Mornings are common to be a hectic part of the day, from waking your children up, getting them dressed and getting dressed yourself along with the lists of things we need to do before we leave, we often don’t take that much time to think about what we are going to feed our children for breakfast and that any grab and go snack will do!. This couldn’t be more wrong as breakfast is the most important meal of the day!
Most families tend to skip breakfast because they simply don’t have the time to prepare or sit down and eat a good nutritional meal with the family. They move along the grab and go breakfasts. This is not necessarily wrong when it’s NOT processed foods such as chips chocolate cookies and so on.
Parents need to keep in mind that a good balanced breakfast does give your child the right energy needed to start their day right! Breakfast has been associated with everything from:
- Better memory
- Better test scores
- Better attention span to decreased irritability
- Healthier body weight
- Improved overall nutrition
The problem is what if your mornings are a fast and hectic part of the day and you don’t have the time in your morning routine to fix the right foods for your children? The best suggestion would be to commit a little extra time and effort to protecting the nutritional integrity of your child’s morning meal whether by waking up a little earlier or by fixing everything a night before.
Here are a few tips put together to help you overcome some of the barriers parents have to providing the right choices for a healthy breakfast for your toddlers:
- Schedule accordingly:
Sitting down to leisure breakfasts as a family is just as important as sitting down to any other family meal, only problem is, it isn’t as realistic. However, what is realistic is making sure that your toddlers wake up early enough to be able to eat their breakfast without pressure.
- Fix breakfast before bed time:
Plan ahead to avoid sending your children with commercially packaged food, which is far less nutritious.
- Grab and Go breakfasts:
If your morning schedule consists of running out the door with no time to spare in the morning, then try stocking up on a variety of nutritious foods that you can prepare and prepackage for healthier grab-and-go convenience.
- Make sure a good night’s sleep is on the menu:
Make sure your child is early enough to bed that she rises early enough to allow time for breakfast. No matter what their age, tired kids tend to be cranky, and cranky kids are far less likely to sit down for a well-balanced breakfast.
- Broaden your horizons:
Don’t let yourself be constrained by artificially imposed labels to determine what is good to serve for a morning meal. Think protein, think fruits and vegetables, and think outside the box when it comes to expanding your breakfast horizons beyond just breakfast cereals and milk.
- School support for your child:
Make sure that your child’s school also provides healthy and nutritious meals as most children spend most of their time in school and may be more receptive to eating them if all of his friends are eating alongside him/her.
