Ideas for a 3 year old at breakfast

Quackles

Hello all..

My three year old never got off the bottle for a couple of reasons I'm not going to get into here for fear of writing an essay. He's been down to two bottles a day for some time now, his definite favourite being the morning bottle. Anyway, the bottle fairy came last night and took away the bottles after I'd been promised he'd eat and drink in the morning. We got up this morning full of inspiration, but 40 minutes later, he's just gone out to playschool with the following in his tum - 3-4 spoons of dry coco pops, 3 spoons of yoghurt, 1/3 of a slice of dry toast, not sure if he touched his orange juice at all. I don't want to backtrack and reintroduce the bottle, he was late getting off it anyway, but I don't want to think of him hungry before lunch. Any ideas?

Thanks!

lostinnappies

children hate change, give it a while dont give in. I find with my 4 year old he eats about the same every morning. Dont try and over compensate for the loss of a bottle. He's a clever boy and when he is hungary he will eat. Well done for using bottle faries.:D

Quackles

lostinnappies wrote: »

children hate change, give it a while dont give in. I find with my 4 year old he eats about the same every morning. Dont try and over compensate for the loss of a bottle. He's a clever boy and when he is hungary he will eat. Well done for using bottle faries.:D

Thanks.. It is particularly tough, because he spends a huge amount of his time with his almost 8 year old cousin who still has a bottle (don't judge, it's one of the only thing he eats, can't take it off him without killing him) so we couldn't pull the "you're a big boy" card with him in the fear it will hurt or put off the cousin, complicated by the fact that my boy retches at the taste of cows milk and it seriously aggravates his eczema. He was on soya sma and I can hardly just put it in a glass. So the fairies worked beautifully. In fairness to him, he's not crying for it, not going so bad so far. If only he'd eat! Oh look, I wrote the essay I thought I'd avoid in the first post.

mumof2maybe3

My 3yr old was the same with dairy (also ezema) maybe try soya milk in a glass with a straw? He did very well for his first day and at least he ate something. Hopefully as he gets used to his new routine he might branch out and try new things. I think you doing a great job fair play to you:D

Quality

i think you have done well to get that brekkie into him, My fella will just about take 1 weetabix and a glass of juice apple or cranberry. He has a snack in playschool crackers,pancake or toast at about 11. I find the earlier I get him up the hungrier he is.

you could try a smoothie for him?

traceybere

Why not ring him out and let him but a new big boy cup - then give him warm milk to slowly help him ease of - then he has something in him.

Cut toast in soldiers of interesting shapes - let him feed himself and he maybe more interested.

In the warmer days a healthy home made fruit salad full of bright coloured fruit will keep him interested.

rosepetal

Quackles wrote: »

3-4 spoons of dry coco pops, 3 spoons of yoghurt, 1/3 of a slice of dry toast,

i have a 3 yr old girl and that would be an average sized breakfast for her. small amounts of a few different things are just as good as a larger amt of just one food item. offer a few different choices, and they dont have to specifically be 'breakfast' things, how about a small sandwich, a bowl of chopped up fruit, rice cakes with peanut butter, or a sausage etc. definitely dont go back to the bottle because as i am sure u know he is less likely to eat anything solid if his little belly is full of milk. maybe let him come to the supermarket and choose what he wants for brekkie, let him help setting the table, cutting up toast etc, they love to feel grown up and involved at this stage. above all dont get stressed, provided they are offered a wide selection of foods to choose from , kids almost always eat enough to keep them going, and they often eat more than u realise, all those little bites add up!!
good luck:)

deisemum

Memories of my late Dad saying "hunger is a good sauce" spring to mind.

Don't worry about him being hungry while at playschool, they normally have a snack either provided by the playschool or by yourself.

Zynks

Hmmm, not sure how this will help, but my 3 y.o. is a savage eater (unlike my 9 y.o. who's nickname is the "cereal killer"). For breakfast he has:
- Melon, a couple of slices, but a few times more than half of it
- "boats" - weetabix
- and sometimes a "milkshake" - smoothie with any fruits we have. Yesterday it was banana, strawberry, pear, apple juice and natural yogurt (could be replaced by soya yogurt).

But even he has his days when he just won't eat much, and we just don't push anything until he asks. I guess we learned our lesson from the eldest who was given far too many options...

Quackles

Thanks for the help, folks. Some good ideas there - especially the fruit/smoothies, the man is a fruitaholic. This morning he took a full yoghurt and 3/4 of a slice of toast. True enough, I send a snack in with him and he usually polishes it off. He won't starve! I think I need to start working on getting him to drink more now! Time to break out the ben 10 bottle!

mumof2maybe3

ahhh ben 10 the healer of all evil;) great man in our house too:D

cormac_byrne

Maybe try porridge, my brat loves it. Initially I mixed in some jam to make it more interesting. Had the intention to put less jam in each day to keep it healthy, but pretty soon he decided he preferred it without jam anyway. Mixing in raisins might also be a help.

