Disadvantages of homemade baby food
The Pros and Cons of Homemade Baby Food | Henry Ford Health
Posted on March 10, 2020 by Henry Ford Health Staff
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As a parent, one of your most important jobs is feeding your child nourishing foods. Baby food sold in jars and pouches contains critical calories and nutrients, and it’s convenient. Unfortunately, it can also include preservatives and other ingredients that allow it to sit on the shelf for weeks or even months at a time.
To avoid potentially harmful ingredients, a growing number of parents are making baby food from scratch. "It's really about knowing exactly what you're giving your baby," says Kelly Nohl, a registered dietitian at Henry Ford Health.
Is Homemade Baby Food Best?
Homemade baby food isn't for everyone. Before you purchase an expensive blender and recipe books, consider the pros and cons of mixing your baby's food from scratch:
Pros
- It's cheap: Buying jars and pouches of baby food can get expensive, especially if you choose organic.
With homemade baby food, you can just puree foods you already have on hand.
- It's clean: When you first start your baby on solid foods, you're just serving them one ingredient. "It's just bananas, or it's just sweet potatoes," Nohl says. You know exactly what you’re feeding your baby.
- It's environmentally friendly: With homemade baby food, there's no packaging that will ultimately end up in a landfill.
Cons
- It takes time: Purchasing baby food off the shelf doesn't require much effort. Mixing up homemade baby food isn't difficult, but it does take time.
- Storage can be tricky: Making batches of baby food ahead of time means you need storage space in your refrigerator and freezer.
- You have to be careful about food safety: When you're making food from scratch, how you prepare it — and when your child eats it — matters. There's no expiration date on homemade food and you're not heating it to 500 degrees to kill off pathogens.
Not only do you have to make sure you wash and clean produce well, but you also have to store it safely and make sure your baby eats it in a timely fashion.
Related Topic: Cosleeping: Tips for Sleep Safety
Homemade Baby Food How-To
Cooking food from scratch takes time. Many parents find it’s worth the extra effort to shape their child’s food preferences. Four strategies for starting your baby off on the right foot nutritionally:
- Go easy. Whether you choose to start your baby on solid foods at 4 or 6 months, it's important to select foods that are easy to digest — things like pears, bananas, avocados, squash and sweet potatoes.
- Choose nutrient-rich options. Start your baby off with easy-to-digest fruits and vegetables. "Introduce foods one at a time and wait three to five days before introducing a new food," Nohl says.
- Don’t give up. Your baby might not like a food when you first introduce it, but that doesn't mean you should give up on it.
Babies often don't like a food until they've been exposed to it half a dozen (or more!) times. Still struggling with a specific food? Try combining it with one of their favorites. - Select a rainbow of color. Fruits and veggies come in five main colors: red, yellow/orange, white, purple and green – and each color represents a different mix of beneficial plant nutrients, so variety is key.
Whether you make your baby's food or buy it at the grocery store, follow basic safety rules. Portion out individual servings. If they don't finish the whole serving, throw it away. Always use clean utensils when portioning out foods. And avoid cross contaminating foods, especially those your baby hasn't been introduced to yet.
To find a doctor or registered dietitian at Henry Ford, visit henryford.com or call 1-800-HENRYFORD (436-7936).
Kelly Nohl is a registered dietitian nutritionist for the Henry Ford Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention.
Categories : ParentWell
Tags : Nutrition, Baby, Kelly Nohl
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Long, MD
Cook at home or buy?
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Cook at home or buy from the store? What is best for a child? We continue the cycle of articles on complementary foods.
The answer is: do what feels right for you.
There is no unequivocal scientific study in favor of one of the parties. But both canned purees and homemade food have advantages and disadvantages, consider them.
Homemade food. Let's start with the pros:
- Children learn to eat by watching how food is laid out on plates, how cutlery is used.
- What we want to feed the baby does not depend on the availability of such a jar in the store. It happens that certain types of products are not available for sale.
- Eating homemade food, children easily switch to pieces, as they often already met them in other earlier dishes.
- Easy to expand the diet: children see a new product and show interest in it on their own.
- Save money by not having to buy separate meals for your baby.
What are the cons?
- The whole family needs to be fed and eat healthy.
- You need to salt your plates so that the baby does not see this.
