IHOP Kids' Breakfast

Pancakes at IHOP

For this review, I enlisted the help of my children, Kendyl and John. We went to an International House of Pancakes for breakfast where I let them order whatever breakfasts they wanted. The kids were more interested in taste and I assessed the nutritional value of their meals.

My daughter ordered the Silver Five breakfast, with five small pancakes, two strips of bacon, and one scrambled egg and a small orange juice as her beverage.

Nutritional Value

The five small pancakes had just over 300 calories, and she added about 200 more for the maple syrup. This adds up to 500 calories, almost all of which come from quickly digested carbohydrates. The two strips of bacon contained about 80 calories, mostly from fat, but also from protein. The scrambled egg added about 100 calories from fat and protein. The small orange juice brings 130 more calories. This meal has a total of over 800 calories, which is a lot of calories for one meal, especially for a ten year old. On the good side, the orange juice is a great source of vitamin C and folate, plus the pancakes added a bit of calcium and selenium. Unfortunately, there is not much fiber in this meal and the bacon would be loaded with unhealthy saturated fats and additives.

My son is a carnivore, and since none of the children's breakfasts appealed to him, he ordered two strips of bacon, two sausages and one egg, but he didn't eat the egg. He added two cups of apple juice as his beverage.

Nutritional Value

300 calories from fat and protein, and unfortunately there are lots of additives in those processed meats. The apple juice would add about 200 calories from sugar, but also some potassium and vitamin C. Not a great breakfast, but that's what will happen sometimes when kids order meals.

My daughter told me she thought it tasted great and that maybe the eggs were good for her, but not all the sugar, so she decided not to eat two of her pancakes. This meal is too big for a kid and has way too many calories. The egg is fine, but whole wheat toast with a dab of jelly would be a better choice than the pancakes. My son's breakfast didn't have so many calories, but had a lot of additives and saturated fats in the processed meats. He also enjoyed the taste of his breakfast.

Restaurant meals are rarely as healthy as the cooking we can do at home, but kids (and adults) love to eat in restaurants from time to time. That's fine as long as you keep your portions small.

If you have two kids, perhaps they could agree to split a large meal, or you can use my favorite technique. When I take my kids out to eat, I don't order a meal for myself, I share my kids' meals. This way they don't eat such huge portions, but they still get to eat what they like.