It is fair to say that the last few weeks and months have bought about a couple of changes to the routines of our household. We have packed up our house ready to renovate in order to accommodate a growing family, moved 6 people into 2 small rooms at my parents house and last week welcomed a new addition to the fold. As a result, some of our routines have started to go a little astray. It came to our attention that we may need to revisit one of my old blog posts on morning routines and get out the list of chores to ensure that we are able to leave the house with a greater semblance of efficiency and harmony. So if morning routines are something you struggle with please have a read of Morning Routines: Getting to school on time without Nagging, Yelling, Fighting….. Sometimes we all just need a little reminder that there are ways to make our lives a little less painful.

One thing our family has never failed to achieve in the mornings however is to eat a fairly decent and pretty healthy breakfast to set them on their way. This is probably a combination of having active boys who are simply ready for a feed as well as the importance I have always placed on eating breakfast. I am one of those who can’t leave the house without eating first and so this may have rubbed off on the rest of the clan. What I have discovered recently however, is a large portion of children do go off to school without having had anything to eat, and one of the number one reasons for this is a lack of time. This is rather disturbing considering the research on the need for food to stimulate brain activity for the day ahead and to boost concentration levels. 

After spending some time with the people of Kelloggs a couple of weeks ago, there were a few other facts I learnt and myths I questioned with regard to the breakfast we eat and the health benefits they convey.   Kelloggs were extremely open to finding out exactly what parents want from their cereal, what our morning routines were, and what other information we would like to see on cereal boxes and advertising. I was one of those parents who would read about the not so healthy benefits of some of our favourite cereals and try to find healthier alternatives only to have the kids plea to do the shopping with me so they could sneakily throw their desired cereal into the trolley. But here are a couple of random facts I learnt that have allowed me to ease off on policing the breakfast so stringently and looking instead to some of the other eating habits throughout the day!

•  Whilst some cereals do have a high amount of sugar and salts, even with the worst offenders, this only makes up 3-5% of our daily sugar and salt intake. When you think that breakfast should in fact be a third or at least a quarter of our food consumption, then these figures are not so bad.
• There are no preservatives, additives or colourings in the cereals (even Fruit Loops!)  and the color in Nutri Grain actually comes from the cumin seeds.
• It costs 50 cents for the average bowl of cereal
• There is not genetically modified food in any Kelloggs cereal products

But I guess my point is, lets not get too caught up with all the facts and figures. As long as your kids are able to find something relatively nutritious to eat and more importantly that they have the time to eat it, then they will have far more of the energy and concentration needed to tackle the day ahead.

A few photos from the Brand Meets Blogger Kelloggs Brunch….