to think DH is over-reacting to the kids' breakfast?

[EmGee]

Kids generally have homemade banana bread (I do add some dark choc pieces...), or other homemade cakey/bread/muffiny thing sweetened with fruit puree, a bit of brown sugar or some maple syrup. I add ground almonds and things like chia seeds or oat bran as much as possible, and try to use alternatives to white flour to vary things. Always cut down the amount of actual sugar that is given in the recipe to the absolute minimum.

I also make flapjacks and have successfully reduced the sugar content dramatically by using mashed banana for example. Kids are less keen on the banana version though.

My reasoning is that these things are homemade and I know exactly what has gone into them. The kids like them. It's quick and easy in the mornings. Is it so wrong?

They normally have water, milk or I make hot chocolate using unsweetened dark cacao powder and add a bit of brown sugar to sweeten.

He thinks weetabix is 'better' and it's ridiculous that they eat 'cake'.

AIBU or is he????

My 2 had waffles, ice cream and chocolate sauce for breakfast this morning. (with squirty cream). I'm a terrible parent.

just come back frm in laws in france, where every morning kids were given bowl of milk with banania chocolate powder, brioche with jam or nutella or sugary chocolatey cereal, and yoghurt with sprinkled sugar.

I think we need detox now

I was gonna say its very much like what they have for breakfast in france and italy but was beaten to it. It is sugary but I take my hat off to you im a sahm at the minute and could never find the energy to bake cakes in the morning.

Cross post. I get that it's sugary. Feeding your children something sugary every now and again does not equate to 'having no interest whatsoever in their health'. No, of course it doesn't - my point was that people on these threads often cite Cheerios as though they're the only breakfast cereal on the shelves, so you might as well feed them ice cream and doughnuts for breakfast.

The original Cheerios aren't sweet at all

What is wrong with raisins?

I think if you compared your "cake" (which sounds delicious) with the vast majority of "wholegrain" healthy cereals, including weetabix, yours would contain far, far less sugar.

I'm sure lots would nod approvingly at weetabix and orange juice but I would rather they had your cake.

Maybe not every day though

Have you tried homemade pancakes? Mine have those with natural yoghurt and berries and demolish them

Raisins are bad for children's teeth - like chewy sweets. They are mostly sugar and stick to the teeth.

MattDillonsPants Soft "afternoon treats" aren't needed when children have eaten enough to use between meals. The breakfast OP describes if fine, the contents are good. They will use the energy provided and then eat lunch whereas eating similar for a "snack" is just not needed. That's why the UK is fat. Because people think it's necessary to have large snacks

I agree that children don't need big snacks every day- the implication of the word 'treat' is something eaten infrequently. Fresh fruit, vegetable crudités or plain milk are a more suitable everyday snack (and toddlers/very young children do usually need something between meals IME).

Cake and hot chocolate (even though it may contain natural ingredients) is too sugary a meal to be eaten on a daily basis, whether for breakfast or at any other time. Plain milk, and e.g. porridge with fresh fruit, or wholegrain toast with an egg or some peanut butter, would see most adults and older children though to lunch perfectly well. And there is really nothing much wrong with weetabix either.

pilpiloni Can you get original cheerios in the UK? The standard ones here are multigrain which are very sweet.

soft there is a surprising amount of sugar in weetabix. Just saying.

I think banana cake would be the better option

No there isn't, it's one of the lowest sugar cereals on the supermarket shelf. It's certainly carby but to say it contains a lot of sugar is incorrect.

0.8g per biscuit. Not very high at all.

Tickled Ocado recently began to sell "low sugar" Cheerios which are the same as the US cheerios I think - they don't have the yellow packaging but they are oats only (not multigrain) and much less sweet than the UK multigrain ones. From memory 4g of sugar per 100g.

Fair point squoosh. I guess I still see that as fairly sugary (and, as you say, carby). Weetabix is a special treat breakfast for us

Roonerspism (like your name BTW) Weetabix is not high in sugar, as squoosh pointed out. Certainly much lower in sugar than any form of cake, however natural the sweetener.

minipie We have tried the low-sugar oat Cherrios and they have proved popular with both my children (1 yo and 4 yo). Not something I would want to give them every day, but a useful standby for when we are running late for school and haven't got time to make porridge etc.

God, how depressing to have weetabix as a "special treat"!

My poor deprived children, huh!

I prefer to make my own stuff without refined sugar.

They get to eat plenty treats at parties. But day to day I try to reduce refined sugar as much as I can and I make no apology fur that. It means the party food or play date treat is no big deal.

ShowMeTheWonder - how right you are....

Weetabix is not a 'special treat', it's just an everyday food. It does contain lots of carbohydrate, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

If you add maple syrup, brown sugar, agave nectar etc to food it has essentially the same effect as adding pure white sugar. The only way to eat sugar in a truly unrefined state is to eat a piece of fresh fruit.

OP I used to do the same as you (and am in France too!) and I started to notice that the dc were getting more and more of a sweet tooth (they are older than yours), so stopped doing it and introduced a savoury breakfast (although often give them bread with raisins and nuts in it. so not totally savoury)

They now have cakes and so on in the afternoon and eat a lot less of them than they used to and are much keener on more varied savoury foods for snacks and lunch.

Cake is still fine as an occasional breakfast, but every day seemed to get them set off on a habit of asking for more and more sugary stuff (even though it is all 'healthy' sugary stuff like you make).

OP I used to do the same as you (and am in France too!) and I started to notice that the dc were getting more and more of a sweet tooth (they are older than yours), so stopped doing it and introduced a savoury breakfast (although often give them bread with raisins and nuts in it. so not totally savoury)

They now have cakes and so on in the afternoon and eat a lot less of them than they used to and are much keener on more varied savoury foods for snacks and lunch.

Cake is still fine as an occasional breakfast, but every day seemed to get them set off on a habit of asking for more and more sugary stuff (even though it is all 'healthy' sugary stuff like you make).

sorry, don't know why that went twice.

soft I honestly don't agree that weetabix is an everyday food.

There are far more nutritious breakfasts for kids, none of which need to involve maple syrup.

I think if our kids stopped having sweet foods for every blinking meal, they might crave the stuff less.