Breakfast.. What do your kids eat?

I am in a breakfast rut for my girls! They are 16 months, love their solids, and of course haven't mastered (not even close) utensils. We've been rotating through three different breakfasts: scrambled eggs, toast cubes with butter and jam (they are underweight btw) and fruit, pancakes or waffles with yogurt, and oatmeal with fruit. I recently started the oatmeal but have to remove it from our rotation because the girls have developed a little rash on their face after eating it (same thing happened when they were 7 or 8 months old). So now what? I'm curious what other people are feeding their similarly aged kids... I just need more ideas!! Anyone feeding cold cereal? Are they ready for that?... what else?...

 

It's boring here, but the only thing I don't have to change because it's the only meal they will eat every time. Mostly pancakes, french toast or waffles with fruit, and occasionally some cheese or sausage, plus cheerios. I just try to get stuff with whole grain and some proteins. They don't even let us feed them anything so we can't do oatmeal and yogurt.

 

It sounds to me like you have a good range of breakfast options there. My kids used to like cold cereal with milk but then decided they just liked cold cereal. They like milk, they like cereal but they don't like it together. They love to have fruit in the morning, so they will get that & sippy of milk w/ carnation instant breakfast, we also rotate between waffles, eggs, pancakes.

 

At that age I used to do yogurt with cereal mixed in - it is really good practice for using a spoon (yes, it does make a mess, but mine learnt pretty quickly how to use a spoon from that). I also so toast but with different toppings (honey, almond butter, butter, jam, cheese). I do oatmeal with raisons and cinnamon, and oatmeal with apples. I also do plain cereal, as well pancakes. I can't do any eggs as DD is allergic to them. So I rotate between about 5 things and mine seem happy enough with that!

Good luck!

 

Your selection sounds just like mine. It's hard to get a big breakfast selection and I think yours is great. Mine LOVE waffles and pancakes and could eat them every meal of the day. We ao fruit with breakfast all the time. Actually we do fruit with every meal because they do not drink juice.

 

we just do an oatmeal mix w/yogurt mixed in. I load the spoons and place them in front of the kids, and they can bring the loaded spoon to their mouths pretty good. after they finish this, I'll give them cut up fruit. we're pretty boring, but it works. your selection sounds nice.

i did find that the oatmeal (thick) was the easiest way to get them to learn to use a spoon since everything stays on the spoon pretty good.

 

we have a lot of "on the go" type breakfasts, since they usually are eating as we are dressing them and getting them ready for daycare. they have nutrigrain bars (they love the strawberry yogurt kind), cheese crackers, peanut butter crackers sometimes, mini waffles, toast or cheese toast, a banana, apple, stuff they can carry around and eat. on the weekends, they might have sausage or bacon(they love those mini sausages), toast, cheese, fruit, they really dont care for eggs.

 

cereal bars, frozen waffles or pancakes, cereal, toast, bagels (but that might not be age appropriate at this point, I can't remember),eggs, french toast/french toast sticks, fruit, cream of wheat. Nobody says you have to give only "breakfast foods" at that time either. You can try leftovers from dinner or crackers and cheese, etc. We get into ruts around here too. It's always nice to here what others are giving to get some other ideas.

 

We are in a rut because Max is allergic to cow's milk. butter/margerine, and cheese (even soy cheese has milk protien in it). So here are meals that rotate every three or four days:

Breakfast: dry cereal, dry toast, homemade soy waffles with our without peanut butter, and scrambled eggs made with soy butter. All are served with a fruit.

Lunch or Dinner: chicken, breaded cod, and turkey dogs. All served with veggies and fruit.

Snacks: animal crackers, dry cereal, or crackers. They also get three sippy cups of soy milk between meals through out the day along with water.

You would not believe how many thinks have milk, butter or cheese in them and add a picky eater to the mix makes it more difficult. We tried beef, but our ped. told us many kids who are allergic to dairy have issue with beef and Max just refuses to eat it. So I keep hoping one day we can break the rotation.

 

Breakfast is a tough one for us. We do a lot of cereal bars, waffles, pancakes, toast, or muffins. We do the same things over & over. They don't seem to want to each much at breakfast & since we're in a hurry to get out the door to daycare, I just stick with the stuff I know they will eat.

 

For breakfast I pretty much alternate between:
scrambled eggs wich cheese
french toast
pancakes (I make them with banana so they can eat them plain)
waffles with cream cheese or yogurt
bagel

and then I pair it with sides, like fruit, a banana, oatmeal, co-co wheats, cream of wheat, toast with jelly

So it's pretty much a random combination, with 5 main food options that we rotate between. Breakfast is our best meal. It's the rest of the day I have trouble with. I'm tried of alternating between fish sticks, chicken nuggets, mac & cheese, PB&J, grilled cheese and pasta. At least for breakfast, alternating between a few options seems normal to me. But I feel like only 4 or 5 staples for lunch and dinner is not enough variety. But they just don't eat anything else.

 

My boys are barely one and I find that I'm in a food rut a lot. I want to introduce new things and rotate so they don't get bored too. So far we've gotten around to:
French toast/french toast sticks(two pieces of french toast with jelly/jam in between)
Eggs
Bagel(different flavors w and w/out cream cheese)
Oatmeal with applesauce and cinnamon
Yogurt and fruit
Toast

We're going to try English Muffins and Omelets sometime too. I'm having more of a hard time coming up with things for lunch ... seems like we're always eating grilled chesse or chicken noodle soup! Hopefully I gave you some ideas!