- Constant variety required.
- If you are going to a restaurant or a visit, then you need to clarify in advance whether there will be something that suits the child.
Of course, the shortcomings are not so serious, because some families with the advent of the baby and the start of complementary foods are reconsidering their diet in favor of a healthier one.
Complementary foods from the store. Let's look at the benefits first:
- Baby food manufacturers are more trusted than adult food manufacturers.
- Convenient to take with you on the road, restaurant, etc. You can not depend on the menu in institutions and circumstances.
- You can offer your child even those tastes that are not very popular in the family.
Disadvantages:
- Children are not always happy with a green substance from a jar, they prefer bright carrots from an adult plate.
- You should always pay attention to the composition of jars, as many may contain sugar, honey, milk products that do not need to be introduced into the diet of a baby up to 1 year old. Sometimes the manufacturer does not indicate that the puree contains, for example, starch or oils, although these are not harmful components, however, pediatricians advise someone to monitor their consumption.
- The cost of purchased complementary foods is higher than homemade.
- The main drawback is that when buying ready-made food for a child, parents rely on manufacturers: “After all, it is indicated that it is possible from 4 months, so we take it!”.
Remember that the manufacturer's goal is to make a profit. Keeping a baby healthy is the responsibility of parents. “Enriched”, “contains vitamins…”, “suitable for children from 4 months” - should not become decisive at the time of purchase.
So:
Study the compositions when choosing a canned food. Do not rely on advertising slogans.
Adhere to the principles of healthy eating in the family if you choose complementary foods with homemade food.
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Liquid and powdered infant formula: advantages and disadvantages | #02/23
Summary .
The article compares liquid and dry infant formulas, the main difference of which is that liquid formulas are a sterile product, while dry ones are not. Formula sterility is important for premature, small, sick, and immunocompromised infants. Powdered formula may be contaminated with Enterobacter sakazakii and Salmonella enterica bacteria that cause disease in children. In addition to sterility, there are other differences between liquid and dry formulas. The advantages of liquid mixtures are that the mixture is ready to use, no water is required for preparation, dilution errors are eliminated, and time and labor are saved. The disadvantages of liquid mixtures are the limited range, short shelf life, protein glycation and the absence of probiotics. The advantages of dry mixes are their wide range, the possibility of introducing probiotics, and a long shelf life. The disadvantages of dry mixes are their non-sterility, the need to dilute with water with possible dilution errors, and the time spent on preparation.
Demand for ready-made infant formulas is gradually increasing all over the world. We currently have liquid formulas for healthy babies and premature babies on our market. The domestic manufacturer produces unique liquid treatment formulas: comfort, soy and lactose-free mixture.
The best food for young children is breast milk. In the absence or insufficient amount of breast milk, adapted infant milk formulas (ADMS) are used [1-4]. The requirements for the composition of the AMDS are regulated by the legislative acts of the Customs Union (TR TS 021/2011; 027/2012; 033/2013) [1, 5]. ADMS can be liquid (or ready-to-use) and dry (powder) [1-3]. The main differences between liquid and dry mixtures are in the production technology and sterility, prevalence and assortment, ease of use, ingredient composition, expiration dates [1-7]. According to the listed criteria, the article compares liquid and dry ADMS.
Technology for the production of liquid and dry mixtures
The fundamental difference between dry and liquid formula is that liquid formula is a sterile product, while dry infant formula is not [1-3].
When children are fed with dry formulas, the development of diseases caused by Enterobacter sakazakii and Salmonella enterica is possible [1-3, 6, 7]. In the world literature, 31 cases of Enterobacter sakazakii infection with in newborns and infants have been described. This gram-negative rod can contribute to the development of sepsis, meningitis, ventriculitis, abscesses, brain cysts and hydrocephalus in newborns and infants. The highest mortality rate from infection caused by Enterobacter sakazakii was found among preterm infants and children with low birth weight compared with full-term and weighing more than 2500 g at birth [1-3, 6, 7]. Therefore, since 2005, WHO experts have been recommending the use of ready-made liquid sterile mixtures in hospitals for premature, debilitated children and infants with immunodeficiency [6].
Liquid mixtures are made in a closed cycle, in which the final stage of production is the sterilization of the finished product.
