To not know what a healthy cereal for my toddler would be?

[dottytablecloth]

He's gets porridge every morning so don't suggest porridge please!

I need something to fill him on those evenings when he refuses dinner. I've not given him cereal before as I'm honestly so confused about what is relatively healthy and what isn't.

He's 20 months.

Can anyone help?

The problem with not giving a replacement is the 3am wake up cos they're hungry! DD loves rice krispies but I don't think there is anything particularly good in them. Agree with the egg on toast and banana idea.

Always check the sugar content of cereals - 10g of sugar per 100g of cereal is high.

Cornflakes and Rice Krispies are high in sugar content, but if you buy the supermarket own-brand, they are a bit lower.

Go for weetabix, porridge or ready brek or whole meal toast with some fruit.

Bear Alphabites
Weetabix
Cornflakes

Agree with whoever said eggy bread. Poached eggs on toasted muffins is also good, or scrambled egg on toast.

My DS (2) has cereal for breakfast - either Organix Number Jumble or Boots Hoops. As far as I can tell neither has added sugar so compared to the likes of Coco Pops and Sugar Puffs I think they are relatively healthy.

If DS doesn't eat his dinner though we tend to offer snacky alternatives like breadsticks, raisins, blueberries, cheese and/or a crumpet.
He seems to fill up on whole milk too!

I am stunned that some people are recommending sending a child ( baby really at 20mths), to bed hungry and not allowing them anything to eat if they refuse dinner.

I have days as an adult where I don;t fancy dinner. I have something like cereal or toast instead, or even a sandwich. Children are just the same.

I especially have days when it is DH's turn to cook, or the teens (rare that they take their turn TBH, altho I try and encourage), when I don;t fancy what they made because I am not in the mood. It is OKAY to not want what is offered, and so an alternative is actually quite reasonable to have and won;t set anyone up for a lifetime of bad eating habits.

Maybe I look at it from a different viewpoint due to severe allergies, and three children who spent their baby years in hospital with weight gain issues (due to allergies), and so I just rejoiced that they wanted to eat, and indeed gave them what they wanted (within reason).

Food causes so much stress, and it really shouldn't....

DD2 (5) still doesn't eat much at teatime. If she's just not hungry she doesn't get an alternative. If she says she really doesn't like something but is hungry she gets bread and butter.

At breakfast they get porridge or Weetabix or toast with either cheese or peanut butter. And fruit.

DS was a fussy eater (probably becauyse a serious tummy bug left him with a traumatised gut that didn't function properly and made him feel horrible if he ate anything othert than plain food - but it is easy to be wise after the event).

Our 'non dinner dinner' was bread, cheese, fruit. Or bread, cream cheese, fruit. If he refused what the rest of us were eating because it was new to him or too rich, he got bread, cheese and fruit. If it was something he normally ate, he got fruit.

He is a very non-fussy, extremely tall teenager now. Lunch is still bread, cheese and fruit for preference!

I've always figured that if DS (2.3 yrs) is hungry, he'll eat. Whether that be a cereal or tried and tasted 'main meal' for dinner. He'll always get offered pudding as a matter of course, but my own internal (I don't mention this to him) logic is that if he eats well for his main he can get custard or one another of his 'favourites' for pudding. Eat badly? Fruit is all that's offered.

And he'll always get a big cup of full fat milk before bed, regardless.

I love (not) the "eat what you are given" posters. They obviously have no experience of a child who has problems with some foods. It isn't a case of spoilt children getting their own way. Before we saw sense our youngest frequently went to bed with no food. Never underestimate the trauma of a so called fussy eater.

I have a fussy eater. But I don't make massive changes to the family diet to get her to eat. There is always something that she will eat on offer. For example, if we are having shepherds pie with veg, I know she won't eat potato, so I make sure I do veg that she will eat. She loves gravy, so I will do a jug of gravy to go on top to make it more interesting. She won't eat cheese sauce, so she gets plain pasta. We quite often dish up our own food at the table, so everyone takes what they want. It works really well for us. But if they won't eat what's on offer (bearing in mind that there is always something that everyone likes on offer) there is no alternative. She never wakes hungry in the night either. If she doesn't eat, my dd probably just isn't hungry.

Op, I wouldn't be giving cereal instead. Why is your dc refusing dinner? Is it that he doesn't like it? He doesn't like the method he is being fed it (he wants to be fed/you want him to feed himself), it's in the wrong form, ((you've given whole foods, dc wants it mashed?). Are you mixing it all together in a bowl, when dc would rather have it spread out on a plate so he can see the different colours and pick which bits he would like to eat?

Another thought.... Is he having a big snack in the afternoon so he isn't actually hungry yet? Do his meal times need altering so he is actually hungry at real times? Lunch and tea may be too close together.

