What do American kids and teens eat for breakfast? And do they eat it at home before school, take it to school and eat it in the school in a break or do they buy their breakfast at the school cafeteria?
Growing up, I ate cold cereal with milk about 80% of the time. Cream of Wheat or Oatmeal the other 20% of the time. My mom would actually make a full breakfast on the weekends or a special occasion.
My partner’s children eat packaged oatmeal or cereal.
You could get to school early and have breakfast there but I never did that.
On weekdays my kids often eat at school, but if they’re home, it’s a bagel, protein smoothie, muffins. I don’t focus on nutrition as much as things they like that will motivate them to get out of bed 😩
On weekends, we do a lot of eggs, oatmeal, chorizo/eggs, biscuits and gravy- heavier, brunchier things pretty regularly and eat later in the day.
At home mine go for either dinner leftovers, or yogurt with fruit and granola, or I’ll make eggs and toast with fruit. They like to get school breakfast because it’s practically junk or no protein at all… things like sausage wrapped in a pancake, bagels, muffins, juice, sugar cereal.
My daughter eats a bagel or a bowl of cereal at home before school, but her school also serves breakfast in the classroom, so if she’s running behind, she can still eat something at school. School breakfasts are usually bread-based items like waffles, French toast, coffee cake, muffins, etc.
I’m in California, and all kids here can get free breakfast and lunch at school. Breakfast is usually something like fruit and pancakes/muffins. For lunch, there’s always fruit and veggies, then there will be things like fried chicken, chow mein, burritos, pizza, veggie burger, curry, etc.
Depends. Many schools do serve breakfast before classes start (often free). Some kids eat at home, some on the bus/in transit, some at school. There’s not usually a break between the start of classes and lunch, but lunch is often early-ish so some kids (esp teens) skip breakfast. A rare few may eat that whole massive breakfast spread you see on tv or the movies, but they probably have to do farm chores before the bus comes. Big breakfast is more a weekend thing for most Americans of all ages.
Breakfast is probably one of the least consistent meals of the day for your average American, including kids. Just like adults, some of them won’t eat and breakfast at all, some of them might have a very small light breakfast, and some have more substantial breakfasts.
My brother, for example, never ate breakfast growing up. As a counterpoint, I would go and get one of the warm breakfast meals at school every single morning.
Meanwhile, other kids at school might have eaten breakfast before they came to school or were eating a “cold” portable lunch like a granola bar or muffin or something else that could be eaten at school, but before classes formally started.
My mother cooked me a hot breakfast before school till I got to highschool. Then she said I was old enough to deal with it myself. So I switched to cereal in the morning. Once I started driving I either go breakfast in the drive thru on the way to school or at the cafeteria before school.
I am lucky my kids can get breakfast at school. They can get a variety of things like cereal, yogurt, fruit, and sometimes pancakes or breakfast sausages. Our district is having severe financial issues though and this program will likely not exist next year so they will be back to having a granola bar or something they can eat on our walk to school.
Any of the above, depends on the kid. I tended to have some cereal or a granola bar before school or on the bus if I could take it to go. Eventually, my school started doing free breakfast, so I ate whatever they had during my first period. I was usually a juice or milk and some kind of pre-packaged pancakes, muffins, etc.
All of those are options. A lot of kids get food at school before school starts, a lot of kids eat at home before school, and a lot of kids skip meals.
I didnt eat breakfast because my mom said “ladies don’t eat breakfast”. She also didn’t send me a packed lunch or give me money for school lunch, so usually I ate around 2:30 when I got home
The answer depends on the household, region, and about 100 other factors and personal choices. There’s no one answer or even a consistent answer. It isn’t like Europe where I’m told that everyone makes delicious and nutritious home cooked meals for every meal apparently.
One kid likes scrambled eggs either with toast or as a sandwich. One loves cereal. The youngest will only snack so I have to leave fruit, cheese and peanut butter on bread and she will come by to graze.
School feeds them lunch but we send a snack. Usually water, fruit and some chips or granola.
My state feeds school kids at no direct cost to parents. I’m sure it’s somewhere in the taxes my state is famous for.
I don’t know what terms eat. I assume caffeine, sugar and existential dread.
Kid A: Nothing. Does not eat breakfast. Kid B: Depends. Homemade muffins, cereal, danish, toast with butter, toast with peanut butter, breakfast sausage (not all at once)
A breakfast burrito*, often in hand, on the way out the door, to be eaten in the car or at school before classes start.
scrambled eggs, a breakfast meat — bacon, chorizo, etc., salsa, and tater tots or sauted potatoes, tightly wrapped in a large flour tortilla with cheese melted on it. The burrito is wrapped in parchment paper, then foil. These can be made fresh daily or made in large batches and frozen for individual reheating.
