Toddlers' foods advertised on different communication outlets often deny prescriptions of health specialists based on a research. The research discovered that baby foods were added with supplements not really recommended for many toddlers. Indeed looks can be deceiving.
As discovered by researchers from Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity, in 2015, toddler food manufacturers in the U.S paid out $77 million to market baby food, infant formula, and drinks and food for toddlers, mainly through Internet, magazines, and television. In contrast, they spent $98 million on marketing products with vegetables and fruits which were made for the general population.
Researchers, led by Jennifer Harris, the marketing director of Rudd Center, looked at many data including those amounts spend on marketing, advertising claims, and messages in marketing and on the packages of the product and nutritional content of the products marketed. The researchers also analyzed marketing of toddler foods to Hispanic parents through the means of Spanish-language.
Findings showed that most of the advertised toddler food products were, in fact, healthy choices like pureed vegetables and fruits, whole dairy and grains products. However, most baby food manufacturers, about 60 percent, produced toddler foods which were included with ingredients not healthy for many toddlers.
Among the toddler foods with unhealthy supplements were snack foods with low nutrient content, liquid supplements high in calorie such as PediaSure and toddler milk high in sugar. Marlene Schwartz, director of Rudd Center for Food and Policy and Obesity said that many of the products manufacturers are advertising for toddler contain corn syrup, agave, sucrose and cane sugar which must be stopped.
"It's easy to make parents anxious about finicky eating and send them the message that their child might need these products," CBSNews quoted Harris as claiming. However most toddlers don't need those, says Angela Lemond, a pediatric nutrition specialist. Lemond also advised parents to get advice from a health-care provider and not from food marketing.
In the end, Harris said that their analysis shows that marketing for toddler and baby food, infant formula and toddler nutritional and milk supplements sometimes contradicts health experts' advice. He added that in few advertised toddler foods encourage parents to feed their toddler products which might not promote healthy eating habits.
