Healthy snacks for elementary school

What is part of a balanced breakfast during the break?

Text last updated: 2024-04-16

How parents bring variety to the lunch box

Breakfast during the school break is an important meal for your child. It provides new energy and concentration in class. Here you can read advice from nutrition experts on what a healthy school breakfast can look like and how parents can ensure variety in the lunch box.

A healthy breakfast consists of 4 parts

With the following ideas, it's easy to put together a healthy, wholesome and delicious breakfast for your child without too much effort.

1. Wholemeal bread or wholemeal rolls are the better choice

Whole grain cereals are healthier than white flour. It has more vitamins, fiber and minerals and keeps you full for longer. Make sure you have a variety of toppings on your bread. This could be cheese or lean cold cuts, an egg or a creamy spread with herbs - depending on what your child likes to eat.

2. colorful fruit and vegetables stimulate the appetite

Raw food in the form of fresh fruit and crunchy vegetables is also ideal for the lunch box. These can be bite-sized apple slices or bananas, a handful of blueberries, grapes, strawberries or mandarin orange slices - depending on the season. Popular vegetables include cucumber slices, carrots, small tomatoes or bell pepper sticks.

Try something new from time to time. Perhaps let your child help you decide what to put in the lunch box next time you go shopping.

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 portion of calcium. By the way, children's yogurts and milk products are not part of a complete 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, it is better to give your child mineral water, unsweetened fruit and herbal tea or diluted juice spritzers.

SNACKS FOR THE LITTLE ONES

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

FINGER AWAY FROM SWEET CREAM

Avoid sweet spreads, croissants, chocolate bars and other unhealthy snacks such as cookies or fruit gums. Likewise, sugary drinks such as soda, Sprite, cola or energy drinks do not belong in your school bag.

Sugar makes you tired because your blood sugar level quickly drops again after a brief high. As a result, your child may then no longer be able to concentrate well.

COLOURFUL WASTE CREATES APPETITE

Does your child's snack often go untouched or end up in the garbage can in the school playground? Then you should provide a little surprise from time to time: for example with your child's favorite fruit, a surprise snack such as wholemeal cookies and trail mix or an encouraging message in the lunch box. This could be a quote, a small drawing or a motivational message.

And the most important tip for children who don't eat their snack: Let your daughter and son have a say in what goes in the lunch box as often as possible.

the snack doesn't have to be a work of art

In order for children to be enthusiastic about their breakfast, the offer should not be boring, but don't put yourself under pressure. Time is already tight enough in the morning. There's nothing wrong with creative lunch boxes filled with ladybug cheese sandwiches and dinosaur or unicorn-shaped cucumber slices, but that doesn't guarantee that your child will eat everything.

Where can we find help and advice?

Are you concerned about your child's health because they are eating too much, too little or the wrong thing? If you notice that your child is significantly underweight or overweight despite a healthy diet 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, diabetes, intolerances and allergies and similar issues. You can find contact addresses for nutritionists in your area 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 the health insurance company.

You can find more tips for a healthy snack here on the website of the German Nutrition Society.V.

Information on school meals can also be found on the IN FORM portal - Germany's initiative for healthy eating and more exercise at School + food = grade 1.

The health portal "clever-gesund-info.de" is aimed directly at children and young people and offers lots of information and tips on the topic of "healthy eating during school breaks".

The WERTvoll-Memory was developed by the NRW consumer advice center as part of the "Wertvoll NRW" project and teaches the appreciation of food in a playful way. You can download it as a PDF here.