To wonder why so many children go without breakfast

[Sunnydays999]

Iv seen these adverts Kellogs are doing - it made me wonder why the situations so bad ?
Now I totally get some children won't eat breakfast - totally different .but not to be able to afford it on a regular basis ? Breakfast has to be the cheapest meal of the day. Not the best but value bread for toast is penny's ?
If parents can't afford breakfast what's happening with tea

I often don't eat until around 3pm or so. I feel worse if I eat breakfast,and my concentration is fine. Everyone is different.

A banana costs 12p. A packet of every day value corn flakes costs 31p.

My brother went to school every day until secondary school without breakfast. This went on until we were taken into care- before I started primary school. We were not well off anyway but even with the money they had, they could have afforded something, an apple, a piece of bread.

I'm sure for some it is poverty but for loads of children, I think their parents can't ve bothered. And of course kids who refuse breakfast, but they should at least be given something to have a snack at break, or something?

I agree with the posters who say it is laziness. Some people just can't get organised in time to give their children any breakfast. They can barely get them into school on time, let alone give them breakfast.

I think a better solution would be to extend the fruit/veg snacks that KS1 children get into KS2 and possibly KS3.

I think thenapoleon has made some very interesting points, as have the other posters who say that teachers have been given

Their children food when they deny having breakfast.

I guess it shows how hard it is for teachers to know what to do for the best, and how it caused their child to gain weight.

It is worrying that even though some children don't get breakfast, that combined with the Kellogg's cereal and stodgy school meals that actually it's not healthy at all and is going from one problem (children not being fed) to another (obesity problem)

I hadn't realised how many companies were behind every initiative at schools. That is worrying

I am up at 6.30 during term time and happy to make porridge / toast / soft boiled egg etc but dd (12) is emphatic that she just can't manage breakfast first thing in the morning, it makes her nauseous.....despite me emphasising its importance. In desperation I thrust a banana at her and suggests that she has it at morning break

From what I've worked out so far:

The "1 in 7 children" research that Kelloggs refers to is highly questionable - written by some Kellogg employees.

FSM and poverty does not equal an inability to feed your child breakfast.
"Chaotic" homes can include working and mc households too.
Not all children (and adults) eat breakfast.
Some don't want to eat breakfast and some aren't given or have any thing in the home for breakfast.
Many teachers relate instances of children that they believe or "know" don't have breakfast.

What I want to really know is - given it's really only teachers that have the 'figures' on this - how many in each year group (out of how many) and what city/region are you in?

It must be hard for teachers who have children complaining they haven't had breakfast and are hungry to ignore them, regardless of whether they have refused breakfast or noone has offered them it.

I agree with full of, maybe extending fruit and veg snacks would be a good solution. I've never had a problem with the breakfast club food, it tended to be toast, porridge, weetabix or cornflakes.

As someone else said our school put on breakfast club during says, although we paid a small amount for it. Fruit, teachers home made fruit muffins etc

Sats!

The thing is everyone (inc children) are different...and we all have different schedules...this is all relative
So a child wakes up at 6am, doesn't get any food until lunch at 12.30 - that 6.5 hrs before they 'break fast' - I would say that is way too long.
If they go to breakfast club and get breakfast at 8.30am that is still 2.5 hrs - is that too long?
If a child gets up at 8, no breakfast but gets a 'snack' at mid morning break (10.30am) - that's 2.5 hrs before they eat too...
If they go to breakfast club or eat at home at 8.30 - that's 30 mins...is that too short?
Lots of people don't feel like breakfast as soon as they wake up - some people wake up starving - some of that will depend on when they last ate, how long the have been asleep - whether they woke up naturally or down to an alarm clock (and individual diurnal cycles and cortisol levels etc)
The blanket you must have breakfast even if you don't feel hungry is what I disagree with - I would say it was more important to eat when hungry.
So children going to school hungry - not on
Children going to school not having eaten breakfast but not hungry - fine.
Children having a mid morning snack - lets face it whatever that is it is probably no worse for them than most sugar laden Kelloggs children's cereals...

I wouldn't know if one of my DC had gained four pounds in a month, or any weight over any particular time. I just know they're okay by how their clothes fit and how they look. How often are you supposed to weigh them?

There is a world of difference between children who don't want to eat breakfast due to not being hungry or feeling sick and children who don't get offered it.

It is not about affording a loaf of bread, but often due to a mix of drink, drugs, poverty, chaos, mental illness and yes sometimes sheer laziness that leads to parents not giving their child a meal.

I am a breakfast club sponsor (not Kellogs but another company that operates something similar) and the stories you hear some of the children telling you whilst they are eating their breakfast is often heartbreaking.

I had one yr5 boy telling me how breakfast club meant he got to eat in the morning, you see his mum had depression and couldn't get up everyday so some day he just got dressed and went to school without anything (his words). This is some children's reality. They don't get a choice.

The question about what happens with tea? Often the children won't get tea, they will get a chocolate bar or a packet of crisps. I am honestly not making this up. Anybody who has worked in some of the schools that I have attended would completely understand this reality. It seems this reality is often a step too far for many to even comprehend.

I hold up my hands and didn't realise the ignorance and lack of parenting skills there are out there until I started attending a sure start in a very deprived area. I really struggled to get my head around the fact they didn't think anything of not feeding their child a meal or the importance of a bed time or couldn't be bothered to take them to school/nursery or taking their children to dental appointments even when ss were threatening to remove their children. The centre was/is a life line teaching skills esp since most of the ladies doing the teaching were raised in the same area.

