[caz411]

Seriously?!

What about good old fashioned discipline? This is breakfast. Either eat it or don't. But if you don't you don't get anything else until the next allocated meal time. He's 3. He's old enough to understand. And if he misses a couple breakfasts along the way, so what? He won't starve.

And to answer the original question, there is no way on earth I would consume an up and go, much less feed it to a child. It's full of sugar, fat, and highly processed additives. We're humans, not machines. I find the idea of consuming a processed elemental slurry disgusting and objectionable. Don't believe the marketing. It's NOT the equivalent of two weet bix and milk, unless it counts if you take the weet bix and milk to a chemist, get them to deconstruct it into its constituent parts, add it back together and add sugar and artificial flavours. Yuck.

Oh, and I think commercial flavoured yogurt is gross and the devils food as well :-)

Wow MsN, judge much?
Are you seriously dissing the parenting of another EB member? Are you implying the OP (and anyone else in the same predicament) is spoiling their child by not being the iron rod of discipline you seem to think we all should be?

Sure, if my child refuses to eat his dinner I'm very firm on the "there is nothing else" rule, but he has had all day to eat and is probably full anyway. Breakfast, on the other hand, is different. It really is a break-fast, your kids haven't eaten for some time (for mine it can be 12 hours!) and they need SOMETHING. It's different if you've tried and they flat out refuse to eat anything, but IMO it's beholden on me as a parent to try to find something my child will eat. If I make him wait until morning tea he gets cranky and irritated because he is hungry

Oh and not to mention the other judgemental citizens you'll come across who think you are a bad parent because you didn't feed them.

Whether the OPs 3 year old child is old enough to understand is a matter for her consideration, not yours. I certainly know my just turned 4 year old would not understand being made to starve until a time I felt was appropriate to permit him to eat, just because I was ticked off that he wouldn't eat the first thing I offered for breakfast. Yes, IMO you need discipline and order, but there is such a thing as TOO much. And it's pointless to use such decisive discipline as you suggest if they are not going to understand it - you'll just confuse and upset them and worsen the situation.

Parenting nowadays is difficult enough, and we give ourselves enough guilt trips without you attempting to add to our guilt, thank you very much.

OP - as long as you aren't feeding your child a cup full of sugar and a pound of fat for breakfast, cut yourself a break.

Okay, rant over.

My top suggestion though is to try not to do the same thing more than two days in a row - they get bored of it. DS has ASD so you'd think he'd like the same thing every day (routine and all), but he actually hates it.

But IMHO, the best thing you can do for a picky eater is to sit down with them at breakfast and eat with them. There's nothing like modelling proper behaviour. It's very hard to do, because we are so busy in the morning, and a lot of us having bad food practices ourselves.

Since few of us have the technical knowledge or the time to make yoghurt from scratch, feel free to buy the commercial stuff. Kids need at least three serves of calcium a day, and yoghurt is one of the recommended sources. Lactose intolerant? - try soy yoghurt (actually tastes alright), and I believe there is now lactose free yoghurt (if it is not already on the shelves it will be soon). I did buy a yoghurt maker, and have made it for DS, but really most of the kids yoghurts have extra calcium and are actually quite reasonable in their fat and sugar content so I can't see the point in making yoghurt regularly.

One thing I have done is make homemade, healthy, mini muffins. They have oats and real apple in them, so make a pretty healthy breakfast or even snack food. I can give you the recipe if you like - its' almost totally fat free because you use apple puree instead of butter/oil/margarine. I freeze some of them and can always pull one out and thaw it in the microwave if nothing else interests DS. or if we a re running super late and he has to eat in the car!

And don't beat yourself up if you child does not have an ideal breakfast. High fat/sugar - they've got the whole day to burn it off (not an excuse to feed them whatever, whenever, but something to remind yourself if you feel like you didn't meet the bar that morning!). Didn't eat breakfast, refused everything - you've got morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner to feed them!

DS frequently eats only a bowl of vegies or a sandwich for dinner, with some yoghurt or custard and fruit for supper, and I feel not one shred of guilt over it. He eats breakfast (most days, some days he just refuses everything), eats like a pig at creche (he's got the motivation of 10 other kids!), and has morning and afternoon snacks. I used to try to feed a proper dinner every night and get all stressed about him refusing, especially since he is a skinny little runt anyway, but took a deep breath and realised he wasn't going to eat the way I did, and got over it. I don't judge myself about it anymore, and don't really care what other parents think about my parenting because they don't have a clue what goes on in my household and have no context by which to actually make that judgement.

