my own bread and it's usually wholemeal and seeded but sometimes white if that's what I've made. Sometimes a bagel with cream cheese or peanut butter. Usually this will be supplemented with yoghurt and / or fruit if the kids are hungry. We tend to stick to Greek yoghurt but it's sometimes a fruity one, and I sometimes make fruit coulis to have with it, which is sugary but much less so than the bought stuff. The kids usually drink milk with breakfast, sometimes ask for water. They never have juice (neither do we, except for Christmas and Easter where we do big breakfasts as an event).

All of which is to say, there is balance. Some sugar, lots of not sugar. I'd rather they have their sugar as food than as drinks, and as something which also has protein etc, such as in a fruit yoghurt. Juice is just a totally unnecessary sugar addition which wouldn't benefit their diets.

But I also think there's an important caveat which is that 'health' means different things to different people. If you have a child who suffers with constipation or who needs to take medicines hidden in drinks, fruit juice might be your best friend and in those cases it IS healthy to have juice if it's the thing that means your child is taking necessary medicines. So while I think it's bad advice generally to tell people to give kids watered down juice, I also think there are a lot of circumstances where the advice is very different when tailored to an individual.

It's not a disaster for an otherwise healthy baby. But it's not the ideal choice and so I agree with the OP that it shouldn't be the top government recommendation.

I'd much prefer being given the truth - the ideal is no processed foods - and then I know where I stand when I make choices for my baby. Misinformation doesn't help anyone.

I think the meal plan is not too worrying- one portion of rice krispies a week is not going to hurt anyone. The baby feeding advice is very outdated though. Most of the evidence now supports a BLW approach, with purees never offered or only offered for the first day or two. Baby rice is entirely unsuitable for anyone.

And yet children in Europe eat bars of chocolate in buttered baguette for a snack, or chocolate croissants dipped in hot chocolate.

Children in England are not obese because they have rice crispies and diluted apple juice for breakfast 😂

Just a warning to those that are restricting certain food/drink. Your kids will gorge on everything that’s forbidden as soon as they have a choice, I’ve seen it happen so many times. This can result in rapid weight gain as teenagers.

I fed mine whatever I was eating from weaning. If that meant they had sugar occasionally, or god forbid a McDonald’s, so be it. The result is 2 children (one now an adult) who play a variety of sports to a very good level, lovely teeth, excel academically. Never been fussy eaters, or had any food issues.

Out of the friends they’ve had since toddler groups who we have stayed in touch with, the ones that had food restrictions have all had issues with food in one way or another.

Lots of people are not going to want the faff of making bowls of porridge before work in the morning. A bowl of cereal with some chopped up banana and some diluted fruit juice is not the disaster posters are making it out to be.

I find MN boggling at times. I am old, and yes advice changes but...... My DD's had cereal or (shock) biscuits dunked in milk for breakfast. They also had Nesquick added to the milk (faints). Both are slim healthy adults with no teeth or healthy issues.

Side note.... Biscuits with milk is very normal in Europe for children's breakfasts.

They were weaned at four months on baby rice with formula. Then on to veg and fruit purees. Then just ate what we ate.

I have never cooked a breakfast or eaten protein in the morning..... Just vom inducing.

We have however, never eaten ready meals or takeaways. Not a particularly juice drinking family either. So swings and roundabouts.

It's packed full of sugar (especially if not freshly squeezed), bad for teeth and doesn't actually keep you full. Same with rice crispies.

The fact that so many posters don't understand why they're not a healthy choice explains why the obesity rates in the UK are where they are.

This, in spades. Any public health body has to come up with something realistic and achievable for the skills, education, beliefs and budget of the people they are trying to reach. (Disclaimer: I know nothing about NI specifically).

If they put 'homemade buckwheat pancakes' on the breakfast list, people will just put the whole sheet in the bin and carry on buying coco pops.

One glass of well diluted juice for kids that aren't necessarily getting their five a day through whole fruit and veg is probably no bad thing. I grew up having diluted fruit juice with most meals and I have no fillings.

I think that some people are missing a point here. a lot of people have to rely on food banks, etc, and things like cereal are often part of the items people are given out. to have cereal is probably all that some people have to give their children and are better than nothing at all. Ditto juice it may be sugary but the guideline is to have with meals to minimise the sugar impact. the juice will at least give children vit c

I agree, they should not be advocating for juice as a drink for kids, nor ultra processed, high sugar cereals like rice crispies. Porridge and water or milk are perfectly fine and far cheaper.

Artificially fortified. Which they have to do because everything good is stripped out in the manufacturing process.