High sugar in baby porridge

[Mccarthyaisling]

Hi
I feel totally duped and annoyed. I have been giving my eight month old porridge for two weeks now. There other meals I have been making but thought baby porridge to be healthier than regular oats. I should have checked and so mad with myself I didn’t . Aptimal porridge has such a high sugar content. So the government is taxing fizzy drinks due to high sugar but it it is ok to sell such a high sugar product to babies. I feel it is false advertising as it is marketed as being healthy and now I have been exposing my babies to sweet food. I have read threads today from other mums complaining about the high volume of sugar but I think we should go further I think it should be made more explicit or even better removed from the market.

Ready brek and weetabix and porridge are all ok from 6 months old

Readybrek is also significantly better value than the baby porridges.

If you use jars/pouches and read the ingredients you'll notice that a lot of the savoury dishes have fruit in it (often apples and often in a higher % than the meat and veg advertised on the front ) as it will make the dish sweeter and babies prefer sweet foods

You are right to be annoyed that foods marketed for babies are high in sugar. Manufacturers do it so that babies prefer the processed products. It might only be the same as adding some fruit yourself but you would be aware if you were doing that, and wouldn't add it all the time.

I agree that it is immoral that apparently healthy foods are often like this and the manufacturers shouldn't be allowed to do it. But they have to wind kids' tastebuds up so they are ready for CornFlakes etc. somehow.

NVs for Ready Brek. No salt or sugar.

I've seen that it states no added sugar/salt, only naturally occurring. Could it be from the formula milk and fruit in the mixture?

Don't worry too much, chalk it up to experience.

Try Ready Milk (or the supermarket version), it's fortified with vitamins and minerals. I've been giving this to my son since about 6/7 months old and still loves it at nearly two. For variety, you can add:
Sliced banana
Grated apple
Mixed berry compote (I make my own using frozen mixed fruit)
Frozen fruit (my son loves raspberries and blueberries)
Stewed apples/pear/plums when in season (freezes well)
Strawberries etc when in season

Babana and blueberries is delicious...I often it eat myself :)

Also: Weetabix + Oatibix with the above :)

Do be very careful about feeding babies cereals designed for adults as the SALT content can be fatal.

Read the thread... and that judge was talking bollocks. If I was reddy brek I would have sued the barstard. I think maybe once upon a time reddy brek had salt in.

Ready brek hit back at that article as ready brek does not (and has never) contain added salt or sugar.

Didn't realise it never had salt in- even more reason to sue the barstard as its still having repercussions on sales of reddy brek today- judging by the posts on this thread at least.

But I still think it pays to be ultra cautious when giving infants any processed food that has not been specifically designed for infants.

Why? What is your reasoning for this? I gave my baby processed granary bread and processed spaghetti today Yes, I realise there's salt in the bread I add up the salt as we go through the day to make sure baby doesn't go over.

There's a whole industry exploiting this view and creating things specifically for babies which are less healthy and more expensive- think baby rice, baby porridge and rice cakes. I think that was the point the op was coming from.

There's also baby wipe full of chemicals which are clearly not good for babies sensitive bums.