There has been a lot of media recently about baby food pouches and I for one am getting a lot of questions on this topic, so I thought I would write the answers to 5 of the main questions I’m getting about baby food pouches right now.
1. How are they allowed to pack them full of sugar?
Fruit pouches don’t typically contain large amounts of added sugars, like the white table sugar used in baking or sweetening tea. However, they do contain “Free Sugars”. Free sugars are sugars added to foods at home or by manufacturers to make foods sweet, but the definition for Free Sugars also includes fruit concentrates, fruit juices and fruit purees. The Government recommends a limit on how many “free sugars” are consumed for adults, babies and children as we know that high intakes of sugars in the diet can lead to children overeating foods, and health problems later on in life, as well as dental problems.
In the context of fruit purees, the Free Sugars that come from these are the sugars that are created when fruits are blended, the cells are broken down and the sugar is released from the cells. These sugars become more readily available (or ‘free’) for the body to digest and absorb.
Taken from: Parent Info Which (6).pdf – Google Drive – report by Leeds University written by Dr Diane
Threapleton and Ali Morpeth
Free sugars are also really easy to consume in large amounts compared to eating a whole piece of fruit so a single fruit pouch can contain more of these “free sugars” than babies are recommended to have in a whole day.
A whole fruit has the sugars bound within the cells of the fruit, it needs to be masticated (chewed and broken down in the mouth), then swallowed, broken down in the tummy some more, then digested and absorbed into the blood stream, which, is clearly a much longer process than a fruit puree, as the fruit is already largely broken down (including the fibre) in a puree, so a large part of the process has already happened. It’s therefore swallowed, digested and absorbed rapidly.
So, fruit pouches available at the supermarket don’t contain added sugars, they do however contain sometimes quite high amounts of free sugars.
2. Are the fruits I blend at home also creating free sugars for my baby?
Yes and no. When blending fruits at home for a smoothie, juice or a puree, for example…the fruits are broken down, their cells are broken down somewhat too and this will release a lot of the sugars making them “free sugars”. However, there is likely to be a much more intense blending process when purees are manufactured for retail as they tend to make them VERY smooth and therefore this is likely to result in a lot more of the cells broken down and more of the sugars being freely available. Additionally, the manufacturing process will likely use only some parts of the fruits – those that are likely to blend down more readily and easily and smoothly, meaning that not all parts of the fruit (skin, fibrous parts, tough edges etc) are used. Conversely when blending fruits at home you’re likely to include more parts of the fruit (skin, tough parts and fibrous parts too) meaning that you’re less likely to make the purees quite as smooth and they will likely have more remaining fibre in too.
This is largely conjecture however, and I don’t know of any research directly looking into this. It’s something that I’m sure people will be interested in studying soon.
However, the purees we make at home ARE likely to include high amounts of free sugars, BUT you don’t need to worry about this if you follow these tips when it comes to offering fruit purees to your baby (including pouches):
- If you don’t only focus on fruits as part of weaning and baby is offered a diverse range of tastes and flavours from the start e.g. plenty of veggies initially and then building on offering protein rich foods, carbohydrates and wholegrains, allergens as well as plenty of veggies and some fruits too. Babies are born with a preference for sweet foods, so they don’t need much help to accept these…see more in my blog on why Veg Led Weaning.
- If you don’t continue to blend to a smooth puree for longer than a week or so. Blending to a smooth puree is fine for the first week or so of weaning, but it’s important to build on textures early on and this can help reduce the free sugars that your little one will have early on in weaning.
- If you focus on mashing foods for babies early on in weaning instead of pureeing (mashing at the start of weaning is perfectly fine) and make sure you move stealthily through textures as your baby gets confident with eating solids.
- If you offer fruit purees/mashes combined with other foods – add them to yoghurt, combine with breakfast cereals, porridge or other foods you’re serving to baby.
- Offer them from a bowl and spoon – not sucked through pouches or nets and offer them with finger foods alongside.
- Offer whole pieces of soft whole fruit as finger foods as well as a variety of other finger foods
- Focus on plenty of savoury mashes and meals during weaning.
