UPFs, prepared baby foods and the issues

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From The Guardian and a recommended read for all parentshttps://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/mar/15/ultra-processed-babies-are-toddler-snacks-one-of-the-great-food-scandals-of-our-time#comments

Agree! People get so caught up in the formula or breast milk debate and completely overlook the fact that formula/breast milk is such a tiny part of a child’s life. Surely what you feed them from weaning through toddler years and beyond is way more important for long-term healthy eating habits.

So they don’t starve to death is the answer. I EBF one of my dc and the other I had to feed formula because she could not feed from the breast and I couldn’t express enough for her to eat. She was classed a failure to thrive because she lost so much weight. I’m very happy with that decision, even when it wasn’t what I’d hoped for.

The nutritional milks and feeds that a family member with a severe disability are tube fed are also UFPs, but they’ve kept him alive for 15 years when 50 years ago before we had that science, he would have died as a baby. I’m sure his mum would love him to be eating chia pudding with organic fruit and grass fed beef, but this is life. I’m very grateful that the science around formula is what it is today, because when I needed it, it kept my baby alive.

That said, you sound a bit like my friend, the breastfeeding Nazi, as I call her. She thinks that babies should be removed by SS if their mothers choose not to BF them…and placed with families who will, presumably, formula feed them. Boggles the mind really.

I think the role of nurseries is really interesting. I was fortunate to have a great nursery with amazing cooks, who really invested in mealtimes. They had my kids happily eating sardines, encouraged good table manners (serving themselves from communal plates, sitting together) and produced a varied diet.

If you’re sending your kids to nursery with a packed lunch, it’s much easier to succumb to those horrible pouches “for convenience”. And it’s sheer laziness and a cultural issue when you look at the amazing lunchboxes that other countries put together. It’s no harder to put some dried apricots and shreddies in a pot for snack, than one of those packets of puffs. See also fruit leather - it’s basically sugar in sheet form.

I think the article seems to suggest that parents who give their child melty sticks are only giving them processed snacks, which to your point I think is completely untrue. For most of us we are feeding our children normal, as healthy as we can meals, but those snacks do have a place in modern life.

I do wish we could eat together as a family more, but the reality is we both work, I don’t get home until 6:30 at the earliest, by which point DD has already eaten. But even then we mostly (I’ll never claim perfection) manage to avoid total beige, and always give plenty of veggies, which inexplicably she seems to love (for now).

That said, I think the most beige food she is given is actually at nursery, so I don’t think it’s fair to necessarily put all the onus on busy parents. It’s unfair to look intergenerationally. Life today can’t be fairly compared to our parents or grandparents generations.

I think most of the point about formula is whataboutery, but formula is relevant to the discussion around toddler food and UPFs because of who these foods are primarily marketed at. Where are the pouches, toddler melt puffs etc located in the supermarket? That's right, next to the formula. So the formula brands want parents loyal to their brand at the formula stage (or getting them at the "follow-on" milk stage if the BF) so that they will then buy their weaning products. If you exclusively breastfeed then you won't pass the pouches etc in the supermarket unless you are actively looking for them.

So I think formula is part of the discussion, but only in the context of the aggressive marketing the formula companies are still allowed to get away with (follow on milk only exists here as they lobbied to be able to advertise it), not as an excuse to shame parents for how they choose to feed their babies.

Shredders are a UPF and dried fruit are crystallised sugar and horrendous for their teeth. It’s really hard to find quick snacks that are non UPF. But agree they’d be better on a balance than Kiddylicious UPF.

Agree re ARFID - not lost on me the safe foods are always McDonalds and beige UPF/sweets.

Edited because hit post by accident

I’m not convinced.

Formula is in the same aisle as “baby food”, but it’s also in the same aisle as nappies, wipes, poo bags and Calpol… because babies.

So the formula brands want parents loyal to their brand at the formula stage (or getting them at the "follow-on" milk stage if the BF) so that they will then buy their weaning products.

