Children need to start the day with a good breakfast. Breakfast functions as "thinking food", re-fuelling children's brains as well as their bodies. Deprive children of breakfast and you may be depriving them of their ability to learn.

There are four key reasons to ensure that your child eats breakfast:

1. It boosts nutrient intake. Studies show that children who eat breakfast have better overall diets with lower fat intake, higher fibre intake and significantly higher intake of vitamins and minerals

2. It is the meal that breaks the period of overnight fasting and kick-starts the metabolism. It provides children with carbohydrates and other essential nutrients to boost and maintain energy levels throughout the morning.

3. Studies show that children who miss breakfast are less alert and find it hard to concentrate on tasks that require mental effort. Eating breakfast enhances memory, problem-solving ability, accuracy in complex tasks (which teachers usually schedule for the morning) and creative thinking.

4. Eating breakfast helps prevents snacking and binge eating. Those children who skip breakfast are more likely to want of junk food at recess or later on during lunchtime.

Most children miss breakfast for two or three reasons: lack of time, being too tired, or not feeling like eating first things in the morning. In these situations offer something light such as fruit or a bowl of cereal flakes with milk. Eating breakfast often helps them to wake up!

If your child is running short of time, offer a breakfast bar and a glass of milk. Or allow him to dip the breakfast bar into a carton of fruit yoghurt. These combinations will still provide carbohydrate, some protein, B vitamins and fibre, depending on the type of cereal.

Where children persistently refuse breakfast at home, some are willing to join in a school breakfast program. The example of the peer group is a very strong motivator and eating with others is often considered more enjoyable that breakfasting at home alone.

At the school where I work, a breakfast program operates on one day of the week. The room where the children eat is warm and colourful and music of their choice is played. Students are able to select from a range of packaged cereals and cooked foods, but everything that is on offer has been carefully selected according to nutritional value. The menu changes from week to week, although some favourites such as the Corn and Zucchini Fritters, have to be available

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