Research shows that children who eat breakfast do better at school, writes Sheila Wayman
WE'RE RUNNING late this morning - again. When we should be out the door and halfway up the road to school, the seven year old is on a go-slow in the bathroom, pouting and muttering under his breath about some perceived injustice.
To underline his point, he flings his facecloth into the bath in annoyance. With a sudden flash of self-realisation, I see he is, unwittingly, doing a perfect imitation of me in the morning.
Guiltily I resolve, for the umpteenth time, to get up 15 minutes earlier, so that we have a better chance of all leaving on time, unruffled, without a cross word spoken.
"Parents really can help to determine whether their kids become morning risers or morning whiners," according to child psychologist Dr Celine Mullins. "If parents moan and groan, are always frantic, grumpy and running late themselves, then how can they really expect anything more of their own kids?"
It can be like a military exercise for a whole family to get out of the house in the morning, clean and dressed in the right clothes and with everything necessary for the day in their respective nappy bags, school bags and brief cases.
Before that there is a little matter of breakfast - "the most important meal of the day" as we are so often told. No pressure then.
"Busy schedules have quashed the custom of breakfast," says Mullins in a report, entitled Waking up to Family Relationships, which was commissioned by the oat millers Flahavans which, of course, have a vested interest in breakfast.
"Children today are often fed in the car en route to school or opt to nonchalantly skip the morning meal," she says.
Nutritionist Nuala Collins says she used to be sceptical about the claims made for breakfast above and beyond any other meal.
"I used to think it was marketing spin to say it was the most important meal of the day. But when I looked up the research, the results were amazing."
She was convinced by the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, which reviewed 47 studies on the benefits of breakfast.
For a start, it has been proven beyond doubt that children who eat breakfast are more likely to do better at school. There are teachers who think ADHD is on the rise, when in fact the poor concentration of their pupils is simply due to the fact that they have not had any breakfast, suggests Collins. Their tummies are rumbling and they're suffering the effects of low blood sugar.
There are all sorts of reasons for skipping breakfast, from people who can't face food in the morning, to time pressure and bad habits. And it goes across all age groups and social classes.
No longer is it just children from deprived families who go out in the morning without breakfast. There is increasing evidence that even in the most comfortable of homes, youngsters who are old enough to get themselves out in the morning may not bother with food if left unsupervised.
A survey by the Irish Universities Nutrition Alliance last year found that 16 per cent of teenagers only eat breakfast "sometimes".
The problem of very young children not having breakfast "would tend to be in homes under a lot of stress and where discipline is very weak", says Dr Cliodhna Foley-Nolan, the director of Safefood, an all-Ireland food safety promotion body. "It's a wider problem when children become more independent in their teens and there may be concerns about weight and body image."
However, skipping breakfast is counter-productive if you are concerned about weight. It's a myth that it's a way to cut down on your calorie consumptions, she warns. People who do that "more than make up for the calorific intake later in the day with less healthy food".
It's vital to make time for breakfast in the morning and preferably at home. "Breakfast is a busy time and very few people are going to luxuriate in it, except perhaps at weekends," says Foley-Nolan. "But we are talking about just five to 10 minutes."
In that short time space, what should you be giving your children? Wholegrain cereals, particularly oat-based ones such as porridge, are number one, along with one glass of fruit juice.
"Only one glass of juice a day is recommended for children," says Collins, "and that should be at breakfast time, as the vitamin C in it helps them absorb the iron from the cereal." Pancakes, eggs, baked beans on toast or potato waffles are also all fine for children.
Like most nutritionists, she and Foley-Nolan warn against the sugary, chocolate-covered cereals, which are targeted specifically at children. Research by the Consumers' Association of Ireland earlier this year found that some children's cereals sold in Ireland contain more fat and/or sugar than the same product sold in other countries.
The Minister for Communications, Eamon Ryan, who is introducing a ban on junk food advertising, has blamed "unacceptably high levels" of sugar and fat in some children's breakfast cereals for contributing to obesity and diabetes levels in the State.
"Cereal is a good choice but the salt and sugar content of children's breakfast cereals really are problematic," says Collins. "Parents do need to start reading the labels and look particularly at the salt and sugar content."
If you are aiming for a low-sugar and low-salt diet for your child, the EU-agreed standards are a benchmark, she suggests. To be classed as a low-sugar product, it should contain no more than 5g of sugar per 100g and a low-salt one would contain no more than 0.12g of sodium per 100g.
A quick look in our cupboard shows that Weetabix qualifies as a low-sugar if not low-salt cereal, at 4.4g sugar and 0.26g sodium per 100g; the porridge oatflakes come under both thresholds at 1.1g and trace respectively per 100g; the Shreddies are significantly above both at 15.5g and 0.3g per 100g, while the "treat" cereal of Coco Pops has 36g of sugar and 0.45g of sodium per 100g.
If your children are eating sugar-laden cereal, it's a good idea to wean them off them gradually by mixing in a low-sugar, high-fibre variety.
There is no reason for any of the 240 pupils at Grennan College in Thomastown, Co Kilkenny to sit in the classroom with an empty stomach. They are offered free breakfast in the school from 8.05am every morning, explains their principal William Norton.
The college started a breakfast club two years ago, under a Government-funded scheme called Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools. The initiative covers nearly 900 schools, of which more than 600 run a school meals programme.