When I was a kid, I always started my day with Nestlé Quik chocolate milk and maybe some microwave pancakes.. Or I would find stuff at school. When I was old enough to take myself to school, donuts would be a common occurance. Schools didn’t always have breakfast.
Depends on the area and the kid and family dynamic.
For example: My dad’s house he was able to afford defrostable Eggo waffles we could put in the toaster. My mom’s house, we could afford generic cereal and milk.
When they forced me to eat breakfast in middle school that’s what I ate.
When I got to high school and I was getting up before them when it was still dark out, I was too tired to eat breakfast so I’d skip breakfast, get on the bus and go to school. I don’t think my school served breakfast or if they did I never had it.
My mother was a Night Nurse (Like in Marvel comics) When we wake up to green oatmail, or whatever else she wanted to make after a night of saving souls.
I can only speak for three teenage boys. Typically:
One: Carrot juice, wheat toast and vanilla yogurt.
Two. Protein smoothie, 3 eggs. Water.
Three. Poptarts.
Never have it at school.
Just eat it at home.
I get up and start breakfast – we have to get up at about 5 something in the am so we are in the car by 6:30 am. They could take the bus but the bus stop is a mile a way and they’d have to get up earlier if I didn’t help them run around and make sur ehtey had breakfast and then the time it would take to walk the mile (usually in the dark) to the bus stop. The school is then about 45 minutes away by bus or I just drive them and it’s 25 minutes.
If I ever had anything it was a pop tart or cereal almost exclusively. I can only remember a handful of times where breakfast was actually cooked before school. Parents don’t wanna wake up early either haha
My kids eat at home before school. It could be eggs and toast; avocado toast; oatmeal; just a bowl of cereal; yogurt – all of these with fresh fruit as well. I make their breakfast if they don’t have cereal.
In elementary school and middle school I’d typically have cereal. By high school, I was eating stuff on the way to school – like a bagel with cream cheese or peanut butter, or a granola bar. Sometimes I’d have cereal at home. For lunch I’d have a bagged lunch that my dad packed with a sandwich, an Apple, chips, carrots, & a cheese stick. On Friday’s my dad would give me $5 for school lunch. It cost about $2.50…so I would save up the change and buy a pack of cigarettes at $5.50.
Cold cereal and milk, if they have to get it themselves, but I don’t buy cereal with much sugar. Whole wheat toast (we make it weekly with a bread maker) with peanut butter, sliced bananas, and honey or oatmeal with something sweet mixed in, like honey or a little chocolate or nutella. Fruit with plain yogurt. Toasted bagels with butter or cream cheese.
Clicked on this to find out what the kids are eating for breakfast. I am an American that raised kids, and I have no idea what they eat these days. Not f-ing pop tarts, right? Is sugary cereal still a thing?
Week day breakfast for typical kid is cereal or toast. If the kid is gluten free or diabetic, it would be eggs. That’s it. No big/full breakfast on weekdays. Get up, munch, go to school. If you want a full brunch spread wake up early, make it, clean it and then get ur butt to school on time.
I ate cereal as a kid the vast majority of the time. Sometimes we’d get really crazy and slice up a banana to go with the Cheerios. On weekends we’d have pancakes, waffles, eggs, hash browns, sausage, or oatmeal.
California provides breakfast and lunch for all students. My high school kid usually has a burrito or breakfast sandwich, sometimes like a nutrigrain bar and a piece of fruit for breakfast.
Lunch has a bunch of options. There’s always pizza, burgers, a salad bar and chicken sandwiches, and then they’ll have “specials” where they’ll have tacos, chow mein, barbecue, all sorts of stuff.
Most already mentioned, but we sometimes had instant grits instead of oatmeal. I guess most people eat them savory with butter, salt, pepper, cheese, etc. I prefer sweet with cream and a bit of sugar.
Comments
Please tell me you aren’t writing a book. 😑
Usually cereal before school
Nothing, anything, yes, no…
Pop tarts. So many pop tarts.
My kids usually eat a waffle or toast on the way to school. Sometimes I get my shit together enough to make scrambled eggs
Growing up, I ate cold cereal with milk about 80% of the time. Cream of Wheat or Oatmeal the other 20% of the time. My mom would actually make a full breakfast on the weekends or a special occasion.
My partner’s children eat packaged oatmeal or cereal.
You could get to school early and have breakfast there but I never did that.
On weekdays my kids often eat at school, but if they’re home, it’s a bagel, protein smoothie, muffins. I don’t focus on nutrition as much as things they like that will motivate them to get out of bed 😩
On weekends, we do a lot of eggs, oatmeal, chorizo/eggs, biscuits and gravy- heavier, brunchier things pretty regularly and eat later in the day.
One question
Breakfast burrito, cereal, tacos, breakfast sandwich, kolaches
Eggo, Pop-tart, cereal at home. Some kids eat at the school, usually if they get free meals.
