Mom skips breakfast for toddlers—what she does instead changes everything

For years, parents have heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. But one Australian mom said the key isn’t whether kids eat breakfast—it’s what they eat. 

In a clip on TikTok, Katie Bunton, 33, shared that she and her husband Harry, 41, made “a mental shift” by treating breakfast like dinner and dinner like breakfast for their twin boys Oscar and Brooks.

The result, she said, was “instant” improvement in their mood, energy and overall behavior. 

When her twins were two and a half, Bunton hit breaking point after months of dinner battles. 

“I would always put the most thought and effort into dinner and incorporating good protein and veggies, and it felt like it was all for nothing, [ending] up in the trash or on the floor,” Bunton told Newsweek.   

After researching child development and nutrition, she realized the first meal of the day could be the most powerful tool for emotional regulation and focus. 

So she flipped her family’s approach: instead of starting the day with carbs and sugar, she began serving hearty, protein-packed meals typically reserved for dinnertime. 

Before her shift, breakfast in the Bunton home looked familiar: sourdough toast with Vegemite, low-sugar cereal, fruit and eggs. But her boys consistently favored the bread. “They even started rejecting eggs, which was the protein I counted on for the most part, so that was not a good turn of events,” Bunton said.  

Now the boys are four, mornings look completely different. “I completely removed refined grains from breakfast all together and started serving dense animal proteins like salmon, sardines, pasture raised beef sausages or mince, slow cooked brisket or lamb shank—really anything you can imagine seeing on a dinner plate,” she explained. 

She balances those with yogurt, kefir, avocado, berries and leftover vegetables. 

According to Allison Gregg, founder of Flora & Fauna Nutrition, that approach makes sense from a dietary standpoint.  

“Swapping out classical breakfast foods like pancakes, sugary cereals and bagels for more savory options like healthy dinner foods like salmon, avocado and eggs can be a great way to set your child up for success all throughout the day,” she told Newsweek.  

“When you start with a solid foundation of fats and protein, they are less likely to experience the blood sugar rollercoaster following sugary breakfasts, which often leads to extreme and often erratic energy spikes as blood sugar rises and tantrums as blood sugar drops.” 

Bunton’s video has been viewed more than 380,000 times. In the comments, many other parents seemed to align with her approach. 

“My kids only eat whole foods to start the day, no way are they going to eat a bowl of sugar and expect a good day,” one mom wrote. 

“As a nutritionist, you are spot on with this,” another shared. 

“Have been feeling the same frustration with my 3 [year old] boy. Going to try this!” a third user said. 

Bunton said her video may be one of the most “relatable” posts she’s ever made. “Kids have the best intuition, much better than adults do, when it comes to food in my opinion,” she said. “We started to thrive more when I started listening and learning from them.”