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

Seriously? Your going to bring breast feeding into this?

There are hundred of reasons why people choose not to or physically can't. The reason we use formula is because we care about feeding our child.

Or going to work to pay for our children.

What a daft response Missbeans. The alternative to bf is to give your child formula, a perfectly good substitute. Not to give them nothing, or coke instead.
But if it's your special little drum, then of course you take it everywhere with you.

I think you've mistaken the wrong thread Miss Beans

I think it's hard for a lot of people to understand just how difficult life is for some families.

It's not neccessarily money. Most of us agree that breakfast food can be bought cheaply.

But suppose it's a single-parent home and that parent has a chronic illness/mental or physical, and sorting out breakfast is beyond them.

Or one parent is squandering family money on gambling, alcohol or drugs.

Or there has been no money to pay the power bill so there's no electricty for toast or fridge(for milk)

Or the car has broken down so the groceries haven't been bought.

Or they're living in their car because thy've lost their home and can't get another.

I see this sort of thing daily in my work. I've come to realise that if you're keeping your children safe, fed and schooled, you're doing a lot better than a lot of families. And it's probably to do with you having a better upbringing than them, or better health.

I don't think it has much to do with money. A loaf of bread or bag of oats costs pennies.

It's more to do with chaotic lifestyles.

My children don't always have breakfast during holidays or weekends. We are all up, dressed and about at different times. There is breakfast things available to them and they know they can help themselves, but I don't force them to sit and eat if they'd rather be sleeping or off out with their friends.

Dd1, for example, had no breakfast this morning. She woke me up at 9am, just after her friend knocked to tell me she was going for a walk through the local woods. Between her friend knocking and her going out, she wouldn't have had time for breakfast.

Dd2, who has just woken up, has opted for banana split for breakfast

If parents work/sleep in/have depression I can see many households being just as chaotic during term time, with people waking/leaving at different times.

Doesn't that just prove the point though, that blanket free food is not a solution.

Teachers go above and beyond and I'm sure the children you have helped will be eternally grateful for all their teachers did for them.

But the government ANd authorities need to step up somehow and do more to help. They are behind alot if the problems for some families and throwing a free dinner at them doesn't hide that.

And those families who aren't bothering, who could but don't see feeding children as their priority, who study up late taking and drinking then kids left filthy and fending for themselves, something more needs doing.

Stay not study

If a child isn't offered something for breakfast it's neglect. I appreciate some household budgets are very tight but as others have said you can buy value bread and cereals. Even if it's offered with a small amount of spread or milk, at least it's filling.

No, it's not perfect, but it's better than nothing. Long term plans to help through education and programmes don't help children that need breakfast today.

And I hardly think it's fair to jump all over the comment on breastfeeding, especially when most of the thread has been dedicated to jumping all over parents of children on FSM, painting them as feckless addicts who are gleefully rubbing their hands together and spending their children's food money on their addictions, rather than feed their children. Insulting at best. But then, such blanket negative statements generally are.

Don't be so patronising. There ARE some people that choose to bottle feed because it's less hassle or because they simply don't want to, even knowing that breastfeeding is a better option, not because of any medical or other issue. Personally, I am not fussed why someone chooses bottle or breastfeeding, but to say it never happens is unrealistic.

It's not any worse than all the people that are tarring all people on FSMs as feckless addicts that are spending the extra food money they're saving on fags and booze.

I can't really add anything constructive but I want to share something with you that has stayed with me for 20 years.

My mum was a teacher from the early 70's onwards & she worked in a deprived area for all of that time. There was one little boy in the 1980's who she taught in Year 2 so he would be 6 or 7 & whose parents she never saw. This little boy would get himself & his brother up in the morning, dressed for school then would steal some money from his mum's purse to buy them a fizzy drink & some crisps or chocolate on the way to school, if there was no money in the mum's purse then they went without. They walked to school alone from a very young age. My mum always kept some cereal bars in her cupboard in the classroom for these boys & others. The mum didn't come to parents evenings & the boys walked home alone. What struck her most though was the smell of the children & that they never had appropriate clothes or shoes, one winter she gave them jumpers & coats from Lost Property to keep them warm. She said she knew before talking to them whether they had eaten as the youngest would have a green or orange moustache round his mouth if they were able to buy limeade or orangeade on the way to school.

My mum is now dead & I've never known what happened to those brothers although I do think about them sometimes. Hopefully SS got involved but in the 1980's I'm not sure child protection is the same as it is now & I hope they are OK.

My point being that some children would benefit from a free breakfast at school as some parents are simply not able to feed their children due to lack of money, mental health issues, addictions or any other reason that makes it impossible for their children to be fed. Its not always money related, sometimes the family dynamic is complex.

