5 Negative Effects of Skipping Breakfast Before School for Children

Even though it is proven that breakfast is very necessary and should not be skipped, a lot of parents still fail to see the importance of having a meal in the morning and let their kids go to school without having breakfast first.

There are some bad effects if you let your kids do their activities at school in empty stomach.

What are the bad effects that your kids will have if they don’t eat breakfast before going to school? Keep reading to find the answers.

Lowering Their Cognitive Skill

The cognitive skill of children who do not eat breakfast every morning can be affected. From the study that has been done by Centers for Disease Control about breakfast meal program, it is found that the cognitive skill of kids who skipped their breakfast is decreasing. The signs are:

The children find it hard to follow the lessons at school
The children have difficulty in problem solving
They keep forgetting the lesson they have been learning
They tend to lost their concentration easily
They feel unmotivated to study and play
The children tend to be less active in doing class activities and socializing with their peers

Children who eat breakfast before they go to school will remember the lesson they learn at school way much better than those who don’t eat breakfast. Thus, they can understand what they’ve been learning more easily and automatically, they will achieve more during their study time. Read more about Negative Effects of Drinking Coffee on an Empty Stomach

The effect of not having breakfast not only affect children, but also grown up adults who work nine to five at the office will get the same effect if they skip their meal in the morning.

Obesity

Overweight or obesity can also be the impact of skipping meal in the morning. Why does not eating breakfast can make us overweight instead? Many people think that skipping breakfast every day will reduce their daily intake of calorie, but little did they know that the hunger will pile up as time goes by. So that, they end up eating way more food than they need at the next meal time.

Study result by Diabetes Care America which involved approximately three thousands men and women shows that skipping breakfast will cause obesity and high blood pressure. If this condition has an effect to grown up adult, it surely will have an effect to children as well.

The imbalanced or lack of insulin and blood sugar will make us keep craving something to eat during the day (usually we crave something sugary and unhealthy food) and eventually, we consume a lot more food than we normally should.

Not having enough energy

The benefit of having breakfast before going to school for kids is they will gain energy to go through their day at school. If they do not eat their meal in the morning and just go to school with an empty stomach, they will not have enough energy to study and play. Some bad effects if your kids don’t eat breakfast in the morning are:

Your kids cannot study well at school
They will feel bored easily
Sluggish
They get sleepy during lesson
They get tired easily
They cannot concentrate and focused during study time

When your kid is asleep at night, the food they eat before sleep will be their energy during sleeping period, but they can’t recharge their food supply when they fall asleep. Thus, your kid needs to gain their energy back right after their wake up in the morning in order to do their activities during the day. The danger of eating rice for breakfast.

Bad Mood

Believe it or not, children who do not eat breakfast before school will have bad mood or mood swing during the day, unlike those kids who get to enjoy their breakfast before they start their day. Skipping morning meal means decreasing sugar level in the blood which will trigger the insulin to ‘work harder’ in order to produce energy although the body does not get enough source of energy.

The outcome of lacking energy in children is having mood swing or bad mood, and it will affect their brain reaction as well. This condition has been proven by BBC News World in 2002. From the study research, it is shown that 26% of people have way much better mood after they try to eat breakfast every morning.

Metabolic Syndrome

Not eating breakfast is also increasing the risk of having metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome, also called insulin resistance syndrome, is a condition where the person has high blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist and abnormal cholesterol levels. Based on the research, metabolic syndrome in children will not happen right away. It will happen when the kids have grown up. This kinds of disorders is not something that we should neglect because it can danger your kid’s life years after. If metabolic syndrome is left unchecked, your kids will have higher risk of getting chronic illness, such as:

Diabetes
Heart diseases
Cardiovascular disorders
Stroke
Heart attack

You might also want to read: The Effects of Eating Alone in Daily Life

There are a lot of benefits in breakfast, especially for kids. It can help them to get energy and learn better at school. Having meal in the morning will also fulfill their daily nutrition needs, maintain their immune system, help them focus when they are studying, and maintain their mood. A good breakfast meal is of course the one which contain balanced nutrition.

Nutrition in breakfast meal need to be balanced, which contains vitamin, mineral, carbohydrate, and protein. If your kids lack or have no appetite to eat, try to present their meal as interesting as possible. Make your kid’s breakfast in a cute bear-shape, star, or any shape that your kid likes. Other thing than you can to in order to make your kid want to eat their breakfast is, ask them to help you make his/her breakfast.

By doing this, your kid will have sense of accomplishment and appreciation of the hard work they have put in making their meal. As parents, it is our duty to make sure our kids stay healthy and happy and making them breakfast is one of the ways to do it.