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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to make my dc eat healthy cereals for breakfast????

236 replies

icancount · 20/04/2012 11:41

Apparently EVERYONE else has chocolate type breakfast cereals.

Mine have to have things like shreddies/weetabix/cornflakes/rice crisps etc etc. They are allowed honey on it.
During school holidays they choose their own cereals (frosties, coco pops type stuff)
Am I a horrible mother?

OP posts:

Pippinintherain · 20/04/2012 12:29

Mine have porridge, weetabix, bran flakes or shreddies.

They have had ricr crispies at my Mum's and they were starving about an hour later. No way I'm sending them to school on an unfilling cereal.

DeWe · 20/04/2012 12:30

We had to have ready brek with all bran on top. All bran was important and we'd get constipated without it daily you see.

Consequence is I haven't had breakfast for 20 years since I could choose. Makes me feel sick thinking about it.

Dc are strange though. They think porridge for breakfast is a treat.

Pippinintherain · 20/04/2012 12:30

*Rice crispies clearly

ChickenSkin · 20/04/2012 12:52

Don't try and be a perfect parent. It will never work out.

I used to say my kids would never eat coco pops or sugary junk - EVER.

Then I faced reality and decided a bowl of coco pops was better than an empty stomach.

Pick your battles and all that.

ivykaty44 · 20/04/2012 12:56

If mine doesn't want cereal (weetbix/shredded wheat or porridge) then it is beans on wholemeal toast or poached egg on wholemeal toast.

At the weekends there may be a sausage and egg roll or home made pancakes with fruit and honey

DaisySteiner · 20/04/2012 13:01

Not only are mine only allowed sweet cereal at weekends, but they also have to weigh out all cereal - both sweet and healthy - on our electronic scales. They are allowed 30g of sweet or 40g of healthy. This is primarily because otherwise they throw in an enormous quantity which they will a) not eat so it goes to waste and b) leaves nothing left for the next person. I'm sure they will need years of therapy to get over this

ChickenSkin · 20/04/2012 13:02

Oh my word! I was going to touch on that last post and the kids needing therapy but see you already realise this!

Sounds like a recipe for eating disorders if ever there was one.

Mama1980 · 20/04/2012 13:03

Mine only have weetabix, shredded wheat or porridge. I have never bought anything else, they can have sugared cereals at friends/relatives but I don't have it in the house

ivykaty44 · 20/04/2012 13:05

daisy - I am really glad you do that - cos I do it for me with the museli for the same reason -otherwise I pour to much in and can't eat it all

wolvesdidit · 20/04/2012 13:05

I think all cereal is a load of crap. Too carb-based for my liking.

wolvesdidit · 20/04/2012 13:06

Well, porridge is ok.

Taffeta · 20/04/2012 13:08

There's a lot of ooooo aren't I an amazing parent not letting my preciouses eat any sugar

Sure, not all cereals are equal. DD prefers weetabix, fruit and fibre and cornflakes ( pref all mixed together ), she also likes porridge with cinnamon and raisins.

DS has a much sweeter tooth. He won't eat any cereal that doesn't have some sugar in it. So most of the time he doesn't get any, he has toast instead, eggs or brioche at the weekend. As a treat, I'll buy the occasional box of Cinnamon Grahams, which have 10g sugar per serving.

I checked this the other day, and browsed some of the others. I was mainly fed a diet of Frosties as a child, so I was interested to see what their sugar content was - 21g. Oh my.

PassTheTwiglets · 20/04/2012 13:09

I found a way of getting them to eat a healthy cereal in the morning - made my own! It didn't work out though, as it was delicious that I ate the lot :o I got a mixture of oats and quinoa flakes and mixed them with nuts/seeds/dried fruits and roasted them so they went crunchy. 'Twas delicious.

iwouldgoouttonight · 20/04/2012 13:09

Mine eat what we eat - mainly cornflakes, rice crispies, shreddies, porridge, weetabix. I've never liked things like coco pops, cheerios, etc (don't like the way they make the milk taste all weirdy). DP puts sugar on his cornflakes which I always find odd because they have suger in them.

The DCs seem happy with their breakfasts but DS has started telling me about the fact that he has sandwiches, fruit and yogurt for his packed lunch and EVERYONE else has crisps, cakes, sweets, etc. in theirs.

DaisySteiner · 20/04/2012 13:13

that you think it will give them eating disorders! Perhaps I should have said that they are allowed another bowl if they eat the first. I used to have heaps of leftover cereal every morning, now I have virtually none. Chickens are pissed off though

I did work out once that a bowl of sugary cereal like Frosties has as many calories as a Mars bar At least with chocolate you know that you're eating something full of fat and sugar, cereal manufacturers have cleverly managed to make breakfast pops appear healthy when a lot of the time they're not!

FredFredGeorge · 20/04/2012 13:14

Dry Rice Krispies 10% calories from sugar
Dry whole wheat toast 6% calories from sugar.

Add Jam and the calories from sugar of the toast is well above. Now calories from sugar doesn't actually matter much, but if your reason for choosing various food stuffs is sugar content, be realistic about your actual choices.

Breakfast cereal is pretty nutritious, although carb heavy but milk alleviates that a bit, it's fortified with vits and minerals not because it's junk but because it's a low cost staple food that lots of people eat so it's a good choice for fortification.

ChickenSkin · 20/04/2012 13:15

Love how people think their kids are healthy for eating weetabix. Has anyone ever looked at the sugar contents of weetabix? they're actually held together with sugar!!

Your kids would be better off with a breakfast consisting of egg, ham and cheese. Sugar content? zero.

ivykaty44 · 20/04/2012 13:15

I checked this the other day, and browsed some of the others. I was mainly fed a diet of Frosties as a child, so I was interested to see what their sugar content was - 21g. Oh my.

You eat this cereal as a child - now that would probably be over 20 years ago. You checked the sugar content of frosties from when? The other days or twenty years ago? As there will be a difference in the sugar content.

I haven't got a problem with my dc having sugar - what I don't want is her having hidden sugar and salt. I am happy for her to put sugar in her tea or eat biscuits - as we all know there is sugar and salt in them. What I don't want is her growing up eating food stuffs that are not what they seem

ivykaty44 · 20/04/2012 13:16

how much sugar is in weetbix?

ivykaty44 · 20/04/2012 13:17

See I like prunes in the mornings

ChickenSkin · 20/04/2012 13:18

loads!

Can't remember off the top of my head (and I can't check as I don't buy them) but they're surprisingly bad for you.

But then, most cereal is. Don't even get me started on "special K"

HipHopOpotomus · 20/04/2012 13:20

"Your kids would be better off with a breakfast consisting of egg, ham and cheese"

It is now recommended to limit ham in childrens diets if not omit it completely
more info here

It's a minefield!

FredFredGeorge · 20/04/2012 13:21

IvyKaty44 Weetabix has less than 5% of its calories coming from sugar. The milk you add to it contains more sugar or the bread you eat. So I'm not sure what ChickenSkin is really saying.

HairyButtMonkey · 20/04/2012 13:22

I'm so awful that I feed my DS gluten-free cereals or porridge made from rice and millet (quite nice actually). I find it a constant struggle to find a breakfast cerael that isn't full of crap but taste's nice. The 'Free From' cereals are generally much healthier - but not exclusively. You also pay more :(

FredFredGeorge · 20/04/2012 13:25

Although I would agree with chickenskin that more protein for breakfast than comes from just milk and grain would likely be a good thing. So yes, meat, eggs, cheese.

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