Home » Misc » What baby food has lead in it

What baby food has lead in it


What Can Parents Do About Heavy Metals in Baby Food? (for Parents)

Reviewed by: Mary L. Gavin, MD

en español ¿Qué pueden hacer los padres sobre los metales pesados que contiene la comida de sus bebés?

I've heard about heavy metals in baby food. How can I keep my baby safe?
- Keeley

Heavy metals are found in soil, water, and the air we breathe. Plants take up these metals as they grow and can end up in the food we eat. Our bodies need some heavy metals (like iron and zinc) to work well, but other heavy metals (like arsenic and lead) are harmful. Some crops, like rice, absorb more of these harmful metals than others. Heavy metals can build up in the body over time and cause problems with learning, behavior, and attention.

When making baby food, companies add vitamins and minerals along with food additives that may contain heavy metals. Some baby foods have higher levels of heavy metals than others, including:

  • infant rice cereal
  • infant rice puff snacks
  • teething biscuits and rice rusks
  • fruit juice
  • carrots and sweet potatoes

Even organic baby food can have heavy metals in it.

The amount of heavy metals is low in baby foods, but you can take steps to lower it even more. Here are ways to do that:

  • Offer your baby a variety of healthy foods. Eating a balanced diet can lower your baby's overall exposure to heavy metals.
  • Don't only give infant rice cereal. Give your baby other cereals like oatmeal, barley, quinoa, and multigrain cereals.
  • Keep giving carrots and sweet potatoes. They contain important nutrients, but serve them along with other fruits and vegetables.
  • Don't give your baby fruit juice. Juice is not recommended for children under 1 year old because it can cause cavities and weight gain. Formula or breast milk for infants and water and milk for older children are the best drinks. Instead of juice, give your baby fruit because it has more fiber and nutrients.
  • Make your own baby food. You can avoid additives and baby foods with high levels of heavy metals by making your own. Serve the same foods your family eats, prepared in a way that your baby can eat. Infants just starting solid food will need smooth purées.
  • Choose white basmati rice and sushi rice when making rice dishes. These kinds of rice have less arsenic than other types. Rinse rice thoroughly before cooking. Cook rice in plenty of water, and then drain off the extra water. This helps lower the amount of arsenic.
  • Limit baby food snacks, including rice puffs and oat ring cereals. Instead of processed snacks, give your baby puréed, mashed, or soft foods that are rich in nutrients, such as fruit, vegetables, eggs, cheese, or yogurt. This also helps your baby eat less added sugar, salt, and refined flour. If you serve your baby prepared snacks, choose rice-free or multigrain options.
  • Don't use teething biscuits. Instead, give your baby a cold (not frozen) teether or wet washcloth to chew on.
  • Test your water. Tap water may have lead in it from lead pipes. Well water may contain lead and other heavy metals.

Reviewed by: Mary L. Gavin, MD

Date reviewed: March 2021

These 10 baby foods have the highest levels of lead, says report

Of each of the metals, arsenic was found in 73% of baby foods, lead was found in 94%, cadmium was found in 75% and mercury was found in 32%.

2,197

shares

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Nearly all baby foods sold in the United States include trace amounts of lead, but some contain much more of the potentially harmful metal than others.

A recent study conducted by Healthy Babies Bright Future (HBBF) found that 95% of all popular baby foods in the country contain toxic heavy metals, with 94% containing lead.

Researchers tested 168 different baby food items, consisting of 61 brands and 13 types of food, including infant formula, teething biscuits, cereals, and fruit juices, all of which were selected by parents at their local stores and online. The study tested for lead, cadmium, arsenic and mercury, with lead being, by far, the most prevalent of the group.

Of the 158 baby food items that tested positive for lead, these 10 contained the highest amount, measured in parts per billion (ppb):

  • Healthy Times Organic Brown Rice Cereal - 4+ months: 67.4 ppb
  • SOBISK Breakfast Biscuits - Golden Oats Snack: 60.1 ppb
  • NurturMe Organic Quinoa Cereals - Quinoa + Sweet Potato + Raisin Cereal: 39.8 ppb
  • Sprout Organic Quinoa Puffs Baby Cereal Snack - Apple Kale Snack: 39.3 ppb
  • Gerber Sweet Potato - Sitter 2nd Food Veggie: 29.3 ppb
  • Beech-Nut Classics Sweet Carrots - 2: 27.2 ppb
  • Parent’s Choice (Walmart) Organic Strawberry Rice Rusks - Stage 2, 6+ months: 26.9 ppb
  • Beech-Nut Classics Sweet Potatoes - Stage 2, from about 6 months: 24.1 ppb
  • Beech-Nut Classics Sweet Carrots - Stage 2: 23.5 ppb
  • Earth’s Best Whole Grain Rice Cereal: 22. 5 ppb

