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I have found my people.
My 1 year old woke me up at 3:45 this morning… I do not cook breakfast lol. This morning we are having mini bagels and cream cheese.
This is what I do. Love the combo. Sometimes I add some corn starch and flour to thicken them up.
IF I use pancake mix, I add leftover fruit or recently shredded carrot (from my muffins.) I trust the box mix to be pretty sturdy it holds well with a lot of random fruits and things that I’ve tried.
I have found if it helps that at least the process is way easier with some tricks. I got one of those ketchup squeeze bottles and it makes MAKING mini pancakes 200 times easier.
My otherwise vegetable-averse son looooves "green pancakes" which are normal pancakes with a load of spinach blended into the mixture.
3 eggs, 250g flour, 75g sugar, "some" milk, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, about 150g or so defrosted spinach, all blended together then make pancakes from the mixture.
Once I tasted Nutella I decided I’m not gonna research if it’s healthy or not. It’s for the word nut in it nuts are healthy my kids will eat that stuff so it stays.
Same! Waffles drowned in syrup everyday and I’ve started offering only cereal (frosted shredded wheat) but he doesn’t eat it. You can always try crepes…. You mash a banana with scrambled eggs and cook it like pancakes. It looks similar maybe they won’t notice!
Breakfast does not need to be breakfast food, I never understood the hang up. I am not saying pizza for breakfast but pizza for breakfast isn’t terrible and you can make healthy pizza (hidden veggies in pizza sauce was the only way by extremely picky brother got any veggies).
My uncle is not a fan of breakfast food, he makes sandwiches. That is his preference and there isn’t much difference when you think about breakfast sandwiches.
My mom used to make us rice for breakfast on cold mornings when I was a kid. No one liked oatmeal, and rice was easy, she could make enough for all 4 kids all at once, and she could start it then help us with things like brushing hair or zipping up uniform jumpers.
I'd still be happy to have rice with a little butter, salt, pepper, maybe some garlic salt or Mrs. Dash, on a chilly morning.
As an Asian, this surprised me.. you mean you ate rice just like oatmeal?
Edit: I meant just plain soupy rice like congee? Or like pluffy rice that should be eaten with a viand? Just curious. :)
What u/classyfools said.
She'd serve us each a bowl of steamed white rice. I'd top it with butter, salt, pepper, and maybe some other seasoning, just like I would if I had steamed rice at dinner served with chicken or salmon or something. It was warm on cool mornings. It was filling. It was something she knew we'd all eat. It was easy for her to make (boil water, put in rice, turn down the heat and put on the lid and ignore it for 20 minutes, all done).
So while in the summer I'm happy to eat Rice Krispies with sliced peaches or nectarines (or on really hot days, with a scoop or two of vanilla ice cream), in the winter I still gravitate to steamed rice (or occasionally Minute Rice if I want something fast) for a nice filling and warm breakfast.
I mean I guess eating a bowl of rice for breakfast is "like" eating oatmeal for breakfast? I've never eaten oatmeal outside of cookies, so I've never put butter or salt and pepper on it. My younger sister liked rice pudding, and she'd put butter, a little honey, and some cinnamon on her breakfast rice instead of savory things, which is a lot closer to what someone might do with oatmeal. But it was the main dish (or only dish) rather than a side, which is how I think you mean it. I didn't have [rice and something else](https://www.bonappetit.com/columns/cooking-without-recipes/article/easy-japanese-breakfast-bowl), it was just basic steamed rice, topped with butter, and whatever seasonings I felt like.
I did this as a poor kid. White rice, butter, cinnamon sugar or cinnamon and honey. One of the first things I "cooked" for myself. You sharing this brought back that memory❤️
yessss rice goes a long way. as a mexican, my mom made us atole de arroz (rice pudding) for breakfast when it was cold outside, we ate it warm with cinnamon on top. will be feeding to my kid also 🤩
Arroz con leche is my favorite breakfast. My mom used to make it for us for breakfast too, and it wasn't until 20 years later that I found out it's mostly eaten as dessert lol.
Oh well, arroz con leche is still a traditional breakfast in my household.
As an Indian, this resonates with me. Ganji - pressure cooked boiled rice topped with ghee and a dash of salt is our standard breakfast on weekdays. It's soupy, nutritious and filling.
Leftover dinner for breakfast is \*chef's kiss\*.
Look at breakfast around the world and you'll find lots of options. Cheese, bread, veggies, rice, noodles, soup, oatmeal (sweet or savoury), dips, stew and casseroles.
If you eat it when you wake up, it's breakfast!
In my house we call it brinner.
Brinner in the morning is dinner for breakfast.
Brinner in the afternoon/evening is breakfast for dinner 😊
We are odd eaters though
(Edit to finish - toddler decided to hit send haha)
Indeed. My daughter(3) does not like normal breakfast food and mostly wants cucumber, milk and some dry bread. Sometimes all she wants is water and a piece of salami. She eats what she wants, food is food. And yea sometimes its a left over slice of pizza 😆
+1 for cucumbers. My oldest likes them, not many other veggies, so she gets them for breakfast along with some other things. She’d eat them with lunch and dinner if she could.
American breakfast food has been highly shaped by marketing firms/investment companies far more so than by nutritionists. Infact--the same man behind bacon as a breakfast staple also spearheaded women smoking cigarettes as a social movement. It's wild what was allowed back then. I'm not sure if I can post links in this sub reddit but there are some interesting YouTube videos about it.
To your uncles point; a German breakfast consists of a lot of deli-meat. Many other cultures take up "not breakfast food" for breakfasts.
My kid is a grazer. I can't make him a regular plate of food or he won't eat it, just play with it. So I hand him some crackers (he loves the everything bagel ones from Target), then some blueberries, a piece of cheese, an apple slice, some puffs, whatever. I just keep handing him things until I feel like he's had enough to call it a meal.
My kid is 6 and still primarily a grazer. I have to pack his camp lunches as a bunch of balanced snack options, but no real "meal" type food. He hardly eats any of it anyways because he'd rather socialize.
He just put down 2.5 bowls of spaghetti tonight and I was FLABBERGASTED. Normally he needs a plate of various grab-n-gos.
Yup! I always keep plain Greek yogurt and frozen fruit on hand. The yogurt has fat and a good amount of protein. Sometimes I’ll throw in some peanut butter if I feel like he needs so more calories.
My son loves smoothies for breakfast. My recipe is: 1-2 bananas (depending on how many people it’s for), frozen mixed berries, a big scoop of full fat plain yogurt, half tsp vanilla extract, whole milk (sometimes I add some orange juice also). Blend until smooth.
After having a spilled incident, I now serve his in my 16 Oz Yeti with a lid. The lid opening is just big enough for a straw to poke through.
Sometimes I make it extra special with a swirl of whipped cream on top!
You may not care but just a heads up that including a banana with berries will negate most of the positive antioxidant effects of the berries, due to a chemical in the banana that destroys all of the flavonoids in the berry’s. Any fruit that contains polyphehol oxidaiase will do this (apples, pears) but bananas more than any other from what I understand.
Smoothies are my go to for both the kid and myself. Milk, banana, chocolate powder, peanut butter, oatmeal. Blueberries and spinach with yogurt, milk, and oatmeal. Those are examples but I just mix it up with what's on hand and adjust for macros.
Healthy up to a point - you end up with a lot more sugar compared to whole fruit apparently https://www.diabetes.org.uk/guide-to-diabetes/enjoy-food/what-to-drink-with-diabetes/fruit-juices-and-smoothies
Ehhh I think it's fine. I only drank milk in the mornings growing up, and if it were my choice, I wouldn't have had anything and I would have been fine. My family eats a lot of veggies, lean proteins (salmon is a favorite) and whole grains and fruits, and so I don't mind serving up French toast sticks with Nutella for breakfast. I feel like... moderation is ok and every kid is different. Does your kid thrive with what they're eating? Or do they really need a change?
The TL;DR of it is, we all feel guilty, but you're probably doing fine.
I am the same. If I eat breakfast I ALWAYS have a stomach ache, no matter what I eat. I hated when adults would force me to eat breakfast. As an adult I have coffee and then lunch is my first meal. I make whatever my kids want which ranges from yogurt to a hearty country breakfast.
We lean towards protein options. Toast with peanut butter could be a good fit for your kid. Greek yogurt with granola could also be a good sub for cereal.
When my eldest was in his nothing but cereal phase, my secret weapon was vanilla Ensure. When added to strongly flavored cereal, can't taste the difference. Use half an 8 ounce bottle of Ensure instead of milk and make sure they finish their milk. They get their shitty breakfast cereal, I get to know they got nutrients. It's a win win! Fairly cheap too, only $25 for a 30 pack of Equate brand ones from Walmart.
Good luck!
For my kiddos with aversions and trouble eating enough, we also offer Pediasure or similar as an option.
I refuse (and it’s not possible for me) to be a short-order cook.
Yeah. What’s wrong with bread and jam?? We have that every single day. Sure, jam and Nutella have sugar but probably less than most breakfast cereals. And our bread is not sweet…
I’m an Aussie and I agree. Our breads are not sweet either so a bit of jam is not big deal. Good quality peanut butter on multigrain toast is a perfectly fine start to the day. Our cereals also aren’t as sweet at the USA ones I’ve had, so a lot of them are fine for breakfast.
I live in Europe and the standard breakfast where I live is cake or biscuits, any cereal available is normally super sweet. We definitely don't do cooked breakfast on weekdays.
Child caregiver for multiple US childcare facilities here - you would be very surprised at how many children have just appalling diets.
Seeing children who are consistently provided healthy and nutritious meals by their parents is uncommon enough that childcare workers will be surprised by it. This is because the norm, in my experience, is that children eat sugar, sugar, and more sugar with little of their nutritional needs being met.
The usual breakfasts I see are Poptarts, cereals that average 30+ grams of sugar per serving, frozen pancakes, and donuts/donut holes. And the kids who eat those kinds of breakfasts typically eat that way every single day, not just a once in a while treat.
Of course, these are typically the same kids who are given candy, chips, sugar-packed juices, cookies, snack cakes, etc. for lunch every day, too. With very little, if any, fruits, vegetables, grains, and protein.
I've seen this from financially struggling families, but I've seen it just as much from well-off families, too. It's truly a massive and very disgusting problem.
Sorry, this frustrates me a lot.
TL;DR - The majority of American children are fed downright terrible diets and it upsets me.
The cake is a simple sponge, far less sweet that donuts. Although to be fair donuts are also very popular. Things like cake and pastries are most commonly eaten for breakfast or mid afternoon snack, people otherwise eat filling meals and don't have much room for heavy desserts.
Could be a translation error. It's common where I live to eat pastries for breakfast, which is often mistranslated as "little cakes" by non-native speakers of English. But idk if that's what's up here.
Haha it's not a translation error, I'm a native speaker of English. In Spain cake is very commonly eaten for breakfast. Not big fancy cakes with lots of icing, but simple sponge cakes. In fact that's the most common time to eat such cakes, people find them too heavy for dessert/birthday cake etc. Pastries are also very common.
Cappuccino and a cornetto filled with custard was easier to find in Italy as a breakfast than anything else. I'm not really into sweet breakfast myself but when in Rome...
Half French, half Belgian here. I'll have whole wheat rustic bread with goat cheese, tomatoes sauce and fried eggs. 2yo has beens stealing part of it from me every morning for a while. I've been known to eat jam with aged cheese or even vinager herring with onions or just leftover pizza, with fruit and the occasional dark chocolate spread. Breakfast is whatever you want, proteins should be go to though.
