It’s worrying to read a new study that reports how UK commercial baby food aimed at infants over 4 months don’t meet weaning needs. The study finds that these foods replicate the energy found in breast milk, but don’t have the variety of texture, taste and nutritional content that infants would get from home-made meals. In addition, the researchers fear that the sweet taste of many commercial baby food might steer the infant’s palate to unhealthy food choices in the future.
By introducing infants over 6 months (we don’t recommend weaning before then) to a wider range of textures and flavours you encourage them to develop a healthy acceptance of new foods and to enjoy a variety of tastes.
When the researchers analyzed the nutritional content of all baby food intended for weaning they found that 79 percent of the 462 stand-alone products assessed were ready made spoonable foods, 44% were aimed at infants over 4 months and 65% were sweet foods.
If you want advice on weaning your child and the best baby food for your child, why not book an appointment with Emily Fawell, our Children’s Health Specialist? Call 07967 639347 for more details or send us info@vitalhealthnutrition.co.uk.