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  • Q&A with Australian Health Practitioners

    Healthy breakfast for preschoolers?

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  • Dr Natalie Parletta

    Dietitian

    I am a dietitian/nutritionist with extensive research experience into diet/nutrition and children’s behaviour; Mediterranean-style whole food diet; and parental influences on young children’s diets. In … View Profile

    Preschool age is an ideal age for instilling healthy eating behaviours in children. Some basic general guidelines for doing this are to have a range of healthy options available for your child, and allow them to choose from those options (e.g. choose between an apple and a banana rather than between an apple and an icecream :) - thereby empowering them to make choices within healthy limits. Role model good eating habits,  make healthy food choices and mealtimes enjoyable and positive (avoid using dessert as a bribe to eat their vegies!), involve them in cooking and shopping (setting the healthy boundaries).

    As far as breakfast goes, there are different types of cereals - avoid the high sugar, low nutrient cereals (e.g. corn flakes, coco pops); go for cereals with lower sugar content and variety in the ingredients (e.g. Sanitarium ‘Light and Tasty’). Offer a variety of fruit choices to add to the cereal, e.g. sliced banana, peach, etc. Other quick and healthy breakfast options are scrambled eggs on wholegrain/rye toast (you can add ingredients like tomato/onion etc.); porridge - yummy with stewed apple; fruit salad and plain yoghurt; fruit smoothie (e.g. banana, yoghurt and milk; can add mango, stewed pear/apricot/peach etc.). The CSIRO have put out a very helpful book which provides additional ideas for healthy eating and recipes: see http://www.csiro.au/science/wellbeingplanforkids.
    Hope this helps!

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