You may think of breakfast cereals as healthy but you may be surprised by how much sugar they contain.

DO you want to give your child a healthy breakfast? How about three spoonfuls of sugar and a dollop of salt? No? But if you're giving them a typical breakfast cereal at the start of the day, that's just what you could be providing. And don't be fooled by the apparently "healthy" versions.

Last year, a special report by the Consumers' Association named the "cereal offenders" - cereal manufacturers who load their products with sugar to appeal to young taste buds.

The added problem is not just the sugar they get from that at the start of the day, but also that it conditions the taste buds to want more sweet things. Which is one of the reasons we now have a generation of very fat, unhealthy children.

Basic cereals are a decent start to the day - until they're coated in sugar. Even lovely healthy porridge, Weetabix and Shredded Wheat now have their syrup/honey/chocolate versions - which sort of defeats the original purpose somehow.

Manufacturers are trying to persuade us that they have made some cereals healthier and have reduced the sugar content. So how much sugar really makes the cereal go down?

(The bowl sizes are manufacturers' recommended serving size for each cereal)

SICKLY SWEET

Sugar Puffs: Three-and-a half teaspoonfuls per 30g.serving.

Tesco Golden Syrup Micro Oats: Three-and-a-half teaspoonfuls per 40g serving.

Nestle's Frosted Shreddies: More than three teaspoonfuls per 45g.

Kellogg's Frosties: Three teaspoonfuls per 30g bowlful.

Kellogg's Ricicles: Three teaspoonfuls per 30g.

Nestle's Golden Nuggets: Three teaspoonfuls per 30g.

Kellogg's Coco Pops: Nearly three teaspoonfuls per 30g.

Nestle's Golden Grahams: Two-and-a-half teaspoonfuls per 30g.

Kellogg's Coco Pop Crunchers: Two-and-a-half teaspoonfuls per 30g.

Weetabix Chocolate Crisp Minis: Two-and-a-half teaspoonfuls per 36g serving.

MORE SUGAR THAN WE NEED

Kellogg's Reduced Sugar Frosties: Two teaspoonfuls per 30g bowlful.

Nestle's Honey Nut Shredded Wheat: Two teaspoonfuls per 40g.

Kellogg's Muddles: A spoon-and-a-half per 30g.

Nestle's Cheerios: One-and-a-half teaspoonfuls per 30g.

Nestle's Fitnesse: Just over one teaspoon per 30g.

JUST SWEET ENOUGH

Nestle's Triple Berry Shredded Wheat: Less than a teaspoonful per 40g bowlful.

Weetabix: Less than half a teaspoon per 37g serving.

Kellogg's Cornflakes: A quarter of a teaspoonful in 17g.

Ready Brek Original: Not even a quarter of a teaspoonful per 40g.

SWEETENING THE PILL

IF sudden sugar withdrawal might be too much for your child, try mixing and matching - adding plain cornflakes in with the Frosties, or the Triple Berry Shredded Wheat in with the Frosted Shreddies. Or try mixing Ready Brek with chopped fruit - or even with a sprinkling of brown sugar. Still a lot less than you get in most cereals.

What is it about Ikea? Recently 6,000 people queued for the opening of a new store in London. Approach roads were choked with parked cars. When the doors opened - at midnight - the crowd was so desperate to get its hands on sofas for £45 or £30 beds that it all got totally out of control.

In the ensuing mini riot, people were crushed, small children were handed over from person to person above the chaos, six people ended up in hospital. Hardly had the store opened than it was closed again for safety reasons.

How on earth could it happen?

Those of us who have ever shopped at Ikea gave a small, bitter laugh. The only surprise is that it hasn't happened sooner or more often.

Ikea has a lot going for it. It has a lot of great Scandinavian design at amazingly cheap prices. Bright, cheerful, clever design. If Habitat was for the middle classes, Ikea is for everyone - they are now part of the same group - and Ikea has proved that cheap really can be cheerful. Some of its designs are as good as those costing three or four times as much - an armchair for £69, bed frame for £19, leather sofa for £325, pine dining table and four chairs for £95, as well as plates, lamps, jugs, cutlery, kettles, soap dishes. And lots and lots of tea lights.

How do they do it?

Ah, that's the other half of the Ikea equation. Ikea at the MetroCentre is easily found with plenty of parking. A midweek morning is quiet by Ikea standards - but still approaching the third circle of hell.

Most stores encourage you in and then let you wander where you will. Not Ikea. Once you're in, you're trapped. You have to follow the route round, shuffling along with everyone else. Too bad if you want to go back and have another look at something. On a Thursday morning you might just be able to do it - on a weekend, it's impossible.

When you shop in Marks & Spencer, Binns or Bhs, you don't have to make a note of the stock room shelves. In Ikea you do. They even give you a bit of paper and a pencil for that purpose. Because once you get out of the one-way shuffle, having found something you'd like to buy, you then have to go into the warehouse - sorry "self-select" - section and get it for yourself.

The place is full of lost people pushing trolleys trying to find Aisle 5 Shelf B or whatever and then lugging flat packs off the shelf.

Oh yes, flat packs. Didn't we mention that none of the furniture in Ikea is actually put together? You have to do that yourself too.

According to Ikea: "Picking up purchases is an important part of Ikea's approach to customer involvement." Excuse me? But as they also say: "Shopping at Ikea is fun," you feel that Swedish is not the only foreign language here. The final indignity is that when you've queued at the checkout - and boy, do you queue - they charge you 70p for using a credit card because: "We want to take this money from the credit card industry and put it into the pockets of our customers." No, I don't understand how either.

The Ikea principle, they say, is: "Good design for everyone," which is fine.

It's certainly worth the money. But I'm still not sure whether it's worth the effort.