Breakfast cereals for children?

[amyboo]

Just wondering if anyone has any ideas: DS (nearly 2) has seemingly got bored with his morning bowl of weetabix, and I don't really know what other cereal is low enough in sugar to give him (he has enough energy and really doesn't need more!). I'm not entirely anti-sugar, but I just know that a lot of cereals have hidden sugar and salt in them... He seems to really like my crunchy museli with dried fruits and I ended up giving him a bowl this morning. Is it OK to give small kids museli? I wasn't sure. He's not a huge fan of Cheerios, but will eat porridge. What others are OK to give him?

I'd like to carry on giving him cereal (rather than toast or fruit/yogurt) as he is addicted to both of those things and gets enough of them later in the day!

I give DS 22m those shredded wheat things with fruit in from sainsbo's. He also has cornflakes & rice krispies. Shreddies are popular too.

Not sure of sugar content but I think they're ok.

Not cereal but scrambled egg out the microwave - takes literally a minute

Ours have a rotation of:
porridge
muesli
weetabix
shreddies (not v often as they don't like them too much)
toast (although I can see that doesn't help you)
crumpets as a treat
coco pops (but the sugar isn't actually as hideous as some other cereals - you just need to spend half an hour reading the labels in the supermarket. I guess rice krispies might be a bit better)

I think the key with any meal is not to give them the same thing all the time, otherwise they go off it and then you're stuffed!

Ooh - thanks for the suggestions. Looks like I might be spending my lunch break reading cereal boxes! I think we got used to giving him the same thing every breakfast and he's just got bored. We often give him egg (in any form - he loves it!) for breakfast at the weekend, but during the week he's in creche full time, and often has an egg-based tea when we get home in the evening (he gets his main meal at lunchtime). So I'd rather avoid it as a breakfast option in the week....

We rotate:

bagels
toast with jam, choc spread, pate
weetabix with banana
shredded wheat with blueberries inside
cheerios with weetabix mixed together
eggs and bacon at weekends
they are not keen on ready brek really

Yes, good point, have you tried varying the toppings on the weetabix as well? eg fruit puree, agave nectar (tastes a bit like honey but from a plant), honey, banana or other fruit. Or maybe with yoghurt instead of milk etc? Our childminder heats the weetabix up sometimes as well, which her kids seem to love.

TheGoddessBlossom - love your idea of stuffing shredded wheat with blueberries, will have to try that!

You can buy Shredded Wheat stuffed with all sorts of things - you don't need to do it yourself! My DDs favourite are the apricot variety.

Mine have cheerios
Ds (7) with milk
Dd (5) without

Aahh, I was thinking that it was particularly clever to stuff them yourself!

Generally own brand cereals seem to have less sugar in them than the big brands - so we buy Tesco 'cheerios' & 'rice krispies'.

Mainly DD loves porridge - and she is usually a fussy eater but will eat a man-sized bowl of this if allowed. I throw in a few raisins. If I remember to soak the oats the evening before it's much faster to make.

weetabix normally with raisins on
porridge normally with honey
sainsburys own brand cheerios

and once in a blue moon weetos as a treat

Ready Brek. DS loves it and it has very good nutritional value.

DS gets to pick between

Shreddies
Cornflakes (which he thinks are the same as the crunchy nut his dad eats)
Cheerios
Rice Krispies Multigrain shape things.

He sometimes has porridge, weetabix or toast (with marmalade) as a treat, and he seems pretty happy with his options! He is 2.7 btw.

pretty much the same as everyone else here.. we have a standard "stock" of weetabix, rice krispies, ready brek and cornflakes. Weekends tend to vary slightly as we might have scrambled egg on toast, runny egg and soldiers, full cooked or even waffles with fruit on special days :)

We rotate those mini shredded wheats with raisins inside, muesli, supermarket own brand Cheerio type cereal, muffins or toast with butter, choc chip brioche (weekend treat), plain brioche, waffle, yoghurt, smoothie...
Some days DD1 (3.7) will eat two bowls of cereal and a muffin, the next day half a yoghurt.

We still give DD baby porridge (Organix/Plum Baby) as she seems to quite like it. It gets served with a handful of "Shreddies" (own brand) and a sprinkling of raisins, sometimes a couple of chopped dried prunes.

A friend of mine gives her twins porridge mixed with warmed fromage frais (Petit Filous) - I might try that myself as a way of keeping the fruitiness of the baby porridge but at less expense!

i was going to do a post asking this question, my 3yr old and 2yr old got bored of readibreak/weetabix a while ago and now have cheerios every day. i'm bored of cheerios so am trying shreddies, took me long enough to compare 2 boxes of cereal let alone more. then i got home and worried shreddies are too much fibre for them. i don't see why they can't have meusli, i have it most mornings so they often ask but it's not so easy for them to eat themselves and i've got 3 kids and myself to feed/help!

Another vote for Ready Brek here, we alternate between different flavours, original , chocolate or honey. Somtimes Weetos or toast.

We rotate between weetabix, porridge, muesli (ds1 loves it, and has done since age 2, i used to pick out the whole nuts, dd2 not so much) and supermarket own brand version of special K. They like bran flakes too, but dd2 poos too much if she eats them....
Dc choose dried fruit to have on them (sultanas, prunes, apricots, sometimes mango), or occasionally have fresh grapefruit.

Shredded wheat, the original version has no sugar. Also tesco's do an own brand puffed wheat with no sugar.

Special K (the plain one) and about to try All bran.

Pancakes!

Have just checked and shocked to see that Co op High fibre bran is:

carbohydrate (of which sugars) 15.1g per 100g

Plain Special K is 17g per 100g

On the bran cereal it is in the red segment and classed as high.I'm amazed at the amount of sugar in it!

To put into perspective though,Frosties have 37g per 100g

Anyone here done the research and able to identify the lowest sugar cereal (which doesn't negate that with high salt/fat)?

Good thread amyboo

DD 3.7 chooses between

Porridge with date syrup/raisins
Weetabix with Onken fruit yoghurt (haven't checked sugar content)
Bread & jam - she doesn't like toast

At weekends if her dad is home she will have a bit of his fry up - egg, mushrooms etc.

DS (2.3) would eat shredded wheat with raisins in every day i think, i get bored too. have only tried the kellogg's ones, we stock up when they're on offer!

he's gone off Weetabix and is a bit Meh about ready brek. loves cheerios though and has just discovered shreddies.