At home mine go for either dinner leftovers, or yogurt with fruit and granola, or I’ll make eggs and toast with fruit. They like to get school breakfast because it’s practically junk or no protein at all… things like sausage wrapped in a pancake, bagels, muffins, juice, sugar cereal.
We always ate carnation instant breakfast— you know, like a protein shake.
My daughter eats a bagel or a bowl of cereal at home before school, but her school also serves breakfast in the classroom, so if she’s running behind, she can still eat something at school. School breakfasts are usually bread-based items like waffles, French toast, coffee cake, muffins, etc.
I’m in California, and all kids here can get free breakfast and lunch at school. Breakfast is usually something like fruit and pancakes/muffins. For lunch, there’s always fruit and veggies, then there will be things like fried chicken, chow mein, burritos, pizza, veggie burger, curry, etc.
Depends. Many schools do serve breakfast before classes start (often free). Some kids eat at home, some on the bus/in transit, some at school. There’s not usually a break between the start of classes and lunch, but lunch is often early-ish so some kids (esp teens) skip breakfast. A rare few may eat that whole massive breakfast spread you see on tv or the movies, but they probably have to do farm chores before the bus comes. Big breakfast is more a weekend thing for most Americans of all ages.
Breakfast is probably one of the least consistent meals of the day for your average American, including kids. Just like adults, some of them won’t eat and breakfast at all, some of them might have a very small light breakfast, and some have more substantial breakfasts.
My brother, for example, never ate breakfast growing up. As a counterpoint, I would go and get one of the warm breakfast meals at school every single morning.
Meanwhile, other kids at school might have eaten breakfast before they came to school or were eating a “cold” portable lunch like a granola bar or muffin or something else that could be eaten at school, but before classes formally started.
I don’t think I ever ate breakfast on a school day. Lunch was at like 11 so I’d just power through til then.
Toast? Sometimes eggs?
I’d run through either the Hardee’s drive thru or the Jack’s drive thru. Pretty common here for kids to do that.
It can literally be anything and everything.
My mother cooked me a hot breakfast before school till I got to highschool. Then she said I was old enough to deal with it myself. So I switched to cereal in the morning. Once I started driving I either go breakfast in the drive thru on the way to school or at the cafeteria before school.
I am lucky my kids can get breakfast at school. They can get a variety of things like cereal, yogurt, fruit, and sometimes pancakes or breakfast sausages. Our district is having severe financial issues though and this program will likely not exist next year so they will be back to having a granola bar or something they can eat on our walk to school.
It varies a lot, home, some people buy it at school.
Eggs and toast, with either bacon or sausage usually. If running late then just a pb&j on the way out the door.
Most days my 13 y.o. daughter makes herself and egg, a slice of buttered toast, sliced up apple, and a glass of milk.
Any of the above, depends on the kid. I tended to have some cereal or a granola bar before school or on the bus if I could take it to go. Eventually, my school started doing free breakfast, so I ate whatever they had during my first period. I was usually a juice or milk and some kind of pre-packaged pancakes, muffins, etc.
I didn’t like breakfast foods, so I would just wait till lunch
All of those are options. A lot of kids get food at school before school starts, a lot of kids eat at home before school, and a lot of kids skip meals.
I didnt eat breakfast because my mom said “ladies don’t eat breakfast”. She also didn’t send me a packed lunch or give me money for school lunch, so usually I ate around 2:30 when I got home
The answer depends on the household, region, and about 100 other factors and personal choices. There’s no one answer or even a consistent answer. It isn’t like Europe where I’m told that everyone makes delicious and nutritious home cooked meals for every meal apparently.
Cereal or oatmeal were my usuals
My ex’s grandma gave them smoothies or activia or hot pockets
One kid likes scrambled eggs either with toast or as a sandwich. One loves cereal. The youngest will only snack so I have to leave fruit, cheese and peanut butter on bread and she will come by to graze.
School feeds them lunch but we send a snack. Usually water, fruit and some chips or granola.
My state feeds school kids at no direct cost to parents. I’m sure it’s somewhere in the taxes my state is famous for.
I don’t know what terms eat. I assume caffeine, sugar and existential dread.
Varies completely. Cereal, protein shake, sandwich, bacon and eggs, you get the idea. It depends on the kid and their family.
I had coffee and a cigarette, usually while taking a dump.
It was different in the 90s.
i used to skip breakfast as a teen, but that was because nobody at my house cooked
Kid A: Nothing. Does not eat breakfast. Kid B: Depends. Homemade muffins, cereal, danish, toast with butter, toast with peanut butter, breakfast sausage (not all at once)
A breakfast burrito*, often in hand, on the way out the door, to be eaten in the car or at school before classes start.
my kids eat toast with butter. that’s been their go-to for years now. seems to work for them.
