Most Important Meal Of The Day????

[Unregistered]

Personally, I don't see what's wrong with a couple of homemade cookies for breakfast. They most likely contain better ingredients than any processed cereal product. They are definitely better than pop tarts or eggo waffles. They contain similar ingredients to other baked items, such as homemade breads, muffins, pancakes, etc. We eat oatmeal cookies all the time for breakfast. The kids love them! Just because it's a cookie, doesn't mean it's bad for you.

On the other hand...I used to care for a child who, when dropped off by dad, came with his baggie of candy for the road. Let's just say that baggie got put on the counter and was returned to the child about 5 min before mom was due to show up. What comes around goes around there. When mom came to get him & he was having the candy, I said "Dad brought this with today and we're just getting around to having it now." Never saw candy again after that. LOL He'd also come with pop tarts that I promptly pitched in the garbage after the parents left. A homemade cookie would've been SOOO much better an option than the candy or pop tart.

[sharlan]

My mom was a huge you HAVE to eat breakfast kind of person. If you over slept she made toast to eat at the bus stop. But I have had a problem with my daughter since she started on solids. Never could get more than a few bites in her. When she was 3 she had to go to daycare. Sit her at the table every morning and she would just stare at her food. I even started buying sugar cereals to try to get her to eat something, but she always refused. Started waking her up 2 1/2 hours before we had to leave to give her time to wake up and hoping she would want to eat right before we had to leave, NOTHING. Once she was in school I could get her to eat 1/2 serving of cereal in the morning, but that was it and it was a FIGHT to force her to eat that much. Now she is 13. In the summers she doesn't eat a bite until 10:0. Tried making her eat a little of something before she goes to school, but when she gets home she talks about how her tummy hurts all morning when she eats. The school now has a breakfast program. At her age they can go buy something(or bring) until 10 and eat it at there desk. I've let the eating right away in the morning go if she will eat a piece of fruit and yougurt at school.
My mom says that she was like Erin. Never hungry in the morning,. but her parents made her eat breakfast. She threw up every morning on the bus. She finally begged her mom to quit making her eat. She brought a PB and Jelly sandwitch to school with her and would eat that right before class started.

My sister, niece, and oldest daughter are like that. Do not even show them food before 10 AM. At 34, my dd just started drinking an Ensure High Protein for breakfast and is able to keep that down.

[graham.shellbell]

eek

I fed my littles 1/2 a poptart for breakfast this morning...they get it once in a while with a fruit smoothie and half a banana. Only one of them ate the whole thing the others pick at it cause I don't serve them often at all but some mornings here it is all about convenience for me with 3 infants all needing fed at the same time and 5 kids being dropped off.

[cheerfuldom]

it gets worse when marketing acts like sugar cereal and such ARE healthy option. It takes about one minute literally to make instant oatmeal and you can get the no sugar or low sugar varieties. that is one of our favorites because it keeps the kids full all morning. my kids love sliced fruit, toast (grain or wheat breads), eggs, you name it. Kids WILL eat anything when that is what they are offered. I do not believe parents that insist their kid will only eat chicken nuggets covered in dip. Parents need to take the initiative to rid the house of junk and force everyone to eat better. Think about it, I bet most of these junk food parents are regulars at Starbucks and fast food places. One of my friends said her son's first word was french fry! I babysat another friend's child and this 1 year old cried EVERY time we drove past a McDonald's. She even said donalds and pointed out the window!

[B Lou]

The comment about a homemade cookies being ok for breakfest really confusses me. I guess it reminds me of the old Bill Cosby scene about Choc. cake for breakfest. I mean flour and eggs and milk. Right. Sorry have to disagree with you on this one. I think there are way better options other than sugar filled cookies. Homemade or not.

[AnneCordelia]

My homemade cookies have oats, ww flour, butter, eggs and SUGAR. Not for breakfast here. But, I don't feed my DCKs breakfast. I do make sure my own children have a hot breakfast every day. Sometimes it's as easy at oatmeal and fruit, but usually there are eggs, ham and toast w/ fruit.

