When I saw these wagon wheels, I thought the kids (3 and 5) would enjoy the fun shape. My kids regularly eat whole-grain pasta, but my kids refuse to eat these- and I agree that it has a gritty texture- we've tried multiple times and it's either too soft so that it falls apart, or part of the pasta wheel is uncooked- maybe this is a poorly designed shape? I usually enjoy products from this Hodgson Mill...