Breakfast cereals dilemma

[rb1992]

Hi all,

I've been looking for breakfast cereals for kids that aren't full of sugar / other bad stuff - I know there are a couple of threads out there from a few years back but wanted to see if there were any updated suggestions

There's nothing I can see that my kids would necessarily jump at - don't like the idea of eating boring options like porridge or Shreddies, naturally they love Frosties and Coco Pops. I've seen AlphaBites by the same people who do Bear Snacks - has anyone tried them?

Any other recommendations would be really useful :) My kids love the idea of cereal - trying to find something they'll love the idea of eating but which isn't terrible for them

Weetabix do Weetos. Lower in sugar and fortified.
Shreddies are yummy but made by Nestle so that’s a shame.
What’s wrong with cornflakes?
TBH, I don’t see much wrong with a bowl of any cereal...rather than them not eat any breakfast.
As long their diet is balanced and they’re not eating sugar all day long, a bowl of crunchy nut or coco pops isn’t going to hurt them.

We only try and have the low sugar options in apart from Shreddies which mine love and I think they're pretty sweet. Oatibix, oatibix flakes with sultanas. rice pops, and unsweetened muesli. AlphaBites are a bit cardboardy in my opinion, my DC didn't like them much. They also like fullfat plain greek yoghurt with fruit, honey or spoon of berry jam stirred in.

Been feeding my little nephews for a couple of years now. We just use plain cornflakes. The trick is to jazz it up with cut up fresh fruits (seasonal berries, banana, apples are their favs) and also dried fruits. Drizzle a bit of honey too. They aboslutely love it!

For myself, I eat the plain cornflakes with dried fruits and set yoghurt. Drizzle with honey

Would they eat oats and raisins.

We currently have 🙄

Clusters
Golden Crunchy Bran
Crunchy Bran
Grape Nuts

My kids are 15 and 13.

puffed wheat is lovely with yogurt and fruit

I don't know why anyone needs sweets for breakfast. Just buy some of the low sugar ones (cornflakes, rice crispies, porridge, wheetabix) and offer those only. You seem to think they are missing out on something nice by not getting the cocopops etc. But you could say that about any meal. Make meals about real food and treats can still be treats.

Lots of muslie and granola recipes online, you could try making your own.

Ds has bitesize shredded wheat. Sometimes I add raisins to sweeten it up a bit for him. Otherwise depsite being chocolatey I found weetos weren't too bad and are quite low in salt too.

Oh and yes I tried Alpha Bites. Quite expensive a reminded me a bit of cheerios. I actually used them dry for a snack to use them up as DS didn't seem to like them. However he is really only happy with the exact same breakfast each morning so could be more down to that than taste.

*and reminded

D'oh!

The only two that aren't high in sugar are shredded wheat (not shreddies) and weetabix.all others very sugary including things like cornflakes and bran flakes. Cereal is a pretty rubbish breakfast to be honest. I think it's a marketing con!

Verbena37 what's wrong with Nestle?

My dc didn't like alphabites either.

Greek yog is a good idea

Mine just have any cereal-I just draw the line at lucky charms except for birthdays & Christmas

Oat cheerios are low in sugar. Ready Brek with a squeeze of honey is also good. We also have weetabix, corn flakes and rice crispies all without anything sweet added.

We like Alphabites. I much prefer the cocoa flavour ones to the multigrain. The milk tastes really nice at the end.
I'm no connoisseur, but I can't taste the difference between own brand Shreddies and branded ones, so you can side step the Nestlé issue.

We have Unicorn Fruit Loops. My 5 year old begged to buy them with her Christmas money (I brought them).

She eats a pretty healthy diet, is very active and chooses apples over chocolate. I don’t think anything in moderation should be vilified. She’ll go back to cornflakes, weetabix or porridge when the box is done.

UNICORN FRUIT LOOPS???

What is this magic sounding cereal you speak of??

What about porridge made with a spoon of Nesquik chocolate powder and cold milk? Or a spoon of nutella in hot porridge. It makes a substantial, healthy and inexpensive breakfast more attractive.

I think cereals are one of the reasons kids get so hungry at school mid morning. Too much sugar and not enough fat and protein.. Why not give them something that keeps them going for a bit longer, like a German breakfast with cheese, cold meats and decent bread. Or an egg.

DD likes porridge made with apple juice and a few frozen berries. So sweetened, but not with sugar.

I think wheatabix, is fine without sugar if you've never had it with sugar. I'm perfectly happy with it as are the DC, but DH was brought up with sugar sprinkled on top so doesn't like the taste of it plain.

Having said that, sometimes it's worth doing the maths for the actual amount of sugar per actual bowl. There was some hysteria a few months ago about sugary cereals having horrific amounts of sugar per 100 g. Which is true. Except that most children probably have a third of that 100g at a time so not as much sugar as we are sometimes led to believe. Cocoa pops are a long way from being a health food, but nor are they single handedly responsible for the obesity crisis. By and large, imho the sugar kids eat during the rest of the day is a bigger problem.

I got unicorn fruit loops for my DD’s birthday
They are essentially massive highly coloured cheerios.

Porridge with berries here. Or cinnamon or fresh fruit.

Nothing boring about porridge.

Mine just put a bit of sugar (half a teaspoon) on weetabix or shreddies, we don't have any sugary cereals in the house.

Rice crispies are rice literally coated in sugar - don't be fooled thinking it's just rice!

As far as I remember Alphabites aren't fortified (something to do with wanting to appeal to those who hate all things "additive" or "unnatural", even if there are demonstrable health benefits). That's a massive downside in my book, if I'm remembering that correctly.