According to the study, lead was found in 94% of baby foods, cadmium in 75%, arsenic in 73% and mercury in 32% of foods. Twenty-six percent of baby foods contained all four metals, 40% contained three metals, 21% contained two metals, and 8% contained only one metal. Only 5% (nine baby foods) contained no metals.

These metals found in baby foods can lead to various problems for children, including IQ loss, attention deficits, and other learning and behavioral issues.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer is demanding new federal action by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that would force the baby food industry to address the safety issue.

According to the study, while the FDA has proposed to limit the amount of toxic heavy metals in baby food in the past, no action has been taken.

ADVICE FOR PARENTS

HBBF recommended five healthier food substitutions that can help in reducing babies’ exposure to heavy toxic metals:

  • Rather than rice snacks, parents can give their children rice-free snacks, which which contain much lower levels of toxic metals.
  • Parents can use organic teething foods, like frozen bananas and chilled cucumbers, instead of teething biscuits or rice tusks.
  • Multi-grain cereals, like oatmeal, can also be fed to babies instead of rice cereal.
  • Babies can drink tap water instead of fruit juice.
  • Feed babies a variety of fruits and veggies instead of just carrots and sweet potatoes.

If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation.

The history of baby food: how products for artificial feeding of children appeared

29 Apr 6 9553

Vadim Erlikhman, archivist, historian: Today, the fast food market is the fastest growing in the food industry. It is hard to believe that even a century and a half ago the very idea of ​​feeding babies with something other than mother's milk seemed wild.

It is worth recalling that, of course, there were no maternity leave in the old days. A week after giving birth, peasant women had to work in the field, maids - to scrub the floor, factory workers - to go to the machine. In addition, there was a belief that before the baptism of the child, the mother should not breastfeed him. At that time, the child remained in the care of relatives, who instead of milk gave him "zhevka" - a rag with chewed bread or porridge. Sometimes it was soaked in milk, vegetable oil or sugar water. The rich had their own problems: feeding spoiled the shape of the breast, especially for mothers with many children. If a wealthy lady decided to feed the child herself, it was considered - depending on the fashion - either a feat or a strange quirk. Usually, a nurse was hired for this purpose, since there were enough young healthy women with an excess of milk.

The reason for this excess was not joyful: the huge infant mortality rate, which in the 18th century reached 40%. The main reason for this was the complete lack of hygiene: in Russian villages, in addition to a dirty rag, children were stuffed into their mouths with other rubbish, like a cut off cow's nipple. It was put on a horn, into which the same soaked bread or oatmeal was charged. Russian doctors wrote that in some provinces it was customary, along with the nipple, to give children wort, mash from the very first days. French peasant women, in order for their children to fall asleep better, gave them diluted wine to drink. Yes, and the nurses themselves drank wine and beer, it was believed that this adds milk. In one of Dickens' novels, a young mother drinks four glasses of port wine at dinner "under the pretext that she is breastfeeding."

In most cultures, breastfeeding continued for up to 6 months, after which the child was switched to solid food. Sometimes this was celebrated with a solemn ritual like the Indian “annaprashana”, when the eldest member of the family blessed rice porridge with sugar, tasted it and gave it to the baby. In China, children were accustomed to normal food in stages: first, liquid rice porridge (sifan), then boiled vegetables, tofu, and fish. In Africa, the first solid food for babies was corn porridge. In ancient Greece, it was a liquid barley stew, to which bull's blood was added in Sparta so that the boy would grow up to be a real warrior.

When children were teething, they were fed just like adults, only worse, because they were of no use. And this applied not only to poor peasants: Elizaveta Vodovozova recalls her childhood in a large landowner family in the middle of the 19th century: “Children were given everything that was worse and could not be used by adults ... Every pot of spoiled jam or marinade was shown to mother by the nanny. Having tasted one or the other, mother sighed heavily and said something like this: “What a misfortune! Really, it's no good. Well, let's go to the children. ”And in order to prolong our pleasure, and not because we could get sick from spoiled food, she told us to give us a small saucer.”