The human factor is minimized in the production process. The mixture is packaged sterile in aseptic packaging [1-3, 5-8].
The production of dry mixes is not completely closed. Therefore, microbiological requirements for dry mixtures provide for minimum tolerances for the content of microorganisms in the final product (Table 1) [1-3, 5]. With the use of modern technologies for the production of dry mixtures, it is impossible to prepare a sterile dry infant formula. It should be noted that all dry mixtures are safe, but not sterile [1-3, 5, 6].
Prevalence and range of liquid and dry mixtures
Liquid milk formulas are not available from all baby food manufacturers. Liquid infant formula is a special niche product (NP). (A niche product is a unique product with a special purpose.) NP production volumes are always smaller compared to mass production volumes. Liquid milk formulas are more difficult to find on sale, their range is limited. Some foreign manufacturers do not bring liquid formulas to the domestic market, even if such a ready-made mixture is available abroad.
As a rule, ready-made formulas for healthy babies and liquid formulas for premature and low birth weight babies are presented on the domestic market. Liquid mixtures can be fresh and sour-milk, but the short shelf life of sour-milk liquid mixtures seriously limits their use [1-7].
Dry adapted mixes are the most widely represented on the world market. Dry mixes are easier to find on sale, in stores and on the Internet. Dry mixes can be both basic and preventive, as well as therapeutic. There is a choice depending on age and indications [1-5].
Easy to use mixes
The liquid mixture is ready to use: no time is required to prepare it, no water is needed to dilute it, which means that the possibility of dilution errors is excluded. It is convenient to use liquid mixtures not only in a hospital, but also at home, at a party and on the road. When working with liquid mixtures in a hospital, the correct organization of work in the milk room, compliance with the rules of asepsis and antiseptics is extremely important.
Mixture contamination is possible, for example, when a sterile product is poured into a syringe or bottle [1-3, 5, 7].
When using a dry mix, preliminary dilution and preparation is required. To prepare dry milk formulas, you need pre-boiled and chilled water, a sterile bottle, a cap and a nipple. Precise observance of the ratio of the amount of the mixture and the volume of water is necessary. Dosing spoon for dry mix requires processing. Adding more or less formula than indicated in the instructions may be harmful to the child's health. When using dry mixtures, the risk of contamination and contamination of the product increases. There is a high risk of using low-quality water and dilution errors [1-3, 5]. Dry mix is inconvenient to use at a party and on the road.
Protein glycation products (Maillard reaction)
Most liquid mixtures have a pronounced creamy tint. The color of liquid milk mixtures is very close to the color of fermented baked milk. The cream color is due to the fact that the liquid milk formula contains protein glycation products (melanoidins).
The Maillard reaction is the process of the interaction of primary amines with reducing sugars, resulting in the formation of a wide range of colored products - the so-called melanoidins, or Maillard compounds. The resulting Maillard compounds are constantly present in significant quantities in any food products that have undergone thermal cooking. Their safety for human health is confirmed by centuries of experience in the heat treatment of food. Maillard compounds do not enhance the allergenic properties of food proteins, but, unfortunately, they lead to insignificant losses of the essential amino acid lysine and a decrease in the nutritional value of the product.
The amount of Maillard reaction products increases in liquid milk mixtures as the expiration date approaches the end [1, 2, 9].
Probiotics
Liquid milk formula has a limited set of components that can be added to the product. Modern technologies do not allow the use of such an important functional component as probiotics in the production of liquid milk formulas [1-3, 5].
Dry ADMS have a wide range of ingredients, and therefore a slightly greater functionality. Such mixtures may contain probiotics. Well-studied and safe strains are used in production: Bifidobacterium animalis subsp . lactis, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, Lactobacillus reuteri . Modern technologies make it possible to ensure the safety of microorganisms throughout the entire shelf life of infant formula [1-3, 5].
Shelf life and storage of mixtures
Liquid milk formulas have a short shelf life (from 3 to 9 months). Fermented milk liquid mixtures are stored even less, as a rule, no longer than 3 months [1-3]. When storing liquid mixtures, strict adherence to the temperature regime is required. At sub-zero temperatures in the liquid mixture, ice formation and compositional disturbance are possible. At high temperatures, the amount of glycation products increases, the appearance of a fatty film on the surface is noted, and in packages with sour-milk products, swelling of the pack occurs (the so-called bombing) [9].
