G4 EZ EE THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20 , 2019
of identity, and they are called all
different things,” Harris said. “There
needs to be clear labeling about the
ages the product is intended for, and
they need to make sure the packet
looks different from infant formula.
There just aren’t that many people
talking about these things. The re-
search hasn’t caught up with the
market.”
There a re bright spots in the b aby-
toddler nutrition world. Long domi-
nated by the tiny glass jars of Gerber
and Beech-Nut, entrepreneurs are
launching healthier brands in con-
venient pouches and in the refriger-
ated a isle of t he grocery store.
Neurosurgeon Te resa Purzner re-
cently launched baby food company
Cerebelly, with $6.7 million in fund-
ing to support a line aimed at brain
development. Angela Sutherland
and Evelyn Rusli launched Yumi or-
ganic baby foods in the Los Angeles
area in 2017, a subscription service
that mails customers tiny jars of
“baby borscht” and parfaits of man-
go b uckwheat pudding. And Serenity
and Joe Carr, paleo-diet proponents,
started Serenity Kids in 2016, a line
of meat-forward, higher-fat baby
foods available in 3.5-ounce pouches
at Whole Foods f or $3.99.
Most of these newcomers are sig-
nificantly more expensive than Ger-
ber a nd Beech-Nut, putting t hem o ut
of reach f or low-income parents. And
WIC, which feeds about half of the
4 million babies born in the United
States each year, has not approved
pouches, sticking with established
shelf-stable glass jars that are often
anchored b y sugary fruit purées.
The government does not have
guidelines for daily sugar limits for
children under 2. But for children
between 2 and 18, a limit o f 25 g rams
of sugar is recommended. In a recent
analysis of 469 conventional baby
foods i n the United S tates, 35 percent
contained more than 10 grams of
sugar i n a 4-ounce, s ingle-serve j ar o r
pouch. As a point of comparison, a
regular-sized Snickers bar has 20
grams of sugar.
Rick Klauser, chief executive of
vegetable-forward Sprout Foods,
said that major brands take advan-
tage of government loopholes that
don’t require fanciful nutrition and
ingredient labeling on the front of
packages to match up with the order
of ingredients on the back.
“Consumers are already frustrat-
ed, they think they know what they
are f eeding t heir babies, b ut there’s a
gap in my mind between what we’re
telling people and what we’re feed-
ing them,” h e said.
Klauser said t hat cleaning up c om-
munication on labels is crucial for
toddler food products and that the
return on investment will be seen in
the r eduction of health-care costs.
“By 18 months” he said, “a child’s
nutrition journey is more or less
forged.”
[email protected]and vegetable oil, with more sodium
and less protein than whole cow’s
milk. A Go & Grow toddler drink
from Similac contains 150 calories,
with 15 grams or 3½ teaspoons of
sugar p er serving.
A statement from Abbott Nutri-
tion, Similac’s parent company, said
that Go & Grow by Similac does not
contain a dded table sugar.
“The formula’s main ingredients
are n onfat milk and l actose — lactose
is the naturally occurring milk sugar
found in both breastmilk and cow’s
milk. It’s a carbohydrate that pro-
vides an important source of energy
for g rowing children.”
To ddler milks are more expensive
than cow’s m ilk and aren’t c overed by
food assistance programs such as
WIC. They are often purchased by
higher-income parents eager to give
their children every advantage.
But there’s been an unintended,
and potentially dangerous, develop-
ment. To ddler milks are cheaper
than infant formulas, which are
more nutrient dense, with stricter
composition r equirements a nd Food
and Drug Administration oversight.
Frequently the packaging for infant
formulas and toddler milks can look
the s ame, w hich may lead t o instanc-
es of infants being fed these nutri-
tionally insufficient products by
families trying to economize.
“We’ve done a paper on what the
FDA should establish for toddler
milks, because there’s no statementmula was better than breast milk. In
1981, an international code limiting
the marketing of breast-milk substi-
tutes was ratified by the World
Health Organization and was adopt-
ed by most countries, but not the
United States, Harris said.
“The code was designed t o protect
consumers from unscrupulous mar-
keting,” she said. “When infant for-
mula is marketed to parents, it is
positioned as convenient and more
scientific because it’s a ‘formula’ and
that it’s an acceptable — if not a
better — alternative to breast milk.
All of that is prohibited under the
code.”
As a result of t he marketing prohi-
bition, sales of formula for infants
lagged. The multinational compa-
nies behind the $55 billion global
baby food and formula industry had
to expand their customer base, in-
venting new products. They devel-
oped follow-up f ormulas for c hildren
6 months a nd up, often c alled “ grow-
ing-up milks” o r “toddler milks.”