Doctors learned to cope with indigestion in children, but the lack of mother's milk became an increasingly serious problem. In big cities, the intense rhythm of life, air pollution, constant stress led to the fact that 30% of women did not have enough milk to feed a child, especially if he was the first or, conversely, the fourth or fifth. In families that could not afford to hire a wet nurse, babies were fed cow's or goat's milk. However, in composition it was very different from breast milk, so it often caused indigestion. There was also the problem of hygiene, because of which the German doctor Biedert warned: “It is necessary to observe pedantic purity both in keeping cows and in milking and preserving milk ... Since milk can acquire harmful properties from inappropriate food, cows should not be given even bards, no waste, because the toxic substances contained in them pass into milk and cannot be eliminated. ”There were also problems with the nurses, because they suffered from all kinds of diseases, up to syphilis, which were often transmitted to the child during feeding.

All this made scientists work hard to find a substitute for breast milk. Gradually, the necessary conditions for this arose: they learned how to preserve and disinfect products, and in 1855 the Englishman Grimweid began to make powdered milk. But if it were not for the son of the Frankfurt glazier Heinrich Nestle, who preferred to call himself Henri in French, all these discoveries might have existed on their own. The problem of baby food arose before Nestlé after the birth of his first child. A certified pharmacist who ran a pharmacy in the small Swiss town of Vevey, in 1867 made a mixture of powdered cow's milk, wheat flour and sugar, which he called "Henri Nestlé Milk Flour". Diluted with water, this mixture turned into the world's first artificial baby food.

According to legend, the first artificially fed baby was a premature baby of one of the local factory workers, who, of course, thanks to the Nestle formula, began to grow by leaps and bounds. The delighted pharmacist opened his own company, whose logo was a nest with chicks, because Nestle in German means "nest". Very soon, canned "milk flour" appeared in all European capitals. In 1872, it began to be sold in St. Petersburg, where a local merchant Alexander Wenzel became an agent of the Nestle company. He also sold other baby products, such as Maltos-Cannabis sugared hempseed extract, which was advertised as the best way to get a good night's sleep…

In Russia, baby food did not take root at that time, but in Europe its popularity grew rapidly. Feeding babies has become unprecedentedly simple - open a jar and dilute its contents in water. However, even then doctors warned about the dangers of this simplicity. The German physician Gottfried Kühner wrote: “As for mealy surrogates, such as Nestle, Gerbera, Kufeke, Hartenstein’s leguminous powder, rakout, arrowroot, avicen, maizena, avena, etc., the same thing must be said about all of them: they are in many cases are well tolerated by children, but only after the second or third month of life. Violation of this condition, as well as the rules of hygiene, led to the fact that in 189In Berlin, infants fed formula were 13 times more likely to die than breastfed infants in Berlin in 1999.

The already mentioned Dr. Biedert noted: “The mass of artificial surrogates is not yet able to replace breast milk. Moreover, many of them, which came into use solely thanks to numerous and loud advertisements, should be recognized as directly harmful. At the same time, many considered the Nestle mixture to be the best: both milk and flour for it were made in the environmentally friendly conditions of the Swiss Alps. In the mid-1870s, the company launched another new product on the market - condensed milk. Although it was invented back in 1856 by American Gail Borden, it was Nestlé that made it a popular children's treat. True, the doctors were again unhappy: no one followed the recommendation to dilute condensed milk with water in a ratio of 1 to 10 and only then give it to children. Children fed with condensed milk became fat, anemic and sickly. Henri Nestlé sold the company in 1874. After 140 years, the profit of the largest food producer has reached almost 8 billion euros

Competitors were stepping on the heels of Nestlé more and more actively. In 1896, the Dutchman Martinus van der Hagen invented his own way of drying milk in a bakery. With significantly less flour and sugar, his milk formula quickly gained popularity, laying the foundation for Nutricia's international prosperity. In the US, baby food was taken over by Clapp's Baby Food and Beech-Nut, and Pablum was the first to sell cereal for children. However, it was Daniel Gerber, a cannery manufacturer from Fremont, Michigan, who gave the real scope to the case. The reason for this was again personal: Sally. the sick daughter of Daniel and his wife, Dorothy, required special nutrition. Having learned how to make mashed vegetables, fruits and meat, Dorothy suggested that her husband start mass-producing it. The advice turned out to be successful, and at 1928 year baby food company "Gerber Products" went on sale.