 

We do pretty much the same as everyone else..... I usually add pieces of fruit to the following: yogurt, cheerios, cereal bars, oatmeal, apple jacks, and one of their favourites is mini-wheats soaked in milk...they like to suck out the milk and then eat them....I tend to save waffles, pancakes, & toast for lunch as right now breakfast isn't one of their biggest meals...

 

I think what you are doing is great. We do exactly what you do - sometimes I add in some baked beans, some mornings they will have cheerios/ rice crispies/wheatabix with milk and a sprinkle of sugar - but really I am happiest when they have an egg with toast! So that's what they get most mornings followed by fruit.

 

We do oatmeal [with apple sauce or yogurt], toast, pancakes, french toast, waffles, fruit, muffins [mini muffins or I bake them that morning]. Meh, that's usually about it for us ^_^

 

I tend to prefer "Wheat-a-bix" cereal, here in Australia they have one for kids which is fortified. It is a "Wholegrain" cereal (the first ingredient should say Whole grain). I mix it with a bit of milk, and some yogurt. The yogurt is a natural type with very low sugar content. I find giving this first thing in the morning I know that this will keep them regular with bowel movements. When they go to daycare I put it into a container and set them up with the food there and they eat away.

heather

 

we did weetabix and shredded wheat with milk while they were still letting us feed them. these days they want to do breakfast by themselves so we do toast with butter or peanut butter, and bagels with cream cheese (broken up into small pieces, of course). once they've gotten over the initial hunger and will let me offer a spoon i give them 4% milkfat cottage cheese with diced fruit mixed in. and there's usually a banana split between them for finger food as well.

 

breakfast is the best in our house, kids are well rested, eat the most and have fun with it! I am swiss so I am serving the following:

- hash browns, the one in the big freezer bag, or hash brown patties (these are real easy and fast to make)
- egg with a bit of milk in microwave with melted cheese
- english muffins, slightly toasted with butter
- cheerios with milk or sometimes they just love them plain
- now and then I do breakfast sausage links, but they don't always like them
- applesauce mixed with yoghourts
- NEW BIG HIT: especially now it's cool in am, they looooove the lipton noodle soop !!! it warms their heart and it's good for them, look out, especially with cold season starting, I am happy they like soup!

I usually do the applesauce/yoghourt towards end of breakfast because it fills them up, also, in the end, I add some fruit, whatever I have ready for their pm snack anyways.

oh, and my kids get about 3oz of milk and 1/3 of banana right when they wake up, that gives them something in stomach until breakfast time.

I started introducing all that at about 17 months of age, for the utensils, I would just put the spoon and fork out, they would just play with it in beginning and then slowly they get it. my son only eats with utensils, he will not touch food with hands, unless it's fingerfood. my daughter still likes her hands and uses utensils in between.

because breakfast is easy with them, I sometimes do even dinner similar to breakfast, it's a win win !

GL

 

If you want to try another hot cereal, you can buy spelt or rye flakes (try a natural foods or bulk store) and see whether that doesn't give the rash. Or shredded wheat (the big ones) with warm milk..let them sit till they soak up the milk, and add fruit, jam, syrup if you want to sweeten.

Cheese is another good thing for extra protein in the morning.

 

thanks everyone! I started cheerios or similar in yogurt last week and they love it! They give themselves some pretty funny yogurt hairstyles too!! I also bought cream of wheat and have been dicing bits of fruit to mix in as a sweetener (and fiber booster). They are doing okay with this one as well. I have lots and lots of ideas now and will be heading to the grocery store later today.... wonder what we'll try next! It's really helpful to see what others are feeding their LO's with success.... Thanks so much! I hope this thread has helped others get out of their rut as well!!

 

I didn't get to read everyone's responses so this may be a repeat, but at home we do a rotation of Cheerios, waffles and pancakes with either fruit or yogurt. At daycare it is a rotation of cheerios, waffles, pancakes, english muffins (with peanut butter), bagels (with strawberry cream cheese) and every once in a while pop tarts. I have done cereal bars when in a hurry and I keep attempting grits and oatmeal but haven't had any takers on those. They also split a banana each morning when they wake up which is about 30 minutes before breakfast. So, not too much variety here, but they love breakfast so it hasn't been an issue.

 

definitely! this is a great thread. i'm going to do hash browns this weekend.

i made organic whole wheat banana pancakes last weekend. refrigerated a week's worth and froze the rest. i made them small so i've been popping them into the toaster in the morning and then i spread a little peanut butter on top.

believe it or not, these were my first pancakes made from scratch ever. i've always been more of a cold breakfast person so it's not something i would do for myself, normally. i had no idea they're so simple. makes me wonder why i ever bought the mix in a box!

 

A good way to make the yogurt and applesauce less messy and work on their speech skills is to poke a straw into the package and let them drink it or put it in a straw sippy cup Mine love this!

 

Mine wont eat solids (though DS will have a go) so mine are on either just yogurts or yogurt with bananas & cereal mixed in. I try to vary the flavour so they may get pear and/or fresh orange in with that. They also drink a full cup of milk.