Or try weetabix, I think little kids like the fact that they're so big, and great fun to smash up with the spoon etc...

Varkov

Chocolate ambrosia creamed rice

Quackles

Varkov wrote: »

Chocolate ambrosia creamed rice

Ewwwwwww

luckat

Have you tried him on goat's milk? You can get it in Superquinn. Used to be the old cure for chest problems and eczema. Don't tell him it's different, just give it to him.

Why not put SMA in a glass, by the way?

Sounds like he's a good little trencherman, and you're doing well, Quackies.

By the way, if he reacts to cow's milk, take care he doesn't get it in other foods - the Ambrosia has it, I think.

Quackles

luckat wrote: »

Have you tried him on goat's milk? You can get it in Superquinn. Used to be the old cure for chest problems and eczema. Don't tell him it's different, just give it to him.

Why not put SMA in a glass, by the way?

Sounds like he's a good little trencherman, and you're doing well, Quackies.

By the way, if he reacts to cow's milk, take care he doesn't get it in other foods - the Ambrosia has it, I think.

The cows milk thing is funny... I think it was an intolerance he's grown out of, as he can eat petit filous, yoghurts, ice cream, but it's left him with an intense dislike of milk itself, as he retches the second he tastes it, and that includes in things like milk shakes, yazoo etc where the flavour is masked by other things. So because I can't get him to drink milk, I don't know if he'll still have the same adverse reaction to it. His eczema is pretty much cleared up, but he is left with a bad chest and an inhaler, so I suppose it could still affect that. We don't have a superquinn near us, but I'll have a look for goats milk somewhere else and give it a shot. It won't be 'replacing' anything, so I still don't think he'll go for it, but worth a shot.

luckat

Some years back people from a hard-edge homesteading background in the US Deep South told me that they had cured their kids of allergy to all kinds of things, including even poison ivy, by getting goats and letting them graze on the local (non-poisonous) flora, including the poison ivy, and then giving the kids the goats' milk to drink.

It used to be always given to kids with asthma and eczema, and kids from a 'TB family' who were thought to have a tendency to lung disease, under the theory that goat's milk would boost the lung power and lessen eczema.

lostinnappies

my whole family had asthma when young and eczema. Most of us grew out of it but my younger brother had very bad asthma. It was made worse with cows milk. Goats milk was fantastic. Tasted horrible. My mother used to boil a daily portion for him and add sugar.

MyBaby

My 3 year old has always been a great eater. He loves his breakfast, he would have a bowl of porridge, a yogurt, some toast etc most mornings, but there are morings when he wouldnt eat as much and some when he wont wat anything. He says he''s not hungry. When he is hungry, he'll let you know, dont worry.

One way we got our son eating up his porridge or weetabixs was telling him it would make him big and strong. We picked something on a shelf and said if you keep eating your brekkie you'll be able to reach that in acouple of days. he did so, and a few days later standing on his tippee toes, he reached. That made his day, now he goes around showing everyone his muslces because he ate his brekkie. lol

Quackles

MyBaby wrote: »

My 3 year old has always been a great eater. He loves his breakfast, he would have a bowl of porridge, a yogurt, some toast etc most mornings, but there are morings when he wouldnt eat as much and some when he wont wat anything. He says he''s not hungry. When he is hungry, he'll let you know, dont worry.

One way we got our son eating up his porridge or weetabixs was telling him it would make him big and strong. We picked something on a shelf and said if you keep eating your brekkie you'll be able to reach that in acouple of days. he did so, and a few days later standing on his tippee toes, he reached. That made his day, now he goes around showing everyone his muslces because he ate his brekkie. lol

We told Emmett the same about the light switches - the face on him when he could finally reach them, he firmly believes mashed potato and carrots are to thank for that. Took a look at your wee man in the link in your signature - he's gorgeous! No wonder you've so many votes

MyBaby

Quackles wrote: »

We told Emmett the same about the light switches - the face on him when he could finally reach them, he firmly believes mashed potato and carrots are to thank for that. Took a look at your wee man in the link in your signature - he's gorgeous! No wonder you've so many votes

Thanks, hopefullt he gets up there lol.

Yep brandon is convinced the porridge and weetabix have stretched his arms. He was too tired earlier to carry his jumper in from the car, he said "it was because he didnt eat all his cornflakes this morning" lol