The Web site, kidshealth.org, describes why breakfast is so important by associating your body as if it were a car. “After a long night of sleeping, your fuel tank is empty. Breakfast is the fuel that gets you going so you can hit the road.”
Any breakfast is good breakfast, right? Right, but with exceptions. The Web site reports that doughnuts or pastries are better than nothing at all, but just not all the time. These types of food products are high in calories, sugar and fat. They lack the nutrients a child really needs.
  
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At ehow.com’s Web site, the writer offers a unique idea designed to get children involved in creating their own healthy breakfast with a breakfast bar. The breakfast bar should contain food that your child may like to eat for breakfast, such as fresh fruit, cereal, muffins or yogurt. Use easy-pour containers to hold milk and juice and a container with a lid for the cereal.
Next, set out a bowl, spoon, cup, plate and fork so that the child can reach whatever they need. Then, allow the child to make his or her own breakfast. It helps encourage the children to start their day with a healthy meal.
Peggy Huval, a teacher at Cathy’s Day Care, said she encourages the students to eat and try to introduce them to a more healthy approach to meals.
“We try to encourage them by words and deeds,” Huval said. “We try to remind them that eating more nutritious and proper exercise will create strong bones and teeth and make them more healthy. We are in a fast-paced society, so unfortunately, we fall for the fast food. I like to introduce food items they may not have seen before.”
Huval said Cathy’s Day Care is implementing the recommendations of the USDA in regards to the healthy food choices and nutritional requirements for young, growing children.
“Eat your breakfast,” Huval tells her students at breakfast on Tuesday. “Drink your milk. You want to make healthy, what?”
“Bones.” “Muscles” is the cry from her charges.
“My daddy has big muscles,” Gracee Wilkerson said. “He can move a refrigerator all by himself.”
Another Web site, nibbledish.com, reports that growing children are active and have a high metabolism, so they need plenty of “fuel.” It suggests parents learn about the nutritional requirements of children and the caloric content of different foods to prevent obesity.
Sodas and candy bars are loaded with sugar, which contributes to weight gain, the report states. More healthy alternatives would be water, natural fruit juice and milk, which are all lower in calories.
By eating good, balanced meals, the urge for snacking will be cut down. Cooking more grilled, broiled, steamed or boiled foods rather than fried will help reduce the intake of calories as well.
Christine Steendahl, in an article posted at FoodEditorials.com, calls breakfast an essential part of a nutritious lifestyle, being even more important for the younger members of the population. She said she thinks that when children take part in making their own simple breakfast items, they are more likely to eat them. She offers several recipes with directions designed to get the children hands-on experience by working side-by-side with an adult.
In Iberia Parish, Dale Henderson, superintendent of schools, urges parents to take advantage of the breakfast program for their children. The school system’s Web site, iberia.k12.la.us, offers a monthly menu of both breakfast and lunch menus. The breakfast menus include cereals, muffins, eggs, waffles and sausage.
The cost for breakfast is 55-cents and the school systems offers free and reduced-price meals for families who qualify, Henderson said. He urges parents to check with school administrators for this program.
Eat better, play harder, live healthier and learn easier, a motto to help students grow into healthy adults. The education toward a healthy lifestyle goes hand-in-hand with the learning structure of school. What better way to learn.
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