Not to let my DD eat cereal?

[Peridotty]

My 16 month old goes to nursery 5 days a week. We pay for her breakfast, lunch and snack (included in the fee). However, I don’t like the thought of her eating cereal so we provide the breakfast and the snack. I don’t think it’s very healthy, even though it’s a wholewheat type cereal. I give her porridge made of steel cut oats instead with some applesauce. Would you be ok with feeding your kids cereal?

Are you American? Apple sauce seems to be a total Amercian obsession that isn't sold here (unless you mean apple sauce you put on a sunday roast but I assume not?) but as others have said it's still sugar just in a healthy costume.

For what it's worth, my daughter only had porridge or egg based breakfast at home until she started nursery and then honestly I focused on the bigger picture - is she cared for and is she happy. Oh and she's now 3 and will only eat toast for breakfast so it's really not worth getting too het up about as, in my experience, once they get sense of free will they'll eat whatever they damn well please and you'll just laugh at your fondness for steel cut oats lol.

Yes to no added sugar/salt cereals. A lot are fortified with b vitamins, iron, folic acid, fibre etc. Absolute no no to the likes of sugary Frosties, Frosted Shreddies and anything starting with Chocolate or Honey in their name

Please also inform the NHS that wholewheat cereals such as Weetabix and Shredded Wheat are "horrendous" because they recommend them both on their main pages and on their Start4Life meal plans.

A lot are fortified with b vitamins, iron, folic acid, fibre etc

Yes, a two biscuit serving of Weetabix has over 80% of your RDA of iron, b vitamins, folic acid, and fibre.

Is weetabix the healthiest food in the entire world?

No, probably not

Is it 'horrendously bad', 'shit for breakfast', directly responsible for the obesity crisis and cancer?

Of course not you absolute melts.

The fibre in Weetabix probably helps reduce some cancers tbh seeing as lack of fibre can contribute to the risk of developing bowel cancer.

What do the nhs know when Gillian Mckeith over here has googled that carbs are terrible as the body turns them into 'sugar'

I agree with you OP, they don’t need sugary or salty processed food at that age. Porridge or wetabix is fine, added bananas or grated apple make them sweet and tasty enough. Other complicated cereals are just full of unnecessary suspicious stuff for my liking, of course they are easier to cook but let’s not pretend that they are good for health, especially for teeth.
Muffins are very calorific, and I wonder if they have palm oil in them which is another problem in my book.
To be honest toast and egg is much better.

Great post @Pinkfluff76, totally support

DS has porridge most days for breakfast and some fruit/nut butter, poached or scrambled eggs one or two days, but once a week he has either Weetabix or God forbid shreddies, they do the 'simple one' now which is just wholegrain wheat, banana, dates and salt, 1.9g sugar for a 40g bowl, so absolutely fine. However it rarely fills him up and half an hour later he's asking for something else so I wouldn't want him having it every day. If they don't start nursery until 9 are they not having breakfast before then? DS would be ravenous if I made him wait until 9am for breakfast, he does have quite an appetite though ..

“Carbs literally turn to sugar in your body”
“Fruit isn’t at all good for you”

Does anyone on this thread actually have any common sense or nutritional knowledge at all?

I've found that if you do not let them eat something, they end up obsessing about it, and trade the healthy foods you send for it. I'd allow her to have the cereal a couple of days a week, and send your healthy choices on the other three days. Find a balance.

BTW...kids HATE things that set them apart from their fellows. This also nips that in the bud.

My 14mo has cereals most mornings, I wouldn't be giving her chocolate pillows, cocopops or frosties but she has plain shreddies, weetabix, cheerios or the 'kelloggs for kids' fruit/veggie flavoured with no added sugar. Don't see a problem with it to be honest.

Sweet tooth is something you're born with then either learn to curb or not. When growing up I used to dream of buying cake with my first paycheck as we never had it at home. I went overboard and lived on chocolate bars and diet coke through my teenage years.
Don't be too hard on yourself and your dd.
I'm back to being healthy- ish now but still have a sweet tooth.
I was a nanny for a little girl who wasn't allowed sweets, crisps etc. Picked her up from a holiday camp one afternoon and as we were walking through the park we came across crisps on the ground, she begged and pleaded to have just one to taste. It was sad to see. Told her mum about it and she promised she could have some on her next birthday.

Everything in moderation is OK, otherwise she'll just seek it elsewhere when she can.

