Annabel Karmel, the UK’s best-selling author renowned for her collection of fourteen books on nutrition and cooking for babies, children, and families is now bringing her expertise to the U.S.A. with The Toddler Cookbook and Lunch Boxes & Snacks. Her first book, The Healthy Baby Meal Planner, published by Simon and Schuster in 1991, has become the definitive guide on feeding babies and children with international sales reaching over 2 million. Annabel has written thirteen additional books including Superfoods for Babies and Children, Lunchboxes, Children’s First Cookbook, and Favorite Family Meals as well as a comprehensive parenting guide – First Year Planner.

As a household name in the UK, Annabel writes regularly for national newspapers including The Times, The Mail and Sunday Mirror as well as being the food writer for Mother and Baby Magazine the #1 parenting magazine. She also contributes to Practical Parenting, BBC Good Food and Sainsbury’s Magazine. She is the celebrity children’s chef on the BBC website and also appears frequently on radio and television as the UK’s leading expert on nutritional issues, including BBC1’s Saturday Kitchen and BBC2’s Working Lunch. Recently, she completed a series on the Richard and Judy Show, Channel 4 as the Foodie Godmother in which she traveled around the UK solving the problems of fussy eaters. She also filmed a 10–part series with Sky Active called Mummy That’s Yummy.

Annabel travels frequently to the US and has appeared on many TV programs including the Today Show, The Early Show, The View and Live! With Regis and Kelly. In June 2006, Annabel was awarded an MBE , Member of the Most Excellent Order from the British Empire, by the Queen in her Birthday Honors List for her outstanding work in the field of child nutrition.

Guest Blogger Annabel Karmel--

There’s a lot of truth in that old saying: Breakfast like a king, lunch like a knave and dine like a pauper. Breakfast really is the most important meal of the day as your child will probably have fasted for 12 hours. Improving blood sugar by eating a good breakfast after the night’s fast, raises blood glucose – ‘fuel for the brain’ and will help to improve your child’s performance. Recent research has shown that ‘children who eat a nutritionally balanced breakfast worked faster, made significantly fewer mistakes on tasks requiring sustained attention, demonstrated greater physical endurance, and appeared less tired to teachers.

The Best Breakfast Foods

Carbohydrates

Beware of ‘children’s’ cereals that have a high sugar content. Some manufacturers try to conceal this by putting sugar further down the list by disguising it under different names. So watch out for words like Glucose, Fructose, Sucrose , Maltose, and Dextrose. Some children’s cereals are between one third and one half sugar – if your child ate any of these cereals for one week he would be consuming 22 teaspoons of sugar. Always read labels carefully and check that the cereal contains less than 10g of sugar and less than 0.5g of salt per 100g.

Your child needs energy and concentration until lunch and the best way to deliver a steady supply of sugar to the brain is to give complex carbohydrates like oatmeal, Shredded Wheat, granola or Cheerios. Wholegrain cereals release their sugar slowly avoiding the highs and lows of sugary refined cereals.

Seeds like sunflower or pumpkin seeds contain important nutrients like essential fatty acids, so it’s good if you can sprinkle some onto your child’s cereal or add them to your own homemade granola. Toast is also good for breakfast – whole wheat or white. Grilled cheese on toast is good or peanut butter with sliced banana are good.

Dairy Produce and Eggs

Give milk, yogurt, or cheese to make sure your child gets the calcium he needs to build strong bones and teeth. Choose whole milk rather than low fat varieties of dairy products unless your child is overweight as he will need the calories to fuel his growth. Eggs are rich in protein, iron, zinc, and vitamins; scrambled, poached, and boiled eggs are good for breakfast. Boiled eggs with soldiers (toast strips) is popular and you can add extras to scrambled eggs like chopped tomatoes, grated cheese or ham.

Fruit

Ideally children should eat or drink some fruit that is rich in vitamin C as breakfast cereals are a good source of iron but we cannot absorb it unless we have vitamin C at the same meal; for example, a glass of orange juice or a bowl of berry fruits. If your child doesn’t have much time for breakfast giving him or her a smoothie to drink on his journey to school may be the answer. You can also make fruity muffins like my Apple and Carrot muffins.

Your child might like something from last night’s dinner for breakfast, mine certainly do. They often eat foods like baked beans, tomato soup or homemade muffin pizzas in the morning!

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