No matter how old they are, getting your kids a healthy, filling breakfast and out the door on time can be a gauntlet.
“Mornings are always a scramble. As a parent, you’re always struggling to make sure they’re getting what they need at probably the busiest time in the morning for everybody,” Dr. Danielle Grant, a pediatrician at Texas Children’s and mom of three kids ages 13, 14 and 16, tells TODAY.com.
When her kids were younger, Grant navigated their picky toddler tastes. And now that they’re older, “they wake up and they’re busy, they’re not hungry and they’re trying to rush out the door because they overslept,” she says.Â
While breakfast can be a challenge, it can also be a time to involve kids in choosing and making their meals — and a way to start the whole family’s day on the right foot, experts say.
What do pediatricians give their kids for breakfast?
Egg sandwiches
Dr. Christina Johns tells TODAY.com that her kids, ages 15 and 18, are both athletes who prefer a hot breakfast, so they gravitate towards protein-packed egg and cheese sandwiches most mornings.
Sometimes they’ll have the sandwich on “fancy seven-grain panini bread,” says Johns, a senior medical adviser for PM Pediatrics. Or they might use a flour tortilla or croissant. She also encourages her kids to add other nutritious ingredients to their sandwiches, like avocado or cooked veggies leftover from dinner the night before.
“I really am a firm believer in the egg sandwich,” she adds, because it contains protein, dairy, fiber and carbs — and has the potential to be customized with other nutritious ingredients.
Fruit on-the-go
“For my daughter, who’s a really good fruit eater, I try to do the things that are easy,” Johns says.
It might not be convenient to sit down with a knife and fork for a slice of watermelon or canteloupe in the mornings, so Johns typically offers her daughter a banana or a ramekin of berries, like blackberries or blueberries, that she can just grab and eat in the…
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