cheerios

[gingernutlover]

when did you start giving these. dd is 9 months and will not eat sloppy breakfast - she will nibble on toast and fruit and I wondered about giving her dry cereal or raisins etc. I thought things like corn flakes, shreddies, mini shredded wheats and cheerios - are these really bad for them?

[hotmama]

Cheerios are a good weaning food and a recommended by Annabel Karmel in her books.

Use the wholewheat, rice etc ones not the honey nut or choocy ones.

dd1 wouldn't eat them with milk on but would eat them dry - but surprisingly would eat them out of my bowl with milk on!

[gingernutlover]

lol hotmama

tried her with some today after lunch and she squealed with pleasure as I put them on her tray she's so cute at times

[sazhig]

I personally wouldnt give cheerios so early because of their high sugar content. But then I am paranoid mummy who avoided all refined sugars until very recently (he is 22 months now)

[jessicaandrebeccasmummy]

my jess did the same as yours hotmama!

Will be giving them to becky in a few months too!

[oops]

give them some proper food eg porrigde

[dewmeadow]

what about ready brek or weetabix?

[CorrieDale]

Wouldn't give Cheerios to DS for the same reason as Sazhig. And also because they're made by Nestle. As are shredded wheats and Shreddies. We give DS Sainsbury's own mini wheats and raisin wheats.

[NotQuiteCockney]

There are Heritage Os and similar from health food stores. DS2 went through a phase of only liking dry breakfasts, so ate a lot of (organic, health food store) cheerios, corn flakes and rice crispies.

They do have a bit of sugar in them, but generally not much. They are very practical if your LO has to eat breakfast in the pram while you rush somewhere.

[SoupDragon]

Cheerios have 21.5g of sugar per 100g of dry cereal so not great by any means! Having said that, I gave them to DS1 and 2 (albeit without checking the sugar content)

Shreddies have less (14.5g or so). Cornflakes are pretty good too. I used to give them dry cereal and a bottle of milk (which is, in effect, the same as a bowl of soggy cereal :o)

[NotQuiteCockney]

Whole Earth Cornflakes: 4g of sugar / 100g of cereal. Crispy Rice (I forget brand): 2 g of sugar / 30 g of cereal (to be fair, that company suck at nutritional labelling, one of their products has more than 30g of stuff per 30g, according to the label.)

I think the organic cheerios are worse than these, though.

[HarpsichordCarrier]

cheerios (or own brand equivalent and shreddies are fab for taking around as snacks in little boxes.

[FrannyandZooey]

Sainsburys do a raisin wheat / mini Shreddie type thing that has no added sugar or salt.

You can also get Peter Rabbit cornflakes with no s / s.

[ggglimpopo]

Here in France, o ne of the things that really really pisses me off is the breakfast cereaL You would think that chocolate ranks along protein and fruit as one of the main food groups. Cheerios are one of the least bad offenders. I also give dry rice krispies or weetabix in milk.

[Piffle]

I think cheerios are sugar infested shit and they are nestle too boot.
Cornflakes rice kripsies (you can get very good ones at health food shops with lower sugar and salt than supermarket brands)
Honestly my dd would not eat crunchy stuff until 18 mths.

[oops]

that was why i was suggesting porridge piffle.
breakfast cereal is a con and are all full of sugar and salt etc.
especially the ones aimed at children

[sazhig]

soupdragon - 21g per 100g (ie one 5th!) of sugar is a lot!! Thats the equivalent of 4 teaspoons. Thats far too much for me let alone a baby. What babies eat during their first years affects their tastes for life so eating augar laden foods will give them a sweet tooth. Not worth the risk imo, especially as dental services are so hard to find now.

[SoupDragon]

By "not so great" I meant it's not good rather than it's not a lot of sugar :o

[SoupDragon]

One year ion holiday in America I found the holy grail of cereals... unsweetened cheerios. I think it was an own brand (prob Publix) and was so out of place amongst the sugar frosted, artifically coloured cr*p elsewhere in the aisle!

[hotmama]

Do you know I never realised they were 'high' in sugar - I'm usually so strict about sugar etc. Dd1 has never had sweets etc - think I might need to check out other cereals althought she mostly has organic weetabix.

I eat the cheerios though.

[oops]

porridge porridge porridge!

[nowanearlyNicemum]

I'm with you gglimpopo, the french cereal selection is scandalous - it drives me nuts. dd currently has rice krispies, porridge or weetabix but she only seems to really enjoy the rice krispies :(

[gingernutlover]

OMG didn't mean to start an argument

well dd has been eating a handful for brekkie, not every day, she also has shreddies (own brand, not nestle) raisin wheats and toast. she will not eat porridge ready brek etc at breakfast time so has to have finger food and maybe the occasional yoghurt.

I did notice they have a lot of sugar but hopoefully if its not every day it wont nmatter too much

[gingernutlover]

Just a thought, when can I give baked beans and spaghetti hoops?

[oops]

btw bran flakes nd crunchy nut corn flakes have the same sar content, so how healthy is that?
all a con!!