A staggering 60 percent of infant and toddler foods fail to meet nutritional recommendations, and none meet promotional requirements set by World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, according to new research published today in the scientific journal Nutrients . In the absence of US-specific nutrition or promotional guidelines for these foods, researchers at The George Institute for Global Health assessed data on 651 infant and toddler food products sold in the top ten US grocery chains held in the Institute's FoodSwitch database against this international benchmark. Among all products, 70 percent failed to meet protein requirements and 44 percent exceeded total sugar requirements.
A further one in four products did not meet calorie requirements and one in five exceeded recommended sodium limits. Dr. Elizabeth Dunford, Research Fellow at The George Institute, and Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Nutrition at the University of North Carolina said that the rising popularity of processed convenience foods for infants and young children was concerning.
"Early childhood is a crucial period of rapid growth and when taste preferences and dietary habits form, potentially paving the way for the development of chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes and some cancers later in life," she said. "Time-poor parents are increasingly choosing convenience foods, unaware that many of these products lack key nutrients needed for their child's development and tricked into believing .