Trying to get everyone in your family out the door in the morning can be a gauntlet. And making sure they have a healthy, filling breakfast only adds to the challenge. That's why pediatricians feed their kids a few nutritious breakfasts on repeat.
"Mornings are always a scramble," Dr. Danielle Grant, a pediatrician at Texas Children’s Pediatrics and mom of three teenagers, tells TODAY.com.
"As a parent, you're always struggling to make sure they're getting what they need at probably the busiest time in the morning for everybody," she says. When her kids were younger, Grant navigated their picky toddler tastes. And now that they're older, "they wake up and they're busy, they're not hungry and they're trying to rush out the door because they overslept," she says.
But breakfast doesn't have to be part of the morning's obstacle course. Instead, it can be an opportunity to involve kids in picking and making their meals. And breakfast creates a way to start the whole family's day on the right foot, experts say.
“I really am a firm believer in the ,” Dr. Christina Johns, a senior medical adviser for PM Pediatrics, tells TODAY.com.
Her kids, ages 15 and 18, are both athletes who prefer a hot breakfast, so they gravitate towards protein-packed most mornings. The sandwiches are a great option, Johns says, because they contain protein, dairy, fiber and carbs — and have the potential to be customized with other nutritious ingredients. Sometimes her kids will have their sandwiches.
