****MN Jury purlease**** A Cocopops question

[oliveoil]

Rightyho:

MIL has dd1 and dd2 for the 3 days I work, I try to be relaxed about what she feeds them as my take on it is that is what grandparents are for, ie sweets & crips etc.

For breakfast I give them 'good' cereals such as Weetabix or some foul things from Tesco's called Wheat Puffs - like Sugar Puffs but without the sugar - so you can imagine they tasts of f all!

Anyway, they came home last week waffling on about Cocopop Crunch or something and now refuse to eat my cereal as it is "wubbish" (dd2).

So. Do I mention the removal of the nice cereal to MIL or let it lie? It is only for 3 days BUT it is having an effect (affect?) the rest of the week.

What is in these Cocopop things sugar wise? They sound minging.

Thank you!

xx

trinity - neither did I , my dds have them sometimes and i found by the end of the box they wanted a diffent cereal next time ( i will only buy one box at a time and it has to be eaten before new cereal bought ie no choice) after cocopops last week they wanted branflakes htis week !

My last post was to trinity btw

"I'm pretty sure cocopops have the highest sugar content of all cereal"

Actually, I think Sugar Puffs are rightup at the top somewhere.

49% apparently!!!

I bet frosties are bad too since they are frosted in sugar aren't they?

Frosties : 37g per 100g

Waitrose and Tescos have Shreddie (and cheerio) lookalikes. Prob still made by Nestle but at least they don't have it on the box.

i still stand by my decision on giving shreddies/weetabix/whatever healthy cereal with a few cocopops sprinkled on the top

everyones happy

I allowed my kids to have cocopops from variety packs while we were on holiday. They are not allowed them at home.

While I agree with the "that's what grandparents are for" argument in my case where they see them once a week at most (and my MIL has a cupboard stocked with fruitshoots), I do not agree with it when it comes to it being childcare for 3 days a week. That is nearly half the week. I would get DH on the case.

I don't see any problem with Cocopops as a flavouring or occasional holiday food.
I suppose our goal is to stop them being the norm, and so I'd really tactfully say to MIL that "at home we give the kids woodchips with added rabbit food".

Being tactful is for me an artificial state, so I practise I suggest that saying "we're now trying to cut down their sugar" is good. Suggests you are engaging a new regime, and that she's part of the team.
I hope that my earlier comparison of Coco Pops to chemical waste wasn't taken as a suggestion on what to say to MIL

haven't read the other answers, but think this is a problem you will inevitably encounter somewhere along the line - you will have to deal with it sooner or later.

However hard you try at home, children will come back from a strange house telling you of the wonderful food they had and complaining of the awful food they get with you.

So my advice is to tough it out, refuse to buy coco pops and show them you will not be swayed, let your MIL feed them coco pops if she wants to - for now.

But at some point in the future, get your dh to give your MIL some breakfast cereal that's 'better' saying you both want to get your children used to having a healthy start while they are still young enough to influence. If you do it too immediately, it will look like you strongly disapprove of your MIL's choice, which might cause friction? So let things ride a bit.

I have fought the cocopops war at home and find the only way to stop the demands and refusal of other cereals is to just not have them in the house. I buy them sometimes, for a week's treat but once they're gone, they're gone.

Let it lie.

My gut instinct was to let it lie. But then I got all uppity and annoyed .

I will remain serene and remind myself that I grew up on Sugar Puffs.

xxx

Cocopops (and other sugared cereals) are one of the few things I absolutely refuse to have in the house (and I am pretty relaxed about food in general). None of mine are big into cereals anyway so it's not too much of an issue. They do have these things for a treat when staying with grandparents but that is only a few times a year.

I think you can either say they can still have them at Grandmas but there is a different rule in your house or ask MIL to stop buying them totally. (or maybe compromise and let them have some sugar on their normal cereal.)

I like Nailpolish's compromise. I'm having the devil of a job getting dd to eat in the mornings. Not that she's not hungry, and she doesn't leave the house without having breakfast, but she doesn't want anything I offer. Gaaaah ! She used to love weetabix but won't touch it now. I can usually get her to eat some wholemeal toast, but would love to find a cereal that we are both happy with.

could you suggest to MIL that she could make a play activity of making muesli/granola with them? I did this with MIL and she loved it so much that DS has no choice but to make muesli with her every time he visits. Just a case of choosing the ingredients at the supermarket and then mixxing.

Maybe try another new cereal that they haven't had - dd adores Grape Nuts which have NO added sugar yet are still pretty sweet and have plenty of taste.

(ingredients: Whole Grain Wheat Flour (52%), Wheat Flour (33%), Malted Barley Flour (9.5%), Salt, Yeast, Iron, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Zinc Oxide, Vitamin A, Thiamin, Folic Acid, Vitamin D)

they sound good, are they Kelloggs etc or a supermarket brand?

Kraft make them, you can buy them in most supermarkets

I agree with whoever said it's the frequency of breakfast at grandma's that's the key thing.

It's one thing a child staying at grandparents occasionally and being treated to things parents don't usually give. But 3 breakfasts a week is a major part of a child's diet. If it were a nursery or childminder you would be quick to say that's out of order.

I would take the tactful but firm approach, perhaps from the angle of how you and your husband are trying to improve the whole family's diet and you feel breakfast is such an important start to the day.

Cocopops are evil!