The difference is that if you are inclined not to feed your child it makes no difference what milk it's fed on. The reason behind it not being fed is the same. By the time they start school no one can tell who was bottle fed and who wasn't.

But if the older ones are being fed at school it doesn't help the baby who at 4-6 months requires something other than milk.

Alice of course people make choices based on their own circumstances and the weight of importance they place on different things. We make choices everyday and hope that the balance of them is good.

I might be better if we were all doing some enrichment activities with our dc atm. otoh boredom is good for them......

Parent choosing not to breasfeed isn't the same as parents who are unable, for whatever reason, to provide breakfast. It might be the same as giving them frosties instead of a decent breakfast but it's not the same as giving them nothing

Some of the attitudes on this thread are disgraceful.

And just for the record, NHS advice is that there is no major problem with a child eating a breakfast cereal as they are all fortified with vitamins and minerals and thus get some important nutrition into them.

So all very well if you have a good eater, and the time, resources and togetherness to make them something else at breakfast, but if they are fussy or you struggle or they are coming to a breakfast club because of difficulties feeding them at home, then so what if they eat coco pops, its getting some food into them to work on.

This directly from training I undertook with an NHS dietician within the last month.

Trouble us Rj, that the nhs stance comes from the same, commercially funded, research as the change4life and kellogs nonsense. Call me cynical but we know all proper research actually says 5 a day is nowhere near enough and that recommended sugar limits are too high and we're starting to understand that the low fat is good thing that the nhs is still supporting is mostly wrong and was funded by the sugar industry .

so, nhs may say cereal's ok. It's certainly better than nothing but forgive me for thinking recommending a highly processed, high sugar and ridiculously expensive exbreakfast to families is not good advice.

Cereal is quick, easy and relatively cheap.

If you're a busy, working family or suffering from depression or a stressed out single parent with 5 under 8s to get to school etc., making nutritious breakfast of eggs and veg is going to be almost impossible.

I don't know anyone in rl who judges people for feeding their children cereal.

Breakfast is, generally, the meal people have the least time for.

This thread is incredibly judgmental.

Of course, Frontier I just didn't like seeing the nasty responses to the person who mentioned breastfeeding, as they had a valid opinion, when this thread is full of vile comments about parents of children on FSMs (without merit, I might add).

If your child goes to school without breakfast every day because you are too lazy to get up in time and get organised you are failing as a parent.
If you buy fags, booze and junk food and then say you can't afford to provide food for your child you are failing as a parent.
Why is it up to the rest of us to carry those who just can't be bothered ?

I just think l.ots of people can't stomach eating before mid morning.

Because shebird it's the CHILDREN that suffer, not the parent. And the children shouldn't be penalised for that. Therefore the school breakfasts feed the children that need it. It's that whole "mark of a civilised society how they treat their most vulnerable" thing - you know, children?

queen I can't either. Both my dcs are up by 5am and eat breakfast around 6am, but I can't tolerate food in my system generally until about 9am, so I fix their breakfast, but then have tea and toast or an egg after they're at school. I've never been able to eat food very early in the morning without getting an upset stomach.

And not all parents that can't afford to feed their children are in that position because they're buying fags, booze and junk food. But of course, that doesn't sound nearly as judgemental, does it? Not nearly as satisfying to admit that, is it?

I very much doubt it is ever as simple as laziness or priotising fags over bread for the children.

There are so many other issues going on in families with chaotic lifestyles.

I wish people could get their head out of the sand and see this before they start kicking people who are already down.

The foodbank post, for instance. I left my last home with almost nothing, we struggled for a good few weeks. It never got foodbank bad, but I can easily see how it could have done. I had designer clothes, a top of the range mobile handset, x-box etc. All bought and paid for before we started struggling.

I am sure people probably did judge me when they saw me chatting on my Samsung Note phone about how I couldn't afford to pay for dds school trip or when they saw me wandering about in my Converse and expensive sports coat bemoaning the fact that dd2's shoes had dropped to bits and I couldn't afford to replace them.

These people don't need free cereal bars or whatever, they need support and not to feel judged by society, thus alienating them further from "normal" families.

I don't judge anyone for giving their children cereal - the marketing people have done such a good job iit's become the norm in 2 generations. I do judge experts who tell us it's a good thing.

The only reason it appears relatively cheap is because it contains nothing that costs anything. Oats, rice wheat etc and sugar. How much rice can you buy for the cost of a box of ricicles and how much is in that box? The cost is outrageous for what you're actually getting.

Blimey! I wish my DD would eat a big bowl of cereal! These days all she will entertain is a few grapes or strawberries!

That said, the DSs make up for it with huge feasts of toast, pains au chocolat and cereals.