Its popularity was ensured not so much by new products - they were successfully fed to children before, but by a purely American advertising scope. Immediately after entering the market, the company announced a competition for the best advertising, which was won by the artist Dorothy Hope, who painted a portrait of her neighbors little daughter. This Gerber baby has been sold all over the country, appearing in magazines beloved by housewives and on billboards. The brainchild of the Gerber spouses flourished even during the years of the Great Depression - after all, then the children needed even more artificial feeding. The company is still one of the three largest baby food manufacturers in the world, along with Nestle and Heinz, also known for its ketchup. And in the US, where baby food is consumed the most, Gerber even occupies 70% of the market.

The Soviet Union lagged far behind in this area. Own baby food was not produced here for a long time. The elite could use the products of Nestlé and other Western companies, which were bought for foreign currency. For everyone else, there were dairy kitchens that had been open all over the country as far back as the 1920s. There, milk mixtures, fermented milk products, cottage cheese, juices, mashed fruits and vegetables were made from fresh products. Such kitchens were very useful: the children attached to them received good nutrition even during the years of famine and war. At 19In the 1950s, mass production of baby food began in the country: canned juices and purees, powdered milk mixtures, cereals and kissels. Twenty years later, in Istra, Voronezh, Novosibirsk, near Moscow, and then in other cities, factories were built that produce liquid mixtures for children, first in glass and then in cardboard containers. Now dairy kitchens did not prepare food, but gave out ready-made jars or bags.

in the 1990s, our market was flooded with all the abundance of world baby products - milk formulas, kefir, yogurt, cereals. All this is sold in dry, liquid or frozen form and is certainly advertised as the most delicious and healthy food for children. In the competitive struggle, numerous companies adapt to different categories of consumers. For milk intolerant children, especially in East Asia, lactose-free formulas are made, where whey is replaced by no less nutritious soy protein. In New Zealand, Bibikol has developed infant formula from New Zealand goat milk, which they say differs in composition from goat milk common in Europe.

Whereas earlier they tried to expel any microorganisms from products for children, today useful bifidobacteria are specially bred in them. Baby food has become so widespread that not only children use it. Hollywood stars go on a diet of puree and milk for other reasons: baby foods are so nutritious that even small portions of them allow you to fill up and not get fat. Products for astronauts were also created at one time on the basis of baby food. Some firms tried to reverse the operation, but when the “space” tubes fell into the hands of the kids, their contents were squeezed out anywhere but into the mouth.

Children are special clients. To please them, the food must be not only healthy and tasty, but also bright, which is what producers use to make porridge or mashed potatoes red, orange or green. Sometimes this led to sad consequences. In the 1970s, a scandal erupted in the United States when a major company dyed a strawberry-flavoured children's breakfast cereal with an artificial dye that caused nausea. Thousands of parents called an ambulance - there was a complete impression that the children were vomiting blood. But the biggest scandal arose in the same 70s around the famous Nestle company - it was accused of killing many babies in "third world countries", in which, due to living conditions, mothers could not use the product correctly, they mixed food with dirty water or pour the mixture into unsterilized bottles. According to UNICEF, an unhygienic artificially fed infant is at least 6 times more likely to die from diarrhea alone than a breastfed infant.

When a mother feeds her baby, she gives him not only nutrients, but also immunity to many diseases, and, no less important, strengthens the psychological bond with him. Speaking against artificial nutrition, activists from different countries created the World Alliance for Breastfeeding. Under his pressure, the World Health Organization in 1981 adopted the "Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes", adopted over time by all major manufacturers. It stated that companies should limit advertising and conduct sales of their products with the mandatory participation of medical professionals. True, this applies only to milk formulas, but other types of baby food are under close public scrutiny.

IN THE MIDDLE AGES, CHILDREN'S FEEDING BOTTLES were made of leather and wood. At the beginning of the 19th century, porcelain bottles began to be produced. They wore nipples made of leather or suede.

The glass feeding bottle was patented in 1841 by Charles Windshiel of Massachusetts.