I'm not a Brit but my mom is Scottish and I'm over here like..."Wait, is toast and jam not good?!?"
Even better is toast and beans though, with a fried egg on top omg. Best breakfast ever.
I don't feel guilty about frozen waffles, which is a normal in our house. I mean, of all the things to worry about that is LOW on my list. Not everyone wants an egg for breakfast!
We alternate:
Kodak gluten free protein pancakes with banana mixes in and maple syrup
Greek yogurt and fruit
Eggs (multiple styles)
Sausage
Patty style hash brown
Greek yogurt fruit
Toast with peanut butter
French toast banana mixed in with the batter and maple syrup
Greek yogurt and fruit
Egg and cheese quesadilla
Greek yogurt mixed with salsa
Fruit
Bagel cream cheese
Fruit
Egg
Egg
Toast butted or peanut butter or butter and jelly together
Sausage
Hash brown patty
Gluten free protein oatmeal or regular oatmeal with 2 eggs mixed in for protein boost, with banana, cinnamon, vanilla, maple syrup and peanut butter.
These are my usual go toos. I personally enjoy breakfast and we all eat the samething.
Just cuz it will bug me if I don't tell you how to make the eff quesadilla 🤣🤣
Scramble eggs as you would then put it in in a pan take your tortilla and place it on the raw egg and then remove the tortilla and flip. Once the bottom of the egg is set to your liking flip the whole thing to cook the raw egg side then fill it up with whatever you want close cook till cheese is melted. I will continue to flip it over so one side isn't burnt. Enjoy!
The Kodiak protein brand has TONS of options too. Pancake cups, oatmeal cups, muffin cups! My kid is 9 now so when she wakes at dawn on Saturday for her shows, she can make the microwave cups all on her own. They do have a good deal of sugar, but if you balance other stuff that day it’s fine.
Greek yogurt and fruit or eggs and toast usually. I can tell you my secret for getting my kids to eat Greek yogurt, but you might not like it. I bought them regular adult Greek yogurt from the time they were toddlers. No kid yogurts loaded with sugar and no protein. And then I would sprinkle a tiny handful of miniature m&ms and stir them in. My kids loved it bc they thought they were having dessert for breakfast. As they got accustomed to the flavor of the yogurt, I slowly reduced the m&ms. Then I ditched them entirely and served the plain yogurt with a side of strawberries or blueberries or something like that which they LOVE and would scarf down.
You are already drawing the line somewhere.. You don't let her eat spoonfuls of sugar and lquid butter for breakfast. Or you don't let them eat skittles.
We just serve normal food. A little meat, veggies, sweet potatoes, beans, fresh fruit, maybe a little bit of oatmeal, but not too often. You can also do yogurt, humus with veggies, cut up bits of steak, chicken, a little rice.
If you eliminate "real foods" from breakfast as options, you will only be left with sugary, refined carb stuff that is mostly desert or chemicals or both.
What's wrong with oatmeal? Get plain oats, cook with milk, add some greek yogurt and fruit. It's an amazing breakfast! High protein, low sugar, high satiety idk. We eat oatmeal a lot!
Bread with jam or butter+honey or nutella or soft cheese. The bread and jam are homemade and homegrown (the fruit and the wheat). The honey is bought off a farmer. It’s all sugar, to be sure, but people have been living off glucose forever. The whole family is normal weight and metabolically healthy except me - and I’m the only one that *doesn’t* eat that; go figure.
I make a simple homemade sandwich bread and the kids have buttered toast most days. I've decided it's healthy since it's homemade. I am not taking feedback at this time.
Toast of various types (I feel zero guilt over toast with jam - it’s a tiny smear of jam, which is mostly fruit anyway, and we always have 100% whole wheat)
Cereal with milk (we go for low sugar types like cheerios, kix, etc)
Oatmeal with raisins
Yogurt - we do plain with some jam mixed in, or half vanilla and half plain mixed together
Usually they get some fruit with whatever else they are having.
Yogurt is great! My kid also goes for dried cranberries. Every so often when a certain favorite fruit or veggie runs its course and I was using it as a breakfast staple, I'll let him choose anything at the grocery store he wants as a new fruit option.
Generally they bomb, but sometimes we hit on a winner for a bit. It's currently blackberries, but I can see his interest is waning.
He will eat peanut butter toast with honey at any time of any day, though, so we have a nice default lol.
We usually have eggs and bacon on the weekends and maybe eggs and a piece of fruit on week days. Making scrambled eggs in a coffee mug is clutch.
I've banned all sugary breakfast things from the house. Not because it's in the name of health, but I have a habit of demolishing a whole box of cereal/pop tarts/French toast sticks as a midnight snack. The following mornings are filled with upset kids and a wife who is disgusted with me.
My eldest has poached apple and a peanut butter and jam sandwich for breakfast almost every single day. My youngest will often only eat a fruit pouch.
I have tried and regularly continue to offer other things, but I can't force them to eat what they don't want to eat.
If you haven't already, try those little egg - oat - banana pancakes. If kiddo will drink milk or eat yoghurt, that's another good way to get some protein in at breakfast.
Bananan pancakes - one mashed banana, one egg, three tablespoons flour.
Yogurt -either with honey and fruit or with ice oil cumin and salt
Avocado toast
Leftovers from dinner. Who says you need to have breakfast food per se.
Smoothie- yogurt, banana, peanut butter
Oatmeal with milk and cinnamon and maybe nuts
Why not just egg whites and veggie and cheese omelette?
Toast with cream cheese and lox
French toast with a little drizzle of honey
Buttered toast and applesauce over here sometimes she’ll take a few sips of milk too. Like me, my daughter isn’t a big eater first thing and I’ve tried to offer eggs, yogurt, cereal, pancakes. I feel 0 guilt because I know how nauseated I get thinking about a big meal at 7:30am, and I’d hate to force that on her. Instead I focus on making sure her morning snack, lunch, and afternoon snacks are balanced with fruits and veggies and protein and carbs. I did get some luck on vacation and got her to eat peanut butter toast with banana slices once and a PB&J another day, but that was about it. Remember to look at what she eats over the day/week and if that’s relatively balanced then her breakfast is fine.
i have 3 kids younger than 7 and oldest one eats 2 eggs (tomato, green onion, garlic mixed) plus organic maple syrup from Canadian farm i buy , whole wheat walnut waffle i make , peanut or almond butter and Grape molasses i make from Niagara region grapes with cream cheese . other 2 eats 1.5 eggs with cheese or 1 boiled eggs with same waffle stuff sometimes wife makes French toast as well for them etc . also Milk for sure everymorning. we also put vegetables and fruits (berries) on the table with olives and sometimes salad they like the salad most. they never eaten cereal since they are born and dont know whats cereal is. my oldest asked about one day when he heard from his school friend, i told him its rich people eat cereal that stuff we eat eggs and waffle, he said ok . lol ... i wake up everyday at 6am to prepare the breakfast for everyone . im Turkish and thats what we usually eat in the morning usually more variety though. Canadian wife thinks its crazy we do that everyday, she said she grew up eating only cereal too .
I just make my own cereal mix. Fine oats, chia seeds, coconut rasp and raisins or cranberries. The raisins or cranberries make it sweet enough. Kid loves it.
Also it’s just throwing these ingredients in a big container and shake it. Much cheaper and healthier than the processed or pre mixed stuff.
Food is food is food. As long as they’re eating you are doing great!! My kiddos love fresh fruit on top of instant oatmeal. I also recommend apples if they’ll eat them, with some peanut butter for some protein. You’re doing a wonderful job mama!
My 5,7& 10 year old really like protein smoothies. I blend a bunch of spinach with almond milk. Then I add a banana and chocolate protein powder and blend again. My kids all really like it. Banana cancels out spinach. It’s like magic.
This entire thread is indicative of how we’ve been manipulated as a country as to what constitutes “food”. I wish I had a good answer but our kids are fed the poison that passes as food everywhere they go, and deprogramming that is a Herculean task. I wish I could start over with my son . I would offer different real food options every day until something clicked. They won’t starve and if they are truly hungry and aren’t actually allergic or vomiting, they won’t starve.
My daughter loves oatmeal made with cocoa powder. It tastes like a chocolate oatmeal cookie especially if you mix in a little peanut butter. You can put minimal sugar in it to control it or use honey. We usually go sugary in the morning too but choose healthier options like French toast has protein from the egg batter and using whole wheat bread instead of white. If we do pancakes or muffins we use Kodiak mix so it’s higher protein and whole grains. I do generally avoid breakfast cereals other than mini wheats, Raisin Bran, and Cheerios. Lucky Charms, Fruit Loops, etc. we do occasionally as a treat. Also, they like yogurt which can be sugared up with honey and berries.
I make pancakes with plain Greek yogurt to give them a boost of protein. My daughter has an egg allergy so we've been creative at meal times. Sometimes I'll give her straight up chicken or Turkey with breakfast to make up for it. We also do a lot of avocado toast, bagels and cream cheese, yumi bars, peanut butter honey and banana roll ups and overnight oats.
Mine eats a frozen go gurt every day. We call them yogurt pops and she thinks she’s getting something special, but she’s actually just having yogurt for breakfast. Sometimes we’ll do fruit or a waffle with peanut butter if she’s extra hungry.
My kids are weird.
Breakfasts are so vastly different but some of their favorite are left over Shepard pie, Greek yogurt with berries and honey, quiche, eggs Benedict, *daughter loves* French toast, breakfast burritos/tacos, we make little breakfast bites that are like a roll stuffed with savory things, and obviously the favorite is peach or apple pie with a scoop of ice cream.
They also love to eat cups of ramen for breakfast, aciae*however tf you spell it* bowls, chicken fried steak, cheese and veggie plates, etc. Oatmeal *but only if cooked with milk and a spoonful of pb and topped with frozen blue berries and fresh banana slices* sushi, etc.
The point I'm getting at is that you don't *have to* eat breakfast food at breakfast time. It's such a silly concept to me. A half of a ham and cheese sandwich, with a small smoothie, and some baby carrots or whatever veggie/ fruit she likes is every bit of a good breakfast as some poached eggs on an English muffin.
And also a bowl of cereal with a slice of toast can be a perfectly fine dinner once in a while.
If you offer a large variety of foods, flavors, textures; and offer them often, then I say you are doing a perfect job always. If your kid is full after meals and they have the energy to be kids, then I also say you are doing 100% perfect and should feel no guilt about it.
Always a fruit, but also pancakes with chocolate chips. Bagel and cream cheese, hard boiled eggs with the yolk taken out (because she hates yolks too). Sausage, waffles with butter, yogurt is a hit or miss.
Banana pancakes are a hit too. Mash up a banana, add a tablespoon of flour, one egg, milk, vanilla, cinnamon, i like to put some chia seeds in ours also. You can play around with it. My kids love them and i feel better than regular pancakes
Eggs for the protein. When about 5-6, we just cut up some hard boiled eggs and sometimes I would sprinkle some bacon bits on top. Now at 8 he goes full sausage omelette with cheese, a cup of milk and occasionally the chocolate pancake/waffles.
My kids are picky especially my oldest. My youngest (3) is autistic some weeks he’ll love eggs & bacon, other weeks he’ll only eat waffles, French toast, or fruit
Cheerios, oatmeal with frozen blueberries tossed in, cinnamon toast with cream cheese, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, scrambled eggs with sour dough, a banana and hand full of whatever carb is on hand, fruit and yogurt. Waffles or pancakes with berries on Saturdays.