I live a bit in chaos at times but it's not hard to bung your child a banana on the way to school. It's caring enough to offer your child the food if they want it. Mine wake me at 6am demanding bloomin cereal, 3 year old stands at the bottom of the bed demanding cereal even before my eyes open

There are fair few people on here that seem to equate children getting free school meals as having feckless parents - even commenting that the parents spend the extra money they've saved on FSM on booze and fags and such.

A bit condescending and judgemental, isn't it? There may be some shitty parents out there, but there are some pretty shitty parents that make too much money for FSM as well.

I don't work, am on benefits, as I am carer for my son who is disabled. Five days a week he goes to breakfast club at his school. He has, however, eaten a full breakfast at home, but they always offer him food and he is quite happy to eat more (and he is rail thin, so not really sure where he puts it). It wasn't until after he'd been there over a year that the teachers working the breakfast club realised that he was having full breakfasts at home as well. Not that they're bothered by that, they thought it was amusing after they heard.

But he doesn't go to breakfast club because of the breakfast. He goes there because my 5yo has reception at another school, and both schools start at the same time. So taking ds1 to breakfast club early allows me to get ds2 to school on time. I know quite a few parents that take their children to a school's breakfast club due to work schedules for before-school childcare purposes. And yes, the children eat breakfast there, why wouldn't they?

Most of this thread just seems to be people patting themselves on the back about what wonderful people they are for feeding their children breakfast and criticising other parents, including jumping all over a few posters who have dared to have differing povs, for whatever reason.

Yeah, parents should be feeding their children breakfast, but what are you going to do? Not feeding the kids doesn't teach the parents anything, it just punishes the child. There's no way to reasonably force parents that are able to feed their children to give them breakfast. Some want to and just aren't able to.

That's the problem with the lunch programs that don't give children lunch when their account balance has run out. It punishes the person who has no control over the situation.

Bottom line, even if the parents are being lazy, the children still need their breakfast.

YY to this ^^

I work exclusively with the kind of families who are being judged on this thread. If a read another post that says, "Just give them a banana" I think I'll scream.

Dd often doesn't want breakfast. I give her a hot chocolate and a piece of fruit. IMO no primary school child should be going in to school without being offered breakfast and secondary school children should have cases to food to get themselves breakfast, that is the basics. Less than that is neglect .

I also have a particular child in mind who would have benefited greatly from free breakfast club ...
From what I've read from pp It's not healthy food ? I hope that will be worked on & fruit , yoghurt ,healthy choices added to the scheme .

The thing is wether it's healthy or not it's still food & would've given the child I knew the choice to eat which surely can only be a good thing , especially if there are concerns children are not getting a meal after school either .
In this child's case Ss were involved frequently but this poor child was still left in this situation whilst they tried to support mum and get her the help she needed .... Child still went hungry though and it went on for years !!

Schools lack flexibility, many children don't get lunch until 12.30 or later, and because of the healthy eating drive by the government, many schools have a fresh fruit and veg only rule at breaktime.
The posts here are separated into 'Well my child... and the rest are about the needs that are recognised in the classroom and support centres by people who work with malnourished children.
Until parenting knowledge and skills are improved, we will still be dealing with feeding, cleanliness, socialisation and managing basic needs forever in children that are not given the same chances as those with parents who understand how to meet their children's needs.
So what's next? And if we get sniffy about who is paying for breakfasts for example, where will the necesary funding come from?

i think alarm clocks would help immensely. Kelloggs should be giving these away instead

I know I need to leave by a certain time, so I set alarm a good 90 mins before we need to leave, which allows for leisurely getting dressed, DCs inevitable squabbling, leisurely breakfast, good departure in case of heavy traffic etc

alarm clocks £3 Argos. Simples.

(another one here who grew up with a 'teacher' mother who was never awake before we left for school. Maybe I've learned how not to do it. Thanks Mum)

plus I had PND, low funds, etc so I 'get' how some families with parents of these conditions find it hard

but seriously, all i had to do was put myself in my kids's shoes for a minute - long day ahead, hungry? feed them! Learn to cook - scrambled eggs takes 4 minutes of a morning! esp if cooked in a non stick pan. again argos sell these for under a fiver.

leaflets & posters at school entry doors showing 4 simple ideas for easy breakfasts may be a useful aid for parents?

No one has said all parents are like that.

Merely tried to point out that as great as it is that these kids get fed. That's all it does. Feeds them.

Breakfast clubs are only going to help those who are actually there. Doesn't help those who's parents don't get up in time. And much is down to kindness of individual teachers do what happens when they leave or child moves up a class and no longer gets that cereal bar from the teachers stash?

And again FSM whereas it's a meal for all ks1 now but before it wasn't. So although now it will hopefully include all those from all backgrounds who need it got whatever reason, it still doesn't help parents who's priorities are all wrong and fall in the "feckless catergory" (and some do. Not all but some there's no denying that because everyone you know isn't) becUse what happens when funding is cut again or they have another baby and haven't learnt to think about a child's needs or budget for formula. And what happens when it's holidays?

It's a plaster on a broken leg. And more needs to be done.

It's hardly surprising providing breakfast is such a low priority for many parents when breastfeeding is seen as of little importantance to the majority of the population.

by the majority, not to