In 1981, the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes was created to control unacceptable marketing practices. The Code was developed by WHO/UNICEF. The official author of the code is IBFAN - International Active Baby Food Network. The code was approved by the World Health Assembly by a vote of 118 votes in favor, against 1 (the US refused to sign the code). A few years later, the rubber nipple was patented, and Windshield bottles were distributed worldwide. Mothers liked them very much. Such a bottle with an attached straw could be placed next to the child, and he could eat on his own. In the early 20th century, the Windshield bottle was banned. Rubber hoses clogged and became breeding grounds for bacteria.

International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes

The Code is addressed to governments and infant formula companies. It is a concise guide to the marketing of breast milk substitutes. Its main task is to protect the lives of children by providing them with the best food - breast milk.

Products covered by the code include:

  • artificial baby milk
  • other artificial milks
  • all types of baby food: juices, purees, soups, pates, etc.
  • Feeding bottles and teats.

The Code contains the following guidelines:

  • Information or educational materials, equipment or products may be distributed free of charge only with the written permission of the relevant authorities. (Company logo may appear but product brand may not)
  • No company materials may be distributed to mothers.
  • Health workers should support breastfeeding and encourage mothers to choose to breastfeed. They should help promote the principles of this code.
  • Do not use the health system to market artificial breast milk.
  • Health system display media such as posters, booklets, flyers, brochures, feeding bottles, labels, prescription forms, and other artificial nutrition promotional materials may not be used.
  • Representatives of manufacturing companies should not work in the health care system, in the field of child care and should not be in contact with mothers.
  • Demonstration of artificial feeding techniques may only be conducted by health workers in families where there is an absolute medical indication for supplementary feeding. At the same time, information about the risk to the health of the child if the product is used incorrectly must be provided.
  • Artificial milk may not be distributed free of charge or at reduced prices in the health care system. Donations in the form of artificial milk, feeding bottles and other products can only be given to orphanages and similar institutions, but not to hospitals and maternity hospitals.
  • Hospitals and maternity hospitals should buy this formula just like everyone else.
  • All information provided by health care professional firms must be limited to scientific facts and must not suggest that formula feeding is identical or superior to natural feeding.
  • Promotion of products by healthcare workers, as well as their material and financial incentives, is not allowed.
  • Health workers should not distribute artificial milk samples to pregnant women, mothers of infants and young children, or their family members.

Summary of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes
  • No advertising of these products to the public!
  • No free samples for mothers
  • No health promotion for this product, including free or cheap baby food.
  • No company representatives to contact mothers.
  • No gifts or samples for healthcare workers. Health care workers should never give these products to mothers.
  • No distribution of texts or graphic products idealizing formula feeding, including pictures of infants on labels.
  • Information provided by healthcare professionals must be scientific and relevant.
  • All information on bottle feeding should explain the benefits of breastfeeding and the costs and dangers associated with bottle feeding.
  • Unacceptable products such as condensed milk must not be advertised as baby food.
  • Manufacturers and distributors must act in accordance with the terms of the code, even if their countries have not committed themselves to comply with the terms of the code.

See also: webinar by Irina Ryukhova Introduction to motherhood
Irina Ryukhova's webinar series Breastfeeding. Fundamentals”
In Olga Evtukh’s ebinar “The introduction of natural complementary foods”

.

I've been thinking for quite some time about collecting all my thoughts on artificial baby food in one article, but I can't get to that work yet! There are several reasons why I put off writing this article, one of them is that this topic is incredibly broad! Actually, while I was writing this post, I realized that I want to break this topic into two parts.

The first part (namely this article) will tell about the history of the emergence and development of artificial formulas for baby food. The second part will compare the nutritional composition of infant formula and breast milk, and look more closely at the risks and benefits of formula-only feeding.

It is important to note at the outset of this story that it is not the intention of this material to portray infant formula in an unfavorable light.

Our generation is blessed to live in an age when children no longer die of malnutrition and malnutrition if their mother cannot breastfeed. As an emergency measure, artificial baby food is and always will be literally the only way to save children's lives, with no other options available . But feeding a baby exclusively with formula clearly has its serious drawbacks, and I really hope that by reading this article you will understand why formula feeding was NEVER intended for daily feeding of babies, except in dire emergencies.