[Akatara]

Wow MsN, judge much?
Are you seriously dissing the parenting of another EB member? Are you implying the OP (and anyone else in the same predicament) is spoiling their child by not being the iron rod of discipline you seem to think we all should be?

Sure, if my child refuses to eat his dinner I'm very firm on the "there is nothing else" rule, but he has had all day to eat and is probably full anyway. Breakfast, on the other hand, is different. It really is a break-fast, your kids haven't eaten for some time (for mine it can be 12 hours!) and they need SOMETHING. It's different if you've tried and they flat out refuse to eat anything, but IMO it's beholden on me as a parent to try to find something my child will eat. If I make him wait until morning tea he gets cranky and irritated because he is hungry

Oh and not to mention the other judgemental citizens you'll come across who think you are a bad parent because you didn't feed them.

Whether the OPs 3 year old child is old enough to understand is a matter for her consideration, not yours. I nd upset

Since few of us have the technical knowledge or the time to make yoghurt from scratch, feel free to buy the commercial stuff. Kids need at least three serves of calcium a day, and yoghurt is one of the recommended sources. Lactose intolerant? - try soy yoghurt (actually tastes alright), and I believe there is now lactose free yoghurt (if it is not already on the shelves it will be soon). I did buy a yoghurt maker, and have made it for DS, but really most of the kids yoghurts have extra calcium and are actually quite reasonable in their fat and sugar content so I can't see the point in making yoghurt regularly.

One thing I have done is make homemade, healthy, mini muffins. They have oats and real apple in them, so make a pretty healthy breakfast or even snack food. I can give you the recipe if you like - its' almost totally fat free because you use apple puree instead of butter/oil/margarine. I freeze some of them and can always pull one out and thaw it in the microwave if nothing else interests DS. or if we a re running super late and he has to eat in the car!
.

Could you post recipe? Thanks....

[caz411]

Could you post recipe? Thanks....

Caroline's Cinnamon Apple & Oat Muffins:
Ingredients

2 cups self raising flour
1 cup rolled oats (doesn't have to be quick oats, but they are softer for little ones)
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tbspn cinnamon (yes, its a lot!)
2 large or 3 medium apples, peeled, cored and grated
1 extra large or 2 small eggs
3/4 cup apple puree or apple sauce (go for a sugar free variety, I like the Aldi little kids apple puree and use two of the portions)
apple juice or milk


** if you want an extra healthy muffin, use one cup wholemeal flour, one cup white (if you can't get SR wholemeal, about 1/4 tspn baking soda per cup of plain flour)**
**traditional oats can be a bit harder and dry the muffins out more than quick oats. these are best soaked in a 1/4 - 1/2 cup of apple juice, stirred occasionally, for an hour before making the recipe. Wet oats should be added after the grated apple, but before the rest of the wet ingredients, and mixed very well.**
** Instead of brown sugar, you could use a natural liquid sweetener like honey, maple syrup or golden syrup and add them with the wet ingredients. They must be warmed up so they are runny, but do not overheat as it will start to cook the batter **


Method:
Mix all the dry ingredients together (sift the flour first). Add the grated apple, mix to coat, then add the wet remaining wet ingredients except the apple juice/milk. If the mixture is heavy and dry, add the apple juice in small increments. The batter is sticky and will be lumpy because of the apple and oats, but when you turn the batter over you should not see segments of dry flour or oats. The ideal consistency is one where a spoonfull of batter sticks to the spoon when you hold it upside down and doesn't not fall off immediately. If it falls off quickly it is either too runny or too heavy and dry; heavy dry mixes need more liquid and runny ones can be rescued with small amounts of flour or dry oats. Bake in mini muffin trays (spray with a non stick cook spray) or you can make the bigger muffins from this batter too. 150C for 15 minutes (a bit longer for big muffins, about 25). They are cooked when they turn a light golden colour and spring back to touch; you will almost certainly have to play with times and temperatures because they take more time in my MIL's oven than my own, and less in my Mum's!


ETA - I posted an older version of this recipe on Dish of the Day, but my original recipe had canola oil instead of the apple puree, and more sugar. You don't need much sugar in this recipe because the apple puree is naturally sweet, and I often omit the remaining sugar anyway. DS still eats it, but the look a lot paler without the brown sugar.

This post has been edited by caz411: 05/05/2012, 05:21 PM