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?

I don’t like the idea that my kids start the day on a high dose of sugar either. I’m not anti sugar, but not lots of processed sugar first thing.
They generally have eggs, toast, porridge or weetabix.

5g of sugar out of 30g is high. If you made porridge and 1/6 of it is sugar, It would taste way too sweet.

Peak Mumsnet...

5g of sugar out of 30g is high. If you made porridge and 1/6 of it is sugar, It would taste way too sweet.

That's why I said they contain 5g but also contain the vitamins and nutrients I listed, it's trade-off. The sugar is high but they also have a lot of necessary items in them so if you had a child who maybe is limited in what they eat then the sugar content becomes less of a concern because at least they're also getting some goodness.

What’s the deal with “steel cut” oats and how are they different to... well, oats?

What about purée-ing your own apples? I used to do this when my DS was a baby

Yes, I would say that's very healthy

What’s the deal with “steel cut” oats and how are they different to... well, oats?

It was explained upthread, I think by the OP

"Sure I saw a study recently where they gave one set of rats cereal and the other group the cardboard box and the cardboard eaters survived longer."

This relates to experiments in 1942 and 1960 that demonstrated some American cereal brands were releasing toxins, or otherwise poisoning the rats who weren't accustomed to that level of sugar. The research was unpublished and not peer reviewed and it's safe to say that cereals have developed significantly over the decades.

Unsurprisingly the rats eating the box became lethargic and died of malnutrition.

Can’t be bothered to read through and see if this has been said before, but:

1. Weetabix DOES have both added salt and sugar. Not as much as a lot of other cereals though and I’d argue it’s fairly/mildly ‘healthy’

1. If you want a healthy cereal then Shredded Wheat Bitesize has no added salt or sugar. Bit dry though and tastes like cardboard some say! I like it when sprinkled with raisins

1. Steel milled oats are still ‘processed’ food, the clue is in the name!

There is less sugar in Weetabix (1.6g for 37g serving) than there is in raisins (17g in a 1oz handful, approx 50-60 raisins).

Your body metabolises the added sugars in cereals like Weetabix differently than naturally occurring sugars in fruits such as raisins.

At 16 months mine usually had weetabix or porridge mixed with fruit but I would have been okay with cereal as long as it wasn't a sugary one.
Now at 10 and 12 they eat chocolate pancakes/croissants/waffles for breakfast or bacon/sausage sandwiches

Probably some fancy pants twice the price cos we're steel cut oats

What even are steel cut oats?????????

I asked that, jamdonut . There is a very interesting, well-informed reply earlier in the thread.

@Tam20779 yes I used to purée a lot of fruits and veg but it’s still the same as applesauce isn’t it. The applesauce I buy is puréed apple. No additives or sugar. It’s more cost effective and easier to buy a jar of applesauce than to cook some apples and then purée it.

@Treesandsheepeverywhere I’m not that extreme. I do have to give her snacks in order to bribe her or sit in her stroller haha. I do choose the toddler snacks that don’t contain salt and sugar though!

@elbea yeah that’s where I’m coming from! I don’t know why applesauce is so demonised but it’s basically apple purée and almost every baby food contains it!!

OP-I dare you to look back at this post in 3 years from now and not squirm!
Btw: if you’re afraid she’ll develop a taste for sugar I’d drop the apple sauce!

[quote Peridotty]@Tam20779 yes I used to purée a lot of fruits and veg but it’s still the same as applesauce isn’t it. The applesauce I buy is puréed apple. No additives or sugar. It’s more cost effective and easier to buy a jar of applesauce than to cook some apples and then purée it.[/quote]
Honestly I don’t know. I can’t imagine that it’s completely free of preservatives otherwise it would start to rot on the shelves. The only way to know for sure is doing it yourself.

I don’t know why applesauce is so demonised

It's not generally. But if you're going to lead the crusade against weetabix then people are going to point out the lack of logical consistency you're applying.

Omg I’ve just realised I don’t give my nearly 3 year old cereal in case he chokes. I think it’s time for him to try it maybe lol

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel-cut_oats

you need to be realistic ok, looking at things on individual basis and making desicions about then such as the one in this post, you need to look at the full days totals, now if you dont exceed them in the terms of the bad stuff, or in the good stuff its used as a minimum guidance, then there is no issues at all

for your info a toddlers allowance of sugar on a daily basis is 20g, so some cereal is hardly going to cause a problem is it? you need to look at things as a whole tho and ascess the benefits too,

these baby books/tv programmes etc have a lot to answer for, putting pressure on young mums and expectations that are totally impractical or unattainable. did anyone ever die and have on their death cert "mother gave breafast cereal to them"! no,

@Peridotty and where do you buy these snacks that you bribe her with that don’t come in a box? Oh and stroller????!!! This is so try hard and fake it’s unreal