Young children LIFELY need "living" food, which is human breast milk. Breast milk contains living cells, hormones, active enzymes, antibodies and at least 400 other unique components. This is a dynamic substance that provides the child with active immunity and protection against diseases every time he eats. And compared to this miraculous breast milk, artificial milk sold as infant formula is little better than regular fast food.

Infant formula is the only commercially manufactured food in the world that is recommended for consumption within a few months of life. That being said, it is well known to all that no human being will remain healthy and physically prosperous on a diet of highly processed and artificial foods. In my next blog post, I'll outline the nutritional comparison between breast milk and formula, but for now, let's take a closer look at the history of infant formula.

HISTORY OF CHILDREN'S NUTRITION

It has only been 60 years or so since the bottle feeding culture began to encourage mothers to give their babies highly processed foods from birth . Not only do women not face the choice of "breast or bottle," they don't even want to have that choice! But this is until recently, in historical terms.

Infant formula was never intended to be consumed on such a widespread basis as it is today.

Fig 1.

1800 years and earlier - the time of wet nurses.

Throughout the history of mankind, if a woman was unable to produce milk for her child, or if the mother died, leaving an orphan to be fed, then the baby was found a nurse - a woman who fed someone else's child with her milk.

The practice of wet nurses was widespread before the introduction of bottle feeding and the introduction of artificial formula. The first mention of wet nurses is found as early as 2000 BC, and the practice of feeding children by wet nurses was widespread until the 20th century. If a nurse could not be found, then the child was doomed to starvation or a constant lack of nutrients and vitamins, as he was fed with the milk of farm animals using a special baby bottle. The lack of human milk for a child born before the 1800s was literally a matter of life and death.

Rice 2. (Food for infants)

1845-1846 - Invention of the rubber teat and baby bottle.

Experience shows that baby bottles and nipples have been used by people since ancient times, they were made from improvised means, trying to create something similar to a mother's nipple. Vessels of various shapes and sizes have been found dating back thousands of years BC. Clay feeding bottles with protruding nipple spouts dating back to 2000 BC have been found in burial sites of newborns. These roughly crafted feeding bottles, and of course the problems with cleaning them, were described by observers throughout the Roman Empire, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance.

But it wasn't until 1845 that Elia Pratt invented and patented the Indian rubber nipple, which became a truly functional and successful substitute for the female nipple. When it was discovered that orphaned babies could easily suck on these new rubber nipples, which plausibly mimicked a woman's breasts, the problem of getting food for orphaned babies was solved. And now attention quickly shifted to the problem of finding food itself, which no longer entailed so many child deaths.

As early as 1846, scientists and nutritionists identified medical problems regarding baby food, and infant mortality was already associated predominantly with bottle feeding. The development of the world's first special infant formula for feeding has begun.

Figure 3. (Mom's Treasure)

Period 1867-1888 - the first infant formula was invented.

In 1867, Justus von Liebig invented the first commercially available infant formula. Liebig's Instant Baby Food was produced and marketed in London by Liebig's Registered Condensed Milk Company. Liebig himself did not accept the obvious fact that mother's milk is the ideal food for an infant, and claimed that he had succeeded in developing a substance whose chemical composition was "virtually identical to that of mother's milk."

The success of this product quickly stimulated the growth of competitors in the field, such as Mellin's Baby Food, Ridge's Baby Food and Nestlé Milk. By 1883, there were already 27 patented baby food brands on the market.

However, infant formula was still rightly regarded only as a supplementary food for infants who, if this type of nutrition were not available, would starve. These mixtures led to obesity in children, but at the same time they lacked valuable nutrients, such as proteins, vitamins and minerals. According to an article in The Boston Weekly, April 11, 1880, “It is the duty of every mother, and of those who have the great and delicate responsibility of feeding their children by means of artificial nourishment, to continually look for the best artificial nourishment.0007 to save infant life .”

Figure 4. ( Mixes Nestle for happy children . Nestle babies have pink cheeks, sparkling eyes, as well as their brain, muscles and tendons develop so that in the future these babies grow into useful men for society and women

Nine out of ten problems associated with naughty and irritable babies can be directly related to inappropriate food Let us provide you with a free half pound package of Nestlé Food for your reference and our Mom's Book, which is full of useful tips on care for infants and young children Contact us today.)

