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

So what is your suggestion for feeding babies whose mothers are unable to breastfeed them? There isn’t a surplus of donor breast milk available, and wet nursing or cross feeding is vanishingly rare. Formula milk is a miracle of modern science and having an infant food which matches breast milk so closely that sibling studies can’t reliable differentiate between breast and formula fed babies is something that will have saved millions of lives. I really can’t see the relevance to formula milk in this debate. Yes, it’s ultra processed but it’s also one of only two options which offers babies all of their nutritional requirements. For many babies the choice is formula or something nutritionally inadequate so not really a choice at all. Unlike ultra processed food for weaning babies, where there is a huge variety of options for feeding.

You’d be better trying to get beige food withdrawn, slushy and fizzy drinks, multi packs of crisps and chocolate bars, sugar filled cereals.

Why would anyone need to buy a box of 24 packs of crisps. Example - 2 children, one pack each per week = 12 weeks to use - wouldn’t they be going stale?

Where did you live when your DC were small, out of interest?

Obviously I mean under 6 month infants.

Well it is relevant because we have one of the worst rates of BF in the western world in the UK. So we need to talk about both things together.

As in obviously some people are unable to BF, but it’s actually rare to be unable to BF. Many mums just get inadequate support from the NHS or ill informed advice when actually with better support they could BF. So we need a two pronged approach. Better education about UPF baby junk food, and better support to BF with much better midwife and HV education.

You’re wrong about that. Tango Ice Blast once a year (while awful and gross) is way better than eating a UPF snack like, say, supermarket brioche every day. Isn’t that obvious?

But who is having a tango ice blast once a year and eating brioche every day? The kids round here all stop in for a TIB from Morrisons on the way back from school each day.

Plus this is just the stupidest logic I’ve ever seen, sorry. It’s like saying cigarettes are healthier than bananas, if you have 1 cigarette a year and 200 bananas every day and get potassium poisoning.

All i can say is f*. Well, better to start late than never.

My point is, formula is a UPF (just look at the ingredients) and a far inferior substitute for breast milk. We need to look at the whole picture, including these UPF snacks but also formula at the same time.

I’m not saying that formula milk is less healthy than these UPF snacks, but it likely does even more damage. Obviously sometimes in rare cases it is an actual necessity (in the rare cases where milk supply is truly as issue, though often women are misinformed on this) but we need to have a multi pronged approach supporting breastfeeding while also restricting the advertising of these snacks.

My baby was unable to breast feed, no suction. I had to squeeze formula into her, just an example for a different point of view.

My kids are older now, we didn't have all the snacks. I'd say my daughter at Uni eats the most UPF's.

Please can post anything factual about formula being worse than UPF snacks?

And can you post, for arguments sake, the biggest risk of formula versus breast milk?

Until then, I can’t take you seriously. You sound like somebody desperate to reassure yourself that your kids eating rubbish is fine because you breastfed them.

It's pointless making this a breastmilk vs formula debate, most women choose to or have to use formula at some point regardless of whether they breastfeed.

Formula could probably be improved though. The make up of formula is already pretty different in the EU (eg no corn syrup or artificial sweeteners) compared to the US. So if formula companies were required to reduce the amount of seed oils or increase the amount of whole milk for example they probably could.

You seem to think the majority of women who choose not to breastfeed do so on the basis on inability or depression.
the vast majority do it out of just not wanting to breastfeed.
Choosing to have a child and then at the very first point of making the first parenting decisions go with ‘ew. I don’t wanna’ and giving them 100% of their nutrition from a UPF. Yeah. Those people I judge.

Did you have a caesarean section by any chance @carrotsandtomatoes @Snowdrops23 ?

And you would definitely be someone I would judge for thinking they were better than other parents for deciding how to feed your baby. You’re the type of person I would hope not to come across in rl.

Physically being unable to breastfeed isn't the only reason. I'd say that a bigger reason is mental health which is obviously incredibly important, it's no good to breastfeed if it is wrecking your mental health.

Breastfeeding support is largely woeful and I can't see that changing any time soon.

What do you think it's going to do to a woman's mental health if she forces herself to breastfeed when she doesn't want to? Yes, the breast milk is going to be beneficial to the baby but at what cost?

Having a mentally well mother is far more beneficial.

My daughter doesn’t eat any rubbish. She gets her 5 a day and then some. She’s maybe had chicken nuggets once. She’s had a biscuit once in her life and cake twice. She did have those melty puffs a few times when she was a baby, on flights and things like that, and at her grandparents’ now and then. She’s not even two yet though so it’s easy to control her diet. I appreciate it gets difficult when they start going to parties.

But no, this isn’t about me. I just think both things need to be considered as both are harming children.

And I don’t need to post a study about the risks of formula, those are obvious from all the studies about the benefits of BF. Can’t you tell?

I did. My milk took 5 days to come in but my baby was fine on colostrum till then as I’m educated about BF.

What’s the relevance of the C section question?

Because the mums I’ve met who have been the most militant about breastfeeding, and unkind to other women who formula fed, were mums who had unplanned or unwanted c-sections. I’ve often wondered if it’s some sort of compensation.

Not saying that’s the case for you necessarily as I have no idea whether yours was a wanted CS or not, but if it wasn’t, how would you feel if another woman said you hadn’t tried hard enough to deliver vaginally? And think of all the good gut bacteria your baby missed out on. Didn’t you do enough to at least have a proper try at it? Because let’s face it that’s what nature intends.

It feels horrible doesn’t it? Not to mention pointless.

That’s what you’re doing to other women here.