To only let my children have fresh fruit/yoghurt for breakfast?

[Sunshinesunflower]

They have plenty of healthy food during the day but I don't really want them thinking the day has to start with them shoving lots of hot food or sugary cereals down themselves.

There is plenty of fruit for variety and just a small amount of plain yoghurt.

Aibu? I have always disliked the concept of breakfast so fruit seems a reasonable compromise.

If DS needs to be encouraged to eat in the morning, could it be because he doesn't find what he is given particularly appetising?

I've read the whole thread from start to finish and all I'm getting from you OP, other than a desperate lack of self esteem, is that you are rigidly trying to control exactly what food your DCs eat. You resist offering them something more to try with their fruit and yoghurt. Cheese, an organic oatcake, wholemeal toast and marmite - they accord with your healthy eating and pescatarian principles.

You have admitted to food anxieties but you seem to have food control issues too -which you are projecting, even if you're not verbalising. you view it as"too much" and "too soon" on school mornings. Why not simply offer them the chance to decide or choose?

Maybe your DS needs to be encouraged to eat in the morning because he's fed up with fruit and yoghurt everyday. I know I get bored at the end of the month when all we have in the cupboards is toast and peanut butter. Variety is really important, especially for young DC.

x-post with ici

I don't generally open links on here Marianne.

'Could it be' - because an 8 year old can't actually say 'can I have something else'

Oatcakes sound good. See I am happy to listen to suggestions, just not disgusting ones.

Which suggestions from this thread do you think you could manage, OP?

Having a slice of toast/bowl of weetabix as my DC have in the mornings is not glutinous it's setting them up for the morning ahead. I also don't understand the heavy meal before bed? I wouldn't be able too sleep after all that! My DC have a glass of milk cereal bar/plain biscuit before bed. Why not give the bread for breakfast it takes 4 minutes to toast a slice of bread then butter it!

have you tried puffed quinoa with hazelnut milk?

Sunshine, with the greatest will in the world you really should see someone and get to the bottom of your problems. Your childrens future depends on it.

Well, we're screwed then as I've tried.

But according to some I 'wasn't trying hard enough'.

Some physical conditions can't be cured, only managed - same with some mental health problems. Not all wounds are healable, you know.

Sunshine - how would you react, what would you say, if your 8-year-old did ask for something you consider to be disgusting? Do your children pick up on your food issues?

To be honest I don't think I have seen anything disgusting suggested here - one or two slightly unusual suggestions but nothing gross.

I love a small pork pie for breakfast.

Fruit, yoghurt and a bit of honey seems like a reasonable base for a breakfast to me. A small amount of plain yoghurt plus a lot of fruit would satisfy some children but it might not be substantial enough to see other children through to lunchtime. If I didn’t want to change things much (and I’m no fan of cooking on a weekday morning myself, nor is it a time of day when I care much about variety) I’d increase the yoghurt and make it more filling and nutritious by adding some seeds (e.g. pumpkin / sesame / linseed) and/or nuts (e.g peanuts, cashews, brazils) and / or grains (e.g. muesli base). Adding some bread / toast on the side (with e.g. butter or marmite or peanut butter) or a bowl of cereal – a basic muesli or one of the less sugary cereal varieties such as Rice Krispies – with milk would do no harm either, it would add a bit more nourishment and variety and would not require cooking. Oatcakes (maybe with cheese) are good too if your kids will eat them, I enjoy them but I think they're a bit of an acquired taste.

As for eggs, I wouldn't offer my kids something whose smell made me feel ill unless I had totally run out of options! But I haven't seen any disgusting suggestions on this thread. No food is totally perfect, and many foods that are not perfect are still worth eating.

No, I agree 'disgusting' is too strong, but as I explained I really do personally find eggs very smelly and with regard to things like beans on toast, I just don't really see it as something you would eat in the morning. I recognise it's silly to consider you don't eat certain things before a set time but just the same I can't imagine everybody tucking into beans on toast (or fish fingers!)

Oatcakes are good, fruit bread is good.

If someone asked for something that I personally found revolting - I would probably let them have it on the condition that extremely thorough teeth brushing took place afterwards! :)

Everyone farts seventeen times per day, on average. The total comes to about half a litre. It is perfectly normal.

Once again, I urge you very seriously to find a therapist to get to the bottom of your issues.

Your thinking is distorted, inflexible and very black and white.

Far from promoting relaxation and a feeling of ease when it comes to food, all I see in your thought process and your attitudes is joylessness and anxiety and a deep desire to defend yourself against an enemy.

We have been through this once math - you concluded therapy didn't work because I didn't try hard enough.

You barely know a thing about me. All you know is what I give my children for breakfast. That's IT.

This must be one of the most drawn out threads on MN it's going round and round in circles!

OP why did you start this thread?

Surely something must have provoked you. Did someone irl say something to you?

Plus where's your DP in all of this?

I'm quite dismayed at the lack of posters questioning his role in all of this. These DCs have 2 parents. They both have responsibility for their health & well being. If the mum has food issues from childhood then why isn't dad stepping up and taking more responsibility in this area?

I agree worrywart!

Jackie I am responsible for the children; I am a sahm (my iPad jusg tried to change that to sham - probably more to the point!) and so it does fall on me.

I don't honestly know why I started the thread! I think I was thinking about why I don't like breakfast as a meal much and it sometimes can be very helpful to thrash it out and I've got some good ideas although unfortunately a number of insults about my parenting as well. I don't quite see the children's diets as terrible; I think in their eagerness to condemn me a few have resorted to hyperbole and exaggeration (the 'well my DCs would be faint with hunger' posts.)

Anyway, the only thing that matters is the children. DD as I have said is only 1 next month - plenty of time to vary her diet, and DS is perfectly happy and healthy.

"See I am happy to listen to suggestions, just not disgusting ones."

Oh for fuck's sake, it's like groundhog day on here with some people.

I think they're having far too much sugar. The sugar in fruit is no better than the sugar in a fizzy drink. I wouldn't give my children that amount of sugar for their breakfast; far better to have porridge or other whole grains.

I think some people do just see your views and attitudes to food in general as really really odd.

That and the fact you have revealed more about your mental state and mental health history than I think you intended, means some are interested in what influence it all could have on your children.

Just because you are a sahm doesn't mean everything to do with childcare falls to you.

If you have one of those kind of DP's then maybe that is part of your low self esteem problem.

Is your DP gone before breakfast in the morning? Does he eat breakfast? Does he have no opinion on your DCs diets?

Okay, but in context I am struggling with pregnancy and besides, if tablets don't work and therapy doesn't work, then unfortunately options are limited. I could walk out and leave, but I rather suspect a mother who feeds them fruit in the morning is a better alternative than no mother at all.