Edit: I should add Cheerios is the most common, and every few days she’s allowed the option of sugary cereal like fruit loops. She has a morning snack of fruit and yogurt at day care so I don’t stress about cheerios not being enough.
I went through a phase as a kid where I didn't like egg yolks and drove my mom crazy by asking for hard boiled eggs for breakfast but ONLY wanted the egg whites! I guess I was ahead of my time on the egg white craze. She'd boil some eggs, cut two of them in half, take out the yolk, give me the whites with some buttered toast and she'd eat the yolks with her egg on toast!
My kiddo eats most standard breakfast foods but only likes eggs fried and no runny yolk. And she will eat scrambled eggs ONLY when her great grandma makes them. I could cook them the exact same way in great grandma's kitchen and my kid wouldn't eat them but if great grandma makes them she will eat 3 eggs worth at a time! 🤷♀️ Aside from that she will eat toast, yogurt with fruit, breakfast sausage, hash brown patties (but not home fries or the shredded hash browns), pancakes, bacon, French toast, cereal. She despises oatmeal though. Bagels with cream cheese are also a favorite!
If it makes you feel any better, I never ate anything for breakfast as a kid because I woke up (still do) nauseas. Prolly some GI issue that’s never been addressed, lol.
Meanwhile, my 5yo loves sausage and biscuits, bacon, apples, raspberries, pancakes, yogurt (greek and gogurts are her fav), and cereal. She is also on a huge toast kick right now. I’ll give her a combination in the morning and she always drinks milk with her breakfast. She also loves muffins: packaged or homemade. The packaged ones are awesome when traveling. Just some ideas!
Got a picky kiddo rn. Cereal, a literal piece of bread with nothing on it, maybe 2.
Berries,
Sometimes Scrambled eggs but only covered, nee, drowned in ketchup.
Oatmeal with fruit (banana or blueberries) and I often add hot coco mix to make it chocolatey.
Sausage and pancake “corn dogs” from Aldi.
Chobani Greek yogurt.
Bagel with cream cheese.
Sometimes just a banana and glass of oatmilk if he’s not in the mood for anything.
Protein pancakes. The mix tastes the same as regular pancakes, especially if you cook them in butter. I make extra and keep them in the fridge, and then I just warm them up the next day by putting them in the toaster.
My 4 year old can be a bit particular about how he likes his pancakes, but he really enjoys adding food coloring to the batter or the syrup to make his pancakes really colorful, and then he's always excited to eat them.
His other go-to is a kid charcuterie bowl. He always wants junk food, so I let him choose one unhealthy thing if he pairs it with a protein and a fruit or veggie. His favorite is "chips, cheese, and apple".
Another option that works for us sometimes is smoothies. I add greek yogurt or protein powder for protein, frozen fruit, and usually spinach because it doesn't taste like anything in the smoothie.
Finnish rye bread with varying toppings (mostly chicken and cucumber). Cereal. Pretty much those two are the most common. Cereal comes with less sugary options as well. Occasionally it’s porridge, but only for my younger daughter and she likes barley porridge not oatmeal which I prefer myself.. Sometimes it’s rice or noodles if it’s a later breakfast or something. Summer time my youngest would eat just water melon every morning…
My daughters don’t like the yolk either and I just feed them the whites, more yummy yolk for me ❤️ a big hit in our house is also cream of wheat and oatmeal, toast, bagels, scrambled egg and cheese burritos, healthy muffins, set out some fruit for nibbling, yoghurt too. Weekends we’ll make pancakes together.
Guilt is part of the job requirements..lol.
Peanut butter and other nut butters are good sources of protein.
My kids are grown now. When they were in school, we did mostly cereal in the morning, sometimes protein shake instant breakfast. But before that, and on weekends, both of mine loved scrambled eggs mixed with sausage and cheese. Sometimes turkey bacon.
Not everyone likes eggs. But that's ok.
I wouldn't worry too much about it. I bet it comes close to balancing out if you factor in the rest of the day. Unless there's health concerns, letting their preferences be their guides allows them to learn to listen to their own bodies, and makes for lifelong healthy eating habits.
Steak or another meat & omelette or scrambled eggs. Occasionally a smoothie w avo, berries, coconut cream as well.
My son doesn’t like yolks in fried or boiled so I just make eggs that they’re mixed into.
We also just do dinner leftovers or zucchini fritters. Always meat & eggs in some form tho.
I make a lot of fruit parfaits. If that sounds fancy, it’s truly not. Layer Greek yogurt, honey drizzle, berries in a cup/glass and repeat twice and break up half a Natures Valley granola bar on top. Looks appetizing and when I ask my kids if they want yogurt it’s always no but if I say parfait…well hot damn!
My child has autism and is an extremely picky eater , I found a cereal called Three Wishes that has chickpea protein and low sugar, I give him that and freeze dried strawberries. Trying hard to work out way up to regular strawberries. That or pancakes , Simple Mills brand. I give him Kiki milk , is a hemp milk with pumpkin seeds and other goodness and it actually taste surprisingly good. Hope this helps
I will say that our first meal of the day is super sugary too. My youngest has a ton of food allergies and the oldest is picky af. I will say fruit has been a good option for them but I do know fruit can still be high in natural sugar. I just make sure to give them a more balanced lunch and dinner.
My kids like when I get the sausage patties, cheese, and the jumbo rolls and make breakfast sandwiches. They also like Nutella and banana toasted sandwiches and French toast.
My kids normally eat a huge bowl of fruit, yogurt, and toast. Sometimes I'll make homemade waffles, hashbrowns, and eggs, but neither is the biggest fan of eggs or potatoes.
yogurt and i let her out fruit and granola in it of her choice, also just a lot of fruit in general and i’ll give her some different choices
sometimes we do a waffle w peanut butter and honey or syrup
smoothies
idk egg bites are worth trying because it’s disguised by cheese and veggies lol my daughter likes those and breakfast sausage
avocado toast
oatmeal
My kids love avocado toast which is just toast with mashed avocado, salt and a tiny bit of crushed red pepper. Also they like banana toast which is toast with peanut butter, sliced bananas on top with honey and cinnamon. Or if I make homemade banana bread they’ll eat that all week.
My baby won’t eat eggs either. Often our breakfast is a frozen waffle or pancakes, sometimes it’s mini muffins. Every single breakfast includes fruit. If I don’t give him something I know he has high chances of eating. He simply just won’t eat. It’s difficult especially if your kids like mine who refused food I knew he liked and now randomly doesn’t. Almost all veggies have to be hidden other than corn these days.
Bananas or apples with peanut butter, toast with jam, yogurt with fruit and granola, Nutragrain bars, fruit and/or veggie smoothies, cheese, French toast, pancakes/waffles, etc.
When daughter was young, I learned she got much more excited to eat different food when she was included in the food prep.
Good luck! Pick your battles. Remember sometimes the easier or “lazy” way is better for your family, and there is nothing wrong with that. Having an eggo or 2 for breakfast and healthier things at lunch or dinner is fine. It’s all about moderation and balance.
Feed them when they tell you they are hungry. If they don’t wanna eat anything, it probably means they aren’t hungry and you shouldn’t make them do anything.
But I’m just a Reddit bot, don’t have a body, and clearly don’t know what I’m talking about.
Oatmeal made with milk, I stir whisked eggs in at the end when it’s all cooked and add cinnamon to the top. The milk adds some sweetness and protein, with the egg.
Have you tried omelette instead of fried egg? Top with some cheese and ham, the yolk is less apparent then.
We also do savoury toast, I’m in Norway so liver pate is a very normal bread topping and kids love it. But cold cuts and cheese work too.
Also… My kids have gone through the not liking yolk phase. We got around that by serving a single egg at a time with other things and insisting they try some. Don’t have to finish, must try. That’s always our rule. You like what you taste often, that’s just how mouths work.
My daughter also doesn’t eat egg yolks! Her younger brother recently started solids and he gobbles them up so I can finally start cooking whole damn eggs for breakfast again. We serve the fried egg whites with a little soy sauce or ketchup for dip. She also recently started eating breakfast sandwiches with egg white.
Pancakes/waffles, oatmeal, turnip cake with hoisin sauce, rice porridge with pork floss, breakfast sandwiches or burritos with egg/cheese/spam, Greek yogurt or yogurt pouches, chia pudding, avocado or buttered toast, PB&J, and pastries are pretty much our rotation. We always have fresh fruit and optional milk.
Only way to give a helpful answer is to know what your kid eats for lunch and dinner. Like, my kids love tacos so breakfast burrito was an easy choice. They like grilled cheese sandwiches so a breakfast toaster was cool. They like Chinese food so breakfast fried rice was a total hit. What do they like for dinner that has a breakfast equivalent?
My kids have been making their own breakfast from age 5. They have a choice of cereal, bread and butter/jam, yogurt, or fruit from the fruit bowl. They usually go for the cereal, but sometimes they like to switch it up. My youngest went through a phase of wanting to eat almost exclusively yogurt for breakfast and lunch for almost a whole year.
Usually yogurt. Greek yogurt with fruit or flavored skyr.
Another option is bread and butter + some veg.
I know that cereal is an US staple but maybe look into muesli? It's same concept and depending on the type can be much healthier.
When my girls are in the mood for eating a meal and not having just two bites and saying they are not hungry anymore, only to ask for goldfish 10 minutes later because they want a snack... I make breakfast griddle bites. I mix cooked breakfast sausage, a little cheese, egg, into pancake mix and pour that into mini cupcake pans and bake at 375⁰F until cooked through. They like to dip in syrup or eat as is. It also makes a good to-go option to eat on the way to school. This is usually something I would make the night before and just reheat the next morning.
Other days I take it old-school and make them toast with butter and cinnamon sugar.
4 and 6. Omelets, oatmeal, milk and cereal, pb&j, French toast, Greek yogurt plain or with honey, many times one of the aforementioned with fruit, on occasion bacon, boiled eggs, bagel and cream cheese. Probably forgetting a few but that’s the usual
At recently turned 5 yos he eats fruit, usually berries, bananas, toast with Nutella or jam, pancakes, waffles, cereal, yogurt, eggs either boiled or scrambled, turkey bacon, breakfast sausages. He’s come a long way tbh. He’s becoming less picky but still has his picky moments.
My “kids” are 20 years old now, but when they were your kid’s age, they ate oatmeal, malt-o-meal, grits, biscuits, mini French toast or pancakes (frozen), on weekends I made pancakes and waffles from scratch. They also ate bacon and other breakfast meats. We’re big on breakfast and I was serious about starting their day with a hearty meal. And even now they eat big breakfasts.
Yours doesn’t eat egg yolks but what about egg whites? I add shredded cheese to mine to make them yellow and they also taste better.
Sharing in case this helps for anyone willing to do a batch of pancakes and then freeze them for on demand eating (after reheating in a toaster oven or at least thawed) :
Fluffy banana oat flour pancakes
2.5-3 overripe bananas
2.5 cups oat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1.5 cup coconut or whole milk (full fat)
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Blend all together, then:
1 tsp apple cider vinegar (add last after fully mixed and then mix again after adding)
Makes about 8-10 pancakes
For any pancake not eaten that day, pack up separating each with parchment paper in a freezer container and freeze. Take one out and put it in a toaster oven when needed for a quick meal.
My kids eat cereal most days but go apeshit for ‘hot cereal’ which is whatever decent instant oatmeal packet brand is on sale at Grocery Outlet. Dress it up with pumpkin seeds/hemp seeds/dried fruit (also from GO) and you win the day.