I give my DS rice crispies or cornflakes but only supermarket own brand as they are lower in salt and sugar. Boots Toddler range of the oat things are ok, well to a toddler they are anyway.

I can only speak about my experience with 2 DC, which is hardly a huge sample size, but quite often they say they "hate" or "don't" like x or y type of food, or flatly refuse to eat anything, but I honestly think they simply aren't hungry. They have never woken up in the night with hunger if they've skipped dinner (obviously they woke up when they were babies, for milk!).

With my two, I have developed a theory that they simply don't have the same appetite rhythm as me and DH. DH and I eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, every day, with probably a snack or two in between. My DC can sometimes eat a massive breakfast, no lunch and huge dinner. Or hardly any breakfast, normal lunch and huge dinner. Or even hardly any food one day, but lots the next. And so on. And that's normal for them.

So it's not controlling to tell them that they eat what's in front of them or nothing - in our house I think it would be more controlling to cajole them into eating something if they don't want their dinner, for fear they might go hungry.

Yeah we don't do cereal in this house. Very very rarely anyway... Sometimes we have weetabix in but not very much. I did buy the bear cereal once (from the company that sell bear yo-yos) but it's massively overpriced. Kallo sell plain puffed wheats like sugar puffs without the sugar, could jazz them up with cinnamon.

Other breakfast alternatives-
Avocado on toast
Peanut butter on toast
Scrambled tofu/eggs on toast
Dippy eggs and soldiers
Veggie omelette
PORRIDGE with different kinds of fruit/cinnamon/honey/sometimes yogurt/nut butter
Greek yogurt and fruit
Homemade breakfast muffins. Many many sugar free recipes about, banana blueberry ones are always a hit.
Homemade banana bread
Banana pancakes. Pancakes in general, very easy to do a sugar free variety.
French toast
Veggie sausages (or none veggie if you so wish) with tinned tomatoes/beans, mushrooms and egg or tofu.
Sweet potato muffins
Fruit pizza!
Fruit smoothie

There's a lot of alternatives out there to cereal. Cereals actually really boring. Quick and easy! But boring.

Porridge and bread. Hard boiled egg. Fruit.Less processed means better to me.

We often do a rotation of toast with a topping, next day Weetabix, next day scrambled/boiled eggs.

Cereals are all an unhealthy swizz. Except porridge.

I've posted this before - and will again. It's a well researched article in the Guardian about why cereal makes a lot of money for companies, and why it's no good for us and empty calories

www.theguardian.com/business/2010/nov/23/food-book-extract-felicity-lawrence

Try switching his dinner and lunch around. I used to find that by evening dc were starting to wind down so were more inclined to eat a sandwich rather than a hot meal. They were only offered one thing and 99% of the time it was eaten.

I have 2 very fussy eaters, they worry me sick.

The general advice we found on the internet was never offer an alternative if they refuse to eat. They are not stupid and will wait for it to be offered

But we compromised by introducing a sort of 'supper' - just toast, maybe with honey / jam / marmite if we feel like it - with our evening cup of tea.

Cereals are all an unhealthy swizz. Except porridge.

Not only more healthy, but the two major porridge brands in the UK are both made from Scottish oats, so much lower food miles that the imported grains used in some made-up cereal brands.

Porridge is also very much cheaper than the others. And you can vary the taste by stirring in a little honey or jam or dried fruit.

musli is the only alternative to porridge I'd consider as everything else is too processed and therefor have a high GI.

but actually we have never offered an alternative to tea. The things we cook are tasty home made family dishes and if the kids are hungry they will always eat the food. If they aren't interested, they aren't hungry. A couple of times a year the children might honestly properly hate something and it's not just general fussiness, and in which case I might give them the most boring alternative possible.

Fireside chat - well you are assuming incorrectly. My dd2 has numerous eat 'things' going on. But I deal with it, she eats the same food, however instead putting her curry on her rice, she has it next to it, she has raw onions, peppers, courgette instead of pan fried. I put a teeny tiny amount of Cajun spice on her salmon (having built up from none), her beans go next to her toast & I cut the crusts off her sandwiches. The kist goes on. This is a child who at about 2 1/2 decided, for a total of 3 days, she wouldn't eat tea, she'd eat yogurt. She cried & cried but got over it & has eaten properly ever since.

Doris75 - so fruit is a punishment is it ? Don't eat all your tea & you get fruit, eating all your tea = custard ? Madness.

Sugar Puffs.

There. Someone had to say it.

willowisp I wouldn't call what you do "eat this or you starve". You are doing pretty much what we had to, although my daughter didn't eat a single vegetable until she was in her mid teens. She now loves them by the way. She would vomit if she had to eat something she didn't like and would indeed starve for days on end if she couldn't/wouldn't eat something. I am talking about those who say that everyone has to eat the same thing with no allowances being made for someone with food issues.