How To Serve Up A Healthy Breakfast For Kids

Healthy Breakfast Tip #1

If your kids can’t get enough of porridge, try to use plain porridge oats to make their breakfast, or try overnight oats if they love their fruit. You can then sweeten naturally yourself with frozen, fresh or dried berries, apricots, banana or anything else from the fruit bowl.

Healthy Breakfast Tip #2

Swap sugary cereal for plain cereal - like plain wholewheat biscuits or plain shredded wheat. To make this more tasty you can always add fruit and a low-fat, lower-sugar yoghurt.

Healthy Breakfast Tip #3

Serve up a blender-breakfast and freshen things up with a smoothie. It’s great fun for the kids to make their own breakfast, and if they make something with fruit themselves, they’re more likely to finish it all off.

This Apple, Orange and Banana Smoothie is a great wake-up-shake-up
idea for the kids. Remember that Government advice states a recommended daily serving of 150ml.
Try our refreshing recipe here >>

Healthy Breakfast Tip #4

If having toast, pop in slices of wholemeal bread (get the kids involved in making their own) or seeded varieties like our muesli bread below. Use a low sugar spread, and make sure you spread it thinly.

Muesli bread is great lightly toasted for breakfast,
or simply sliced as a snack at the weekend.
Try our tasty recipe here >>

Healthy Breakfast Tip #5

Having cereal with milk or yogurt is good way to add calcium in the diet. Choose semi-skimmed milk, 1% or skimmed milk or a low-fat yogurt. Remember that fully skimmed milks are not suitable to children under 5.

Read our tips on eating a balanced diet >>

Cereals - How To Keep An Eye On Salt And Sugar Content

Trying to work out which cereals are loaded in sugar, fat or salt can be tricky. To help you make healthier choices, you can use the ‘per 100g’ information on the nutrition label to identify breakfast cereals - here’s some guidance on what to look out for.

High in Sugar, Fat or Salt:

• High in sugar: more than 22.5g of total sugar per 100g
• High in fat: more than 17.5g of fat per 100g
• High in salt: more than 1.5g of salt per 100g

Low in sugar, fat or salt:

• Low in sugar: 5g of total sugars or less per 100g
• Low in fat: 3g of saturated fat or less per 100g
• Low in salt: 0.3g of salt or less per 100g

Find out more about traffic light labelling >>

Fruit For Breakfast - The First Of Their Five-A-Day

It’s important that we give our littles ones fruit (and vegetables) every day -as they’re a good source of fibre, vitamins and minerals. We should all aim to ‘eat the rainbow’ by including a variety of 5 portions a day. Here is what counts towards one of your Five-A-Day, and our top tips for what to look out for.

• 80g of fresh, frozen or canned fruit (as well as vegetables like mushrooms). When buying canned opt for fruit canned in natural juice with no added sugar, or vegetables canned in no added salt.
• 80g of beans and pulses also count towards one of your five a day due to them being high in fibre. No matter how many portions of bean and pulses you eat they will only count as one of your five a day due to them containing fewer nutrients than fruit and vegetables.  
  30g of dried fruit e.g raisins or prunes. These should be eaten at meal times and not as a between meal snack to reduce the risk of tooth decay, as dried fruit can get stuck to teeth.
• Limit fruit/vegetable juices and smoothies to 150ml a day (always check recipes and make the smoothie as a ‘sharer’ if you need to. Blending fruit and vegetables releases sugar which can cause damage to teeth, and smoothies or juices should be enjoyed at meal times not as a between meal snack, to reduce the risk of tooth decay.

Variety is key when it comes to breakfast for the kids, so whatever you serve remember to keep it fresh in terms of choice as well as ingredients.

Take a look at our Family blogs for more ideas and inspiration >>