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

I was scorned by some friends for giving DD (nearly 2 at the time) Sugar Puffs for breakfast when we all went on holiday together. But then we looked at the nutritional data on the back of the packets (they were giving their kids unsweeted Ricicles) it turned out that their kids were getting an awful lot more salt in the unsweetened cereal compared to the sweet stuff. Boy, did I feel smug. But I didn't say so, honest. I'd rather DD had a bit of sugar (she is v underweight and needs the calories, frankly) than all that salt.

YABU, imo, sorry! Cheerios are 21g sugar per 100g - thats over 20% sugar. Put it another way - every fifth spoonful you eat is pure sugar. No way are they the healthy option.

I wouldn't give them to my ds. He's nearly 4 and usually has porridge and honey for breakfast. There is a big difference between natural sugars found in fruit and vegetables and refined processed sugar found in cereal, sweets, muffins whatever. The former has a part in a balanced diet. The latter is the reason there is an obesity problem. Your children do not NEED it. As an occasional treat, ok. As part of their daily diet, no way!

these threads make me feel so rebellious

Don't be daft! Of course they are ok!
It's moderation that counts as with all food stuffs and cleaning her teeth well.
Don't feel bad!!!

A nice alternative though is what I give my charges in the morning..weetabix and a chopped up banana. The little one faffs around so as long as every spoonful has a banana on it, I know that he has eaten a good breakfast.

I have 2 objections to over-sweetened cereal firstly they only seem to fill you up for about 30 minutes and secondly I read somewhere (and it's stuck in my brain without me ever checking if it's true or not, in fact I could have even read it on here) that if you have something overly sweet for breaskfast then you will have a tendancy to over indulge in sweet things during the day. Another problem being is that you should really eat breakfast like a king it's a very odd thing in UK that we have a bowl of sweetened cereal to set ourselves up for the whole day and then eat a cooked suppper before we go to bed and lie sedentary for 8 (I wish) hours.

Saying all that I really miss Count Chocula which I used to be allowed when I was a child and went on holiday to US.

Also how can you have unsweetened ricicles, ricicles by defintion have a sugar coating!

It can be easier feeding weetabix/porridge and banana to 3 or 4 yr old. As they get older they see what else is out there and can be a lot more vocal about what they want.

They can but even my teenagers still have what is known as weekend cereal which is the less good stuff so long as they have good stuff throughout the week...it is just that moderation thing

how on earth do bran flakes have so much sugar?? 21%

I agree with mrspoppins re moderation. My dd has porridge (sweetened with a bit of jam because she won't eat it otherwise), unsweetened Weetabix, (co-op) Shreddies, Corn Flakes and Oatibix. I would give her Cheerios, maybe once or twice a week, but I can only find the honey ones here. She likes porridge but if I gave it to her every day she'd soon get bored. Variety and moderation I say!

Yes, Frosties etc are for half term when I take them shopping with me and let them choose their own sweet crap. They enjoy the holiday slob out with unregulated bedtimes, trashy food and full TV priviliges. As a result, my requests for occasional peace and quiet are usually met. Win-win.