"Some students are arriving here at 8am off school buses, having been picked up at 7.30am," Norton explains. "Others are hopping out of bed at the last minute and trying to get to school in time."
They all know that there will be cereal, juice, tea and toast, yogurt and fruit, waiting for them.
It is very popular with both parents and pupils, Norton says, and approximately 100 students avail of it each morning. Some of them will have had a breakfast at home as well.
Breda Gardner's son, Fionn (13), is one of the students who goes to the school for his breakfast. "He likes to be independent and it's a social club," she says. Meanwhile, his sisters, 10-year-old twins Orla and Ciara and nine-year-old Iona tuck into pancakes or scrambled eggs at home.
"We are not big into cereal," says Gardner, a complementary health practitioner and author of a new book, Words of Wisdom for Your Health and Happiness.
Their morning routine bears little resemblance to the frenzied exodus of many other households. They had their fair share of that while living and working in London and came to Thomastown for a better quality of family life five years ago. It certainly sounds as if they've found it.
Gardner starts every day at 7.15am with half an hour's meditation before she wakes the children up. Her house husband, Gerry, a former marketing director, rises at 8am. After Fionn wanders down the road to school before 8.30am, the girls have another hour before they start at St Mary's National School, a short walk away from their home.
Running her own business, Gardner can usually delay her departure to work in Kilkenny or Waterford until after the children have gone to school.
For many of us, the only meditation we do these cold, dark winter mornings is about how much longer we can stay in bed. Yes, we know the consequences of cutting it fine with children who won't be hurried, but for morning grouches, no minutes in the day are sweeter than those final ones under the duvet.
They key to an organised morning may be a 15-minute earlier start
In theory, 7.30am is time enough for mother of three Maria McHale to get out of bed in Oranmore, Co Galway. But she finds it is better for everybody if she gets up 15 minutes earlier.
Those 15 minutes are the difference between a peaceful, orderly morning routine and her "going mental and ending up shouting". It means there is time for the children to "faff around" without making them late for school
Her eldest child, Conor (11), is pretty good at getting himself ready in the morning, she says. Her four-year-old twin daughters, Kate and Niamh, are well able to dress themselves, however she is liable to find them playing in a corner, stark naked, some considerable time after getting out of bed.
For breakfast they have cereal "or egg on toast if we have got up in time", juice or pieces of fruit, and toast. They have always been good eaters in the morning.
She supervises half the breakfast and then goes for a shower while her husband, Dominic Snowdon, takes over. As she works from home, on the quarterly health magazine Sláinte, she has the luxury of waiting until "they have all left the building" before having her own breakfast.
She prepares the school lunch boxes the night before as she "could not even contemplate" doing them in the morning.
"Another mother was saying to me that she didn't think they tasted so good when they were made the night before, but I don't care!''
About once a week she has to travel to Dublin on the 7.30am train but she says her husband is good at taking charge. They used to be a commuting couple in London, when they had to be at the door of the creche by 8am with Conor. "They did offer breakfast at the nursery, but that was a step too far for me."
It is so much easier now, when she doesn't have to get herself out, and generally much more harmonious.
"If we decide not to get up that bit earlier, it falls apart. The children don't believe in rushing at all for anything."
The morning in shifts
Breakfast operates in two shifts in the home of businesswoman and mother of three, Mary O'Riordan (pictured left). She's normally up first at 6.45am because she has to be out of her Rochestown home by 7.45am to do the school run with her middle child, Jennifer (13), and reach work at O'Riordan Interiors on the far side of Cork city by 8.30am.
It was her very tight morning schedule which dictated the choice of secondary school for Jennifer, says O'Riordan.
It had to be on her route to work. She also takes the neighbour's children, and they return the compliment for the return journey.
The departure time of her husband, John Harrington, a contract manager with a cleaning company, varies. However, the eldest child, David (18), can take his little sister, eight-year-old Anna to a school near his in Douglas and they need to be out of the house by 8.10am.
"Planning is key to any working mother's routine," says O'Riordan, who is the new president of the women's organisation Network Cork.
"I make sure there is milk and other provisions in the fridge and I still remind the children every night to have their uniform and shoes ready for the morning."
The thing she hates most in the working week is doing packed school lunches. But if the older two are left to do it themselves, they are inclined just to go out and buy things for lunch, she says.
While she remembers as a child sitting around the kitchen table for breakfast, O'Riordan and Jennifer eat cereal and juice standing at the kitchen counter. They may be joined by Anna, depending on her mood.
Typical of a teenager, David has to be called several times. "If he gets up without being called you do wonder if he is okay," says his mother. "He has to be up before I go."
She is a firm believer in making sure the children all have breakfast before they leave - although she does find that teenagers are inclined to snack late at night and then not want to eat first thing in the morning.
As a working mother, she knows some standards have to give and for her it's the housework. She laughs when, as an interior designer, she is visiting the homes of clients and they are apologising for their untidiness. "If anybody saw my house and the mess it's left in."
It's a house rule that the first person home cleans up the breakfast.
O'Riordan occasionally has to stay away overnight on business, but even then she doesn't leave the family's morning routine to chance.
"I am phoning them to make sure they are out of bed at 7.30am and then again at 8.10am to make sure they are out of the house!"