BATON ROUGE — It may seem harmless to let your teenager skip breakfast in the mornings before school, but experts say it can negatively impact their ability to learn.

Experts say kids should be eating foods with healthy fats, carbohydrates, protein and fiber. Without these nutrients, their blood sugar is more likely to drop, affecting mood and energy levels. Good options include hard-boiled eggs, cheese sticks, fruit, greek yogurt, milk, turkey sausage, protein pancakes, oatmeal or overnight oats. 

"If kids aren't eating in the morning, especially if kids are having tricky sleep the night before, they're going to have a lot of trouble focusing in the classroom," registered dietician Jennifer Hyland said. "So, they're going to have trouble focusing, they're going to have trouble staying awake, they're going to have trouble absorbing the information that they're supposed to be learning."