Breakfast’ means breaking the fast of the previous night. It is the first important meal of the day and it usually consists of foods which are high in energy content. Do your children eat proper breakfast in the morning, or simply gulp down glass of milk or water before hurrying to catch school bus? If yes then this is a very bad habit. For proper growth of mind and body, a child needs good amount of vitamins and nutritious food. It is very essential for parents to give ‘healthy breakfast’ to their children before they leave their houses for any activity. Today the habbit of having full fledged breakfast is on a decline because of the fast paced lifestyles. Why can’t we schedule 20 mins in a day to prepare and eat the breakfast?? And if you already do this, then we should teach our children it's importance and make them have it.
Breakfast and Children
The last meal of your child is the dinner of previous night, almost ten to twelve hours before he wakes up. And if he only drinks a glass of milk or skips the breakfast, then that is not going to be sufficient for him. Sadly, today children show lowest priority when it comes to having an breakfast before leaving for school. A recent survey by the Diabetes Foundation of India shows that 40% of children skip breakfast and 21.58% do not carry lunchboxes to school. On contrary to this research shows that children who eat a good breakfast in the mornings have higher levels of concentration and are able to focus better than children who don't eat healthy breakfast.
There are number of excuses which children tend to make to skip their breakfast. “Mummy I am getting late to school”, “I don’t like eating so early “or “ Mom I am not hungry at all I don’t want to eat breakfast” are few common excuses which all moms come across. Getting kids to eat a healthy breakfast can be a next to impossible task. So your first and foremost duty is to make your child understand the importance of a healthy and nutritious breakfast. You have to make them explain why breakfast is important and how it can make a huge difference in, how they perform in their academics or school.
Morning time is the busiest time for all the family members, everyone is in rush, elder ones to office, colleges etc. This kind of scene can be seen everywhere and mostly in nuclear families where both father and mother are working. It is very important for you to assign time to prepare breakfast and teach your child to remove 15 minutes for eating breakfast and then leave for school. Eating breakfast not only helps in weight management, it fuels the body to help provide energy, better concentration and problem-solving ability throughout the day. According to the food and nutrition expert, it is very essential for school going children as they have to do so many challenging activities throughout the day .
