The NHS also said parents shouldn't let babies suck on a pouch and should always feed from a spoon. Photo: 123rf
A nutrition expert says parents should only rely on store-bought baby food when they are travelling and it's too difficult to feed fresh food.
It comes after the UK's National Health Service (NHS) advised parents not to rely on baby food pouches as everyday meals after six brands failed to meet key nutritional standards.
The NHS also said parents shouldn't let babies suck on a pouch and should always feed from a spoon because of the risk of tooth decay.
Auckland-based dietician Anna Richards agreed with the advice.
"I think we should be relying on pouch foods only for travelling, out-and-abouting when it's absolutely too difficult to feed fresh food."
Richards told Morning Report commercially-made baby food was high in sugar and evidence showed once a baby tasted sweet food they preferred it to the bitter taste of vegetables.
"We have a lot of issues with children relying on pouch food in that many of them are very high in sugar.
"And while they don't have any added sugar, they have a fruit base to them, the majority of them, or very sweet vegetable base."
She said parent confidence played a key role in decisions around food.
"We've seen, particularly since Covid, parents are time-poor. They're really anxious about giving their babies the best start in life.
"And so they're just lapping up a lot of the marketing that's coming around these products."
On top of that, eating directly from a pouch limited a baby's ability to learn about food through chewing and play.
"In order to meet and explore food, children need to see it. They need to smell it. They need to rub it in their hair and get it on their fingers and their faces.
"And when children are eating straight from pouches they're not getting any of that surrounding feeding experience."
She said because of that, pouch food would taste "pretty much" the same, and have the same texture.
"We find children who have had a heavy reliance on a homogenous texture through the initial stages of their feeding, are children that then want to go onto foods that have a homogenous texture.
"So things like chicken nuggets for example, that all look exactly the same, and they all taste exactly the same and the texture's utterly predictable as opposed to home-made food where we get a variety in texture - things look a little bit different."
It was also important to give children foods that required some chewing, Richards said.
"Chewing is actually really important for satiety and for us getting our messages that we've had enough to eat.
"So there's a lot of concern that when we consume a lot of calories or a lot of energy without chewing, that that can then lead to obesity.
"So not only in children and pouches but in adults that consume a lot of food in liquid form rather than actually chewing it."
Richards said a serving size of fruit was what sits in the palm of a child's hand - it was not a whole piece of fruit.
"Some of these children can hoover their way through a couple of pouches so that's the equivalent of five tennis ball pieces of fruit which is way above (more than) what we want children to be having, which is two or three handfuls of fruit in a day and in fact there's a big move for veggies only as first foods."
She said it was believed children who were predominantly introduced to vegetables would be far more accepting of them at five-years-old and later in life.
"We want children to progress to family food and eat what their family's eating."
The Ministry of Health's advice when buying baby food is:
- Check it's right for the baby's age and stage;
- Always follow the storage and serving instructions on the jar, pouch or can;
- If using a pouch, empty the contents into a bowl (or straight on to a spoon) and spoon-feed the child;
- Commercial baby foods are a convenient alternative to home-made baby food, but an over-reliance on these products may reduce the variety of flavours and textures in a child's diet.
The NHS also advised not giving snacks to baby's under the age of 12 months.
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