getting grandson to eat breakfast

Cereals are not compulsory.

My GD isn't too keen on the usual breakfast but loves a smoothie and a toasted bagel. Making an issue of food stores up trouble for the future - I know this from my finicky eater daughter at the same age. Now she will eat anything but she is now 32. That's what I say to my son and his wife. If that is what she enjoys give it to her - she will try other things in her own time. When I was a child you had to finish everything on your plate. I can remember my poor brother sitting at the table over a plate of cold food hours after we'd left and got down. He went on to hating eating with other people for many years. Also your little chap has been ill so needs time to recover mentally as well as physically - Ready Brek is perfectly adequate. He eats his other meals really well. Lots of adults don't even eat breakfast so he is doing well.

Readybrek and toast sound good to me - save the battles till he's a teenager and drinking too much!
Seriously though, my rule was always that I should only battle over things that were very serious; so I ignored all sorts of aberrations, so that I would have some ammunition left for drug-taking, promiscuity and all the other things that might have loomed. The more you battle with them, the more it is water off a duck's back.
Let him know that, small though he is, you respect his choice and he will feel good about himself. I am sure there are things that you don't like to eat, and you would be seriously fed up if soemone made you eat them!
If he thinks it matters so much to you, he will do it all the more to get attention.
He sounds as though he is getting very well nourished and is a fit little chap.

Like the other GNs I also think you have nothing to worry about. The thing is he is EATING and Ready Brek + toast sounds good enough to me. In fact I might go and make some

I read recently that dried skim milk powder stirred into porridge/readybrek etc adds the protein intake for a child if thats what your dil is worried about

Sounds a lively little chap, so I would guess he'll soon let you know if he's bored.

many thanks to all who replyed to my problem, i am very grateful. i shall now stop worrying, i just thought he would be bored having the same old thing. i am not worried he's not getting enough food as he eats like a horse with other meals.. sunday lunch his favorite, loves his veg and best bit yorkshire puddings he finishes all of it off. he was even pinching my stuffing last week while he was helping me do yorkshire pudding mix.

hmm my granson is now 5 and his fav breaky is cup of tea with rich tea finger biscuits dipped in!! (don't know where he got that habit from) cough!!!!

My grandson won't touch cereals for breakfast but always has a smoothie and a toddler flapjack or cereal bar. He is 23 months and my daughter does worry about his milk intake.

Ready Brek and/or toast sound fine to me too. My kids (three) never ate much cereal, two of them because they didn't like milk. They've all grown up healthy. Porridge (including Ready Brek) is an extremely good thing to have for breakfast. It's often called 'the ultimate healthy food', 'power food', etc. Go for it, igorGS!

Not necessarily for little people but the best breakfast cereal in my opinion is from Lidl. Oat clusters with raisins and almonds and only £1.19 a kilo - far cheaper than the Jordan's type cereals and definitely tastier. As well as being tasty and filling, it seems to have that much-desired side effect - lots of fibre leading to 'regular habits'!!

Oh and hotel breakfasts etc are often difficult to resist. And perfectly possible to eat a whole day's calories...
My nominations for breakfast are:
paradors (state run Spanish hotels)
Fairy Hill hotel in Gower (proper Welsh food - laverbread etc)
and most recently a slightly tatty hotel in Yeovil that did the best croissants...

But currently on porridge with dried blueberries, ground flaxseeds and a teaspoonful of home made damson jam... Oh and a glass of Innocent kiwi apples and lime smoothie if I'm lucky...

I used to love porridge but then went off it [it also gave me awful wind!]. Switched to Ready brek and I'm eating it again [with bio yogurt and honey]. Like Granny23 I've never been able to stomach breakfast but now take a banana to work with me and eat that at @ 11 o'clock. I hate having holidays where they provide breakfast because I HAVE to eat as much as possible, having paid for it, and I then feel awful for the rest of the day.

Ready brek is a smoother version of porridge and as such a fantastic breakfast. I agree, progress to porridge when he's ready. (easy in a microwave and you can add dried fruit, bit of low sugar jam etc) Many cereals on the other hand are not very good food and the packets contain a great deal of air. They are pushed as "healthy" with words like "multigrain" which just means they contain more than one kind of flour.
Stick with the readybrek (or the non branded hotoatcereal) and steer well clear of the Frosties and CocoRocks shelves!

Igor He's eating breakfast (and a healthy one to boot) – it doesn't matter if it's the same breakfast every day. Young children like patterns and regularity. Later, he'll suddenly decide he wants something much more exotic – kippers, kedgeree, mushroom omelettes, freshly baked croissants, a selection of five cold meats and six cheeses – and you'll look back wistfully.

As I posted on another thread a while back, a friend's son ate nothing but toast (not even Readybrek!) for years, not just for breakfast but for any meal. He was fit and sporty and grew up to be a healthy young man. So I really don't think there is any cause for concern with Igor's grandson.

My poor mother must have wasted many hours and much food trying to make me eat breakfast. As I had a long walk to school I was often dispatched with my uneated bacon or egg stuffed into a roll. It was always tossed into the bushes round the corner. For the last 50 years I have had coffee and a cigarette followed by lunch at noon. I know this is not considered healthy but I really cannot face food early in the morning and seem to be none the worse for my foible.

igor A friend's grandson ate nothing for breakfast but Weetabix (dry !!!) an apple, and a glass of water, for years. He is now a fine young man. Don't worry, have other stuff around, be seen to enjoy it yourself. If you want to be pro-active, make your own bread and sneak some vitamins etc into it. That at least will make you feel that you are getting more into him in the morning.

You can always offer yogurt or fruit as an extra.

I would agree with the above. Plenty of nourishment in Readybrek and toast, and at his age and with his history of health problems it is much better to let him eat what he enjoys rather than risk making breakfast a time of conflict. As GoldenGran wisely says, children are quick to use food as a way of exercising power, and it is a struggle the adults can't win! Sooner or later he will want to try new things if breakfast remains a pleasant experience for him. Good luck!

Nothing much wrong with Ready Brek or toast. Have you tried smoothies - he could help make them squashing up the fruit before mum blitz it in the liquidiser. My granson has a very grand taste in breakfast he likes a small brioche or chocoalte criossant

I would just be pleased that he is eating breakfast at all and not worry too much. He has obviously been a a very sick little boy,how lovely he is now fine and how natural it is for you and your daughter in law to keep worrying about him. But he has come through the surgery and is a survivor, and as I said, he is eating.My Grandson is the same age, also a survivor, in his case meningitis,and he is fussy about food. We have found the best policy is to serve food without comment and with no cajoling, or comments on how much he does or doesn't eat. My DD has now introduced porridge instead of the Ready Brek, and my Grandson, doesn't know the difference. I know it is hard, but really children of that age do use food as a power struggle, and if you don't enter the struggle, they eventually get bored with it! Don't worry too much,relax and enjoy your Grandson