Frequently marketed for picky
eaters, these milks prey on parents
nervous about the frequency and
quantity of toddler feedings. They
often make nutrient claims — “DHA
and iron to support brain develop-
ment” — but Harris said t here are no
legal requirements that these front-
of-package claims be supported by
sound scientific research. These
products are typically composed of
powdered milk, corn syrup solidswho watch 80 minutes of television
per day view more than 800 ads for
junk food annually. Toddlers and
preschoolers are p articularly vulner-
able because they can’t distinguish
between programming and promo-
tion and don’t yet understand the
intent of advertising to persuade.
Infants need to eat about 35 to 50
calories for each pound of their
weight, largely to fuel the first year’s
rapid growth spurt. That growth
slows for toddlers, requiring 35 to 40
calories per pound, according to
guidelines f rom the Institute of Med-
icine. If a toddler eats a total of
1,200 calories that includes Gerber
sweet potato puffs (25 calories and
6 percent of the day’s carbs per serv-
ing) or Welch’s fruit snacks (80 calo-
ries and 11 grams of sugar per serv-
ing), that may squeeze out the
healthy s tuff.
Those d ecisions h ave consequenc-
es. The Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention says that nearly
14 percent of 2- to 5-year-olds are
obese (above the 95th percentile for
body mass index), a percentage that
is higher f or African A mericans, His-
panics and l ow-income A mericans. A
new study says that in the United
States, childhood obesity is estimat-
ed to cost $14 billion annually in
direct health expenses.
What babies and toddlers drink is
equally key. Nearly four decades ago,
Nestlé was villainized for convincing
Third World mothers that infant for-go packaging. Industry’s lust for
market share has driven advertising
aimed at parents of toddlers. And
there’s been little nutritional guid-
ance for new parents, who glean
what they can from parenting chat
rooms, f amily lore and pediatricians,
many of whom h ad o nly a single c lass
on nutrition during medical s chool.
With more dual-income families,
convenience has become central to
beleaguered parents passing pack-
aged snacks back to hungry and/or
bored toddlers in car seats kitted out
with cup holders a nd s nack w ells.
“A mericans are snackers,” said
Mary Story, a professor of global
health, family medicine and commu-
nity health at Duke’s Global Health
Institute. “And the food industry is
always looking for novel ways to
market their products and increase
demand.”
For a scientific report for the 2015
Dietary Guidelines Advisory Com-
mittee, her team found that 29 per-
cent of toddlers’ calories were com-
ing from snacks, most of which were
salty or sweetened processed foods,
not f ruits and vegetables.
Jennifer Harris l eads a multidisci-
plinary team of researchers at the
University of Connecticut that stud-
ies food marketing to children, ado-
lescents and parents and how it af-
fects diets and health.
She says toddler snacks are often
positioned as healthier than those
for a dults.
“But we didn’t find that to be the
case in terms of added sugar, s odium,
saturated fat and calories,” Harris
said. “You w ouldn’t g ive y our t oddler
Cheetos, but you would give them
Gerber puffs, which are basically the
same thing.”
A yogurt-based Happy Baby s nack
for children contains a teaspoon of
sugar p er s erving, with four servings
per pouch. Happy To t’s organic ba-
nanas and carrots fiber and protein
bar c ontains 2 teaspoons of sugar per
serving. Happy Family Organics did
not respond to requests for com-
ment.
Lorrene Ritchie, director of the
Nutrition Policy Institute at the Uni-
versity of California Division o f Agri-
culture and Natural Resources, wor-
ries that low-income parents will be
more inclined to spend their money
on these heavily advertised baby
foods, toddler milks and packaged
snacks at the expense of healthier
options.
“The amount of funding spent to
promote healthy foods, which is
mostly via federal nutrition educa-
tion dollars such as WIC and SNAP-
Ed, is dwarfed by food marketing
which is mostly for unhealthy and
‘treat’ foods a nd b everages,” s he said.
“I fear we will never make a big dent
in diet-related chronic disease until
we level this playing field.”
Researchers found that childrenTODDLERS FROM G1On-the-go snacks are hooking toddlers on sugar, salt
PHOTOS BY BILL O'LEARY/THE WASHINGTON POSTA yogurt-based snack for children, top, contains a teaspoon of sugar per serving, with four servings per
pouch. A snack bar for toddlers, above, contains 2 teaspoons of sugar per serving. Experts say toddler
snacks are often wrongly positioned as healthier than those for adults.