My mother was a sugary cereal Nazi. A bowl of Rice Krispies was considered a treat. Raisin Bran, Life, and Corn Flakes were the usual ho hum offerings. I would begin rebelling in kindergarten by wrapping my carrot sticks in a napkin, tossing them, and going straight for the Twinkie or Hostess chocolate cupcake in the shiny cellophane that she had lovingly packed in my metal lunchbox. Yes, even at an early age, I believed that dessert should be eaten first.
Last week I was sent a box of the new fruit juice sweetened Cheerios to review. The girls would have probably eaten the entire box in one day if I had let them. A 3/4 cup serving (27 grams) has only 9 grams of sugar. The new fruity Cheerios, which is made with whole grains, also makes a great portable snack, which any mother of a toddler will advise you to keep plenty stashed away for those impromptu moments when your child must be pacified until you can make a getaway. Your kids think they’re getting to eat the “cool” sugary cereal and you can feel good about cutting back on their sugar intake. Because, really, do children need to be any more energetic than they already are?
Now things will be fine as long as Caitlin forgets about the Sponge Bob and Barbie theme cereals we saw the other day at Wal-Hell.
So, where do you draw the line at packaged breakfast foods? The girls are currently on a cereal bar kick, which is OK with me. I try not to buy PopTarts, but let’s just say that I have and we’ll leave it at that. That Hello Kitty is an evil temptress!
I finally gave in and bought my daughter the Reese’s Puffs she’d been begging for. She wolfed down the first box. The second one eventually got so stale that we threw it out. Perhaps I’m onto something here!
The kids a have box of “weekend” cereal, a sugary concoction that I too was deprived of in my formative years. They can eat it on Saturday and/or Sunday mornings only. Otherwise it’s regular Cherrios or Chex or something very low sugar and healthy like that.
We have pretty well avoided the packaged stuff only because my kids are waffle fiends. My two year old has been known to find his way downstairs, open the freezer, pull out a waffle and start chomping away (he doesn’t care if it is still frozen).
I had a friend whose mom banned sugary cereal except during the month of February, because it’s a short, miserable month.
My kids barely eat now. So I don’t mind Lucky Charms or whatever.
When they do eat it’s healthy. They however are not allowed to just sit and eat candy. That’s a no no in my house.