My son has always loved it mixed with flavored yogurt.
Our favorites are blackstrap molasses (good iron and calcium source), ground almonds or ground flax seeds, toasted wheat germ, dried cranberries (cooked right in), cinnamon and fruit. These are among the list of "nutritional enhancers" in Ruth Yarron's Super Baby Food book. (Awesome book!) I mix and match different combinations and my daughter seems to enjoy them all.
We eat oatmeal and other "whole" grains and skip the Cream of Wheat (it is not whole grain.)
Real Maple Syrup?
My son ate baby oatmeal with apple sauce and cinnamon the winter he turned one but wouldn't eat it the next winter. I like oatmeal myself in the winter. I make it with milk, cinnamon, dried fruit (cherries are my favorite) and nuts (I like almonds and pecans).
My son is 15 months old. He still doesn't like oatmeal, but does like cream of wheat. We serve it with brown sugar, because that's how his father and I like it. He wasn't interested in it at 12 months, but somewhere along the way we figured out it was the perfect consistency to let him feed himself. It sticks to the spoon no matter how much he tips the spoon. Once he had control of the spoon, he started to like it.
I started feeding my son both at around 10 months old. He eats it every day. I started making them with water only and now I make the cream of wheat with part water/part milk. I always add frozen fruit (blueberries, raspberries or mango) and organic plain yogurt. I make enough for about 3 mornings at a time and switch between the two. I add the yogurt and fruit individually each day.
Just recently I began adding ground Flax seed to his oatmeal as it is a great source for Omega 3 and Omega 6.
I find that if my son doesn't like any type of food I mix it with yogurt, or cottage cheese or tomato sauce and he will like it. I do not add extra salt or sugar to most things that he eats.
Instead of using water or mild, I use vanilla soymilk. It adds just enough sweetness. My son likes it on the creamier side, not so thick. Good luck!