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

Drinking water with meals dilutes your stomach acid, and can give you stomach pains.

Well, exactly, whereas lots of parents are in a rush to drop their kids at childcare or breakfast club and need something quick and that their kids are guaranteed to eat.

OP, you’re off your rocker!

are there some suggestions here I might not personally choose (eg Rice Krispies & juice)? Yes.

However, it’s not terrible nutritional advice, and as part of a balanced diet throughout a day, it’s fine, and manageable for many parents, who for various reasons, may struggle around suitable nutrition.

No advice should be looked at in isolation.

And no diet is perfect - I’m fairly big on home-cooked meals, very little processed or prepared food (for example, we never get takeaways, I really hate them, but I accept that’s my own oddity, and that it’s quite normal for people to have them occasionally) but we like our sweet food, I bake, I buy chocolate bars, kids have daily treats.

My kids are now 18, 16 & 14 so diet is different but even when they were small, they got regular treats.

Aside from juice it looks great, and a realistic way of getting stuff into kids.

Agree. They ought to be advising not to introduce juice at all, its not healthy and it can lead to children refusing to drink water which will cause issues when they start school. In my country the advice is water or milk only for drinks and for breakfast porridge or bread/toast with ham or cheese or similar and some lettuce/slice of tomato/bit of cucumber. Same food they serve at breakfast in nursery and breakfast clubs.

I do wfh so am very lucky in that respect...

this is my second child but my older one is almost a decade older I did baby rice mixed with milk as first food for him too then moved onto mashed up veggies. Watching this thread with interest because the ingredients is literally just rice (albeit finely ground)

Depends on the school. You could take any drink at my DCs school in a water bottle, they don’t check them.

I agree with you about the baby rice but there’s nothing wrong with cornflakes.

Not the point, I know, but a lot of people refer to squash as ‘juice’.

Cripes I did not have the time for that when getting out of the house to nursery and work.

porridge in the winter sometimes but no time for cooking in the mornings.

It's interesting that this is NI OP, because when I went to antenatal classes at the Royal hospital in Belfast years ago, we had a talk from a dentist who worked there, and he was very emphatic about not giving babies and young children juice, nothing but water and milk! Obviously people will do it occasionally. but he was very against the idea. NI has terrible outcomes in children's dental health so no wonder he was so passionate about it.

It's also ironic to bang on about salt in food while advising giving kids breakfast cereals but again, unrealistic to expect people not to do it.

Too much unnecessary sugar. Packet cereals are expensive, UPF and poor nutritional value. There are far better breakfasts.

I gave my kids steamed (and cooler) squash for their first food. And cucumber / melon sticks so suck on. We did baby led weaning.

To add, this advice is not just for juice (and wine).

Ideally, teeth should not be brushed until at least 30 minutes after eating or drinking (except water).

A solitary satsuma apparently 😂

They had porridge with cow milk, tbs ground almonds, raisins and a bit of cinnamon this morning.. with a glass of water (they both failed to drink the water but it was on the table...)

So not very protein based today.

They often have bagels with salmon and cream cheese or scrambled eggs. Occasionally they will have like a burrito with beans and eggs.

I have one veggie and one allergic to all fish and seafood so protein is tricky!

I am literally about to feed my baby her first ever food and it was going to be this. I need answers

They are fortified, particularly with iron and other minerals, and many child paediatric dietitians will recommend them as a way of easily and cheaply getting iron into kids.

Small weaning children are unlikely to consume the volumes of spinach and red meat needed to prevent iron deficiency.

at least if you are going to froth, please do it with some
knowledge

Drinking orange juice with meat helps you absorb more iron? Rice crispies are just rice. I don’t see how that could be a disaster given that a fifth of the world’s total calorie intake comes from rice. Basically remove the salt from what you usually eat and adjust the portions and all will be well.

What do you feed your kids for breakfast?

Professor Tim Spector, a leading gut health expert and co-founder of the nutrition company ZOE, generally advises against most commercial cereals and fruit juices due to their high sugar content and ultra-processed nature. He even described a breakfast of cereal with orange juice as a "bowl of sugar".

Cereal
Spector points out that many breakfast cereals, even those marketed as healthy, are ultra-processed foods (UPFs) with long ingredient lists and added sugars. This processing often removes beneficial fiber and nutrients, leading to rapid blood sugar spikes, energy crashes, and increased hunger later in the day.
He recommends choosing higher-fiber, whole-grain options or plain oats if consuming cereal, and always checking the ingredients list for hidden sugars and additives. He personally avoids most sugary, artificially created cereals.

Juice
Spector advises against fruit juice because it contains all the natural sugars of the fruit but lacks the fiber. Without the fiber to slow absorption, these sugars enter the bloodstream quickly, similar to eating a candy bar.
For a healthier alternative to plain juice or diet drinks (which contain artificial sweeteners that may also disrupt the gut microbiome).

What's wrong with baby rice and milk?

What do you actually think is going to happen if a young child has a cup of very diluted fruit juice with their breakfast?

Breast milk (and regular cows milk) are both naturally sweet anyway so I fail to see why they’re okay but naturally occurring sugars in fruit juice aren’t?

Curious-what would you give a child for breakfast? Some form of protein?

It doesn't take much to shock you does it..

It's perfectly fine and realistic.