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?

When my ds was little my friend said 'OMG do you actually let him eat readybrek? It is so full of rubbish!'
I got down the box for her and read the ingredients. Oats, fortified with iron.

Muffins are definitely just pudding for breakfast. They are literally cakes.
Cereal is fine. Cereal, (oats, wheat, rice) should be a bigger part of our diet. Applesauce has far more sugar than cereal.

@SuperCaliFragalistic
You're totally right. My friends who were total pains about food when our dc were small, now have teenagers who are walking to secondary school drinking red bull and eating haribos. I did warn them!!!!

Didn't 'Dr' Gillian McKeith describe cereal as 'shit in a box'?
Not exactly someone who I'd hold in high regard when it comes to nutrition!

It makes me wonder how the older generation ever got old given the amount of rubbish they have consumed in their lives. Asking the nursery to do different meals is in my opinion unfair.

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

🤣🤣🤣🤣

My teenagers eat SO much cereal. I often find them eating it at 10pm! They have good teeth, are slim built and 6 foot tall so I’m not too concerned.

They’ve always had cereal but it used to be much healthier. Now if I buy healthy stuff, they just pop to the local shop and spend their own money on sugary cereal 🤦🏼‍♀️

My kid will only eat weetabix or Shreddies for breakfast. Every day. Stopping that is not a hill I'm willing to die on tbh

Omg
You're in America - be suspicious as they add sugar to everything!!!

I used to be given Frosties, with a couple of spoonfuls of sugar on top! I certainly wouldn't recommend that! But shredded wheat, muesli or porridge is fine, I think.

[quote brittleheadgirl]@SuperCaliFragalistic
You're totally right. My friends who were total pains about food when our dc were small, now have teenagers who are walking to secondary school drinking red bull and eating haribos. I did warn them!!!!

Didn't 'Dr' Gillian McKeith describe cereal as 'shit in a box'?
Not exactly someone who I'd hold in high regard when it comes to nutrition![/quote]
Sounds like the teenager I was behind in the queue in Lidl at lunchtime.

His lunch consisted of 2 pretzels, 2 white chocolate cookies and a jam doughnut.

@babybythesea totally agree a balanced approach is far healthier.

I do think some Uk schools/nurseries have gone WAY too far on the "healthy eating" faddiness!

When we have schools telling especially young and impressionable children things like fruit, eggs and cheese are "bad" foods we've seriously lost our way!

@canyoutoleratethis I only have one! I wasn't being snobby at all! I was recognising this stage of parenting- which if you'd read my post PROPERLY you'd see I said we all go through it

I certainly did! Compounded by my having ocd which I had a bad flare up of just after having dd. I gradually learned to relax and pick my battles! ESP as dd was the absolute opposite of me! Dirt magnet who'll eat anything and everything! The afternoon when she was 18 months and I caught her eating a spider I basically gave up!

She is now 20, slim, relatively healthy (barring her genetic disability) and with a healthy approach to food and nutrition.

I am very interested and fairly knowledgeable on healthy eating myself (even if I don't practise it! I'm currently losing weight myself - but the gain is at least partly due to disability and the meds I'm on which affect metabolism and water retention etc) so I'm not being dismissive just offering a bit of a reality check!

I had gd while pregnant even though I'm not a sweet toothed person and was a size 8 prior to pregnancy, but then all the women in my family have had gd with every pregnancy regardless of prior health. I was told that this COULD increase dds risk of developing diabetes herself and so it was best to "limit" processed sugar in the first year. As a result she had absolutely no processed sugar in that first year - that was my pfb moment diet wise.

Of course it didn't last and by 2 she was as much a fan of chocolate, cake and ice cream as any toddler though she still wasn't given such things very often.

As parents become more experienced and more confident as parents they move past the pfb stage (usually not all) and learn to have a more balanced approach to parenting and the decisions one makes as a parent.

I didn't deserve being torn into like that!

@toocold54

I think it’s great you want to teach your child healthy eating but honestly I wouldn’t worry about it. The nursery staff are a lot more qualified on what is and isn’t a healthy breakfast and all the other children eat it too so it must be ok.

If you’re really concerned you could phone around some local nurseries and see if they provide healthier options but honestly if your LO is happy then I would stay there.

Why would the nursery staff be a lot more qualified on what is a healthy breakfast?

I see where you’re coming from OP. I’m like this a bit with my first born (now 2.5) but relaxed a little once he was over the age of 2 (and I had another baby). Now offer treats in moderation but mostly a healthy diet. Do what makes you comfortable, it’s your child. I did offer weetabix etc for breakfast though.

Also baked porridge is easy to make and would be handy for nursery.

to be honest I read cereals aren't appropriate but then also read toast is not either and cereal better (if malted wheat, bran etc). My daughter won't eat egg. She won't eat homemade breakfast muffins. She won't eat porridge. So do I starve her? I just stick to no added sugar healthy as possible cereal and be done with it.

There's nothing wrong with 100% whole wheat toast

@Draggondragon

I don't get the nursery angst. Surely it's just guilt about not being there for a small child who should be at home. Of people feel this strongly about parenting why don't they parent instead of outsourcing?

That's rude. The OP is in the states - do you know how much federally mandates paid maternity leave women get? No - it's none! Some states do have paid leave, but most women will be looking at a few weeks off at most.

I know one woman who was back full time at 2 weeks post partum because she had to be.

Don't forget that there if you don't work, you don't have health insurance either which means potentially being hit with crippling medical bills.

So yeah - let's shame women for working ...

@MintyGreenDream

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

Haaaaaaaaa!

Steel cut oats 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

@Embroidery

Muffins are definitely just pudding for breakfast. They are literally cakes. Cereal is fine. Cereal, (oats, wheat, rice) should be a bigger part of our diet. Applesauce has far more sugar than cereal.

I agree about most muffins.

But most cereal is also really like eating sugary cardboard - no nutritional value except the vitamins they sometimes add to make it seem healthy. Obviously things like oats, brown rice, etc are really healthy - but cereals in a box??? No.

I thought children needed carbohydrates for brain development?

Someone said cornflakes are healthy - No! They are extracted refined white cereal, with virtually no nutritional content but likely to push up glycaemic index - ie. bad for blood sugar control. I would not let a child eat them. Better to give them oats, porridge or some other form of whole grain cereal or whole grain bread.

It's not just the sugar.

Even without sugar a bowl of cereal is 100% carbs, which turn into sugar in the body.

Serving it with milk or yoghurt helps by giving some small amount of protein and calcium.

If I were raising a child I would give it milk, cream, live yoghurt with apple or pear or banana, or (best of all) scrambled eggs and tomatoes or cheese (or both) for breakfast.

As you’re in the US you aren’t being unreasonable. Can you find nurseries nearby that provide cooked breakfasts?

It makes me wonder how the older generation ever got old given the amount of rubbish they have consumed in their lives

Yes! I wonder this myself!

My grandparents all lived on :

Fry up every morning cooked in lard

Pasties/pies/chippy type things for lunches, maybe doorstep sandwiches filled with full fat real butter, beef and dripping, thick slices of cheddar etc

Cooked dinner every night usually a soup to start with. Then a meat and 2 veg type dinner, often something deep fried or roasted and a "proper" pudding every night usually sponge and custard type thing

Three of them lived well into their 80's, the one who died "young" at almost 70 died as a result of messed up lungs from serving in wwii in an area where toxic gases had been an issue.

They were all slim, fit and healthy too!

Makes me wonder if we're REALLY eating more healthily now?

I think a lot of the advice is incorrect eg low fat spread rather than real butter...

Hard to know

@Draggondragon WAY out of order!