I am battling to find weaning products made by formula companies. The two big ones named in the article are Ella’s Kitchen (owned by Hains - Cov Garden soup, Joya almond milks etc) and Kiddylicious (owned by Lotus - they of the Biscoff).

Now Nestle etc do produce enormous amounts of crap food - but it’s not in this aisle.

There you are, banging on about ARFID but obsessing about perfectly normal, everyday snacks I would imagine most families use.
When will people realise that micromanaging your child's diet to this degree is likely to have the complete opposite effect when they are older?
I have told the story on here before about the children in my toddler group eating the crumbs from the floor because they were not allowed cake. True story.

Have you noticed how many children are now obese?

And you think dry shreddies and apricots are causing this?

These threads always bring out people with disordered food relationships. UPFs are another way for certain women to beat up others. Just like formula.

No, but I think endless sedentary gaming, beige food and snacking culture are

I agree. But give it a go. If it's not for you then fine. I mix feed mine as couldnt manage full bfing. But diet wise there is much less of an excuse.

I think eating the same diet is more important than eating at the same time. My kids are big now (10 & 8) and so can wait for dinner time during the working week. I remember when they were nursery age we would often sit them back down with us at dinner time, and they could sample what we were eating. On days when I had the kids I would eat with them and DH would eat later - it was an unusual decision amongst our friends but I do think it pays off.

I’m mostly thinking of the several of my friends who serve an entirely different menu to their kids, consisting of beige children’s food or sausages, and then sit down to something delicious from Gousto or the like later. They then complain that their kids are fussy eaters.

batch cooking is a good way round the problem - so everyone eats the same broad diet on a different schedule.

If you read my posts rather than react to the narrative you hold then you would see that I have said more than once that formula/UPF are 100% the right choice when there is a genuine medical/physical/logistical inability to breastfeed.
HTH

So UPFs are only bad once babies have weaned? Oh. Ok.

You’re not telling us what health risks there are to babies from formula.

Whereas everyone knows the risks of decades of UPFs as a main diet.

But it’s not about YOU or your cousin or the lady down the road is it. Facts don’t lie. Yes maybe your dc have turned out fine but the studies show what they show and they show an absolute correlation between formula at infancy and a host of health issues later in life.

You are doing the equivalent of ‘my parent smoked 40 day and they lived to 96 so cigarettes are fine’ argument. It’s not about the outliers.

They are many were are perfectly healthy with no added sugar, salt or preservatives. DT’s were weaned on jars and pouches.

The infant follow on milks are the biggest scam going. There’s no excuse in educating yourself. We had a rough time as baby was seriously allergic to dairy. I BF for a year and a bit and I couldn’t have dairy they were that allergic. Following on and weaning were a nightmare as only ONE yes ONE! Non dairy milk that isn’t full of gunk and palm oils, BUT I did my research and insured my child wasn’t getting pumped full of shite

FYI it’s Plenish milks if anyone in same boat

it’s funny when people our age say ‘well it didn’t kill me!’ Etc about things but are sat there, 30-40 years old with chronic bowel issues, overweight, hormonal issues etc. you really don’t think that crap we got fed has affected us?!

Also it’s not just the ingredients of these ‘pouches’ etc

microplastics people, seeping in to the food. Many recent studies found humans have microplastics in the brain and can cause dementia etc.

What host of issues, and how high is the risk? We need some facts here, not just you posting ‘UPF!!’ every 5 seconds. I breasted 2 kids for a total of 1.5 years, so if you think I’m being defensive you’re wrong.

Why give it a go when you don’t want to. I never had any intention of breast feeding.

This. One of reasons we are leaving London before children get school age. Every third shop a chicken shop, fast food or Tesco express etc
almost every child I see constantly snacking and overweight. Parents have enabled this as has government

Just kind of seems a bizarre stand point
I didn’t pressure myself and my child was in NICU but I still tried and actually it was so convenient and helped us bond after we were separated for many days
I think people owe it to their child to try I really do