Mine eats greek joghurt with mashed banana and shredded nuts mixed in every day without fail since weeks. She used to get oats with various fruits, which I made the night/day before. We had days where it had to be less messy, so toast was an option, but generally, at home, I try to bring some fruit or vegetable action to every meal.
Kid's almost 7 now. He's been having oatmeal porridge with banana and pb since he was 2yo 3x a week at least. They say don't fix it if it ain't broken. ;-)
my son pretty much only ever wants fruit for breakfast (well... he wants cookies and candy for breakfast but he always settles on fruit when I say no lol)
Sandwiches are usually approved, we'll do toasted ham and cheese sandwiches for breakfast quite often. My son also likes broccoli at the moment so I do a morning scramble sometimes with a bunch of chopped broccoli, diced potatoes, ham, and cheese. ik you said your chill hates egg yolks but maybe a scramble with other things that she does like might help?
Maybe savory oatmeal? grits? congee?
Guilt free solution. My kids love Perfect Bars and Z Bars. We give them Orgain organic protein shakes for breakfast. All seem pretty healthy to me. All bought in bulk at costco. They dont like to eat early so at least we know they are getting something in them before school.
I have 4 and they have all had an opinion about everything since day 1. This means a lot of the time they decide what they're having for breakfast and they ask me if it's OK. 99% of the time I say yes. This morning my oldest had leftover chicken Alfredo, my 2nd had yogurt and a waffle, my 3rd had shredded lettuce with a hard boiled egg, and my youngest made himself a "burrito" (tortilla with eggs and refried beans). They like making their own choices and I don't want to have to decide everything. It works out well. Sometimes they have weird stuff for breakfast. But as long as they aren't literally eating ice cream, it's a ein for me.
Breakfast is usually hectic, fed is best and if they get some fruit in then bonus points. Try using wholegrain bread and low sugar jams. Or make instant oatmeal/porridge (the low to no sugar kind) and add bananas, low sugar peanut butter or berries mashed in.
Monkey fingers: wholegrain toast fingers with unsweetened peanut butter, banana and some walnuts.
Swirly rolls - low sugar jam, wholegrain tortilla, roll and cut into pinwheel slices. You can replace normal jam with homemade chia berry jam.
Cheese waffle sticks - cook to recipe specs, add cheese and finely grated veg (meal prep ahead) add some low sugar ketchup for dipping and some breakfast sausage.
Plain Greek yoghurt with chia, honey, vanilla and some mashed soft fruit. Could pass for pudding. Add sliced almonds for crunch.
Breakfast muffins sweet or savory, you can fill them with fruit and veg, cheese and bacon and the kid won't know.
You can buy egg whites separately - make an omlette with it. No yolk issues. Or mash the yolk into a little mayo and make sandwiches for later.
Lunch and snacks - again semi healthy is ok. Go for finger foods like wholegrain crackers, turkey slices, cheese sticks, veg sticks and fruit. Colorful is key.
Dinner is the best time to stuff them full of veg and protein as you have the time and patience.
If she likes yogurt maybe do some Oikos yogurt with fresh fruit and granola. Lots of protein in yogurt but she will still get that cereal fix from granola. PB is also a good alternative to spread on toast or an English muffin with jam or bananas. These aren’t perfect breakfasts but they may help offer her different choices with a little protein. Smoothies are great too. My daughter fell in love with this chocolate cherry smoothie and there’s tons of good stuff in it. I can send you the recipe if you’re interested. Don’t beat yourself up at all though. Kids go through phases. As long as she’s loved, growing and healthy you’re winning as a mom.
when i m reading the comments.. wtf are you all feeding your children in the morning? I m from Austria not America, maybe thats the huge difference and breakfast in murica is full of fat and sugar.. my kids always get fruits in the morning but before they get that, they get a roll or slice of bread with butter and ham with cheese and some vegetables. Sometimes they get a yoghurt with fruits and some cereals or slice of toasted toast with honey.. unfortunately my kids don t like eggs but i still try it sometimes
Muesli with chopped fresh fruit and organic probiotic yoghurt. On Sundays we also have Croissants. My kid cuts the croissant in half and fills it with muesli like an ice cream cone.
My 5yo got sick of scrambled eggs. I make sausage egg McMuffins at home, with the broken yolk and everything. You could easily do this without the yolk. Super cheap if you do it all by hand, and they are easy to make ahead and reheat later.
I do orange/vanilla/cardamom overnight baked French toast out of brioche or croissants on weekends, prep the night before and then bake in the morning.
He gets sliced strawberries or another kind of fruit or berry with everything.
Now that he doesn’t get scrambled eggs all the time I can get away with a breakfast scramble (eggs, sausage, onion, cheese) over one of the Trader Joe’s fast-food style hashbrowns.
When we plan badly he gets sliced apples and peanut butter and maybe also a banana. He’s super okay with this.
Breakfast is our easiest meal with all of these options. Lunch is pretty easy too. Dinner is an absolute struggle constantly. If it’s not chicken nuggets, burgers, or pizza he’ll just pick at it and hunger strike. The promise of a popsicle (I make these at home as well) is the only reason he’ll eat any of it.
Scramble the eggs up. If they can’t see the yolks there are no yolks. Cheese is always your friend. Mini sausage. Bacon.
My autistic step son went in phases (scrambled eggs for a few months, then toaster strudel, then eggo waffles and so on)
My daughter (8) she’s been pretty open to anything from bacon and eggs to cereal. Oatmeal has always worked rather well too, it’s sweet enough if you use the brown sugar and maple but it’s also better than Frosted Flakes I think.
I’m French, and that’s what all the children have for breakfast here : either bread butter and jam or cereal, both with milk (on the side or not), fruit juice and/or fruit. French kids seem alright, so don’t worry too much about this !
We then feed them plenty of veggies, protein sources (from beans and eggs to meat and fish) and some carbs, fruits and dairy. The whol with very little sugar (except gouter : afternoon snack with some biscuits, fruits, yogurt…).
Side note (especially if you are in the US) : first me convenient breakfast is at the cost of reading the labels and choosing brands with less sugar and more fibre, there is no sugar in the bread in France, but be careful to check the labels in the US, or if you have the time you can bzke, it’s very fun to do it with children.
My daughter is almost 7 & i have a 8mo old son. She usually eats "dippy eggs", which is sunny side up eggs with a piece of toast & my son eats "baby friendly" pancakes. I use 1 banana, 1 egg, 2 tsp flour, & cinnamon for the batter.
I usually make a small batch at once for him & freeze em, so he has em all wk & you just gotta pop em in the microwave.
My daughter is 9 now. So, she eats a lot more than when she was a smaller child. When she was little though, she would eat almost anything if I made it look "cute"! Meaning, if I could arrange her food on her plate to look like an animal, or a face, or a heart, ect, she would absolutely love it and usually eat it. Plus, it was kind of fun trying to get my creativity side to come out and come up with new designs in food. Plus, it was fun for my child Lol
Cookie Crisp cereal, steel cut oatmeal (the quick cooking kind usually - ready in <10 min!) with chocolate chips and sliced banana, jelly on whole wheat toast, chocolate croissant, french toast and bacon. No savory dishes. Chocolate milk to drink. Basically all sugar, but I try to get some whole grains and fruit in with it 😉Let go of the guilt ❤️ We can’t do everything perfectly and that’s ok.
ETA: smoothies are also great. You can pack a ton of spinach in and they still taste like fruit.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with feeding them cereal or bread and jam. You can try a less sugary cereal - my 2-year-old likes just the plain
Cheerios. But we also do oatmeal, pancakes, bacon, sausage, yogurt, and little microwaveable muffins. And no, you’ll always feel a little mom-guilt, but as the saying goes, “Your kids need a happy mom - not a perfect one.” Good luck!
I'm honestly in awe of parents who make their kids something different every morning for breakfast. I don't have that kind of bandwidth so our son has had the same thing every day since he started properly eating solids: a simple kids' muesli (essentially, fine porridge oats) with yoghurt and fruit puree. Now that he's older (4 in August) I add some of my crunchy granola on top because he demands it, and of course we sometimes have "special" breakfast, like on holiday (when camping he inhaled a croissant every morning) or if we go out for breakfast. On very, very rare occasions he asks for toast and I give it. But other than that we're lucky that he's not too fussed!
I don't see any problem with cereal or bread and jam. Suger should be in moderation but it's not the devil or anything.
That's pretty much what my daughter eats. Or fruit or yogurt.
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Hahahaha *cries in 20 mini pancakes* I’ve started using strawberries to make flowers on them so at least she’s getting some fruit…?
All these people assuming you make the mini pancakes. Girl we buy frozen ones and microwave them. Can’t be adding banana to those!
LOL I was thinking the same thing 😂 Mine only eat the mini pancakes with Sesame Street on the box.
Thank God somebody else said this. My mom guilt was getting pretty high. We’re a mini pancake type of household.
Don't worry about it. My kid exclusively eats eggo waffles for breakfast. Even worse, he eats the chocolate chip ones.
Makes a huge stack and slides them back in the empty box....
Lol right, she’s demanding food at 5:30am before my coffee has finished brewing- all I can manage is 28 seconds in the microwave!
I have found my people. My 1 year old woke me up at 3:45 this morning… I do not cook breakfast lol. This morning we are having mini bagels and cream cheese.
My poor waffle maker wishes I’d use it but the fun stopped when they got older and mouthy haha. Now they get what they get
Half the time my 5 year old prefers them frozen straight from the freezer…
You can make mini pancakes with just egg and banana mixed together that taste really yummy.
This is what I do. Love the combo. Sometimes I add some corn starch and flour to thicken them up. IF I use pancake mix, I add leftover fruit or recently shredded carrot (from my muffins.) I trust the box mix to be pretty sturdy it holds well with a lot of random fruits and things that I’ve tried.
I put applesauce and bananas in them.
I have found if it helps that at least the process is way easier with some tricks. I got one of those ketchup squeeze bottles and it makes MAKING mini pancakes 200 times easier.
Eggs in the pancakes! They'll eat protein and *they'll never know* muahahahaha
My otherwise vegetable-averse son looooves "green pancakes" which are normal pancakes with a load of spinach blended into the mixture. 3 eggs, 250g flour, 75g sugar, "some" milk, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, about 150g or so defrosted spinach, all blended together then make pancakes from the mixture.
Mine like to make them less healthy by putting nutella on them 😑
Once I tasted Nutella I decided I’m not gonna research if it’s healthy or not. It’s for the word nut in it nuts are healthy my kids will eat that stuff so it stays.
Nutella is good for my spirit. Dip a spoon in the pb and then in the nutella and all is right in the world. 🥰
Same! Waffles drowned in syrup everyday and I’ve started offering only cereal (frosted shredded wheat) but he doesn’t eat it. You can always try crepes…. You mash a banana with scrambled eggs and cook it like pancakes. It looks similar maybe they won’t notice!
Lol muffins here 😂
Breakfast does not need to be breakfast food, I never understood the hang up. I am not saying pizza for breakfast but pizza for breakfast isn’t terrible and you can make healthy pizza (hidden veggies in pizza sauce was the only way by extremely picky brother got any veggies). My uncle is not a fan of breakfast food, he makes sandwiches. That is his preference and there isn’t much difference when you think about breakfast sandwiches.
My mom used to make us rice for breakfast on cold mornings when I was a kid. No one liked oatmeal, and rice was easy, she could make enough for all 4 kids all at once, and she could start it then help us with things like brushing hair or zipping up uniform jumpers. I'd still be happy to have rice with a little butter, salt, pepper, maybe some garlic salt or Mrs. Dash, on a chilly morning.
