Carnation breakfast drinks- bad for kids?

[Anonymous]

Anyone give their child one of these? I am at my wits end giving my kid breakfast, I started giving them a breakfast shake.

[Anonymous]

They have lots of sugar. They probably aren't any worse then other pre-packaged bkfast item though.

[Anonymous]

What about Pediasure instead? It seems to be very filling for my kids.

[Anonymous]

You need to read the labels on these. While they are better than no breakfast at all, you're better off blending smoothies with yogurt and fruit for bkfst.

[Anonymous]

My 11-yo drinks them sometimes. They do have a lot of sugar, but they have a lot of nutrients too. She doesn't like breakfast foods & also doesn't drink enough milk, so when my choice is no breakfast at all versus getting her to drink 8 oz of milk with some additional nutrition and also some unnecessary sugar, I choose the latter. Carnation Breakfast Essentials with a cup of milk has 25% of the RDA for iron & protein - these are both issues for us as my DD is a vegetarian and I am trying to make sure she gets enough of both. This is a better source of iron than a homemade fruit & yogurt smoothie. (She does take a vitamin with iron too.). And it's a good source of calcium - the milk has it already, of course, but this adds a lot more.

We do make smoothies sometimes, and occasionally she is willing to eat a scrambled egg, but she has a carnation drink many mornings.

[Anonymous]

It took me a long time but I've finally come to accept that nutrition does not need to be chewed. Two of my kids have ADHD and mornings are very tough for us. At the advice of an ADHD coach, we tried some of the meal replacement drinks and they've worked for us. We get the ones with the most protein in them and the fewest carbs. Our current favorites are Boost High Protein and Premier Protein (got it at Cosco). My kids have not been fond of Ensure or some of the other ones. Our life has been much easier since we've been using them and it works for us.

[Anonymous]

I give it to my 3 year old DS probably 2 mornings a week if we have to be out of the house fast and I don't have time to wait around for him to eat breakfast. Yes they have more sugar than I would like but I'm not overly worried about it. I prefer to do smithies with a Greek yogurt and fruit but when I don't have the time I do the carnation shakes.