The period from 1890 to 1907 - the emergence of homemade formulas for baby food.

While infant formula has had a significant impact on reducing infant mortality, medical luminaries have continued to spread the word to the public that formula is not a panacea for all childhood illnesses. Despite the advertising claims that formulas are "virtually identical to mother's milk", many infants still die from malnutrition, scurvy, rickets and bacterial infections.

And as physicians became increasingly concerned about the quality of commercially produced infant formula and it was found that infant formula was not light enough for infants to digest, various medical guidelines began to circulate, such as Dr. Thomas Morgan Rotch's "percentage method" (published in 1890). Such recommendations became widespread and popular by 1907. According to this formula, parents were advised to mix cow's milk, water, cream and sugar or honey in a certain ratio in order to obtain a nutritional composition close to human milk.

These homemade formulas were less expensive and people deeply believed that they were healthier.

However, the children who received these foods also continued to suffer from diet-related illnesses - scurvy, rickets and bacterial infections - that they could not bear.

Figure 5. ( No doctor will find a better powdered milk for feeding babies than this.

better than White House infant formula.

Doctors know that White House infant formula contains the nutrients of fresh milk and pure crystalline vitamin D3 - an important "sunshine" vitamin - which has been generously added to the formula for the proper development of the child's bones and teeth. What's more, White House formulas are carefully homogenized for easier digestion by babies and are sterilized in safe, airtight containers. These manufacturing features are approved by the American Medical Association Food and Nutrition Board.

Indeed, there is no better powdered milk for feeding children than White House. And no nutritionist can recommend the best powdered milk for cooking, baking, coffee and other drinks, or much more. )

Period 1908 to 1950 - Powdered milk based infant formula took over America in a wave.

In the 1910s, powdered milk formula became widely available at low prices. Inspired by the success, dairy corporations began funding clinical trials that proved that formula-fed babies thrive “as if they were fed real breast milk.” This argument for mixtures is not supported by modern research, but at that time they made a lot of money, based on deception.

Figure 6. ("My Doctor Recommends Carnation!")

families. And as more women embraced the fad and relied on the bottle to feed their children, the more “instant baby food” seemed magical to the public. By the late 1930s, the use of powdered milk formula in the United States outpaced all other commercially available infant formula, and by 1950, half of the children in the United States were being raised on powdered formula.

Figure 7.

1951 - 1970 - Feeding formula manufacturers begin to use aggressive advertising campaigns to boost sales.

In the late 1950s, Alfred Bosworth published the word "similac" reformulated and shortened from "similartolactation" ("like breastfeeding"), and Meade Johnson published the word "Enfamil" (from the combined "infant" and "meal" , i.e. "children's food"). Several other formulas were released over the next decade and, thanks to extremely aggressive advertising campaigns with exaggerated health benefits and slogans about the ideal nutritional composition, powdered infant formula began to seriously compete with formulas based on milk powder. Infant formula became widely popular when breastfeeding began to be seen in society as "unkempt" and "dirty".

In 1959, advertising campaigns in hospitals and pediatric departments of hospitals proliferated with inexpensive trial formulas, and by the early 1960s in the United States, commercial formulas were already used more widely than formulas based on milk powder, which eventually disappeared altogether. off the market in the 1970s.

Figure 8. (When the milk is at the expense of the state - it must be the best)

1971-1996 - child mortality and morbidity associated with the use of formula for feeding attract public attention.

By the early 1970s, more than 75% of American children were fed formula, nearly all of which were commercially produced.

As birth rates declined in industrialized countries by the 1970s, infant formula manufacturers turned their advertising campaigns to non-industrialized countries. Unfortunately, poor sanitary conditions in such countries have led to a sharp increase in the death rate among infants fed with formula prepared with contaminated water. In addition, Third World women using formula to feed their babies lost their breast milk because they didn’t need it, and when formula ran out, they diluted it with three times the recommended amount of water in order to stretch the available quantity over a long period of time. This has led to mass child deaths from malnutrition.

UNICEF estimates that formula-fed children living in disease-ridden and unhygienic conditions are 25 times more likely to die of diarrhea and 4 times more likely to die of pneumonia than children in the same conditions but breastfed.

After it became known that 1.2 million infant deaths in third world countries were clearly the fault of formula feeding, there was a wave of protests around the world - the most famous was the boycott announced by Nestlé in 1977, calling for an end to unethical advertising campaigns for infant formula.

