Six ways to develop breakfast habit among children this vacation
Breakfast is not only the most important meal of the day, but the most despised meal time for majority of children. Many children are good with lunches and dinners but when it comes to breakfast, mothers have a tough time. Since vacations are around the corner, you can initiate your children into a habit of having a healthy breakfast.
Trust us, if your children get into a habit to eat something in morning, this ritual will stay with them throughout their lives.
Why Breakfast?
- Numerous researches have proved that breakfast eaters are more active and agile and perform much better than those who skip their breakfast regularly
- Breakfast eaters have a better attendance in school than non-breakfast eaters
- Healthy breakfast eaters can have far greater concentration when it comes to playing, learning, remembering and problem solving
- Since breakfast provides energy for all day, children are less likely to have tendency to snack on high sodium, sugary and fatty foods, thus helping in preventing obesity among them
Now, the most pertinent question, what constitutes healthy breakfast?
Breakfast should be a healthy balance of carbohydrate, protein and fats that are essential to fuel your younger ones for an entire day. A preparation with 3-4 food items is good to serve these nutritional combinations. Sandwiches, poha, vermicelli, sprouts have always been considered good options for breakfast with a glass of milk or juice or a fruit high on Vitamin C, but even if you serve last night leftover veggies and rice once in a while, that is also good as long as they are high on nutritional value. One should definitely avoid food items high on sugar and sodium.
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How to cultivate healthy breakfast habit among children?
- Children follow parents by what they practice, not what they say. So, if you want your child to have a breakfast, then you need to take a breakfast too, enjoy it and make them believe that you don’t like to miss it. Sit with them and have breakfast with them. They will gradually start following you.
- Some children are picky eaters and prefer foods familiar to them. Initiate them with the food they cannot resist. Try to add colours to them – flavoured curds, bread jams cut in different shapes with toothpicks on them. Give some interesting names to these dishes. Believe us, they will be left with fond memories of their childhood.
- We are sure, some of you must be wondering, how to get time amidst hectic school schedule? You need to put in a little bit of an effort into it; and it will definitely help you and your children in the long run. You need to be better prepared. Make your child wake up 30 minutes early so that he/she has an ample time for breakfast. Get school dress ironed and bags packed a night before.
- Vacations will give you a time to understand what your child enjoys in breakfast or how to get him eating? These vacations will also help them practice this good habit.
- Let your children cook and prepare their meals, of course not breakfast, but snack-time items. If they make it, they are most likely going to eat it. For say, if your child doesn’t enjoy sandwich, help him to prepare a sandwich, he is most likely going to taste it. This way you can introduce him to some of the foods. Kids, especially preschoolers, really enjoy stir batter and mashed potatoes. Potato toasts can be introduced to them. Initiate them into eating, serve them with dips like ketchup or maple syrup. Don’t panic to see ketchup dips on his plate, some food items are too dry to get them down through the throat, it’s completely fine if your child is pairing it with sauce or some other dips once in a while.
- Lastly, please don’t lose your sleep over your child not having sufficient nutrition habits. Try to make mealtime a fun time for your child, not a battleground. Always remember, forbidden fruits are always enticing. We as an adult cannot have nutritional food all the time, there are times we too give into our temptations for cakes, cookies and doughnuts, let children too have leeways once in a while. Set rules for them. Allow them to do whatever they want whenever they go to a party or are at their grandparents’ house.
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