All I can tell you is that a “complete breakfast” according to our cereal commercials is like a 2000 calorie feast.
When I was a kid, I always started my day with Nestlé Quik chocolate milk and maybe some microwave pancakes.. Or I would find stuff at school. When I was old enough to take myself to school, donuts would be a common occurance. Schools didn’t always have breakfast.
Kids are at home usually pancakes or toast
Typically they eat something like cereal or toast at home. Schools do offer free or cheap breakfast for kids who need it.
Depends on the area and the kid and family dynamic.
For example: My dad’s house he was able to afford defrostable Eggo waffles we could put in the toaster. My mom’s house, we could afford generic cereal and milk.
When they forced me to eat breakfast in middle school that’s what I ate.
When I got to high school and I was getting up before them when it was still dark out, I was too tired to eat breakfast so I’d skip breakfast, get on the bus and go to school. I don’t think my school served breakfast or if they did I never had it.
My mother was a Night Nurse (Like in Marvel comics) When we wake up to green oatmail, or whatever else she wanted to make after a night of saving souls.
I can only speak for three teenage boys. Typically:
One: Carrot juice, wheat toast and vanilla yogurt.
Two. Protein smoothie, 3 eggs. Water.
Three. Poptarts.
Never have it at school.
Just eat it at home.
I get up and start breakfast – we have to get up at about 5 something in the am so we are in the car by 6:30 am. They could take the bus but the bus stop is a mile a way and they’d have to get up earlier if I didn’t help them run around and make sur ehtey had breakfast and then the time it would take to walk the mile (usually in the dark) to the bus stop. The school is then about 45 minutes away by bus or I just drive them and it’s 25 minutes.
If I ever had anything it was a pop tart or cereal almost exclusively. I can only remember a handful of times where breakfast was actually cooked before school. Parents don’t wanna wake up early either haha
My son has toast and hot chocolate at home before I take him to school.
My kids eat at home before school. It could be eggs and toast; avocado toast; oatmeal; just a bowl of cereal; yogurt – all of these with fresh fruit as well. I make their breakfast if they don’t have cereal.
Poptart or Eggo from the toaster and a glass of milk. Before getting in the car or heading to the bus.
My kids usually eat cold cereal or yogurt with granola. Sometimes bagels or toast.
In elementary school and middle school I’d typically have cereal. By high school, I was eating stuff on the way to school – like a bagel with cream cheese or peanut butter, or a granola bar. Sometimes I’d have cereal at home. For lunch I’d have a bagged lunch that my dad packed with a sandwich, an Apple, chips, carrots, & a cheese stick. On Friday’s my dad would give me $5 for school lunch. It cost about $2.50…so I would save up the change and buy a pack of cigarettes at $5.50.
Cold cereal and milk, if they have to get it themselves, but I don’t buy cereal with much sugar. Whole wheat toast (we make it weekly with a bread maker) with peanut butter, sliced bananas, and honey or oatmeal with something sweet mixed in, like honey or a little chocolate or nutella. Fruit with plain yogurt. Toasted bagels with butter or cream cheese.
Clicked on this to find out what the kids are eating for breakfast. I am an American that raised kids, and I have no idea what they eat these days. Not f-ing pop tarts, right? Is sugary cereal still a thing?
Week day breakfast for typical kid is cereal or toast. If the kid is gluten free or diabetic, it would be eggs. That’s it. No big/full breakfast on weekdays. Get up, munch, go to school. If you want a full brunch spread wake up early, make it, clean it and then get ur butt to school on time.
When I was in high school 20 years ago, I used to buy a pop tart from the vending machine at school every morning.
I usually woke up early and ate at home – cereal or oatmeal and milk, scrambled eggs and toast with jam, etc. It varies for everyone though!
I grab a granola bar and eat it at school for breakfast. There’s not enough time to sit and eat without being late to school.
Breakfast? Who has time for that?
My mom always made me a bowl of cereal and an English muffin eaten at home.
All of those things. There are a lot of Americans.
I ate cereal as a kid the vast majority of the time. Sometimes we’d get really crazy and slice up a banana to go with the Cheerios. On weekends we’d have pancakes, waffles, eggs, hash browns, sausage, or oatmeal.
California provides breakfast and lunch for all students. My high school kid usually has a burrito or breakfast sandwich, sometimes like a nutrigrain bar and a piece of fruit for breakfast.
Lunch has a bunch of options. There’s always pizza, burgers, a salad bar and chicken sandwiches, and then they’ll have “specials” where they’ll have tacos, chow mein, barbecue, all sorts of stuff.
Most already mentioned, but we sometimes had instant grits instead of oatmeal. I guess most people eat them savory with butter, salt, pepper, cheese, etc. I prefer sweet with cream and a bit of sugar.