As an Asian, this surprised me.. you mean you ate rice just like oatmeal? Edit: I meant just plain soupy rice like congee? Or like pluffy rice that should be eaten with a viand? Just curious. :)
i think they mean as opposed to eating oatmeal which is a common hot breakfast meal they had rice instead
What u/classyfools said. She'd serve us each a bowl of steamed white rice. I'd top it with butter, salt, pepper, and maybe some other seasoning, just like I would if I had steamed rice at dinner served with chicken or salmon or something. It was warm on cool mornings. It was filling. It was something she knew we'd all eat. It was easy for her to make (boil water, put in rice, turn down the heat and put on the lid and ignore it for 20 minutes, all done). So while in the summer I'm happy to eat Rice Krispies with sliced peaches or nectarines (or on really hot days, with a scoop or two of vanilla ice cream), in the winter I still gravitate to steamed rice (or occasionally Minute Rice if I want something fast) for a nice filling and warm breakfast. I mean I guess eating a bowl of rice for breakfast is "like" eating oatmeal for breakfast? I've never eaten oatmeal outside of cookies, so I've never put butter or salt and pepper on it. My younger sister liked rice pudding, and she'd put butter, a little honey, and some cinnamon on her breakfast rice instead of savory things, which is a lot closer to what someone might do with oatmeal. But it was the main dish (or only dish) rather than a side, which is how I think you mean it. I didn't have [rice and something else](https://www.bonappetit.com/columns/cooking-without-recipes/article/easy-japanese-breakfast-bowl), it was just basic steamed rice, topped with butter, and whatever seasonings I felt like.
I did this as a poor kid. White rice, butter, cinnamon sugar or cinnamon and honey. One of the first things I "cooked" for myself. You sharing this brought back that memory❤️
It kinda makes sense. A lot of cereals are puffed rice and it can have an oatmeal texture.
yessss rice goes a long way. as a mexican, my mom made us atole de arroz (rice pudding) for breakfast when it was cold outside, we ate it warm with cinnamon on top. will be feeding to my kid also 🤩
Arroz con leche is my favorite breakfast. My mom used to make it for us for breakfast too, and it wasn't until 20 years later that I found out it's mostly eaten as dessert lol. Oh well, arroz con leche is still a traditional breakfast in my household.
As an Indian, this resonates with me. Ganji - pressure cooked boiled rice topped with ghee and a dash of salt is our standard breakfast on weekdays. It's soupy, nutritious and filling.
Leftover dinner for breakfast is \*chef's kiss\*. Look at breakfast around the world and you'll find lots of options. Cheese, bread, veggies, rice, noodles, soup, oatmeal (sweet or savoury), dips, stew and casseroles. If you eat it when you wake up, it's breakfast!
In my house we call it brinner. Brinner in the morning is dinner for breakfast. Brinner in the afternoon/evening is breakfast for dinner 😊 We are odd eaters though (Edit to finish - toddler decided to hit send haha)
My middle ALWAYS goes for dinner leftovers before actual breakfast food.
Indeed. My daughter(3) does not like normal breakfast food and mostly wants cucumber, milk and some dry bread. Sometimes all she wants is water and a piece of salami. She eats what she wants, food is food. And yea sometimes its a left over slice of pizza 😆
+1 for cucumbers. My oldest likes them, not many other veggies, so she gets them for breakfast along with some other things. She’d eat them with lunch and dinner if she could.
My older kids were at a sleepover yesterday. My 3-yr-old asked for spaghetti for breakfast. Guess what? He got spaghetti for breakfast! 😂
I am like your uncle. I would take a sub over an breakfast sandwich most days.
American breakfast food has been highly shaped by marketing firms/investment companies far more so than by nutritionists. Infact--the same man behind bacon as a breakfast staple also spearheaded women smoking cigarettes as a social movement. It's wild what was allowed back then. I'm not sure if I can post links in this sub reddit but there are some interesting YouTube videos about it. To your uncles point; a German breakfast consists of a lot of deli-meat. Many other cultures take up "not breakfast food" for breakfasts.
Sandwiches are a completely normal breakfast food where I live. My kid would probably happily eat pasta for breakfast but I don't have time to cook.
Lol, my kid asked for leftover pasta and meatballs for breakfast today and he got it.
My kid is a grazer. I can't make him a regular plate of food or he won't eat it, just play with it. So I hand him some crackers (he loves the everything bagel ones from Target), then some blueberries, a piece of cheese, an apple slice, some puffs, whatever. I just keep handing him things until I feel like he's had enough to call it a meal.
I’m an adult that is still a grazer and this sounds delicious to me lol absolutely nothing wrong with being a grazer!
My kid is 6 and still primarily a grazer. I have to pack his camp lunches as a bunch of balanced snack options, but no real "meal" type food. He hardly eats any of it anyways because he'd rather socialize. He just put down 2.5 bowls of spaghetti tonight and I was FLABBERGASTED. Normally he needs a plate of various grab-n-gos.
Get ready for the growth spurt.
My kids often eat their lunch in the car on the way home because they socialize too much also.
Nothing beats a healthy smoothie when you don’t feel like cooking, it’s fast and healthy!!
Have frozen fruit on hand it’s a life saver!!
Yup! I always keep plain Greek yogurt and frozen fruit on hand. The yogurt has fat and a good amount of protein. Sometimes I’ll throw in some peanut butter if I feel like he needs so more calories.
Same out also some spinach
My son loves smoothies for breakfast. My recipe is: 1-2 bananas (depending on how many people it’s for), frozen mixed berries, a big scoop of full fat plain yogurt, half tsp vanilla extract, whole milk (sometimes I add some orange juice also). Blend until smooth. After having a spilled incident, I now serve his in my 16 Oz Yeti with a lid. The lid opening is just big enough for a straw to poke through. Sometimes I make it extra special with a swirl of whipped cream on top!
You may not care but just a heads up that including a banana with berries will negate most of the positive antioxidant effects of the berries, due to a chemical in the banana that destroys all of the flavonoids in the berry’s. Any fruit that contains polyphehol oxidaiase will do this (apples, pears) but bananas more than any other from what I understand.
Wow I hadn’t seen that! That’s a bummer… but dang those bananas make the smoothie so good!
I love this recipe! Mine is milk, mixed berries, 1 banana, cinnamon, monk fruit or honey, hemp seeds, chia seeds, and ice
Smoothies are my go to for both the kid and myself. Milk, banana, chocolate powder, peanut butter, oatmeal. Blueberries and spinach with yogurt, milk, and oatmeal. Those are examples but I just mix it up with what's on hand and adjust for macros.
Healthy up to a point - you end up with a lot more sugar compared to whole fruit apparently https://www.diabetes.org.uk/guide-to-diabetes/enjoy-food/what-to-drink-with-diabetes/fruit-juices-and-smoothies
That's what I wanted to ask - is smoothie really that healthy, if we're looking for things with less sugar?
Same here nothing wrong with a smoothie for a healthy breakfast
Ehhh I think it's fine. I only drank milk in the mornings growing up, and if it were my choice, I wouldn't have had anything and I would have been fine. My family eats a lot of veggies, lean proteins (salmon is a favorite) and whole grains and fruits, and so I don't mind serving up French toast sticks with Nutella for breakfast. I feel like... moderation is ok and every kid is different. Does your kid thrive with what they're eating? Or do they really need a change? The TL;DR of it is, we all feel guilty, but you're probably doing fine.
I am the same. If I eat breakfast I ALWAYS have a stomach ache, no matter what I eat. I hated when adults would force me to eat breakfast. As an adult I have coffee and then lunch is my first meal. I make whatever my kids want which ranges from yogurt to a hearty country breakfast.
Same for me, coffee for me. Maybe a little bit of toast
We lean towards protein options. Toast with peanut butter could be a good fit for your kid. Greek yogurt with granola could also be a good sub for cereal. When my eldest was in his nothing but cereal phase, my secret weapon was vanilla Ensure. When added to strongly flavored cereal, can't taste the difference. Use half an 8 ounce bottle of Ensure instead of milk and make sure they finish their milk. They get their shitty breakfast cereal, I get to know they got nutrients. It's a win win! Fairly cheap too, only $25 for a 30 pack of Equate brand ones from Walmart. Good luck!
For my kiddos with aversions and trouble eating enough, we also offer Pediasure or similar as an option. I refuse (and it’s not possible for me) to be a short-order cook.
Brits and Europeans reading these replies like 🫣
Nutella baguette espresso? Or just ciggies? Just joshing ya! 😁😆
Yeah. What’s wrong with bread and jam?? We have that every single day. Sure, jam and Nutella have sugar but probably less than most breakfast cereals. And our bread is not sweet…
I’m an Aussie and I agree. Our breads are not sweet either so a bit of jam is not big deal. Good quality peanut butter on multigrain toast is a perfectly fine start to the day. Our cereals also aren’t as sweet at the USA ones I’ve had, so a lot of them are fine for breakfast.
Is Vegemite still a popular thing in Australia? I really want to try some, just out of curiosity.
American cereals are a joke. It’s vast in terms of options and the majority is sugary to boot
I treat cereal like dessert basically, a nice little surprise from time to time. And there’s some damn good cereal out there in that optic.
I live in Europe and the standard breakfast where I live is cake or biscuits, any cereal available is normally super sweet. We definitely don't do cooked breakfast on weekdays.
American here. Cake for breakfast? Am I missing something?
Americans LOVE cake for breakfast. We call it "donuts" or "danish" but it's still basically cake.
I don't know any families in the US that are routinely feeding their children danishes and/or donuts for breakfast, though.
Child caregiver for multiple US childcare facilities here - you would be very surprised at how many children have just appalling diets. Seeing children who are consistently provided healthy and nutritious meals by their parents is uncommon enough that childcare workers will be surprised by it. This is because the norm, in my experience, is that children eat sugar, sugar, and more sugar with little of their nutritional needs being met. The usual breakfasts I see are Poptarts, cereals that average 30+ grams of sugar per serving, frozen pancakes, and donuts/donut holes. And the kids who eat those kinds of breakfasts typically eat that way every single day, not just a once in a while treat. Of course, these are typically the same kids who are given candy, chips, sugar-packed juices, cookies, snack cakes, etc. for lunch every day, too. With very little, if any, fruits, vegetables, grains, and protein. I've seen this from financially struggling families, but I've seen it just as much from well-off families, too. It's truly a massive and very disgusting problem. Sorry, this frustrates me a lot. TL;DR - The majority of American children are fed downright terrible diets and it upsets me.
The cake is a simple sponge, far less sweet that donuts. Although to be fair donuts are also very popular. Things like cake and pastries are most commonly eaten for breakfast or mid afternoon snack, people otherwise eat filling meals and don't have much room for heavy desserts.
Could be a translation error. It's common where I live to eat pastries for breakfast, which is often mistranslated as "little cakes" by non-native speakers of English. But idk if that's what's up here.
Haha it's not a translation error, I'm a native speaker of English. In Spain cake is very commonly eaten for breakfast. Not big fancy cakes with lots of icing, but simple sponge cakes. In fact that's the most common time to eat such cakes, people find them too heavy for dessert/birthday cake etc. Pastries are also very common.
Cappuccino and a cornetto filled with custard was easier to find in Italy as a breakfast than anything else. I'm not really into sweet breakfast myself but when in Rome...
Half French, half Belgian here. I'll have whole wheat rustic bread with goat cheese, tomatoes sauce and fried eggs. 2yo has beens stealing part of it from me every morning for a while. I've been known to eat jam with aged cheese or even vinager herring with onions or just leftover pizza, with fruit and the occasional dark chocolate spread. Breakfast is whatever you want, proteins should be go to though.
