When did you give up on pushing your DC to eat breakfast? Cave to sweet cereals. Pop tarts?

[Anonymous]

I have two pre-teens who needs breakfast in order to take her antidepressant and ADHD med. I've resorted to giving cereal I grew up- Captain Crunch, etc, since my kids hate the taste of ”natural” cereals, even cereal for breakfast is a challenge. They both play off one another to get away with not eating.

[Anonymous]

In my house, they wouldn't eat. I don't buy sweets for breakfast. 16 and 13 teens. Oatmeal, Cheerios, eggs, yogurt are what is available. One regularly has toast with peanut butter.

[Anonymous]

I can no longer monitor his eating since he is a Freshman in college. As of last year, we were still limiting breakfast options to the reasonably healthy.

[Anonymous]

Boost makes a lower sugar protein drink - maybe 4 grams of sugar or so. You could try that instead of those sugary cereals if your DD needs something in her stomach for meds. Otherwise, my kids would just go hungry.

They don't have to eat "breakfast foods." They could have a turkey sandwich. Leftovers from last night's dinner. Whatever.

This morning, one kid had tuna fish and rice and the other had chili. Yesterday, they both had tomato soup (not sure how good of an idea that is). We have eggs, toast, peanut butter, etc on hand but they chose the other foods.

[Anonymous]

My kids have never eaten much breakfast and its not a huge deal. They tend to eat at like 11 something (school lunch) 4pm (in between school and practice) and then a late dinner around 8 pm. So they still eat 3 meals its just shifted a bit.

[Anonymous]

A lot of sugar cereals actually have less sugar than "grown up" cereals. Ex: cocoa puffs has less sugar than raisin bran.

Serve it with whole milk, encourage a fruit topping (bananas or berries) and move along.

[Anonymous]

I do not make them eat but I do not give sugar cereals either. They eat about half the time but also have an early lunch so I don't care. I meet them at pick-up with a heavy snack (that I pack with my lunch) because I hate dealing with hungry kids the second I see them. With the early lunch, they are starving at pick-up.

Since you need your kid to eat for medication, I'd brainstorm ideas with the children - there has to be something edible (in their eyes) between nothing and Captain Crunch (I don't buy CC so it's not an option available in the house).

[Anonymous]

Breakfast doesn't have to be breakfast food. My oldest is never very hungry before school, so we've gotten creative. A sandwich, cheese and crackers, more or less whatever she's willing to eat - we also need some food to take medication here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Breakfast doesn't have to be breakfast food. My oldest is never very hungry before school, so we've gotten creative. A sandwich, cheese and crackers, more or less whatever she's willing to eat - we also need some food to take medication here.

+1 My one DC eats non breakfast-y food for breakfast. Why does one have to eat only certain foods for breakfast?

They can eat sugary type cereals a couple of times per week. As long as other meals are healthy-ish, I'm ok with it. I guarantee you when they are off with their friends as they get older, they will be eating lot of junk food. Just make sure they have healthy dinners at least.

Kids don't need medication BUT everyone should have some breakfast.

[Anonymous]

I can't say I blame kids for not wanting to eat at 6:30 in the morning! Mine will greek yogurt with toppings or a few frosted mini wheats. About twice a year I buy donuts and then suddenly he can eat in the morning.

[Anonymous]

People, this is critical for the medications her kids are taking. My son takes stimulants for ADHD and MUST EAT PROTEIN and a decent number of calories in the morning.

OP, I put enough pressure on my ADHD kid that he accepts healthy food for breakfast. This is a hill to die on for me, because not eating the right foods has an extreme impact on his day.

I used to make him very caloric smoothies with powdered protein because he was underweight and his ped and psych were concerned. Now he eats egg and buttered toast, and if his weight goes down we'll go back to smoothies. I did buy pre-made ones at first, but they're full of junk and the healthy ones at Whole Foods are too expensive.

You might want to post in the Special Needs forum, where people have had the same issue and may advise you.

[Anonymous]

We have granola and Cheerios cereal with whole-fat yogurt or whole-fat milk and that's it on the cereal front. More often it's scrambled eggs or an omelet with cheese (surprisingly fast to make), hardboiled eggs if I've been organized enough to make them ahead of time, or whole grain toast with butter or peanut butter. Bananas are usually in stock, too.

No juice, and definitely no Pop-Tarts.

I think the downside of any super-sugary breakfast is that it may put something in their stomachs, but they are going to have a sugar crash by mid-morning, when they're in school. It's better to emphasize proteins and fats for breakfast, and whole grains or whole fruit if you're going to do carbs, not highly processed cereals or juice that will cause their blood sugar to spike and drop.

I agree with the PP about eating whatever for breakfast, and not just breakfast foods. However, I'm not a big fan of breakfast or breakfast foods myself, so however much I may enjoy leftover chili, curry, whatever, for lunch, I'm usually not ready to face anything spicy or heavy in the morning.

If your kid would eat eggs or whole-fat yogurt, a banana, or even a couple of whole-fat cheese sticks -- something fairly plain but not super-sugary to set her up for a crash later -- I'd give that a go.

[Anonymous]

Yes when meds are involved, routines and details are nothing to dismiss.

[Anonymous]

My ADHD kid has pancakes and bacon, or eggs and bacon, or a homemade banana nut chocolate chip muffin for breakfast typically. Sometimes DC will eat mac and cheese, steak, or chicken. Some days, it's just an apple and a banana, but as long as that's once a week or less, I don't argue about it.

I find that having a plate of bacon on the counter increases the chances that DC will grab some and eat it. I'll have the eggs if DC doesn't eat them, so I can have eggs fresh off the stove available as well. If DC is required to make something to eat breakfast, there's less a chance it will happen. Sometimes, I put a plate of bacon and eggs in front of DC, and DC asks for a muffin instead, or grabs some fruit while walking out the door, but usually the path of least resistance is to eat what's on the plate.

[Anonymous]

I agree with the idea of offering non-breakfast foods. A favorite in my house is Trader Joe's frozen soup dumplings. Heats in less than 3 minutes.