Spend time on any playground, and you're bound to see a young kid slurping down a "baby food pouch." These packets, filled with pureed food blends, are becoming a popular snack for toddlers and even older kids—but pediatricians and nutritionists are raising concerns. As the Los Angeles Times reports, families have begun to depend on the pouches for their convenience—they're portable, cut down on mess, and picky eaters love them for their sweetness—creating a 900% increase in sales since 2010. Over the last 12 months, US sales reached $466 million.
But despite their popularity, baby food pouches have some experts concerned when they go from an occasional snack to a daily go-to. To start, the nutritional value of baby food pouches may be overstated in their marketing, which is less regulated than infant formula. Packaging is often emblazoned with words like "organic" and "natural," but what's inside the highly processed pouches may contain more sugar and sodium than parents realize. Hidden sweeteners are a particularly big problem with the pouches, according to a new study in the journal Nutrients, per CNN.
"These pouches are very worrisome," Dr. Mark Corkins, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Nutrition, tells CNN. "Children have to learn to chew, so they should be eating regular fruits, not pureed, sweetened things in a pouch." Pediatrician Dr. Nimisha Amin echoes that point to California's KGET, adding that slurping their food rather than eating it could lead to dental problems for toddlers as well. (More baby food stories.)
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