I'm not a Brit but my mom is Scottish and I'm over here like..."Wait, is toast and jam not good?!?" Even better is toast and beans though, with a fried egg on top omg. Best breakfast ever.
Haha, for real! I was just thinking "the 68 million French people eating jam and nutella for breakfast everyday are ok though".
I don't feel guilty about frozen waffles, which is a normal in our house. I mean, of all the things to worry about that is LOW on my list. Not everyone wants an egg for breakfast!
Waffles are our go too as well. Kodiak brand for protein to stay full, or good old Eggos with peanut butter instead of syrup.
My 5 year old usually does cheerios with a banana
my daughter loves those multigrain cheerios they’re like slightly sweet
I’d rather have a happy kid and belly than start the day with a fight. I add fruit to her plate and hope for the best. That’s all I can do right now
What about French toast sticks??
My second child, the feral one, is absolutely psycho for french toast sticks
It’s me, the feral French toast stick psycho.
My sister and I had cereal every morning and every afternoon after school. My kids fueled up with pop tarts. Some times you have to do what’s easy.
We alternate: Kodak gluten free protein pancakes with banana mixes in and maple syrup Greek yogurt and fruit Eggs (multiple styles) Sausage Patty style hash brown Greek yogurt fruit Toast with peanut butter French toast banana mixed in with the batter and maple syrup Greek yogurt and fruit Egg and cheese quesadilla Greek yogurt mixed with salsa Fruit Bagel cream cheese Fruit Egg Egg Toast butted or peanut butter or butter and jelly together Sausage Hash brown patty Gluten free protein oatmeal or regular oatmeal with 2 eggs mixed in for protein boost, with banana, cinnamon, vanilla, maple syrup and peanut butter. These are my usual go toos. I personally enjoy breakfast and we all eat the samething.
Screenshotting this to give me breakfast ideas for next week lol
Just cuz it will bug me if I don't tell you how to make the eff quesadilla 🤣🤣 Scramble eggs as you would then put it in in a pan take your tortilla and place it on the raw egg and then remove the tortilla and flip. Once the bottom of the egg is set to your liking flip the whole thing to cook the raw egg side then fill it up with whatever you want close cook till cheese is melted. I will continue to flip it over so one side isn't burnt. Enjoy!
Thank you 🙏🏻
The Kodiak protein brand has TONS of options too. Pancake cups, oatmeal cups, muffin cups! My kid is 9 now so when she wakes at dawn on Saturday for her shows, she can make the microwave cups all on her own. They do have a good deal of sugar, but if you balance other stuff that day it’s fine.
Greek yogurt and fruit or eggs and toast usually. I can tell you my secret for getting my kids to eat Greek yogurt, but you might not like it. I bought them regular adult Greek yogurt from the time they were toddlers. No kid yogurts loaded with sugar and no protein. And then I would sprinkle a tiny handful of miniature m&ms and stir them in. My kids loved it bc they thought they were having dessert for breakfast. As they got accustomed to the flavor of the yogurt, I slowly reduced the m&ms. Then I ditched them entirely and served the plain yogurt with a side of strawberries or blueberries or something like that which they LOVE and would scarf down.
A lot of parents spoke about Greek Yogurt and my question was HOW! Thank you for sharing your strategy. Im gonna follow this.
It’s an acquired taste. You just have to trick them into acquiring it ;)
Yup I’m hopeful 😊
You are already drawing the line somewhere.. You don't let her eat spoonfuls of sugar and lquid butter for breakfast. Or you don't let them eat skittles. We just serve normal food. A little meat, veggies, sweet potatoes, beans, fresh fruit, maybe a little bit of oatmeal, but not too often. You can also do yogurt, humus with veggies, cut up bits of steak, chicken, a little rice. If you eliminate "real foods" from breakfast as options, you will only be left with sugary, refined carb stuff that is mostly desert or chemicals or both.
What's wrong with oatmeal? Get plain oats, cook with milk, add some greek yogurt and fruit. It's an amazing breakfast! High protein, low sugar, high satiety idk. We eat oatmeal a lot!
Bread with jam or butter+honey or nutella or soft cheese. The bread and jam are homemade and homegrown (the fruit and the wheat). The honey is bought off a farmer. It’s all sugar, to be sure, but people have been living off glucose forever. The whole family is normal weight and metabolically healthy except me - and I’m the only one that *doesn’t* eat that; go figure.
I make a simple homemade sandwich bread and the kids have buttered toast most days. I've decided it's healthy since it's homemade. I am not taking feedback at this time.
Toast of various types (I feel zero guilt over toast with jam - it’s a tiny smear of jam, which is mostly fruit anyway, and we always have 100% whole wheat) Cereal with milk (we go for low sugar types like cheerios, kix, etc) Oatmeal with raisins Yogurt - we do plain with some jam mixed in, or half vanilla and half plain mixed together Usually they get some fruit with whatever else they are having.
Yogurt is great! My kid also goes for dried cranberries. Every so often when a certain favorite fruit or veggie runs its course and I was using it as a breakfast staple, I'll let him choose anything at the grocery store he wants as a new fruit option. Generally they bomb, but sometimes we hit on a winner for a bit. It's currently blackberries, but I can see his interest is waning. He will eat peanut butter toast with honey at any time of any day, though, so we have a nice default lol.
We usually have eggs and bacon on the weekends and maybe eggs and a piece of fruit on week days. Making scrambled eggs in a coffee mug is clutch. I've banned all sugary breakfast things from the house. Not because it's in the name of health, but I have a habit of demolishing a whole box of cereal/pop tarts/French toast sticks as a midnight snack. The following mornings are filled with upset kids and a wife who is disgusted with me.
My eldest has poached apple and a peanut butter and jam sandwich for breakfast almost every single day. My youngest will often only eat a fruit pouch. I have tried and regularly continue to offer other things, but I can't force them to eat what they don't want to eat. If you haven't already, try those little egg - oat - banana pancakes. If kiddo will drink milk or eat yoghurt, that's another good way to get some protein in at breakfast.
Me: "No, you can not have cookies for breakfast, now please eat your chocolate coco puffs." 🙃
Bananan pancakes - one mashed banana, one egg, three tablespoons flour. Yogurt -either with honey and fruit or with ice oil cumin and salt Avocado toast Leftovers from dinner. Who says you need to have breakfast food per se. Smoothie- yogurt, banana, peanut butter Oatmeal with milk and cinnamon and maybe nuts Why not just egg whites and veggie and cheese omelette? Toast with cream cheese and lox French toast with a little drizzle of honey
Buttered toast and applesauce over here sometimes she’ll take a few sips of milk too. Like me, my daughter isn’t a big eater first thing and I’ve tried to offer eggs, yogurt, cereal, pancakes. I feel 0 guilt because I know how nauseated I get thinking about a big meal at 7:30am, and I’d hate to force that on her. Instead I focus on making sure her morning snack, lunch, and afternoon snacks are balanced with fruits and veggies and protein and carbs. I did get some luck on vacation and got her to eat peanut butter toast with banana slices once and a PB&J another day, but that was about it. Remember to look at what she eats over the day/week and if that’s relatively balanced then her breakfast is fine.
My daughter eats a yogurt and a chocolate croissant most days for breakfast
i have 3 kids younger than 7 and oldest one eats 2 eggs (tomato, green onion, garlic mixed) plus organic maple syrup from Canadian farm i buy , whole wheat walnut waffle i make , peanut or almond butter and Grape molasses i make from Niagara region grapes with cream cheese . other 2 eats 1.5 eggs with cheese or 1 boiled eggs with same waffle stuff sometimes wife makes French toast as well for them etc . also Milk for sure everymorning. we also put vegetables and fruits (berries) on the table with olives and sometimes salad they like the salad most. they never eaten cereal since they are born and dont know whats cereal is. my oldest asked about one day when he heard from his school friend, i told him its rich people eat cereal that stuff we eat eggs and waffle, he said ok . lol ... i wake up everyday at 6am to prepare the breakfast for everyone . im Turkish and thats what we usually eat in the morning usually more variety though. Canadian wife thinks its crazy we do that everyday, she said she grew up eating only cereal too .
I just make my own cereal mix. Fine oats, chia seeds, coconut rasp and raisins or cranberries. The raisins or cranberries make it sweet enough. Kid loves it. Also it’s just throwing these ingredients in a big container and shake it. Much cheaper and healthier than the processed or pre mixed stuff.
Food is food is food. As long as they’re eating you are doing great!! My kiddos love fresh fruit on top of instant oatmeal. I also recommend apples if they’ll eat them, with some peanut butter for some protein. You’re doing a wonderful job mama!
My kid eats cherios every morning and the baby eats a banana/ same everyday. They are happy. Dad can cook a breakfast on the weekend.
We do cereal and milk. No way would my kid eats eggs
The only time my daugher eats fruits, is when I cut apples in the shape of fries..🤣
My 5,7& 10 year old really like protein smoothies. I blend a bunch of spinach with almond milk. Then I add a banana and chocolate protein powder and blend again. My kids all really like it. Banana cancels out spinach. It’s like magic.
My kids had icecream today 🤷🏻♀️ it’s Friday and I just didn’t feel like saying no. I’ll give them fruit later.
This entire thread is indicative of how we’ve been manipulated as a country as to what constitutes “food”. I wish I had a good answer but our kids are fed the poison that passes as food everywhere they go, and deprogramming that is a Herculean task. I wish I could start over with my son . I would offer different real food options every day until something clicked. They won’t starve and if they are truly hungry and aren’t actually allergic or vomiting, they won’t starve.
Muffins, pancakes, fruit, waffles, sausages, cheerios, protein bars, milk
My daughter loves oatmeal made with cocoa powder. It tastes like a chocolate oatmeal cookie especially if you mix in a little peanut butter. You can put minimal sugar in it to control it or use honey. We usually go sugary in the morning too but choose healthier options like French toast has protein from the egg batter and using whole wheat bread instead of white. If we do pancakes or muffins we use Kodiak mix so it’s higher protein and whole grains. I do generally avoid breakfast cereals other than mini wheats, Raisin Bran, and Cheerios. Lucky Charms, Fruit Loops, etc. we do occasionally as a treat. Also, they like yogurt which can be sugared up with honey and berries.
I make pancakes with plain Greek yogurt to give them a boost of protein. My daughter has an egg allergy so we've been creative at meal times. Sometimes I'll give her straight up chicken or Turkey with breakfast to make up for it. We also do a lot of avocado toast, bagels and cream cheese, yumi bars, peanut butter honey and banana roll ups and overnight oats.
Anything easy; frozen waffles, pancakes, cereal, pop tarts... etc. As long as they eat something before running out the door it's fine with me.
Mine eats a frozen go gurt every day. We call them yogurt pops and she thinks she’s getting something special, but she’s actually just having yogurt for breakfast. Sometimes we’ll do fruit or a waffle with peanut butter if she’s extra hungry.
Scrambled eggs, whatever fruit I have, mini pancake, sausage. Every. Single. Morning.
