DD won’t eat cereal

[mummymichelle33]

My DD is 15 months old and eats a wide variety of foods, but has never taken to cereal. She’s only tried weetabix so far but refuses to eat it every time! As a result she tends to have toast or porridge for breakfast, but I’d really like to get her eating cereal if I can, if only for the calcium content! Does anyone have any tips?

Neither of mine will eat cereal with milk on it but they'll eat a bowl full dry. I was the same as a child, wet soggy cereal/slop used to make me gag. They also like Weetabix spread with butter so it's more like toast!

flowerpootle, All Bran contains 18% added sugar, and also salt. It is definitely not as healthy as plain porridge.

can we stop saying it's all crap? It isn't. All bran is a great breakfast and milk provides calcium.

1. Even All Bran isn’t a great choice when you look at the breakdown.
2. I don’t think many children eat All Bran as their cereal choice.

If you look at what various countries have for breakfast, cereal isn’t the norm. Standard breakfast in Japan, for example, is usually savoury eg rice and miso soup.

I never ever liked cereal with milk!! Try giving it separately.

I buy a wheat cereal filled with fruit from Asda which has the fiber and less sugar but is still lovely and fruity. Kids eat it dry as well

I also avoid it though. Breakfast is usually eggs, porridge or yogurt with granola

Thanks everyone - I’m going to forget the cereal and stick to porridge, eggs, toast etc.

I've always hated cereal. It's like eating soggy cardboard. Nutritionally it's pretty crappy. There's so many other tastier, healthier things you can have for breakfast.

So its not all cereal, its just weetabix she doesn't like so far. Don't think it's that much of a problem.

@YelloYelloYello

can we stop saying it's all crap? It isn't. All bran is a great breakfast and milk provides calcium.

1. Even All Bran isn’t a great choice when you look at the breakdown.
2. I don’t think many children eat All Bran as their cereal choice.

Mine does. And loves porridge but not on a hot day. She doesn't always want toast, eggs, yoghurt. Cold fresh milk and cereal is a good breakfast choice (as long as not overly sugary). MN is a bit weird about food.

@mummymichelle33 are you giving her instant porridge/ready brek type porridge, or real porridge made with rolled oats? I always used to think that "proper" porridge took too long to make in the morning, but I recently discovered that if you soak the oats in the fridge overnight it literally only takes a couple of minutes. Much quicker.

@mummymichelle33

Thanks everyone - I’m going to forget the cereal and stick to porridge, eggs, toast etc.

I give them yogurt when I'm really busy. Plain yogurt with granola, nuts, seeds, fruits (freash, dried, canned, frozen, all goes!), wtv is in the house if you mash a bit of banana with it, there's no need for adding sugar

Shredded wheat and weetabix are the lowest sugar of the commercial cereals; I was surprised at even both All bran and shreddies having so much added sugar when I checked!

Worth trying both hot and cold, and with added fruit etc, before completely abandoning.

Eggs or Porridge both better though!

Cereal is a good cheap way to fill up my teenagers who eat me out of house and home! I wouldn't write it off just yet, she's still just a baby. Try cereal again in a few weeks maybe?

It sounds as though you're clued up about a healthy diet. I don't think any food needs to be demonised.

If you're rushing out of the house in the morning and want your dd to eat something quick and easy then (although there are some good suggestions on here) a bowl of cereal is fine. No need to rule it out as unhealthy.

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz

Make overnight oats if you want convenience. 5x small Tupperware tubs, a scoop of porridge in each, add some mashed fruit if she likes, lid on, leave in the fridge. Use one per day for 5 days.

This is what I used to do but I'd make it everyday weaning bowl with lid spoonful oats half milk half water. Microwave for one minute with lid on but open at a corner and it's perfect.

are you giving her instant porridge/ready brek type porridge, or real porridge made with rolled oats?

@LegoCaltrops I give her the Quaker Oats rolled oats porridge, made with whole milk and cooked on the hob - is that “real porridge”? It takes about 12 minutes to make including cooling down time. The instructions don’t mention anything about soaking the oats though!

@mummymichelle33 soaked oats is a different way of making oats. Instead of boiling in the hob, you leave them overnight in the fridge with milk and other add ons. Google overnight oats used to do it when DD1 was a baby

Don't worry about the calcium in calcium in cereal, the added calcium isn't really accessible anyway.

If you're giving the 300 ml of full fat Cow's Milk a day they're already getting enough

There's a recipe for overnight oats here OP

@BunnyRuddington

There's a recipe for overnight oats here OP

That's a nice recipe

I do remember seeing recipes for "carrot cake", chocolate wtv, banoffee......

Apparently is more nutritious than boiling it!

Somedays I bake it like a porridge cake

Those saying cereal is terrible, it is actually fortified with a number of things such as iron and folic acid. I think for a young child, cereal is probably actually a better option than porridge.

Try her with something else other than weetabix. I don't like weetabix. It's rank. Anything that's not sugar coated like frosties or coco pops is fine.

Thanks @BunnyRuddington - I might try that to save time in the mornings!

@Jailbreak42

Those saying cereal is terrible, it is actually fortified with a number of things such as iron and folic acid. I think for a young child, cereal is probably actually a better option than porridge.

Try her with something else other than weetabix. I don't like weetabix. It's rank. Anything that's not sugar coated like frosties or coco pops is fine.

There are plenty of nutritious breakfasts that contain vitamins naturally, and aren't laced with sugar.

I'd much rather my kids didn't eat cereal. Sugary, processes shite, apart from Wheatabix and homemade porridge. What's wrong with brown toast?

When I had a B&B a lot of American guests had orange juice on their cereal. Maybe try that?