Is all cereal junk food to a 4 year old????

I'm going nuts. My husband hates if I give my children cereal. Claiming
it is all junk food. In America I would get the high protein, high
fiber cereal. That certainly isn't complete junk food. Here in India,
where i"m living at the moment, I have found Wheatabix, which appears
to be the same as Wheatbix, which is popular in Australai. fortified,
high fiber wheat cereal.

they might have that a few days a week, and other days eggs with cheese
and a fruit on the side, or cereal AND eggs and fruit.

Am i a terrible mom even giving them any cereal???? I'm going nuts! Of

0tterbot...

of course not :-)

I'm going nuts! Of

course I haven't and don't give them the sugar loaded cereals. all the
ones advertised on tv. But please someone, give me some reports that
some cereals (and which ones) are healthy for 3 and 4 year olds, and
how much carbs (rice, bread, cereal) is required for kids.

L....

As long as it's not chocked full of refined sugar and preservatives, it
should be fine. My DS (age 2) loves a health-food cereal that's whole
wheat and shaped like O's and hearts. I forget what it's called, ATM.

Engram...

I give my 1 y.o. son Weetbix. Although it's 67% carbohydrate, it's only 3.3%
simple sugars so it's not sweet. Then again, all carbs get broken down into
simple sugars, some sooner (in the mouth) and some later. Check the
nutritional content of cereals you are considering and decide what you are
ready to live with. I have no idea which carbs are present in Weetbix, the
box just says "carbohydrates"...

I guess it all depends on what your husband means by "junk food". Is it that
he objects to the sugar content or just to the idea of pre-prepared foods,
regardless of their nutritional content? If he objects to sugar, then tell
him to stop drinking milk (lactose is a carbohydrate) and eating any fruit
(fructose is a sugar, too). By all means stop eating potatoes (starch is
converted to simple sugars in the mouth). Ditto bread - full of carbs, also
converted to simple sugars in the mouth. Pasta, tomatoes, pumpkin, carrots -
all on the carb hit list. There's much, much more, but I can't think of them
all right now, LOL.

I don't think you're a terrible mum for feeding cereal to your kids. You try
to choose one that's healthier for them, rather than giving them a bowl of
sugar. Cereals can provide fibre as well as carbs. It's about balancing
their diet. And if you're a bad mum for feeding cereal to your kids, then so
am I and so is most of the rest of Australia, cereal being the major
breakfast food here.

If you do end up capitulating and giving in to your husband, with your kids
eating eggs every day, try to keep an eye on their cholesterol intake. While
cholesterol is not a big no-no for kids, children tend to thrive on a diet
with moderate cholesterol intake. You may need to cut back
cholesterol-containing foods at other times of the day. They're kids, not
adults on the Atkins diet!

0tterbot...

erm, probably not so much, BUT, i'm a real food nazi & most certainly my
kids eat weetbix! it's (97%) whole grain and low-g.i. and hasn't much sugar,
there's protein in the milk you have with it, and in short, you're right &
your husband's wrong ;-)

certainly many many people eat too much carbohydrates, and certainly some
"cereals" are just sugary rubbish, but not this one, and low-g.i. whole
grain cereals are excellent in suitable proportions. it's not really a
question of "how much" carbs but also are they the "right" carbs. weetbix
are fine.

we also have porridge quite a bit (again, whole grain & low-g.i.), and a few
boxed cereals which are low-sugar & whole grain. i eat lots of home-made
muesli although my kids don't like that quite as much, so they only have it
sometimes.
kylie

Gorgon Park...

A link that I like is the Canada Food Guide for Preschoolers:

It says that the servings for grains for preschoolers is the same as
adults (5-12), but that preschoolers will have child-sized portions at
the lower end of the range. So aim for 5 child-sized portions of grain
products each day, with the emphasis on whole grain.

As others here have pointed out, Wheetabix is a whole grain cereal, so
I wouldn't classify it as "junk" either.

Mary Ann...

We give our son either porridge or muesli with no added salt or sugar.
If you look at the ingredients you'll easily see which ones have salt
and sugar added.

Mary Ann

Ericka Kammerer...

Actually, I think there was a study out a while
back that found that cereal was the most nutritious meal
most American kids ate each day ;-) (That's a rather

toypup...

I remember that. The sugary cereal was more nutritious (i.e., had more
nutrients) than the stuff that was considered healthy. Just because it has
sugar, doesn't mean it doesn't have nutrients. Some people don't want their
kids to have all the sugar, but that's different than saying it isn't
nutritious. I'd say kids' cereal is nutritious, it's also full of sugar.
On the OP's question, Wheatabix is healthy, in my book.

sad commentary, but I certainly wouldn't put a healthy
cereal in the junk food category.) Why can't your husband
read the nutrition information and/or ingredients and
see for himself that it's not junk food?
If you want information on nutrition for children,
web-search should turn up a bunch of them. The current
recommendations from the US government are at
out.

Best wishes,
Ericka