Unethical marketing of infant formula, the latest extreme of which is touting formula as a "healthy" baby food choice, eventually led to the formation of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes. This is the international health policy framework for the promotion of breastfeeding, approved by the WHO World Health Assembly at 1981 year. This Code was developed as a global public health strategy and recommends limiting the marketing of infant formula to encourage women to breastfeed their babies and using breast milk substitutes judiciously and only when absolutely necessary.

Figure 9. (Profits are rising...and infant mortality too. Nestlé boycott)

1997 and present - breast or bottle.

Despite the best efforts of all public awareness campaigns, fast food culture in America is still widespread and involves the use of infant formula in infant nutrition.

In addition to the widespread commercial brands, generic (or proprietary) brands of infant formula appeared in the United States in 1997, the first being PBMProducts. These private label blends are sold at many major grocery and drug store chains such as Wal-Mart, Target, and Walgreens.

However, as more and more short-term or long-term health risks from exclusive formula feeding are now being found in research, leading health organizations (WHO, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as non-profit organizations such as La Leche League) are trying to reduce the use of infant formula and increase the duration of feeding from birth to 12-24 months of age by disseminating information through various public health campaigns.

By now, the problem of choosing between breastfeeding or bottle feeding is complicated by the opposition between the opinions of modern medicine, basic nutrition and greedy marketing in fast food culture. Today, the global market for infant formula, a product that from its inception to the present has been an emergency baby food, is estimated to be worth about $11.5 billion.

US data clearly show that babies growing up in poverty and poor sanitation are still getting sick and dying because they are fed exclusively formula too early. Research shows that formula-fed babies tend to be more likely to develop atopy, diabetes, and childhood obesity, all just because bottle-feeding is faster.

Figure 10. (Breastfeeding is the best)

Brief facts about modern infant formula.

- There is still no single formula for infant formula. The process of production of artificial formulas for feeding from the very beginning of its history is accompanied by trial and error.

- The ingredients in infant formula are a mystery in most cases. Only the manufacturers themselves know what they put in their product, but they will never say what is there and, moreover, they are not legally obliged to do so, thanks to the right of "trade secrets".

- Certain infant formulas are clearly known to contain toxic and hazardous ingredients . Like many other baby food products on the market, some commercial formulas contain frightening ingredients, from sweeteners like corn syrup to preservatives like copper sulfide, which is a toxic pesticide.

- Within reasonable limits, manufacturers can put whatever they see fit into the mixture. And in fact the recipe for the same product can vary from batch to batch, depending on the price and availability of the ingredients. While we admit that the composition of infant formula is carefully regulated, no one requires honesty from manufacturers. For example, they must not register specific components of any batch or trademark with any authority.

- Vitamins and valuable trace elements are added to the mixture, but not always in their easily digestible form. This means that the claim that "formula is nutritionally complete" may be technically true, but in any case, they add a load to children's organs and body systems (and NONE of infant formula contains live enzymes and does not have immune-boosting properties, unlike live breast milk!)

- Many infant formulas are over-sweetened. While most infant formulas do not contain sugar in the form of sucrose, they do contain high amounts of other types of sugars such as lactose (milk sugar), fructose (fruit sugar), glucose (also known as dextrose, a simple sugar, found in plants) and maltodextrose (maltose sugar). Due to flaws in the legislation, all of these ingredients may be described as "sucrose free" in the formula.

- The Food and Drug Administration found that more than 90% mixtures contain random contaminants. Contaminants that enter the mixture during the manufacturing process are found in the form of metals (aluminum, cadmium, lead, and others). Bacterial and trace amounts of melamine, a toxic kidney-damaging chemical, are also persistent contaminants in mixtures.

What we've learned from the history of infant formula.

Because mixtures are not - and never have been! - Nutrientally complete, and because they do not contain the components of breast milk that support the child's immunity, it has been found that the use of formula by the child day after day has a devastating effect on his health in the short and long term.

The World Health Organization warns that "lack of breast milk - and in particular the lack of it in the first six months of an infant's life - is a significant factor in increasing infant morbidity and even mortality."

When it comes time to choose how to feed your baby, you need to remember that there is not a single medical indication in favor of choosing inadequate artificial nutrition.

Learn more