Benefit-based Pancakes for Kids

We make pancakes at least once, if not twice, every single day for my 4-year-old boy. He only eats pancakes. It’s actually insane.

And it’s not because we haven’t tried to get him to eat other things. We’ve tried hard. We tried incentives, restrictions, and even force. Nothing worked. It quickly became straining on everyone. Something about the texture of new food caused him to gag and throw up.

So we accepted the reality that we’d be making pancakes or waffles for some time until he outgrew the phase.

One of our concerns has always been whether he is getting enough nutritional value from pancakes. We felt good that we could at least make them fro scratch or use a premade healthier mix while sneaking an egg in.

That’s when I had the idea for benefit-based pancakes for kids. Think Kodiak Cakes, but benefit-based for kids.

A variety pack of different pancakes that are made with varying ingredients to make sure kids are getting the nutrients (proteins, fats, and carbs) they need.

Kodiak Cakes targets healthy adults who want high-protein pancakes, but nothing exists for kids that is fun and nutritious.

Introducing… Kid Cakes (Name TBD).

This idea can quickly evolve into a brand of products for picky eater parents. Imagine waffles, muffins, and other products. Pancakes being the entry point.

— Update: As I dug in and did some research, I began to see the problem we really have. And that’s finding food that our picky-eater son will eat that we will feel good about giving him. Pancakes just happen to be one food he will eat.

I believe the opportunity here is to build a brand focused on foods picky kids will eat and parents feel good about. It’s not the healthiest option on the market, but it’s not something parents will feel bad about giving their kids. Food that is eaten and is not bad for you.

Most trending food brands focus on nutrition → taste → cost.
But picky eaters care about texture → taste → visual → nutrition. So we create products like pancakes, waffles, smoothies, and mac & cheese that are optimized for sensory, familiar flavors, and good enough nutrition.

There are many products that could be brought into the list of accepted foods if they had a better texture, taste, and appearance. Doing so would be innovative.

Update: I stopped looking into this the more time went by. Feels like a problem to be solved. I’m just not sure if I am excited enough to build the brand needed.