Morning routine for non breakfast eater

[Anonymous]

Need advice. The mornings here are a disaster and very worried about the fall with school starting 8:10-8:20. My child is slow to wake up, typically start with the “time to get up at 6:45AM” can take until 7:15 some mornings. Then 35-45 minutes to eat. Breakfast is a must as not a good eater generally so no guarantees lunch gets consumed. Then everthing is a game. Instead of walking to the bathroom, let’s crab walk to the bathroom.

4/5 year olds don’t understand time or being late (at least mine) so my words, heightened state, none of it resonates. By the end I am fried, have lost my patience, and everyone is late. And this is every morning. I have a demanding job but don’t punch a clock so managing the work impact.

What has worked for all of you?

[Anonymous]

Clean kitchen. Make it the night ahead. A bowl of sliced fruit in the fridge. Bread by the toaster. Coffee pot ready to go. Peanut butter on the table with a butter knife so kiddo can spread a little.

We made a lot of egg sandwiches on thin English muffins on Sunday mornings and froze some to microwave. Can add tomatoes, scallions, bacon , cheese, spinach, herbs. Whatever. Good to microwave and bring in the car for mornings where you need help.

If we had a tasty dinner, I would portion the leftovers into breakfast bowls and just reheat in the morning. No plating.

And a stash of little horizon choc milk boxes helps. If all else fails, they will reliably suck down 200 calories of protein/carb/fat as they walk into school. It will power the morning.

[Anonymous]

The above is meant to make you more efficient so that you can ferry the munchkin along. Maybe shift bed and wake each 30 minutes earlier.

[Anonymous]

I think you need to drop the anxiety over what he is eating and breakfast. He should 20 min max for breakfast. Giving him all this time and stressing over what he eats; I think it contributes to more wasting of time and not eating. Even just a glass of milk (or chocolate milk) is “enough.” He won’t starve to death or not be able to focus, I promise. Set out his breakfast and then in 20 min, clear it without a a fuss or comments about what he did/didn’t eat and move along. Whatever he eats or doesn’t eat is up to him.

[Anonymous]

Don’t make it an option to dawdle 30 minutes from wake up to get up. Rise and shine, means rise and shine.

If they are not dressed, they go to wherever in their pjs.

[Anonymous]

What time does he go to sleep?

[Anonymous]

Unless your kid runs really hot, let them sleep in their school clothes.

Stop giving them this much time for breakfast. As others have said, a cup of milk is fine. Anything else is a bonus. Forget what any of us have said if your kid is failure to thrive or has some other serious medical condition.

Your level of stress is just exacerbating this. You have to be comfortable with skipping steps some days. Just move them along into the car at whatever stage they are at. It won’t kill them if they didn’t get their teeth brushed on a Tuesday. And you should totally buy into the games and work them to your advantage. Race them to the bathroom, see if they can beat the clock and brush their teeth in 2 minutes, etc. Give prizes if they win — at this age, the prize could be a cool stamp on their hand.

[Anonymous]

Wake them an hour earlier. Go for a walk, jump on the trampoline, anything physical.

[Anonymous]

If he consistently wakes up dry, consider dressing him in clean clothes the night before to take off one step.

If you are going to end up doing something fun, like crab walking to the bathroom, build it into your initial routine, not as a reward for misbehavior. So, tickle him awake, pick him up, hug him, put him on his feet and wheelbarrow or race or whatever to the bathroom.

Pressuring kids to eat reinforces not eating. Put out something that is easy eat, that you know he likes and that he has eaten before. After 15 minutes, clear it away. Yes, he might be hungry and eat a little less for a couple days. Start this now, not the first day of school.

While he doesn’t understand time in an abstract sense as a finite quantity, he can understand “fast” as in doing a specific piece of a routine fast. Put together a sticker chart with the steps of his routine, a certain number of stickers (not a certain number in a day, no losing!) and he gets some tangible reward. The easiest way to measure “fast” is to best you, with some extra chores built in for you so he has a reasonable chance to win. So, you might escort him to the toilet, and tell him that if he wants his sticker you need to hear flushing, water running, and he needs to be at the table with clean hands before you have breakfast ready and sit down yourself.

[Anonymous]

My DD just turned 4 and she definitely understands the concept of “we’re late.” That said, our breakfasts are always easy and something I know she will eat. An easy calorie filler is kefir (or other drinkable yogurt). On mornings she doesn’t seem to be in the mood for food, the kefir does the heavy lifting of calories for the morning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wake them an hour earlier. Go for a walk, jump on the trampoline, anything physical.

Op said she can barely getting her kid out of bed.
Enticing them with a "walk, trampoline, anything physical" will lead to mutiny and more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wake them an hour earlier. Go for a walk, jump on the trampoline, anything physical.

Op said she can barely getting her kid out of bed.
Enticing them with a "walk, trampoline, anything physical" will lead to mutiny and more.

They’re 6, they’ll adapt.

[Anonymous]

I admit, I get my kid (half) dressed while he's still laying in bed (socks, shorts)about 5 min after in initial wake.

No breakfast. Nobody is hungry. So that streamlined the morning.

Its just not worth the battle to me.




They had lunch at like 1035am and then snack mid afternoon so kid has ample opportunity to eat and lunch and snack had stuff kid requested so I knew the food would be consumed and not wasted.

We prep the night before including putting in the water bottles into the backpacks, shoes ready, etc

[Anonymous]

As others have suggested, kid can sleep in shorts and a t-shirt and wear it the next day. If it takes that long for a young child to wake up, she probably needs an earlier bedtime.
Portable breakfast in the car is also an option (eg, an egg sandwich or bagel with cream cheese) if you are running behind.
You can also try setting a couple of alarms that mean things like “breakfast time is over; time to brush teeth,” and “time to put on shoes.” We used a shoe alarm for years.

[Anonymous]

You need to be really "in charge"/firm about this. Your dc is capable. I got some tough love I needed to hear with my youngest - he has CP, and we were having a really hard time in the mornings in preK, and I just thought he needed a lot more help than he did - but basically his OT, his sped teacher (nicely) told me he was a big boy, and I was underestimating him.

I forget what preK mornings looked like, but he just finished K. The school bus came at 7:45 (I think the school bus is great- a lot of my mom friends don't utilize it so they can leave later, but I think having a set time is soo helpful. It is hard for a week or two, but then a routine develops by necessity. Whereas for others I know the mornings continue to be a struggle all year, since they do not have that set departure time)

We had a picture chart with velcro tabs he could check off as he did them. Go potty, Get dressed, brush teeth, eat breakfast, get shoes. Then I would give him a sticker, and he would get to school, and his teacher would tell him "great job" if he had his sticker on. We did it methodically every day, and then he got to the point where he didn't need his chart anymore. Once he stopped using a night time pull up, that was also a game changer- he started wearing his clothes for the next day.

For breakfast- no choices, just serve what is for breakfast, and he can eat or not eat until breakfast time is over. You say he is not a good eater, but young children get plenty of opportunities throughout the day to eat. He will be fine.

My youngest guy needs a lot of sleep - he still goes to bed at 6:30 (it's been about 7/7:15 over the summer, but we will move back for the school year if needed). If you are having to wake your child in the morning- put to sleep earlier.