Hi,

My 3 year old is a very picky eater. The only thing he will eat for breakfast is eggs and I know thats fantastic but some days he doesn't feel like eggs (I know I'd hate to eat the same thing every single day) so he won't eat anything.

However one morning I was having an Up & Go and he had a sip of it and ended up drinking the whole thing because he thought it was "chocky milk". Fair enough, I'm thinking at least he has something in his stomach.

Anyway the last couple of days he's been asking for a "chocky milk" in the morning but I'm not sure if its ok for him to have. It says on the box that its not suitable for children under 2, but does anyone know if it is ok for a 3 year old? Is it really like eating 2 weatbix because theres no way he'll eat 2 weatbix in the forseeable future.

So I'd love to know if anyone knows of any liquid breakfasts for kids or breakfast bars (he'll eat a musli bar) just for the odd days that he doesn't feel like eggs. Or maybe if anyone has any breakfast bar recipes suitable for kids would be a great alternative too

Thanks!

We often have a breaky smoothie, I throw milk, a couple of weetbix, berries, a banana and anything else I have floating around into the blender and smoothie it up, the kids love it and you can't even tell it has weetbix in it.

My hubby mixes up fruit, yoghurt, milk & wheetbix in a blender...

I also saw some biscuits that were meant to be equivalent to cereal & milk. Can't remember the name but they were new & in the biscuit aisle in Coles.

These are the new ones. I take them to work for morning tea.

http://www.belvitabreakfast.com.au/

I think they taste yummy but I haven't actually looked at the nutrition panel carefully.

DS has an up and go for breakfast probably 3 morning a week. he is 3.5 so I hope they are ok

similar, sometimes i do banana,weetbix, yogurt,honey,& a little milk.and a dash of cinnamon and nutmeg. its filling and low gi and pretty yummy.i would've thought the up& go things would be ok. i've given them to my almost 3 dd on occasion ( travelling,etc.) i guess if he was having one every day you'd have to check but surely every now and then would be ok?

yeah do you mean the belvita biscuits? havent tried them but that sounds good too.

The belvita biscuits are yum! I think they are a bit fatty, although sure they would be fine every now and then.

I looked at the Belvita biscuits and they are high in sugar (about 20g per 100g) and fat too from memory. It takes 60seconds to make your own smoothy and this would be the best thing for breakfast. Weetbix milk and banana is all you need - anything else is a bonus.

According to the list of ingredients in Up and Go, I'd not be relying on it, less than 0.5% cereals, mainly water, skim milk powder and lots of different types of sugars with flavours etc.

My 4yo is a chronically slow eater so if I want her to actually eat before we get to preschool we have to take it in the car. To that end, I made Bill Granger's real muesli bars. They're quite easy and it makes a good size tray. I've had them in the cupboard in one of those glass Pyrex containers with the tight fitting plastic lid for about a week now and they're still good. You can chop and change what fruits you put in there to make it a bit more interesting.

We've tried the Belvita biscuits but they are very sugary. I figured they were probably Evil Incarnate hidden behind Clever Marketing but TBH I haven't looked that closely in case I have to berate myself for being a terrible mother for letting them in the same house as my kids.

We have a late night due to sports on Thursdays. Fridays, I let the kids sleep in, so the night before, I soak some rolled oats in milk in the fridge. In the morning, I throw the soaked oats into the blender with fruit (banana or berries) and some extra milk. Sometimes I will add some Greek yogurt and honey or sometimes an egg in too. The kids really like it and it means I can let them sleep until 8.30 and have them up, dressed and in the car having breakfast in 15 minutes and be at school on time. You don't need to buy commercially made liquid breakfasts, they are easy to make.

all FANTASTIC ideas thank you so much! I must admit I have tried making him a smoothie but he doesn't seem to like it out of a cup I might have to be creative and try to syringe the smoothies into an up&go carton and see if he buys it! hahaha

My kids will drink just about anything out of those kids' cups they sell at Boost Juice. The straws are nice and wide so they can suck quite a thick smoothie through there. Only problem is I have to reuse the straw, so really need to rinse the inside of it immediately after use so it doesn't get gunky.

I make my boys smoothies with milk, egg, honey, banana and some sustegan powder (chocolate flavour). They love it.

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 :-)

Did you not read the part where the OP said her son refuses to eat anything at all for breakfast? Dont down play it and say it is only a couple of breakfasts, I am sure the OP wouldnt care less if it only happened a few times. Some kids are extremely fussy and would rather go hungry than eat certain foods. This can go on for months and even years. You dont know how difficult it is to get these kids to eat something new.

And seriously?! Your fixation with healthy and perfect eating seems extreme. Ever heard of moderation?

When I'm in a hurry I give my kids a banana smoothly. I add cereal either weetbix or muesli. Sometimes I will put a raw egg in( they can't taste it). If he doesn't like smoothies from a cup cn you try a fancy straw. This works with my dd.

Maybe try some sustegen or milo, blend it with a banana or a weetbix or just as is. I think you can get sustegen in little poppers too.

I know they are probably not the best but I used to give DS those straws that have chocolate in them because he wouldn't drink any milk at all. I think they only have 1/2 tsp of sugar in them (if I can remember rightly). He got used to the taste of milk and didn't need them anymore. Maybe a fruit smoothie with a choccy straw?

I was looking at those breakfast biscuits in the supermarket the other day, and as it happened they were on a shelf next to the Tiny Teddies, so I picked up a box of those to compare. The nutritional panels didn't show an awful lot of difference, except for about 5g more protein in the breakfast biscuits. So unless you would give tiny teddies for breakfast I would suggest these are not a nutritional option. (though they may make a yummy morning tea snack for you!)

When DS went through a non breakfast eating phase I just used to whiz up a banana, some milk and a weetbix with the stick mixer for a smoothie. Went down a treat and a pretty good breakfast.

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.

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.