World’s first New Zealand study: Are baby food pouches really bad for babies?

Recently, researchers at the University of Otago found that pouches do little to support infants’ iron intake from solid foods, and an August study of foods sold in the US found that most packaged foods contained unhealthy levels of sugar and salt.

Surprisingly, however, there has been little research done on how the pouches are actually used by children – or whether they actually affect energy intake or body weight.

Earlier studies only looked at one type of pouch or what infants ate on one day.

University of Otago nutritionist Professor Anne-Louise Heath said she and her team wanted to properly test these concerns, as well as concerns about potential iron deficiency in infants.

After recruiting more than 900 older babies, toddlers and preschoolers and their whānau in Dunedin and Auckland, the researchers began investigating how the bags were used, what the children ate and how they grew up.

They also monitored their dental health and used blood samples to check their iron levels.

Their results showed that only one in four children wore the pouches regularly, meaning five or more times a week.

Despite concerns that babies will become accustomed to sucking pureed food directly from the attachment, the study found that only 5% of babies aged 7 to 10 months regularly use pouches this way.

Most infants were spoon-fed, and when they consumed food from bags, they were often placed in high chairs under adult supervision.

Although nozzle sucking has become more common among toddlers and preschoolers, the incidence of bagging in this age group has remained low.

“We also found that using baby food pouches did not increase the size of infants and small children,” Heath said.

Surprisingly, they found that in preschoolers, total energy intake was slightly lower among bag users, although BMI was not affected.

“Infants who used the pouches frequently were also not more likely to be iron deficient,” Heath said, adding that dental data and oral motor skills had yet to be assessed.

As the first study of its kind in the world, Heath expected the new study to be an important addition to the global evidence base.

“Previous studies only looked at fruit-based baby food pouches or just behavior over a single day,” she said.

“Dietitians and other health experts need evidence from well-designed studies to be able to advise parents on how to feed their infants and young children – so these results should carry significant weight as they are the first such data available.”

However, the results came with some caveats: the study was based on parent reports and included young children who had not used the pouches for a long time.

“It is important to remember that further research will need to examine whether long-term consumption of food from baby food pouches has an effect – especially after the first few months of eating solid foods, when it is recommended that pureed foods can be part of the diet.”

Research published in a scientific journal Nutrientswas supported by a grant from the Health Research Council and the Department of Primary Industries and received no industry funding.

Jamie Morton is a specialist in science and environmental journalism. He joined Herald in 2011 and writes about everything from the environment and climate change to natural disasters and new technologies.

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