Bread and cereal products for children

Bread for children should be wholesome

Bread and grain products are important foods that provide us with carbohydrates and fiber. To ensure that your child is adequately supplied with these nutrients, you should make sure that at least half of all grain products that you use are whole grains. Unfortunately, products that mainly or exclusively contain light-colored flour only contain a few nutrients. Most of the nutrients, which are mostly found in the outer layers and in the germ of a grain kernel, have long been “ground out” of it.

With pure flour, you can easily see how rich it is by looking at the type number. The higher the number, the higher the nutrient content. A type 550 flour is therefore more nutritious than a type 405. And very important: only where it says whole grain on the label is it actually full grain. However, not all whole grain bread necessarily contains whole grains or whole grains. It can just as well be made from fine wholemeal flour and not obviously look like wholemeal bread.

There is also a risk of confusion the other way around: promising designations such as “multigrain bread” easily lead to the assumption that it is a wholegrain bread, although it is a mixed bread made of light flour and a few grainy parts.

As long as it tastes good, your child probably won’t mind whether the lunch break consists of a slice of wholemeal or mixed bread. However, if it is not clearly recognizable when you buy it and you want to be on the safe side, it is best to ask specifically.

Do not apply too thickly to bread for children

When preparing bread meals you should not forget: Bread is not just used as a flavor carrier for spreads and toppings, but is a wholesome, independent food. Therefore, make sure that the covering is not more lavish than the disc itself.

Combine grain products yourself

Muesli for breakfast is not only delicious and easily digestible, it also fills you up and has hardly any fat. But beware, this is unfortunately not the case with every muesli. Hidden fats and too much sugar are often lurking in particular in ready-made muesli mixtures, which you can buy in any supermarket. Much better are your own creations made from whole grain flakes, fruit , nuts and milk or yoghurt . They are really healthy and offer plenty of variety. So your child can combine their own mixtures as they please and, for example, use juice instead of milk or apples instead of pears. Boredom is thus excluded.

For the very sweet

Cereals are very popular with most little ones. They taste sweet and the characters on the packaging are fun to look at. But unfortunately there is often a sugar trap behind it, and because of the high level of processing, cereals don’t have much in common with grain. Strictly speaking, cereal is actually a candy.

If cereals have already established themselves at your child’s breakfast table, it is advisable not to serve them every day and if so, then with milk and additional fruit. It is also a good idea to switch to a whole grain version of the cereal or to mix it with oatmeal. You should definitely avoid adding additional sugar.

Care should therefore be taken when buying bread and other grain products. Not everything is really as healthy for your child as it might appear at first glance. It is always worth asking the sales staff or studying the ingredients on the packaging.