To be worried about my 5 year old’s lack of breakfast?

[Seventeenstars]

My son is 5 years old and in reception. He refuses to eat any sort of breakfast in the mornings.

For example today he had a piece of plain, dry bread , a handful of blueberries and an apple.

He’s very fussy with food in general, doesn’t eat sandwiches, cheese, yogurts, milk, eggs…so the usual ‘breakfast’ foods aren’t an option.

He went through a phase of eating dry cereal, then he’d have a chocolate crepe every morning before school (not ideal, but I knew he was eating something). He will occasionally eat a toasted currant teacake (no butter on it, just dry). I sometimes manage to get a cereal bar or half a pan au chocolat down him on the way to school if he’s eaten nothing at home, feels like a losing battle at times.
If it’s a school holiday or weekend he’ll graze throughout the morning until lunchtime, usually on fruit, crackers, cereal bars, biscuits 😳but obviously that’s not an option at school.

He’s the tallest in his class and although slim, he’s not underweight, so his growth isn’t an issue. It’s more about eating before school. We were sent home a letter the other day about the importance of eating breakfast and how it helps the children concentrate on their work.

Ds just eats dry cherrios, and half (some whole) banana most mornings. He eats more breakfast on weekends but nursery days I think it’s too early, we leave the house by 7.45-8am, so he really has to have eaten by 7.30am

Does he like waffles? We bought a waffle machine, and it’s one way he gets egg and milk at least. You can make and store for a few days in Tupperware and just toast warm each morning to save time

@Bbq1 thats because he won’t eat cheese, yogurt or any kind of cold meats. He won’t eat egg either.
In an ideal world I’d put a Babybel in there and a pepperami or sausage roll or whatever but he won’t touch them.

Sounds decent enough to me.

As a child I didn't care for breakfast and still don't eat it. I was also a water only drinker and its a great habit as I still drink loads of it.

I'm very healthy and active all round, so don't believe it's necessary if it's not wanted.

I understand but you need to try and up the calories. Will he eat soup, spaghetti etc from a flask?

That’s actually quite a lot. An entire apple was too much for my DC at that age and we had to share.

Neither myself nor the DC like cereal - our breakfasts are usually fruit and toast. So fruit and bread sounds fine to me

If dinners are more reliable... what dinners does he have? What food does he enjoy eating?

That's a good sized breakfast to me.

I've never liked breakfast since I was tiny. Until I was mid teen, I was always made to have it, and really it didn't do anything except make me feel nauseous in the morning. I now only have breakfast if I'm playing tennis first thing.
One of my dc is exactly the same as me-and she was even as a baby. She never even liked a morning feed. The other two, who like breakfast, were awake and "where's my milk". She would refuse to feed until mid morning.

when mine were younger they often had chicken soup with bread for breakfast or tinned rice pudding I just felt at least it was something warm to start them off before going out. Ofcourse the teachers always did that survey thing and asked what everyone had for breakfast on those days!!😂

I think fruit and bread is fine, many countries eat that for breakfast. Maybe not dry but it’s something. For 2.5yrs I cooked a pancake every morning before school. Wasn’t ideal but she ate it

His breakfast sounds alright. Things I give my 5 yr old for breakfast:

• Porridge with ground almonds mixed in for added protein and fats
• Hummus and breadsticks
• Home made pancakes with loads of eggs in the mixture for protein (I make a batch then freeze and defrost as needed)
• Peanut butter and jam on toast
• Chopped up ham and cheese with a bit of toast
• Cashew nuts and a banana
• Tuna mayo sandwich

Some days she eats plenty, most days she just has a bit. It all evens out over the day usually.

Bread and fruit is no different to toast and fruit, nutritionally speaking. It's fine.

As long as his diet is varied enough throughout the day/week, it won't matter much what he eats for one particular meal or whether it ticks ALL the boxes.

How are his energy levels/concentration in the morning?

Op I’d agree with you that an apple, some berries and dry bread isn’t really breakfast, the point of cereal is the combination of nutrients that it gives to allow for energy release over the morning. We were told in college bread/toast isn’t even a suitable breakfast for children as it doesn’t give them enough (we used to be recommended that you add a banana at least,or an egg) but then yes sometimes it has to be just whatever you can get into them really, would he even go back to the dry cereal but with a glass of milk?

Is he just not a fan of breakfast foods? Mine much prefer leftover dinner or something hot and savoury for breakfast. I've never fussed about what they eat for breakfast so long as they eat (DS2 had avocado on crumpet this morning and DS1 had spiced chickpeas and bulgur wheat).

Your son's breakfast sounds fine. My DD will only eat 7 or 8 dry shreddies and a cup of orange juice.

Op, I had a thread recently about my 3 year old and he doesn’t eat large portions or much protein tbh. He will eat dairy, but no meat/ fish/ nuts.

Im mainly trying to just increase the portion sizes on what he does like. Ie maybe make some buttermilk plain thick pancakes and add into lunch box if he likes pancakes

The foods he enjoys eating are:

Olives
Nuts (not allowed at school obviously)
Crisps (his absolute fave thing)
Mushrooms
Hot dog sausages
Roast dinners including Yorkshire pudding
Meatballs
Plain pasta
Salmon
Potato in any form
Chicken korma with rice
Most fruit and veg

He won’t eat baked beans, pasta with sauce, spaghetti hoops or anything like that.

I have never eaten breakfast. I need to be up a couple of hours before i can face food. My mum took me to the doctors as a child, he said not to worry as I ate at other times,

He’ll eat cakes and biscuits too. But not keen on pancakes, waffles or anything like that.

Can you get him a warm food flask for school and just add plain butter pasta and some meatballs then?
With some chopped up fruit in another pot

I’m going to carry on with school dinners for now, it’s just breakfasts I’m struggling with.

Potatoes for breakfast are a thing! I'm in potato land and always have fried potato as part of a fry up (not the abomination that is a hash brown, I mean potatoes chopped up and fried in a pan.) Its quicker if you boil potatoes the night before and then you just chop them up in a pan with spoonful of hot oil and fry them for a bit to crisp. You could do it with a hot dog sausage? I do mine with bacon and tomato fried alongside.

Or mashed potato leftovers, scoop into a little patty and fried in a greased pan. You can mix leftover veg in the mash, cabbage is traditional but I also do sweetcorn or chopped up cooked Broccoli or whatever I've got from tea the night before. I always make extra mash specifically so I can have this for breakfast.

He could have potatoes, sausages and vegetables for breakfast - not much different to a cooked breakast, really.

Is he eating brekki at home? Can you add a handful of nuts to the bread and fruit? You'd have more calories, fat and protein pronto. One ounce of almonds has 14 g of fat and 6 g of protein.

It's limited in range but honestly that's not a terrible selection of foods. If I were you I'd stop worrying about it.