[B Lou]

I was looking at our minute menu and no where on the breakfast section does it show homemade cookies. Maybe I'm just over looking it. We only have homemade cookies as a snack on occasion. Always with milk. It's the sugar content that I'm worried about.

[youretooloud]

I grew up eating pop tarts or eggos in the morning.

The kids who didn't eat eggos in the morning, were eating sugared cereal. So, I think the "eat whatever is fast and easy" has been going on for decades.

The only time we ever got a healthy breakfast was on Sunday mornings.

[cheerfuldom]

my point is that there are plenty of fast and easy healthy options. How long does it take to slice up a banana for goodness sakes? It takes longer to toast a pop tart or waffle.

[Blackcat31]

my point is that there are plenty of fast and easy healthy options. How long does it take to slice up a banana for goodness sakes? It takes longer to toast a pop tart or waffle.

LOL, this made me think of a girlfriend I had years ago that I teased all the time because she bought pre-packaged pancakes because she said it was too time consuming to actually make them from scratch.

I guess looking back now, I should have given her credit for at least feeding her kids something healthy versus junk food. It just made me laugh at how simple pancakes are to make yet she was willing to spend money for the convenience of frozen ready-made pancakes.

[cheerfuldom]

I know. Usually the "junk food" parents are too busy for a variety of things. If you are too busy to actually feed your kid, maybe you are just too busy, you know? And then there are the food issues that have nothing to do with time. Regular milk pours as quickly as chocolate milk you know?

[momofsix]

I grew up eating pop tarts or eggos in the morning.

The kids who didn't eat eggos in the morning, were eating sugared cereal. So, I think the "eat whatever is fast and easy" has been going on for decades.

The only time we ever got a healthy breakfast was on Sunday mornings.

Same here!
I think a lot of unhealthy eating can be simply a lack of knowledge. Poptarts are sold in the breakfast food aisle and marketed as a breakfast food, plus they taste good-why wouldn't people serve them to kids for breakfast?! Unless a person has learned from someone (parent, class, books, movie etc.) about food and how our bodies react to different foods they aren't going to know! I shudder when I think how I fed my dd's when they were younger-and I thought I was doing great b/c I didn't ever buy candy! I just didn't know-I thought that what the nurses at WIC told me was healthy was true (it's not-ice cream counted as my dairy among other unhealthy things they pushed)
Some of my parents ask for copies of my daycare menus now so that they can get healthy meal and snack ideas for their kids. They just need to know that eating healthy doesn't have to mean cooking over a stove for over an hour for each and every meal. Once they get some ideas of simple yet healthy snacks and meals they were much more willing to try them at home.
I know this isn't true for everyone-there are plenty of people that just don't care, but it was for me and I'm sure is for others too

[DCMom]

I think it is a generational thing. I'm over 50 and we always had home cooked, hot breakfasts. But, my mom didn't work. My kids (and daycare kids) have home-cooked, hot breakfasts. But I work/worked at home and had the time (made the time...) My middle son works overnights and will often stop in after work for breakfast because he knows it's going to be something good ::

Some of my daycare kids who started recently think that things like pancakes, waffles and french toast come from the freezer section of the grocery store. They don't know that an egg starts in a shell and comes from a chicken. They watched me make home made pancakes this morning and would not eat them because the weren't the frozen mini ones. Until they watched the others wolf them down and tried some that is ~ .

I really think it's just what they know and parents have never educated themselves any differently. Its sad, really. I believe our diets have so much to do with our health issues these days.

[themoorethemerrier]

Gah! We've got the poptart issue here, too. EVERY MORNING two of the kids walk in with a poptart in hand - they don't eat them, and then my 2yo son is going bonkers for them, and my youngest daughter wants to know why she can't have them.

We have the food program, so they get super healthy balanced meals - not much of a need for them to bring anything in.

I was wondering if anyone else put it in their contract about no outside food coming in?

[nannyde]

Regular milk pours as quickly as chocolate milk you know?

Can I borrow that one?

It aint about the milk. It's about the candy.