• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Coco Pops

Connie’s Dad

Active Member
Messages
42
This may seem a bit trivial but if it is don’t answer or read further.

My daughter Connie, is a very fussy eater. Breakfast is usually Coco Pops. It took ages to get her to have milk on cereal.

She is now going high straight after breakfast regularly.

Are there other cereals that are similar but slower to release sugars? I get the feeling the spike in the morning sets tone for most of the day. Making it hard to keep in 4-10 range.
 
All bran and the likes are generally better, but most of the cereals high relatively high GI. So will cause spikes as they are made from grains. I would suggest injecting a little earlier to counteract the spike (if she uses insulin - I had this with novorapid, fiasp has helped greatly overcome this with little pre-bolusing). I'm sure she won't appreciate changing from coco pops to bran...
 
Um, a family intervention about the Coco-Pops (and suiting the manufacturers maybe)?
I do not how you are really going to win with the BSLs without changing the cereal altogether.
Adding cream might work to slow carb absorption and limit intake I suppose but nutritionally, who knows j\how detrimental or not that would be ??
 
I very much doubt you’ll find anything even remotely resembling coco pops that doesn’t cause a big glucose response. Or for that matter any breakfast cereal. They’re all made essentially from glucose, the only variable being how much sugar is added.

Some people seem to have success with porridge, and you can also buy grainless granola, but even those may spike, and it seems unlikely that your daughter will like those. Is she type 1 or type 2? I’ll refrain from offering any opinion on whether or not she might thank you later for insisting that she can’t have coco pops.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
As others have said the problem may be cereal rather than the coco pops.
But cereal is convenient and I can understand why Connie likes it.
I am not a cereal eater, however, at times I have eaten porridge with hot chocolate powder added to the milk (to hide the porridge flavour ... unfortunately, it did not hide the porridge texture).
Is there a lower sugar, non chocolaty cereal she could try and add hot chocolate powder?
(Or possibly cocoa to reduce the sugar further.)
 
Hello @Connie’s Dad Not a trivial question at all

Personally I find mornings the hardest time to eat carbs like bread and cereals for the same reason, I spike and then it takes me half a day to get back into range again. The only way I can manage it is to eat low carb alternatives like greek yoghurt and blueberries, or I make a coconut chia pudding, omelette, eggs, bacon etc. I seem to manage better with carbs throughout the rest of the day though, probably because i'm up and moving about and insulin sensitivity is better.

I know what kids can be like with food so it's getting her to buy into an alternative means giving her the choice of what she wants as a low carb option without causing a fuss and the diabetes causing resentment because she has to give up her favourite cereal.
 

Same here, the mornings are the worst. I always seem to need more insulin (almost double) than other times of the day. 1 Weetabix needs 3.5 units, which including the milk is ~20 grams f carbs. If I take that at any other time of the day I will have a definite hypo. But its also the case that sometimes I need a little more 4units on the morning, so many factors influence the level.
 
Maybe something lower in carbs and chocolate as a reward if it is all eaten up.
I realize that I have reached the wicked ol' grandma stage in life - but a picky eater would have no chance at my house - sausages and orange coloured icecream, fish fingers and blue custard, fingers (strips of meat) and purple pancakes - shock tactics are often a good ploy if trying to deal with established behaviour not altered by bribery.
 
That looks good for adults but a bit of a faff - how about porridge with cocoa? Few chopped almonds for texture@
 
I eat porridge spike free mostly, but have eaten most types of cereal at some point and what I'd say from experience is the sugar coated cereals (inc coco pops) have a higher simple sugar % that digests faster than the insulin is taken up.

for what it's worth I've raided the kids coco pops before as a hypo treatment.
 
If she is eating kelloggs coco pops it might be worth trying some own brands, kelloggs have recently 'lowered sugar' in coco pops and replaced it with ' glucose' which will raise sugars even faster than sugar ( although prob not a huge amount ) but may be worth a try along with as others have said a pre bolus.
 

My son was diagnosed just over 3 months ago and has always had chocolate shreddies for breakfast. I had run out of these and he used coco pops instead. This sent him through the roof as high as 17.5. He’s normally on the low side. I was told that the shreddies are slower at releasing than the coco pops so needless to say we won’t be using them again.

I just wanted to comment to give an alternative as my son doesn’t like cornflakes, rice crispies and weetabix.

This seems to work better for him and he’s still able to enjoy having something he likes. So it doesn’t feel like diabetes is taking too many things away from him.
 
I have oatibix for breakfast which seems to be slower release in me and matches my novorapid. I do also have quite a bit of walking to do after breakfast some days which is great for keeping BG under control.

I've only been diagnosed 2 years and even as an adult retraining your taste buds for less sugar is a challenge. I didn't think my diet was that bad but my BG often disagrees. I don't envy parents trying to wean T1 kids off sugar - it's everywhere these days.
 
Perhaps go to the question box Upper right of Home page or Forum page and type in and search for 'DCCT', you are not looking up the dcct in lower case (I think) which is about blood tests, it is the DCCT, Diabetes Control and Complications Trial and read a description of it and its importance. Or look it up on the web please.
The BSLs, their height and variation and the 3 month readings HBA1C in the first 6 1/2 years, according to this trial, are the most crucial for every newly diagnosed Type 1 diabetic to prevent eye, kidney and nerve problems later..
If you have not been given this crucial information ask your child's consultant if it is true and why has your child been given a diet which is not helping him to attain the best BSLs possible? And why an insulin pump and cgm are not seen as best treatment if he has not been offered those options?
For your child's sake pls ask his consultant to provide what little information there is about what treatment/management in the world will likely give him the best chance of not developing diabetes complications in the future.
The true answer is likely to involve the words, Dr Ludwig, True Grit, Boston Children's hospital.
I wish you and your son all the very best.
Having had TID for 52 years the first 6 1/2 years were well before the results of the DCCT were known.
If I had the benefit of those results I and many, many other TIDs would have better health in later years.
He may not thank you now if his diet and management is altered but if he is avoids problems later he may thank you then.
 

We simply stopped buying cereal and made it clear there won’t be any, ever, until they earn their own money.
It’s nutritionally devoid of anything useful and actually nutritionally harmful. Of course she loves it, it’s like eating a bag of skittles.
 
His overall diet is pretty good to be fair, his mealtimes and evening meals more than make up for the lack of a decent breakfast. He’s only been diagnosed for nearly 4 months so we are currently still learning a lot about this ourselves. It was a mistake on our behalf with regards to the coco pops as we weren’t to know that it would send his blood sugars so high as he has always had chocolate shreddies and his bloods sugars are fine after that.

Thanks for the advice though, any advice is welcomed as I’m fully aware I don’t know nearly enough about this that I feel that I should. It’s still early days for us as a family who knew nothing at all about type 1 but I’m trying my best to make sure he takes good control of his diabetes now, which he is.
 

How old is your son, @Gerandem ? Do you know any other T1s at all, and ideally those of a similar age?

In our area, we have a couple of groups for T1 young people (from quite young, to going off to uni, in various sub groups. The group was initially formed for the children, and their siblings, but of course, their parents attend too (being taxis of Mum & Dad, and so on). The difference that group makes is immense. The kids support each other, the parents support each other and they all have a load of fun along the way.

They have a choir (probably not necessarily the best singers in the world, but they push out a song), they have sports, they go on trips to do normal things, like theme parks, and there's also activities like Camp Charnwood.

There's a whole load of stuff out there. I do hope your can find something nearby.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…