Shredded wheat, porridge,weetabix, readybrek yes coco pops type cereal, no

Most cereals are overly processed and therefore second rate but oats are a good choice.

Yes ok with cereal do you feed her before she goes to nursery? That’s what we did with DS and now even with morning wraparound care he has breakfast at home and also has the option of a toast or more breakfast in school.

@Peridotty

Yes I’m British but living in the US. I’m very suspicious of the foods here especially processed foods including cereal. I was brought up on U.K. cereal which is fine. I don’t want to touch US cereals though.

I thought you were an over the top mum at first but now I completely get it! I'd be the same if I were in the US!

@Wonderfulstuff people in the UK do give their children apple sauce - they sell it all of the supermarkets, although it’s called apple purée. Ellas kitchen sells it in pouches, lots of children have it!

@MintyGreenDream

1st child.Steel cut oats. 2nd child.Rice krispies. 3rd child.Coco pops. 4th child.Biffa Bin surprise.

I burst out laughing reading this thank you!

BigWoollyJumpers

“Visions of myself as a child, eating cereal every day, and adding three or four desert spoons of sugar to the bowl. Full fat milk. Yummy. Didn't know anyone who did any different back then. Also tea with milk and lots of sugar. Actually, also often had cereal before bed as a snack as a teen as well. And, now that I think of it, a donut and a pint of milk when I came back from school for a snack. Amazing we survived really.”

As a treat, we were given the very exotic ski yoghurt (when the advert was young, glamorous people ski-ing ) with a big spoonful of brown sugar stirred in. It was lovely, crunchy, sweet and sour.

I’m old now, no fillings, one tooth extraction because of crowding. Mum’s 84 with one filling so I think the genes have it!

The person starving their child of carbs - you need to see a doctor. That's a hideously negligent thing to do.

Do whatever faddy stuff you want with your own diet but don't inflict that on children.

@MrsSkylerWhite

BigWoollyJumpers

“Visions of myself as a child, eating cereal every day, and adding three or four desert spoons of sugar to the bowl. Full fat milk. Yummy. Didn't know anyone who did any different back then. Also tea with milk and lots of sugar. Actually, also often had cereal before bed as a snack as a teen as well. And, now that I think of it, a donut and a pint of milk when I came back from school for a snack. Amazing we survived really.”

As a treat, we were given the very exotic ski yoghurt (when the advert was young, glamorous people ski-ing ) with a big spoonful of brown sugar stirred in. It was lovely, crunchy, sweet and sour.

I’m old now, no fillings, one tooth extraction because of crowding. Mum’s 84 with one filling so I think the genes have it!

Absolutely. And the interesting thing is, it didn't affect my adult life's eating habits at all. I can't abide sweet things now, no sugar in anything, I don't even like banana's because they are too sweet! I am not not a fan of potatoes or rice, or bread. My favourite things being meat/fish with veg or salad. I DO however LOVE cake .

I think the main difference back then, setting aside the evil cereal, was that all food was closer to it's natural state. Dairy was all full fat, butter, olive oil. Meals were basic meat and veg, fresh, DM went shopping every other day, cooked from scratch. No ready meals, nothing "convenient".

Posters are also generally ignoring the fact that cereal was/is a prime provider of basic vitamins, minerals and folic acid, targeted at a section of the population (not generally on MN), who don't necessarily get those vital ingredients from the rest of their diet. It has it's place.

@mrssunshinexxx

Shredded wheat, porridge,weetabix, readybrek yes coco pops type cereal, no

I have just looked at the back of my shredded wheat packet. Less than 1% of everything for my daily allowance of sugar, salt, fat, more than 75% of the vitamins and minerals, and lots of fibre. That really is not a "bad" food.

@mustlovegin

yes we moved her! she has been going since the start of the month

I see now where you are coming from OP. But it's not clear, are nursery refusing to give your DD the food you provide or not?

What about purée-ing your own apples? I used to do this when my DS was a baby. I would buy loads of fruit and veg, chop and cook it then purée it in my blender. I then froze it in small ice cube trays to make individual portions.

Even chocolatey cereals have their place and aren't going to make your child hideously unhealthy. Weetos for example, they're chocolate hoops (basically chocolate cheerios) and contain 5g of sugar per 30g serving but they also contain over 80% of your RDA of B1, B2, B6, Niacin, folic acid, B12, iron, vitamin D, and around 12% of a child's RDA of fibre so if you have child who is restrictive in what they'll eat then - alongside the calcium, potassium, etc in the milk - it's a useful way of getting that nutrition into them.