Help with breakfast for 2 1/2 year old dd....

[returningstress]

She only eats a small amount of breakfast. She used to eat weetabix everyday for about a year and a half. Then porridge for a little while, but now will not eat either.

Sometimes she eats peanut butter on toast or boiled eggs, but she cannot have eggs everyday and they take lnger to make. And I have recently bought her chocolate weeteos 9which I really didnt want to) but she only eats a small amount of them. And the same with Frosties.

Please give suggestions.

Also she has started having cheese sandwich as there is nothing else she wants in the morning...

My 23 month old DD has bran flakes with banana and sultanas.

Every day.

(we've tried lots of other things but she won't have them - they go through these phases...)

my ds is a nightmare at breakfast
doesn't drink milk
hates toast

I have resorted to making pancakes which he has with lemon and sugar. I reassure myself he is atleast getting some protein .

How about cheese on toast, fruit yoghurt and muesli type thing?

Nowt wrong with a cheese sandwich.

Have you tried different breads like pitta, muffins, bagels etc

Pancakes? Different and exciting things in porridge? Yoghurt? Fruit? DD likes shreddies. It's toast for pixies you know. And cheerios are hula hoops for gnomes. And weetabix are rafts for elves. And cornflakes are shredded sunshine.

My mother told me never to play with my food. It backfired.

Perhaps everything is OK so long as she is eating something (and she is eating pretty well at the other meals).
My now 5 yr old only ate half of a weetabix for ages at about that sort of age. And my 20 month eats a few shreddies and maybe has some cut up fruit.
Perhaps she does not have a huge appetite at that time in the morning. Keep on offering breakfast (lots of little portions of things) and see how it goes?

I have also resorted to homemade flapjacks as well.
There is a recipe somewhere for breakfast bars with al sorts of good things in them but I haven't been able to find it.

DD loves oatabix with cranberries or sultanas and fruit.

Or toast with a thin spread of marmite

Cheerios are a staple breakfast for quick nursery run days here but assume you've probably tried them.

Days when we're at home she usually has yoghurt and berries.

berries a favourite here as well

a cheese sandwich is a good breakfast

there is nothing wrong with an egg aday, we always have an egg for brekkie
my son also loves crumpets with marmite on, they are squidy and interesting to eat.

or little drop pancakes with jam or chocolate spread on. and a banana

frosties are awful in weight terms they are 37% sugar, and have little fibre.

also it takes my son over an hour to eat breakfast, he has it in stages as he can't manage it all at once.

in the winter he used to have a one egg ham and cheese omlette, really easy and very quick, and smells appertizing too.

i try to vary it as much as possible too, i find he gets bored if i give him same after same.

or what about eggy bread with honey? thats good and easy to eat. will fill her up too

Thank you for all the replies...

I have tried eggy bread before, dd didnt eat very much of that eiter but will try it again...

The only fruit she will eat is banana, and she has that at nursery when the children are eating fruit.

She wont eat omkettes, I dont know why as she likes all other types of ggs.

But there are a few god ideas here for me to try...

I have even thought about chocolate spread on toast or bread, but feel guilty about it...

poaching eggs is much quicker and lovely all chopped up on toast cut into little bits. eggs are a great food, i'm convinced my kids are strong coz of them. scrambled eggs with ham is also quick and light but tasty. when not on growth spurt they often have a smaller appetite. don't forget a child's portion should be the size of their fist, that is the size their stomach. don't worry too much about it, they eat what they need.

Please dont resort to sweet things to make her eat.
There are plenty of cereals she can have that dont have the sugar of chocolate weetos or frosties.
Try potato cakes or bagels or toast or shreddies or shredded wheat or cheerios or just ham and cheese

DD similar age - cheerios cheerios cheerios - but now adding shreddies or rice crispies to the cheerios for a little variety with raisins

as many other posters have said, toddlers go through phases of wanting the same thing over and over.

try croissants with cheese spread inside - yummy

also if you get your DD to help make her breakfast she may eat more of it and more variety - i am doing this now and its really working.

Smoothies are good too - Innocents are fab and also the Ella's kitchen ones they are purees for 4m+ but are tasty DD can drink it straight form the pouch so she thinks its fun....or make your own with bananas plus another fruit, she can put it all in the blender and help.

oh eggy bread - a friend gave me the tip to add a little cinnamon to it - so I did, and DD ate it all!

When we run out of ideas we have a recipe called choconana (not as exciting as it sounds).

Wholegrain toast spread with nutella and cut into little squares. Each square is topped with a slice of banana and makes a little mouthful.

Looks a bit more interesting on the plate.

don't do sugar in her food to make her eat, maybe she's not a breakfast person. DS will eat as much as me for breakfast, but doesn't do lunch

Keep offering healthy cereal/toast/eggs - don't do anything special

Rice crispies aren't sweetened too much, I think.

If you want to try gimmicks to get the cereal or milk down what about a drop of food colouring - DD loves to drink pink milk, unsurprisingly.

Or there are some cereal bars that are not as bad as the others. The Dorset ones are sweetened with agave nectar which must be more nutritious than sugar, though they are still sweet. And there are some ones called Nakd that are sweetened with dates and other fruit. Those ones are also small so if your DD isn't keen on breakfast she may still manage one of these. The advantage of these is that they can be eaten on the run if necessary, either outside or, if the problem is really that your DD doesn't want to sit at a table at that time of day, she can decorate your floor with her crumbs.

'Breakfast ice-cream' goes down well here too: freeze a chopped up banana overnight, then let it melt slightly before pureeing it with some plain yoghurt and a drizzle of maple syrup if you want.

Or, lastly, what about bircher meusli, where you soak the oats in yoghurt overnight so they soften. Then just add grated apple and some raisins in the morning to sweeten.

Hope some of these help.

Or homemade muffins? Do a batch at the weekend and freeze them. Savoury ones just as nice as sweet ones.

good idea thereistheball - i did not know you could freeze muffins.

Ds has cheerios, english muffins, cinnamon and raisin bagels. hot cross buns, crumpets, toast, rolls (sometimes warmed in oven)

What about crumpets like this

ps you might want to miss ou teh chilli depending on her tastes

What about banana loaf? [http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/9960/banana-breakfast-loaf recipe here ]]

Or potato scones bought or like this Ds loves them (w/o teh cheese and bacon unfortunately]]

banana loaf