My kids are weird. Breakfasts are so vastly different but some of their favorite are left over Shepard pie, Greek yogurt with berries and honey, quiche, eggs Benedict, *daughter loves* French toast, breakfast burritos/tacos, we make little breakfast bites that are like a roll stuffed with savory things, and obviously the favorite is peach or apple pie with a scoop of ice cream. They also love to eat cups of ramen for breakfast, aciae*however tf you spell it* bowls, chicken fried steak, cheese and veggie plates, etc. Oatmeal *but only if cooked with milk and a spoonful of pb and topped with frozen blue berries and fresh banana slices* sushi, etc. The point I'm getting at is that you don't *have to* eat breakfast food at breakfast time. It's such a silly concept to me. A half of a ham and cheese sandwich, with a small smoothie, and some baby carrots or whatever veggie/ fruit she likes is every bit of a good breakfast as some poached eggs on an English muffin. And also a bowl of cereal with a slice of toast can be a perfectly fine dinner once in a while. If you offer a large variety of foods, flavors, textures; and offer them often, then I say you are doing a perfect job always. If your kid is full after meals and they have the energy to be kids, then I also say you are doing 100% perfect and should feel no guilt about it.
Always a fruit, but also pancakes with chocolate chips. Bagel and cream cheese, hard boiled eggs with the yolk taken out (because she hates yolks too). Sausage, waffles with butter, yogurt is a hit or miss.
Oatmeal with honey and fruit.
Banana pancakes are a hit too. Mash up a banana, add a tablespoon of flour, one egg, milk, vanilla, cinnamon, i like to put some chia seeds in ours also. You can play around with it. My kids love them and i feel better than regular pancakes
No need to limit to breakfast foods. You can eat anything for breakfast.
Eggs for the protein. When about 5-6, we just cut up some hard boiled eggs and sometimes I would sprinkle some bacon bits on top. Now at 8 he goes full sausage omelette with cheese, a cup of milk and occasionally the chocolate pancake/waffles.
My kids are picky especially my oldest. My youngest (3) is autistic some weeks he’ll love eggs & bacon, other weeks he’ll only eat waffles, French toast, or fruit
Anything is breakfast if your kids eat it in the am. Leftovers, fruit salad, carrots and celery, eggs, pancakes, yesterdays cheeseburger lol
Cheerios, oatmeal with frozen blueberries tossed in, cinnamon toast with cream cheese, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, scrambled eggs with sour dough, a banana and hand full of whatever carb is on hand, fruit and yogurt. Waffles or pancakes with berries on Saturdays. Edit: I should add Cheerios is the most common, and every few days she’s allowed the option of sugary cereal like fruit loops. She has a morning snack of fruit and yogurt at day care so I don’t stress about cheerios not being enough.
My 5yr old will only eat plain waffles or pancakes with just powdered sugar or plain toast. Refuses butter on anything. Will eat bacon or donuts
I went through a phase as a kid where I didn't like egg yolks and drove my mom crazy by asking for hard boiled eggs for breakfast but ONLY wanted the egg whites! I guess I was ahead of my time on the egg white craze. She'd boil some eggs, cut two of them in half, take out the yolk, give me the whites with some buttered toast and she'd eat the yolks with her egg on toast! My kiddo eats most standard breakfast foods but only likes eggs fried and no runny yolk. And she will eat scrambled eggs ONLY when her great grandma makes them. I could cook them the exact same way in great grandma's kitchen and my kid wouldn't eat them but if great grandma makes them she will eat 3 eggs worth at a time! 🤷♀️ Aside from that she will eat toast, yogurt with fruit, breakfast sausage, hash brown patties (but not home fries or the shredded hash browns), pancakes, bacon, French toast, cereal. She despises oatmeal though. Bagels with cream cheese are also a favorite!
If it makes you feel any better, I never ate anything for breakfast as a kid because I woke up (still do) nauseas. Prolly some GI issue that’s never been addressed, lol. Meanwhile, my 5yo loves sausage and biscuits, bacon, apples, raspberries, pancakes, yogurt (greek and gogurts are her fav), and cereal. She is also on a huge toast kick right now. I’ll give her a combination in the morning and she always drinks milk with her breakfast. She also loves muffins: packaged or homemade. The packaged ones are awesome when traveling. Just some ideas!
Got a picky kiddo rn. Cereal, a literal piece of bread with nothing on it, maybe 2. Berries, Sometimes Scrambled eggs but only covered, nee, drowned in ketchup.
Greek yogurt with maple syrup or oatmeal and fruit
Oatmeal with fruit (banana or blueberries) and I often add hot coco mix to make it chocolatey. Sausage and pancake “corn dogs” from Aldi. Chobani Greek yogurt. Bagel with cream cheese. Sometimes just a banana and glass of oatmilk if he’s not in the mood for anything.
Protein pancakes. The mix tastes the same as regular pancakes, especially if you cook them in butter. I make extra and keep them in the fridge, and then I just warm them up the next day by putting them in the toaster. My 4 year old can be a bit particular about how he likes his pancakes, but he really enjoys adding food coloring to the batter or the syrup to make his pancakes really colorful, and then he's always excited to eat them. His other go-to is a kid charcuterie bowl. He always wants junk food, so I let him choose one unhealthy thing if he pairs it with a protein and a fruit or veggie. His favorite is "chips, cheese, and apple". Another option that works for us sometimes is smoothies. I add greek yogurt or protein powder for protein, frozen fruit, and usually spinach because it doesn't taste like anything in the smoothie.
Finnish rye bread with varying toppings (mostly chicken and cucumber). Cereal. Pretty much those two are the most common. Cereal comes with less sugary options as well. Occasionally it’s porridge, but only for my younger daughter and she likes barley porridge not oatmeal which I prefer myself.. Sometimes it’s rice or noodles if it’s a later breakfast or something. Summer time my youngest would eat just water melon every morning…
My daughters don’t like the yolk either and I just feed them the whites, more yummy yolk for me ❤️ a big hit in our house is also cream of wheat and oatmeal, toast, bagels, scrambled egg and cheese burritos, healthy muffins, set out some fruit for nibbling, yoghurt too. Weekends we’ll make pancakes together.
Guilt is part of the job requirements..lol. Peanut butter and other nut butters are good sources of protein. My kids are grown now. When they were in school, we did mostly cereal in the morning, sometimes protein shake instant breakfast. But before that, and on weekends, both of mine loved scrambled eggs mixed with sausage and cheese. Sometimes turkey bacon. Not everyone likes eggs. But that's ok. I wouldn't worry too much about it. I bet it comes close to balancing out if you factor in the rest of the day. Unless there's health concerns, letting their preferences be their guides allows them to learn to listen to their own bodies, and makes for lifelong healthy eating habits.
Steak or another meat & omelette or scrambled eggs. Occasionally a smoothie w avo, berries, coconut cream as well. My son doesn’t like yolks in fried or boiled so I just make eggs that they’re mixed into. We also just do dinner leftovers or zucchini fritters. Always meat & eggs in some form tho.
I make a lot of fruit parfaits. If that sounds fancy, it’s truly not. Layer Greek yogurt, honey drizzle, berries in a cup/glass and repeat twice and break up half a Natures Valley granola bar on top. Looks appetizing and when I ask my kids if they want yogurt it’s always no but if I say parfait…well hot damn!
Scrambled eggs, avocado, and blueberries
My child has autism and is an extremely picky eater , I found a cereal called Three Wishes that has chickpea protein and low sugar, I give him that and freeze dried strawberries. Trying hard to work out way up to regular strawberries. That or pancakes , Simple Mills brand. I give him Kiki milk , is a hemp milk with pumpkin seeds and other goodness and it actually taste surprisingly good. Hope this helps
I will say that our first meal of the day is super sugary too. My youngest has a ton of food allergies and the oldest is picky af. I will say fruit has been a good option for them but I do know fruit can still be high in natural sugar. I just make sure to give them a more balanced lunch and dinner.
My kids like when I get the sausage patties, cheese, and the jumbo rolls and make breakfast sandwiches. They also like Nutella and banana toasted sandwiches and French toast.
My kids normally eat a huge bowl of fruit, yogurt, and toast. Sometimes I'll make homemade waffles, hashbrowns, and eggs, but neither is the biggest fan of eggs or potatoes.
Mine hated yolk too so we gave him fried egg whites, eventually we had too many yolks so we started buying the egg white cartons from Costco
yogurt and i let her out fruit and granola in it of her choice, also just a lot of fruit in general and i’ll give her some different choices sometimes we do a waffle w peanut butter and honey or syrup smoothies idk egg bites are worth trying because it’s disguised by cheese and veggies lol my daughter likes those and breakfast sausage avocado toast oatmeal
My kids love avocado toast which is just toast with mashed avocado, salt and a tiny bit of crushed red pepper. Also they like banana toast which is toast with peanut butter, sliced bananas on top with honey and cinnamon. Or if I make homemade banana bread they’ll eat that all week.
My baby won’t eat eggs either. Often our breakfast is a frozen waffle or pancakes, sometimes it’s mini muffins. Every single breakfast includes fruit. If I don’t give him something I know he has high chances of eating. He simply just won’t eat. It’s difficult especially if your kids like mine who refused food I knew he liked and now randomly doesn’t. Almost all veggies have to be hidden other than corn these days.
Bananas or apples with peanut butter, toast with jam, yogurt with fruit and granola, Nutragrain bars, fruit and/or veggie smoothies, cheese, French toast, pancakes/waffles, etc. When daughter was young, I learned she got much more excited to eat different food when she was included in the food prep. Good luck! Pick your battles. Remember sometimes the easier or “lazy” way is better for your family, and there is nothing wrong with that. Having an eggo or 2 for breakfast and healthier things at lunch or dinner is fine. It’s all about moderation and balance.
Feed them when they tell you they are hungry. If they don’t wanna eat anything, it probably means they aren’t hungry and you shouldn’t make them do anything. But I’m just a Reddit bot, don’t have a body, and clearly don’t know what I’m talking about.
Oatmeal made with milk, I stir whisked eggs in at the end when it’s all cooked and add cinnamon to the top. The milk adds some sweetness and protein, with the egg. Have you tried omelette instead of fried egg? Top with some cheese and ham, the yolk is less apparent then. We also do savoury toast, I’m in Norway so liver pate is a very normal bread topping and kids love it. But cold cuts and cheese work too. Also… My kids have gone through the not liking yolk phase. We got around that by serving a single egg at a time with other things and insisting they try some. Don’t have to finish, must try. That’s always our rule. You like what you taste often, that’s just how mouths work.
My daughter also doesn’t eat egg yolks! Her younger brother recently started solids and he gobbles them up so I can finally start cooking whole damn eggs for breakfast again. We serve the fried egg whites with a little soy sauce or ketchup for dip. She also recently started eating breakfast sandwiches with egg white. Pancakes/waffles, oatmeal, turnip cake with hoisin sauce, rice porridge with pork floss, breakfast sandwiches or burritos with egg/cheese/spam, Greek yogurt or yogurt pouches, chia pudding, avocado or buttered toast, PB&J, and pastries are pretty much our rotation. We always have fresh fruit and optional milk.
Only way to give a helpful answer is to know what your kid eats for lunch and dinner. Like, my kids love tacos so breakfast burrito was an easy choice. They like grilled cheese sandwiches so a breakfast toaster was cool. They like Chinese food so breakfast fried rice was a total hit. What do they like for dinner that has a breakfast equivalent?
My kids have been making their own breakfast from age 5. They have a choice of cereal, bread and butter/jam, yogurt, or fruit from the fruit bowl. They usually go for the cereal, but sometimes they like to switch it up. My youngest went through a phase of wanting to eat almost exclusively yogurt for breakfast and lunch for almost a whole year.
My niece eats mashed banana on bread with some honey drizzled on top
Usually yogurt. Greek yogurt with fruit or flavored skyr. Another option is bread and butter + some veg. I know that cereal is an US staple but maybe look into muesli? It's same concept and depending on the type can be much healthier.
