What better than a bowl of cereal topped with fruits and nuts to kick start a day on a healthy note. Cereals are a good choice for breakfast as they provide nutrition and keep children filled for a long time. Cereals contain complex carbohydrates which provide kids with their much needed dose of energy. They are enriched with iron, thiamine and riboflavin and ample fiber. A cup of cereal is enriched with half a day’s supply of vitamins and minerals for your kids. Add milk or yogurt in it and its nutritional value increases further.
How To Select Breakfast Cereal For Kids?
Breakfast cereals are packaged breakfast which are available in most commercial stores. Breakfast Cereals have become tremendously popular in today’s fast paced countries. Selecting the right breakfast cereal for your kid can be time consuming because the stores are filled with all kinds of good and not so good cereal brands. All brands claim wholesome nutrition but most of them contain heaps of sugar and salt which is definitely not suitable to offer to a kid in large quantities. Some cereals contain as much as 40% more sugar than adult cereals, all thanks to the taste appeal to young kids.
We are trying to help you with this selection making here as we provide information on some of the worst and best breakfast cereal for children:
Ten Best Breakfast Cereals For Kids
- Barbara’s Original Puffins: It is high in fiber, crunchy, low in sugar and makes a solid breakfast to start your kid’s day
- Barbara’s Cinnamon Puffins: They contain 6 gms of fiber per serving and little more sweeter than the original. It makes a perfect breakfast for the kids who have a sweet tooth
- Uncle Toby’s Shredded Wheat: This contains wheat and very low sodium. It does contain sugar but not in great extent. Add some milk to make it a perfect meal
- Cascadian Farm’s Hearty Morning: It is crispy and contains whole grains, granola and bran. To enhance the taste top it up with some fruits and nuts
- Kashi Honey Sunshine Squares: It has whole grains, sugar and the goodness of fiber. It contains honey for taste and health
- Kashi Strawberry Fields: It contains dried strawberries and raspberries along with the fiber of whole grains. Top with milk and nuts before serving to your kids
- Sanitarium Wheet-Bix Bites: It is little sweeter because of the apricot puree. You can use it dry or with yogurt/milk
- KIND Cinnamon Oats Clusters With Flax Seeds: It has a combination of grains like rice, buckwheat, oats, millets and flaxseed
- Uncle Toby’s VitaBrits Weeties: It is low in sugar and has 99% of whole grains
- Cascadian Farm Organic Fruitful O’s: It has 3 gms of fiber per serving. It is made quite colorful with some artificial colors
Ten Worst Breakfast Cereals For Kids
- Jordans Country Crisp Four Nut Crunch: It does taste good but it is high in calories and fat
- Honey Bunches Of Oats Granola: It contains sugar, oil, brown sugar. Its main ingredient is oats but with other harmful ingredients, it is better to avoid this one
- Tesco Frosted Flakes: It is again high on sugar and salt hence not advisable to feed your kids
- Golden Crisp: It has too much sugar, salt, caramel color and corn syrup. All these ingredients negate the benefits of wheat
- Kellogg’s Fruit Loops: It uses too many colors and also hydrogenated oil
- Nestle Trix: This lacks fiber and has too many artificial colors
- Kellogg’s Sustain: Whole grain content is low and sugar content is on higher side in this one
- Good Morenings Waffle Crunch: Hydrogenated soyabean, sugar are the main ingredients and only 1 gm fiber per serving
- Kellogg’s Smart Start Strong Heart Antioxidants Cereals: Firstly, it is high on sugar and secondly contains just 3 gms of fiber and 14 gms of sugar per serving
- Jordan’s Country Crisp Cereal: It as loads of hidden calories in it and has the second highest fat content
You might think that you are keeping your kids healthy by avoiding the sugar filled cookies and candies. But what about the breakfast cereals you are feeding your children? Ensure that only healthy goes into their tummies by making good choices. Always read labels, check for the sugar, salt, fat content before buying. All your efforts of feeding them with nutritious food should not be wasted.