3. Why are they allowed to offer them if they aren’t healthy for my baby?
Pouches are fairly new – from around the last 20 years and, unfortunately the “baby food regulations” which specify what should and shouldn’t be included in baby foods products marketed to parents haven’t been updated in a long time. These foods aren’t necessarily “dangerous” for babies to consume, they just aren’t ideal from a nutritional or developmental point of view for babies for a number of reasons including:
- High free sugar content and the focus often on sweeter flavors and ingredients
- The spouts that babies use to suck out of which aren’t good for dental health OR for the development of eating skills or exposure to textures
- The limited textures available – when you have a spout, you’re limited as to the size of the textures within the spouts. This means that babies being offered these regularly might not be able to practice, develop and hone eating skills that comes from being exposed to a variety of textures alongside finger foods!
- The marketing from 4 months, when babies need to show signs of developmental readiness, rather than focusing on an age (but generally these signs are shown together at around 6 months of age). Many babies won’t be ready for solids at 4 months, so these packets can be very confusing for parents.
- Nutritionally inadequate – these meals aren’t a replacement for home meals and balanced diets. Often, they aren’t “nutritionally complete” and some of the processing can destroy the nutrients that are available
- Not a replacement for home cooked meals – it’s SO important babies explore family meals and ingredients and flavours used in home cooking in order for them to develop healthy patterns of eating and food acceptance.
4. I take them when I go out and about with my baby as an emergency option – is this OK?
It’s absolutely fine to use these pouches on occasion e.g.
- to throw them in your bag as an emergency meal now and then
- to use them to add to other foods baby is having such as porridge or yoghurt
- to offer them on top of toast as a spread or as a dip
- to use them as an option when you get home and have nothing else available
- When you go on holiday and aren’t sure what the food situation might be
Absolutely.
Ideally, we just don’t want families to rely on them as regular meal replacements.
Please don’t feel worried or guilty for tapping into these as a convenient option when you really need them – us parent’s need a bit of help sometimes and these absolutely CAN play a role in that. But the majority of what we feed our babies and toddlers should be our home cooked, family meals, where possible!
5. For some of us these pouches are a lifeline…what’s your recommendation for what families are supposed to do if they were relying on these regularly as an option for feeding their baby and are now feeling lost?
Great questions. Firstly, don’t feel bad. The whole point in the Panorama campaign is to change what’s available for parents in this situation and that really needs to happen. It’s not on parents. But what parent’s can do going forward are some of the following…I know it’s not easy and feeding kids is an exhausting process, but hopefully some of this will help!
- Avoid thinking of these as something you HAVE to feed your baby. Don’t rely on them to have your baby’s health in mind, as they don’t. These manufacturers aren’t going to be the best source of advice, education or nutrition for your babies.
- Try to bring baby into YOUR meals whenever possible – if you’re adapting your meals and your foods for your baby (no sugar and salt and perhaps a bit of blending or mashing, baby dependent), it saves you time, money, food waste and can help baby to start to accept your own home cooked meals more easily. Babies like what they are familiar with.
- Make meals for you and remove bay’s portions before you add salt or strong spices. See here for foods to avoid giving babies under 1.
- Try to set aside some time each week for meal prep. This can be a real saviour to your future self if you have made meals that you can tap into throughout the week. I have some helpful menu planning factsheets.
- Make meals go a long way. Take a chili for example. You can easily make the sauce for this and have it in different ways throughout the week – on toast, with rice, as a pasta sauce, in a wrap – these are all options your baby could have too with some slight adaptations.
- Use your freezer effectively. Make meals in bulk and freeze baby’s meals for the week in small containers. Get them out the day before and pop them in the fridge so you always have something. Here is more advice on freezing baby’s food safely!
- Start weaning when your baby is developmentally ready, not when a food pack at suggests you do!
- Remember babies don’t need snacks before 1 year of age. They usual milk and their 1-3 meals will do (see blog for when to move baby onto three meals)
- Go in small with meals you serve to babies and toddlers and allow them to come for seconds to reduce food waste and mean you can have seconds of what you’ve made tomorrow, without having to throw away the uneaten foods from their plate.
- Have some store cupboard staples that you regularly tap into at home. See my blog on Store Cupboard Staples for weaning – most are cheap, accessible and go a long way!
- Use tinned and frozen foods for weaning and beyond! These are simple and easy. Tinned beans, chickpeas can be blended with olive oil for hummus, frozen peas can be added to cooked dishes and mashed a little, frozen fruits can be blended and added to some yogurt. These are cheap, long lasting wins.
For more information on the Pros and Cons of Baby Food Pouches check out my blog. If you’re interested in Processed foods more generally for babies, I’ve also written about that and click these links to find out more about sugars and free sugars too.