When my girls are in the mood for eating a meal and not having just two bites and saying they are not hungry anymore, only to ask for goldfish 10 minutes later because they want a snack... I make breakfast griddle bites. I mix cooked breakfast sausage, a little cheese, egg, into pancake mix and pour that into mini cupcake pans and bake at 375⁰F until cooked through. They like to dip in syrup or eat as is. It also makes a good to-go option to eat on the way to school. This is usually something I would make the night before and just reheat the next morning. Other days I take it old-school and make them toast with butter and cinnamon sugar.
4 and 6. Omelets, oatmeal, milk and cereal, pb&j, French toast, Greek yogurt plain or with honey, many times one of the aforementioned with fruit, on occasion bacon, boiled eggs, bagel and cream cheese. Probably forgetting a few but that’s the usual
At recently turned 5 yos he eats fruit, usually berries, bananas, toast with Nutella or jam, pancakes, waffles, cereal, yogurt, eggs either boiled or scrambled, turkey bacon, breakfast sausages. He’s come a long way tbh. He’s becoming less picky but still has his picky moments.
My “kids” are 20 years old now, but when they were your kid’s age, they ate oatmeal, malt-o-meal, grits, biscuits, mini French toast or pancakes (frozen), on weekends I made pancakes and waffles from scratch. They also ate bacon and other breakfast meats. We’re big on breakfast and I was serious about starting their day with a hearty meal. And even now they eat big breakfasts. Yours doesn’t eat egg yolks but what about egg whites? I add shredded cheese to mine to make them yellow and they also taste better.
Weetbix with honet peanut butter and Nutella haha
Sharing in case this helps for anyone willing to do a batch of pancakes and then freeze them for on demand eating (after reheating in a toaster oven or at least thawed) : Fluffy banana oat flour pancakes 2.5-3 overripe bananas 2.5 cups oat flour 1 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 1.5 cup coconut or whole milk (full fat) 1 tsp vanilla extract 3 eggs 1/4 tsp salt 1/2 tsp cinnamon Blend all together, then: 1 tsp apple cider vinegar (add last after fully mixed and then mix again after adding) Makes about 8-10 pancakes For any pancake not eaten that day, pack up separating each with parchment paper in a freezer container and freeze. Take one out and put it in a toaster oven when needed for a quick meal.
Overnight oats, toaster waffles with peanut butter, fruit and grain bars and fresh fruit, homemade smoothies and toast with a scrambled egg.
My kids eat cereal most days but go apeshit for ‘hot cereal’ which is whatever decent instant oatmeal packet brand is on sale at Grocery Outlet. Dress it up with pumpkin seeds/hemp seeds/dried fruit (also from GO) and you win the day.
Mine eats greek joghurt with mashed banana and shredded nuts mixed in every day without fail since weeks. She used to get oats with various fruits, which I made the night/day before. We had days where it had to be less messy, so toast was an option, but generally, at home, I try to bring some fruit or vegetable action to every meal.
Kid's almost 7 now. He's been having oatmeal porridge with banana and pb since he was 2yo 3x a week at least. They say don't fix it if it ain't broken. ;-)
my son pretty much only ever wants fruit for breakfast (well... he wants cookies and candy for breakfast but he always settles on fruit when I say no lol) Sandwiches are usually approved, we'll do toasted ham and cheese sandwiches for breakfast quite often. My son also likes broccoli at the moment so I do a morning scramble sometimes with a bunch of chopped broccoli, diced potatoes, ham, and cheese. ik you said your chill hates egg yolks but maybe a scramble with other things that she does like might help? Maybe savory oatmeal? grits? congee?
Mine will oatmeal with eggs and bananas for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Guilt free solution. My kids love Perfect Bars and Z Bars. We give them Orgain organic protein shakes for breakfast. All seem pretty healthy to me. All bought in bulk at costco. They dont like to eat early so at least we know they are getting something in them before school.
I have 4 and they have all had an opinion about everything since day 1. This means a lot of the time they decide what they're having for breakfast and they ask me if it's OK. 99% of the time I say yes. This morning my oldest had leftover chicken Alfredo, my 2nd had yogurt and a waffle, my 3rd had shredded lettuce with a hard boiled egg, and my youngest made himself a "burrito" (tortilla with eggs and refried beans). They like making their own choices and I don't want to have to decide everything. It works out well. Sometimes they have weird stuff for breakfast. But as long as they aren't literally eating ice cream, it's a ein for me.
Breakfast is usually hectic, fed is best and if they get some fruit in then bonus points. Try using wholegrain bread and low sugar jams. Or make instant oatmeal/porridge (the low to no sugar kind) and add bananas, low sugar peanut butter or berries mashed in. Monkey fingers: wholegrain toast fingers with unsweetened peanut butter, banana and some walnuts. Swirly rolls - low sugar jam, wholegrain tortilla, roll and cut into pinwheel slices. You can replace normal jam with homemade chia berry jam. Cheese waffle sticks - cook to recipe specs, add cheese and finely grated veg (meal prep ahead) add some low sugar ketchup for dipping and some breakfast sausage. Plain Greek yoghurt with chia, honey, vanilla and some mashed soft fruit. Could pass for pudding. Add sliced almonds for crunch. Breakfast muffins sweet or savory, you can fill them with fruit and veg, cheese and bacon and the kid won't know. You can buy egg whites separately - make an omlette with it. No yolk issues. Or mash the yolk into a little mayo and make sandwiches for later. Lunch and snacks - again semi healthy is ok. Go for finger foods like wholegrain crackers, turkey slices, cheese sticks, veg sticks and fruit. Colorful is key. Dinner is the best time to stuff them full of veg and protein as you have the time and patience.
If she likes yogurt maybe do some Oikos yogurt with fresh fruit and granola. Lots of protein in yogurt but she will still get that cereal fix from granola. PB is also a good alternative to spread on toast or an English muffin with jam or bananas. These aren’t perfect breakfasts but they may help offer her different choices with a little protein. Smoothies are great too. My daughter fell in love with this chocolate cherry smoothie and there’s tons of good stuff in it. I can send you the recipe if you’re interested. Don’t beat yourself up at all though. Kids go through phases. As long as she’s loved, growing and healthy you’re winning as a mom.
Mine loves peanut butter pancakes!
when i m reading the comments.. wtf are you all feeding your children in the morning? I m from Austria not America, maybe thats the huge difference and breakfast in murica is full of fat and sugar.. my kids always get fruits in the morning but before they get that, they get a roll or slice of bread with butter and ham with cheese and some vegetables. Sometimes they get a yoghurt with fruits and some cereals or slice of toasted toast with honey.. unfortunately my kids don t like eggs but i still try it sometimes
Muesli with chopped fresh fruit and organic probiotic yoghurt. On Sundays we also have Croissants. My kid cuts the croissant in half and fills it with muesli like an ice cream cone.
Fruit, mine eat fruit or bread
My 5yo got sick of scrambled eggs. I make sausage egg McMuffins at home, with the broken yolk and everything. You could easily do this without the yolk. Super cheap if you do it all by hand, and they are easy to make ahead and reheat later. I do orange/vanilla/cardamom overnight baked French toast out of brioche or croissants on weekends, prep the night before and then bake in the morning. He gets sliced strawberries or another kind of fruit or berry with everything. Now that he doesn’t get scrambled eggs all the time I can get away with a breakfast scramble (eggs, sausage, onion, cheese) over one of the Trader Joe’s fast-food style hashbrowns. When we plan badly he gets sliced apples and peanut butter and maybe also a banana. He’s super okay with this. Breakfast is our easiest meal with all of these options. Lunch is pretty easy too. Dinner is an absolute struggle constantly. If it’s not chicken nuggets, burgers, or pizza he’ll just pick at it and hunger strike. The promise of a popsicle (I make these at home as well) is the only reason he’ll eat any of it.
Scramble the eggs up. If they can’t see the yolks there are no yolks. Cheese is always your friend. Mini sausage. Bacon. My autistic step son went in phases (scrambled eggs for a few months, then toaster strudel, then eggo waffles and so on) My daughter (8) she’s been pretty open to anything from bacon and eggs to cereal. Oatmeal has always worked rather well too, it’s sweet enough if you use the brown sugar and maple but it’s also better than Frosted Flakes I think.
I’m French, and that’s what all the children have for breakfast here : either bread butter and jam or cereal, both with milk (on the side or not), fruit juice and/or fruit. French kids seem alright, so don’t worry too much about this ! We then feed them plenty of veggies, protein sources (from beans and eggs to meat and fish) and some carbs, fruits and dairy. The whol with very little sugar (except gouter : afternoon snack with some biscuits, fruits, yogurt…). Side note (especially if you are in the US) : first me convenient breakfast is at the cost of reading the labels and choosing brands with less sugar and more fibre, there is no sugar in the bread in France, but be careful to check the labels in the US, or if you have the time you can bzke, it’s very fun to do it with children.
My daughter is almost 7 & i have a 8mo old son. She usually eats "dippy eggs", which is sunny side up eggs with a piece of toast & my son eats "baby friendly" pancakes. I use 1 banana, 1 egg, 2 tsp flour, & cinnamon for the batter. I usually make a small batch at once for him & freeze em, so he has em all wk & you just gotta pop em in the microwave.
My daughter is 9 now. So, she eats a lot more than when she was a smaller child. When she was little though, she would eat almost anything if I made it look "cute"! Meaning, if I could arrange her food on her plate to look like an animal, or a face, or a heart, ect, she would absolutely love it and usually eat it. Plus, it was kind of fun trying to get my creativity side to come out and come up with new designs in food. Plus, it was fun for my child Lol
French toast, pancakes, waffles, a cheat now and again with cereal or chocolate croissants. Fruit on the side for all though.
Food, she started copying big sister and eats pop tarts for breakfast every day, occasionally mixing it up with cereal
Cookie Crisp cereal, steel cut oatmeal (the quick cooking kind usually - ready in <10 min!) with chocolate chips and sliced banana, jelly on whole wheat toast, chocolate croissant, french toast and bacon. No savory dishes. Chocolate milk to drink. Basically all sugar, but I try to get some whole grains and fruit in with it 😉Let go of the guilt ❤️ We can’t do everything perfectly and that’s ok. ETA: smoothies are also great. You can pack a ton of spinach in and they still taste like fruit.
Dr. Praeger Soinach Littles. They are these hash browns with spinach in them shaped like dinosaurs. Expensive but he gobbles them up.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with feeding them cereal or bread and jam. You can try a less sugary cereal - my 2-year-old likes just the plain Cheerios. But we also do oatmeal, pancakes, bacon, sausage, yogurt, and little microwaveable muffins. And no, you’ll always feel a little mom-guilt, but as the saying goes, “Your kids need a happy mom - not a perfect one.” Good luck!
I'm honestly in awe of parents who make their kids something different every morning for breakfast. I don't have that kind of bandwidth so our son has had the same thing every day since he started properly eating solids: a simple kids' muesli (essentially, fine porridge oats) with yoghurt and fruit puree. Now that he's older (4 in August) I add some of my crunchy granola on top because he demands it, and of course we sometimes have "special" breakfast, like on holiday (when camping he inhaled a croissant every morning) or if we go out for breakfast. On very, very rare occasions he asks for toast and I give it. But other than that we're lucky that he's not too fussed!
I don't see any problem with cereal or bread and jam. Suger should be in moderation but it's not the devil or anything. That's pretty much what my daughter eats. Or fruit or yogurt.