to feed my 2yo cheerios?

[GetDownYouWillFall]

I always thought they were a relatively good choice, healthy etc.
Then this morning I had a bowl myself and realised they are really sweet.

Are they too sweet for a 2yo? Feel a bit bad now and slightly regretful at not feeding her unsweetened porridge

The General Mills Cheerios are a lot less sweet than Nestle ones. Tried them as thought they were the healthier option but ended up putting honey on top as they were quite bland. Back to Nestle.

What's with the Nestle thing? Why so unpopular?

I think it has something to do with pushing formula in the developing world or something.

My 1, 3 and 4 yr old eat them.

DS1 used to eat these, DS2 on the other hand eats muller rice for breakfast and loves it.

Within reason (and within an average child's relatively healthy diet) let them have all that kind of stuff now - there's no way they'll want to eat it when they are older!!

I buy Asda/Tesco own brand cheerios (cheaper than brand name, and I avoid Nestle). DD has had them since she was about two and seems fine (she's 8).
I find them sweet, but then I don't have a sweet tooth at all.
She much prefers sweet cereal, in fact wonl;t eat unsweetened so I let her have it.
As part of a balanced diet I see no harm.

ForestFire.

What does:
Oisopy
email

actually mean, and what relevance does it have to Cheerios?

LOL, Guttersnipe.

I am with you on all counts!

Cheerios, or actually tesco own brand loops, are the only thing ds 2.10 yrs will eat, though not with milk just dry.

He's turned into such a fussy eater and now has no milk at all or cheese or yoghurt very occaisionally, only eats certain things, don't know what to do....

But, if she'll eat it then what's the harm there are better things she could eat but there are also a lot worse. As long as she eats relatively healthily it's fine.

I have lovely dreams of all my kids eating a bowl of porridge with homemade fruit puree in the morning, but no chance.

My DD3 and DS2 eat cheerios all the time - the plain ones are quite sweet as they are coated in honey (as opposed to the actual Honey ones)

The only cereal I don't give them (apart from Frosties and the like)are Rice Krispies since I discovered that they are really quite high in salt.

DD3 turned her nose up at Cheerios recently and asked for some grapes instead - Hurrah! (cue big smug moment) But then it turned out she had Chickenpox and was just ill - as soon as the spots cleared up, so did her wholesome taste and we were back to kiddy cereals with a vengeance - Boo!

unsweetened porridge is probably the best thing for child or adult. but i often give my 18 month old a few cheerios while the porridge is cooking!

I think they are particularly disgusting, so on that ground I wouldn't give them to my children. I remember going on holiday with my sister once and buying a multipack of cereals and getting really told off about it because her children didn't eat sweet breakfast cereal (sugar high apparently), and then getting very peeved when she went out and bought Cheerios instead. Having said that her children did eat about 4X as much breakfast as my two, so I suspect our concerns were different (I've always found them to be more difficult when they were low on energy than post sweet things).

I am a little skeptical about US cereals having less sugar than UK ones. When we lived in the States getting ordinary (ie non full of chocolate/marshmallow etc) cereals was tricky - there were huge sections of many varieties of the sweet and coloured stuff and then a tiny section for "healthy" cereals. But my children like Weetabix and Shreddied Wheat and thought that things like Lucky Charms, Cookie Crisp and Reese's Peanut Butter Puffs were horrible, so perhaps they are just a bit weird

According to the General Mills web site, plain Cheerios have 100 calories per 28g, and apparently 1g of sugars (although there is apparently also 1g in the smaller serving of 21g). According to the Nestle site plain Cheerios have 21.3g of sugars, but that is for 100g of cereal (so the UK cereal would have about 7g of sugars per serving).

Waitrose own brand shreddies and cheerios have much less sugar than the branded ones (and poss salt, too) - the cheerios option even featured as a much better option on that C4 documentary last autumn about how much sugar and salt was in well-known foods.

I, too, was surprised at the sweetness of UK Cheerios. Tesco had them on a 2-for-1 offer recently so I bought them. They've got a sugar glaze on them- completely unexpected when you're used to the US version.

I might have a look at some own-brand versions, perhaps they aren't as sweet.

Also, to those saying so, yes, I understand we all need some sugar in our diets. However, smuggling it into breakfast cereal when it isn't really adding to the flavour just doesn't seem to make sense to me. I didn't feel like I was enjoying the cereal any more than the version with far less sugar, so why bother having it in there? If I wanted sugar-coated cereal, I'd buy Frosties.

scanty Mumsnet support the Nestle boycott. You can read about why by following the link on the homepage.

Asda's own aren't too sweet but Tesco's own are. Or maybe the other way round I give a handful of them to 2.10 DS dry as sweets. This inevitably means that 11mth old DS steals one or two

I'm not mad keen on these cereals, less because of the sugar, and more because of the processed-ness of them. The more natural you can keep food, the better, I think, even if the processed food does have added vitamins.

But IMO a bit of sugar doesn't hurt. My dd and dsd most often request porridge made with mashed banana in it and a bit of honey on top, and I consider that to be pretty healthy.

But most days they end up having cornflakes or toast because it's quicker...

I put with a weetabix (sorry more nestle )so they're not quite such a high sugar percentage

Nothing wrong with cheerios in moderation (like everything), DS's preference of choice this week is coco pops. There are healthier things in the world and he eats those as well, so no worries.

Are you sure Weetabix is Nestle??

I saw something on TV once that basically said the most important thing is getting you're child to eat breakfast and that they carry this on to adulthood, whether its toast, cereal, egg whatever. Eating a meal in the morning is very important.

Weetabix are made by Weetabix Limited not Nestle.

Feel not so now thanks! I used to eat Frosties.....

overmydeadbody - don't worry about my ds getting enough fat, he loves his chips dipped in mayonnaise and nutella sandwiches, the true belgian baby that he is.