Healthy snack for the elementary school

What belongs to a balanced break breakfast?

Text last updated: 2024-04-16

How parents bring variety into the lunchbox

Breakfast at school is an important meal for your child. It provides new energy and concentration in class. What a healthy school breakfast can look like and how parents can ensure variety in the lunchbox, you can read advice from nutrition experts here.

A healthy breakfast consists of 4 parts

With the following ideas it succeeds easily and without particularly large expenditure to arrange for your child a healthy, full and tasty breakfast.

1. whole grain bread or whole grain rolls are the better choice

Whole grain cereal is healthier than white flour. It has more vitamins, fiber and minerals and makes you fuller longer. Make sure you have a varied topping for your bread. This can be cheese or lean cold cuts, an egg or a creamy spread with herbs - depending on what your child likes to eat.

2. Colorful fruits and vegetables stimulate the appetite

Further, raw foods in the form of fresh fruit and crunchy vegetables are ideal for the lunchbox. This can be bite-sized apple slices or bananas, a handful of blueberries, grapes, strawberries or tangerine slices - depending on the season. Popular vegetables include cucumber slices, carrots, small tomatoes or bell pepper sticks.

Always try something new. Perhaps you let your child also co-decide when shopping, what should be in the bread box next time.

3. milk and dairy products

Milk and dairy products in the form of yogurt, cheese cubes, cream cheese and milk or cocoa provide a healthy dose of calcium. By the way, children's yogurts and children's milk products are not part of a full breakfast. They are often particularly sweetened and too high in calories.

4. Unsweetened drinks as thirst quenchers

Dairy products provide nutrients but are not suitable for quenching thirst. Instead of high-calorie drinks, you should rather give your child mineral water, unsweetened fruit and herbal tea or diluted juice spritzers.

SNACKS FOR THE SMALL PAUSES

A granola bar, dried fruit or a handful of nuts are also good fillers and restore energy during a short break.

KEEP AWAY FROM SWEET CREAM

Avoid sweet spreads, croissants, candy bars and other unhealthy snacks such as pastries or fruit gums. Neither should sugary drinks such as soda, Sprite, cola or energy drinks go in your school bag.

Sugar makes you tired because blood sugar levels drop quickly after a brief high. As a result, your child may then not be able to concentrate well.

ColORED DISCHARGE TAKES CARE OF APPETITE

Your child's lunch often goes untouched or possibly ends up in the waste garbage can in the schoolyard? Then you should provide a little surprise every now and then: for example, with your child's favorite fruit, a surprise snack like whole-grain cookies and trail mix, or an encouraging message in the bread box. This can be a quote, a small drawing or a motivational message.

And the most important tip for kids who don't eat their recess bread: As often as possible, let your daughter and son have a say in what goes into the break box.

BREAK BREAK DOESN'T HAVE TO BE AN ARTIFICIAL

To get kids excited about their break break breakfast, the offering shouldn't be boring, but don't put yourself under pressure. Time is tight enough in the morning. While there's nothing wrong with creative break boxes filled with ladybug cheese sandwiches and pieces of cucumber shaped like dinosaurs or unicorns, that still doesn't guarantee that your child will eat it all.

Where to find help and advice?

You are concerned about the health of your child because he eats too much, too little or the wrong thing? If you observe that your child is clearly underweight or overweight despite a healthy kitchen at home, then you should definitely talk to your pediatrician about it. If there are no underlying organic or psychological reasons, you can also consult a qualified nutritionist. Nutritionists are the right people to talk to about underweight or overweight children, diabetes, intolerances and allergies, and similar issues. Contact addresses of nutritionists in your area can be found at the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ernährung e.V. DGE, the Verband der Diätassistenten e.V.. VDD and the Verband der Oecotrophologie e.V. VDOE. The specialized and certified professionals can bill with the health insurance.

Further tips for the healthy break bread can be found here on the website of the German Nutrition Society (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ernährung e.V.

Information on catering in everyday school life is also available on the portal IN FORM - Germany's initiative for healthy eating and more exercise under School + Food = Grade 1.

Das Gesundheitsportal „clever-gesund-info.de” richtet sich direkt an Kinder und Jugendliche und bietet viele Infos und Tipps zum Thema “Gesund essen in der Schulpause”.