After opening the package of the finished mixture, some manufacturers of liquid formulas do not recommend storing the product. Other manufacturers allow storage of opened liquid mixtures at room temperature for 2 hours or in the refrigerator for up to 10 hours if necessary [1-3, 5, 8].
Dry milk mixtures have a long shelf life (from 18 to 24 months). Dry milk formula after opening the package is stored in a tightly closed bag or jar, in a cool dry place, but not in the refrigerator. The shelf life of the dry mixture after opening the package is up to 3 weeks [1-3]. The main differences between liquid and dry adapted milk formulas are given in Table. 2.
The domestic manufacturer of baby food "Infaprim" produces a line of sterilized mixtures "Nutrilak". For healthy children, liquid mixtures are produced Nutrilak Premium 1 (from birth), Nutrilak Premium 2 (from 6 months), Nutrilak Premium 3 (from 12 months), Nutrilak from birth to 12 months.
The manufacturer also produces therapeutic ready-made mixtures that have no analogues on the market.
Ready mix Nutrilak Premium Comfort is a sterilized mix based on partially hydrolyzed whey proteins with prebiotic 2-fucosyllactose (2’FL). Indication for use: prevention of functional digestive disorders.
Ready mix Nutrilak Premium Lactose-free is a sterilized lactose-free formula used from birth. Indications: primary and secondary lactase deficiency, diarrheal syndrome, galactosemia.
Ready mix Nutrilak Premium Soya is a sterilized mix based on soy protein isolate. Indications for use: allergy to cow's milk protein in children older than 6 months in the absence of digestive disorders and sensitization to soy proteins, galactosemia, lactase deficiency, diarrheal syndrome. All mixtures do not contain genetically modified organisms, palm and rapeseed oils. Ready-to-use Nutrilak mixtures are available in 200 ml Tetra Pak packs. For hospitals, instructions have been developed for heating ready-made sterilized mixtures of Nutrilak (Table 3).
Conclusion
Not a single even the most modern milk formula can be a full-fledged replacement for mother's milk.
If breastfeeding is not possible, then dry or liquid adapted milk formulas are used in the nutrition of children. The advantage of liquid mixtures in comparison with dry ones is sterility, consistency of the standardized composition, physical and chemical stability, saving time and labor costs for preparation, lower risk of contamination. Currently, a domestic manufacturer produces unique specialized ready-to-use formulas for children - comfort, soy and lactose-free mixture.
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST. The authors of the article confirmed the absence of a conflict of interest, which must be reported.
CONFLICT OF INTERESTS. not declared.
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86.10-068-37552800-2015 Clause 8. Rules of application. [Manufacturer's instructions CJSC "Infaprim", Baby food product adapted sterilized milk formula "Nutrilak (Nutrilak) Premium", TU 10.86.10-068-37552800-2015 Clause 8. Application rules.]
A. F. Kiosov 1, 2 , ORCID: 0000-0002-4222-4104, [email protected]
A. Yu. -3289 -9052, [email protected]
1 State budgetary healthcare institution Regional Clinical Hospital No. 2; 454000, Russia, Chelyabinsk, st. Gagarin, 18, building. 2
2 Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education South Ural State Medical University of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation; 454092, Russia, Chelyabinsk, st. Vorovskogo, 64
Information about the authors:
Kiosov Andrey Fedorovich, Candidate of Medical Sciences, Head of the Department of Pathology of Newborns and Premature Babies of the State Budgetary Institution of Healthcare Regional Clinical Hospital No.
2; 454000, Russia, Chelyabinsk, st. Gagarin, 18, building. 2; Associate Professor of the Department of Pediatrics and Neonatology of the Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education South Ural State Medical University of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation; 454092, Russia, Chelyabinsk, st. Vorovskogo, 64; [email protected]
Pishchalnikov Alexander Yurievich, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor, Head of the Department of Pediatrics and Neonatology of the Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education South Ural State Medical University of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation; 454092, Russia, Chelyabinsk, st. Vorovskogo, 64; [email protected]
Information about the authors:
Andrey F. Kiosov, MD, Head of the Department of Pathology of Newborns and Premature Babies at the State Budgetary Healthcare Institution Regional Clinical Hospital No.
