My son started kindergarten this year. Shockingly his bus arrives at 7:10 am every morning to pick him up. That means that I really have to hustle to get things done in the morning. He has to wake up at 6, make his bed, brush his teeth, change into his school uniform... and the most important aspect of all: eat his breakfast. I know he could easily get a breakfast at school, like many of other kids at school, but frankly I don't trust the school. I would rather feed him a great breakfast myself to make sure he is starting the day right.
A recent study shows that children who eat breakfast tend to be healthier and perform better in school than those who skip breakfast. There is a reason why breakfast has been for a long time considered to be the the most important meal of the day.
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) offers these suggestions for making sure your child has a great breakfast:
- Give your child healthy choices that you know he or she likes
- A Great protein source is nut butters: peanut butter or almond butter
- If your child likes sugary cereals, mix the sugary offering with a more nutritious option - My son loves lucky charms. I give me him a few lucky charms and also add in plain cheerios. I also make sure to give him fresh fruit on the side
- If your child is especially active or is going through a growth spurt, they may need to eat more calories especially notably at breakfast
- Have stuff ready on the go: breakfast burritos, fresh fruit, trail mix
- Read nutritional labels. Watch for sugar levels especially and food additives and preservatives
- Go for unprocessed foods as much as possible. Avoid things like poptarts for breakfast.
Sometimes I know its hard to come up with good breakfast for your kids. You just don't know what to cook. Well here are some ideas for a week:
- Monday: scrambled eggs with broccoli, avocado with lemon, home-fries, fresh pineapple
- Tuesday: Over easy egg, avocado with lemon, fresh strawberries, sausage links (see photo above)
- Wednesday: plain cheerios with fresh fruit
- Thursday: home made pancakes with fresh fruit (pancakes and waffles freeze well by the way)
- Friday: Oatmeal with fresh fruit, coconut and nuts
By the way, we need to finish breakfast in time so my son can go to the bathroom, get his socks on, watch Transformers Rescue Bots, and wait for Mom to get ready to walk to the bus stop. Mornings are busy busy- but worth it to get a good breakfast consumed every day.
Happy Halloween Everyone !
Source: Food and Drug Administration, September 2017
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