Are ready-made baby products healthy? How much sugar is in baby porridges? |

In this article you will learn, among others:

• Are ready-made baby products healthy?

• What is the composition of the finished baby products?

• Why is sugar added to baby products?

• Are there any sugar-free baby porridges?

Are ready-made baby products healthy?

Apart from artificial milk, we can find it on store shelves products for children over 4 months of age: porridges, gruels, soups, lunches, desserts, lenses, teas.

Some parents, of course, prepare their own meals for their kids. However, there is a large group of people who use ready-made ones dishes, while doing so in good faith, z hope that they provide their child with healthy, balanced meals. But whether is it really so?

In products intended for toddlers, you can very often find sugar. Personally, I wonder why it is added there at all. Little children do not know the flavors yet, unsweetened and under-seasoned food it is not at all bland for them. Why then get them used to the taste sweet?

Nutrition experts who developed the Nestle program Healthy Start in the Future (www.zdrowastartwprzyszlosc.pl) and experts from the Nutricia foundation, who create the First 1000 days program (www.1000dni.pl), emphasize the importance of proper nutrition from the very first moments of life. We can read e.g.

The first 1000 days (i.e. the period of pregnancy and the first years of a baby’s life) is an exceptional time in which you have a real influence on the quality of his life now and… in the future. At the time the metabolism is programmed, which determines the proper functioning of the organism human, also in adulthood. Therefore, with the utmost care we should take care of the proper diet of our children. Thanks correct in nutrition, you program the child’s health for the next years

However, the companies creating the above programs at the same time put in their products (of course not all, but still) large amounts of sugar. Let’s take a closer look at some popular baby products and small children and let’s see what it really looks like. Remember that ingredients are given on the label in descending order – so the sooner a given ingredient is replaced, the more it is in the product.

What is the composition of the finished baby products?

Nestle – Rice Porridge Banana – after 4 months of age

Ingredients: rice flour 82,1%, sugar, banana 2%, flavor, calcium carbonate, maltodectrin, corn starch, vitamins (C, E, niacin, D3, A, B1, B6, folic acid), ferrous fumarate, zinc sulfate, bacterial cultures Bifidobacterium lactis

Sugar has already been listed in second place, there is even sugar more in the product than a banana (and yet it is a rice and banana porridge, not rice and sugar). It constitutes about 15% of the product (28,8 g), which means that it is in such a package the porridge contains 14 sugar cubes *.

Nestle Jogolino Natural – dessert after 6 months of age

Ingredients: whole milk (91,6%), sugar, modified starch, whey protein concentrate (from milk), thickener: pectin, flavor (contains lactose), magnesium citrate, a complex of minerals with milk, zinc sulphate, Streptococcus thermophilus cultures (contain milk).

In addition, we find sugar in flavored desserts we have already got used to it. So I took a specific dessert under the microscope on purpose as natural. Here, we can also find sugar in second place. In 100 g the cup holds 8 g only sugar, i.e. 4 cubes *. Of course, it should be borne in mind that in dairy products there is natural milk sugar lactose (so even in natural yoghurt without the addition of sucrose we will find a certain sugar content), but adding sugar (sucrose) to a product defined as natural for me personally is worth considering.

Bobovita – Peach Flavored Rice Porridge

Ingredients: rice flour – 75,3%, sugar, maltodextrin, peach powder – 0,6%, calcium carbonate, vitamins (C, niacin, E, acid pantothenic, B1, B6, A, folic acid, D, biotin), ferric diphosphate, zinc sulfate, natural peach flavor.

Sugar is listed in second place again, and next to it maltodextrin, which is also a sweetener. In a 180 g packet of porridges we will find as much as 36 g sugar, i.e. 18 cubes *.

Bobovita – Milky Peach Dessert

Ingredients: whole milk 79%, water, sugar, 3,5% peach puree, starch modified, thickeners (pectin, flour locust beans), Sodium Caseinate (from milk), Natural flavor, Lactic acid bacteria (contains milk).

One 100-gram cup contains 9 g of sugar, i.e. 4,5 cubes *.

Bobovita – Fennel-flavored tea

Ingredients: dextrose, sucrose, maltodextrin, fennel (extract, oil).

Children’s teas are a hit in general – in 100 g of granulated tea teas is up to 91,2 g of sugar, which gives approx. 46 sugar cubes * (1 teaspoon of granules contains 2,5 sugar cubes). What’s more of this teas are often recommended to children who suffer from colic, i.e. already in the first months of life. There are relatively herbal extracts in them not much, when we buy such a tea, we actually buy flavored sugar. AND it is enough to buy ordinary dill or chamomile tea.

Why is sugar added to baby products?

 Below is an excerpt from a conversation with a Nestle consultant:

  (V): You are creating the Nestle Zdrowy Start w The future, which is to make the public aware of the importance of being appropriate nutrition from an early age.

 Nestle Consultant (K): Yes, that’s true.

 V: So how does this program compare to you? products to which you add sugar. Why does this sugar appear at all in the products?

 K: We add sugar to the product so that the baby wants it eat it, children are often used to its sweet taste and then others they don’t like the products.

 V: Exactly, but you also get used to it yourself baby to that sweet taste. After all, a small child, until it is given to him sugar or sweetened products, does not know the sweet taste at all, and no less eats unsweetened meals willingly.

 K: Yes, I agree. With that in mind, we withdrew some time ago from the production of sweetened porridges. However, at the request of consumers, we returned to sweeten porridges because mothers complained that the children did not want to eat unsweetened ones products.

 V: So what about those mums who don’t want to feed your children with sweet products?

 K: We also meet them. On days it is expected to come on the market is our novelty – buckwheat porridge with no added sugar or other substances sweeteners.

And a fragment of an interview with a consultant from Nutricia (producing, among others, Bobovita products):

(V): You create the program for the First 1000 days.

Nutricia (K) consultant: Yes, it aims to reimburse attention to the importance of proper nutrition of children and how this affects their nutrition their further development.

V: Please explain to me why you are adding to your products sugar? After all, it is redundant and, moreover, harmful in feeding babies.

K: This is due to the fact that children are used to the sweet taste and parental preferences.

V: So the parents want sweetened products for their own kids?

K: Unfortunately, yes. We educate parents through appropriate articles or advice that there are healthier alternatives, but part of it nonetheless parents prefer these sweetened products because they can be sure that their baby is eating will eat.

V: What healthier alternatives do you mean?

K: For example, we have a cereal portion line and no such products contain sugar or other sweeteners. We give parents a choice.

Are there any sugar-free baby porridges?

In conclusion, of course, not all products are intended for babies and toddlers contain added sugar. Some of them are indeed worthy instructions, only natural ingredients (e.g. fruit, vegetables, meat, cereals), no sugar and other sweeteners, salt, thickeners. From the interviews I have conducted, it appears that we, as consumers, want give our children sweetened products. But do we really pass? do you realize how much of this sugar is in a given product? I hope that converting the sugar content into cubes will make parents realize that not everyone the product dedicated to children proves its high quality and that we have a choice – a child who is not used to the sweet taste will have no problem eating an unsweetened product

* weight of 1 cube = 2 g (these are mini sugar cubes, the weight was taken from the ilewazy.pl website

And what kind of ready-made products for babies do you recommend? Do you know products for children with a good composition?