Why a healthy breakfast is important
Breakfastgives your child the energy they need to start the day. If your child eats a healthy breakfast, they can concentrate on playing, learning, remembering and solving problems, because they aren’t distracted by feeling hungry.
This means that ahealthy breakfast can help your child perform better at school.
Children who eat breakfast also tend to:
- have better school attendance than those who regularly skip breakfast
- have better mental health than non-breakfast eaters
- stay at a healthy weight, because they’re less likely to snack on unhealthy foods.
What a healthy breakfast looks like
A healthy breakfast needs to have a balanced range of foods from the 5 food groups.
These groups include fruit, vegetables and legumes, cereal and grain foods, dairy and dairy alternatives, and meat and meat alternatives. When children eat a range of these foods for breakfast, they’ll have enough energy for the whole morning.
Your child might like to choose from options like porridge, oats, untoasted muesli, rice or rice porridge, low-sugar wholegrain cereal, boiled eggs, omelettes, baked beans, vegetables, wholegrain toast, flatbread, fruit and yoghurt.
Wholegrains like multigrain bread, oats, brown rice and porridge are good choices for breakfast. Your child’s body digests and absorbs them more slowly than processed, sugary cereals. They give your child longer-lasting energy and fullness.
Healthy breakfast ideas to encourage reluctant breakfast eaters
You’re an important role model when it comes to eating. This means you can encourage your child to eat breakfast by showing them that breakfast is yummy and an important part of your day. You can also talk with your child about the benefits of eating breakfast.
Here are more breakfast ideas to encourage healthy eating habits in the morning:
- Make breakfast a time to sit and eat with your child.
- If your child says they’re not hungry in the morning, try making a healthy smoothie, with milk, yoghurt and a piece of fruit like a banana, instead of a more traditional breakfast ‘meal’.
- Give your child a small meal at home, like a small bowl of oats or rice porridge or a piece of fruit. Then give your child a healthy snack to eat before school starts – for example, some yoghurt with fruit, or boiled eggs.
- If a busy morning schedule or an early start leaves little time for breakfast, set your child’s alarm 10 minutes earlier, or even get breakfast ready the night before. For example, put cereal in the bowl overnight and leave it on the bench or table, so your child just has to add milk in the morning.
- If your child is afussy eater at breakfast, think about ways to make breakfast more interesting. For example, you could try something like low-fat ricotta on wholemeal toast or flatbread with sliced banana and honey drizzled on top. You could also try baked eggs or brown rice with stir-fried vegetables.
- If your older child refuses to eat breakfast, try not to make a big deal about it. Your child might be doing this as a way of showing independence. You could suggest your child takes a piece of fruit or toast to have on the trip to school instead. Or encourage your child to choose their own healthy breakfast options when you’re out shopping.
Nutritional benefits of breakfast
Human bodies make energy from carbohydrates, breaking them down into a sugar called glucose. Glucose is our main source of energy. After a night without food, our bodies have used most of their glucose. This is why we need a fuel top-up before we tackle the day.
Eating breakfast will give your child energy and get theirmetabolism started. It will help your child’s body use the food they eat more efficiently throughout the day. Also,children who miss breakfast don’t usually ‘catch up’ on any missed nutrients during the rest of the day.
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