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| Eli, Smurf-faced after eating some blueberry puree at around 6 months |
Today I'd like to talk about something that's been bothering me for the last 19 months or so: food produced specifically for babies and toddlers is AWFUL. At least, a lot of it is. My boss (side note: is there a less crass word for "boss"? "Colleague" sounds nice but seems to suggest equal professional standing), Dr. David Katz has written previously and much more eloquently than I could about the perils of "kid food" and has even called for a boycott. But I will be more specific, pointing to products that especially grind my gears. All are popular by my own observation and presumably nutritious, but actually just junk food in sheep's clothing. Here are the "winners," in no particular order.
1. Gerber Graduates "Puffs." Often, these little bite-sized cereal snacks are one of the first foods a parent might give to a baby just learning to eat solids. Like the traditionally popular Cheerios, they are easy to pick up and just the right size for a baby's little hands and mouth. A glance at the front of the package might confer the impression that these are also highly nutritious. There's a logo touting the product's whole grain content, and large images of apples, sweet potatoes, etc., depending on the flavor. One might understandably assume that these snacks are just like Cheerios, but better because they also contain fruits or vegetables. Even a look at the Nutrition Facts Panel is deceiving. Puffs are a good source of several B vitamins, vitamin E, as well as iron and zinc. What could be wrong?!
The ingredients list tells the true story. Although the second ingredient is whole wheat flour, the first is rice flour. Although there's nothing inherently unsavory about rice flour, there's nothing particularly good about it either. It's pure starch, and starch is metabolized essentially the same way as sugar in the body. Because this is refined rice flour, all of the beneficial micronutrients and fiber have been stripped away, so all it provides is calories. Dried apple puree does appear as the 6th ingredient in the list, but the quantity here is undoubtedly miniscule. Sugar is the 4th ingredient on the list, and yet there is only 1g of sugar per serving. This is a good thing, but it means that there is even less apple puree per serving. So what about all those vitamins and minerals Puffs contain? They have all been added. It appears that none occur naturally in the main ingredients. You can think of these snacks as little bites of starch with a teeny bit of fiber and a small multivitamin thrown in. Personally, I think you're better off with Cheerios. At least they are 100% whole grain, not 50%. When my son was first learning to eat finger foods, I gave him plain puffed barley and puffed wheat cereals. Not only are they cheap, portable, and just as quickly-dissolving (if not more so) than Gerber Puffs, but they are single-ingredient, minimally processed foods.
2. Baby yogurts. This one is simpler to explain. The problem, as with all flavored yogurts, is added sugar. Based on a comparison of sugar content between the plain and flavored varieties of Stonyfield YoBaby yogurts, it looks like there are 6 grams of added sugar in each tiny 4 oz. cup. My preference: plain yogurt mixed with a little real fruit puree. I usually use a tablespoon or two of unsweetened applesauce for each 3/4 cup of plain yogurt. It's true that babies naturally like sweet foods, but it's untrue that they won't tolerate anything that isn't sweet; especially if they have not already been introduced to foods with a lot of sweetness.
3. Gerber yogurt melts. These are kind of like yogurt in puff form. The second ingredient is sugar. WHY? Just why? A better choice is Happy Family brand "happy creamies" (how cute is that name?). The concept is similar, and these treats do contain apple puree concentrate and other juice concentrates which are still glorified sources of sugar, but at least these also contain significant amounts of fruit or vegetable purees; enough that 1/4 cup provides 25% of the RDA for vitamin A for an infant from natural sources (sweet potato mostly).
4. "Stage 1" purees. These aren't so much unhealthy as they are overrated. The stage 1 purees are the ones advertised for infants "4+ months" of age. Nevermind that the AAP recommends waiting until 6 months to introduce any solid foods. These purees are very smooth and thin so that babies new to solids won't choke. I don't have solid evidence to back this up, but my somewhat-educated guess is that 6-month olds can tolerate a bit more texture than this and that texture is good for them. Many families are now using the baby-led weaning approach, which skips purees altogether. I think that makes sense. Personally, I tried BLW and got a little tired of the cleanup and the occasional gag/puke routine. I was not worried about choking because I gave soft foods and everything I read seemed to be true: if my son got too much food in the back of his throat he would gag to push it forward, as he was meant to do. However, I did end up giving him some purees, but I always sought out the more textured ones, or made my own mashed foods or regular applesauce (baby food apples are more expensive and for what?). I think that providing foods with more texture may encourage babies to get accustomed to eating foods that they have to manipulate a bit and foods that are not perfectly smooth. I think it may make them more receptive to new foods and new textures later on. Again, I don't have hard evidence for this (I haven't really looked), but it's a hypothesis.
There is more I can add to this list, and maybe I will in a later post. Thanks for reading!
**Disclaimer: This post is not meant to be a judgment of parents who choose to feed their children any of the above-mentioned foods. It is, however, a judgment of the companies who make them and promote them in a misleading way. It is also a judgment on healthcare professionals who may recommend these products because they are not adequately educated about infant and child nutrition.
