It would be assumed that in the preparation of making baby food, quality of the utmost standards would be upheld by the manufacturers.
After all, as parents, we desire the best for our children, to the point of putting their health and welfare above our own.
Such intense care easily extends to ensuring our children eat healthy, safe, and nutritious meals that would supplement their growth and development.
This is even more important when it comes to the welfare of baby and toddler food since anything that affects a child’s early development can permanently affect a child for the rest of its life.
Alas, in our busy modern lives, we are unable to personally supervise the preparation of each meal for our children.
So the next best thing we can do is carefully choose store-bought baby foods that promise to do for us what we simply don’t have the time or energy for.
It should then be of the utmost alarm and concern to any parent that the billion-dollar packaged baby food industry may be causing more harm than the good it promises to deliver.
A recent Consumer Reports study looked into 50 different packaged foods for young children and found that all of them contained troubling amounts of heavy metals.
Even worse, nearly 68% of these foods had worrisome levels of heavy metals that are considered dangerous, such as lead, cadmium, or inorganic arsenic.
Just a single serving or less per day of these foods was enough to pose a potential health risk to a child.
Many of these foods, which contain foodstuffs such as cereals, prepared entrées, packaged fruits, vegetables, and snacks, are believed to pose severe risks for the health of its targeted consumers in the long run.
As these consumers are babies and toddlers, this is alarming to any parent who only wishes the best for their child.
Due to the fact they have small bodies and absorb more heavy metals than adults, these worrying amounts of heavy metals will likely directly affect the growth and development of a child.
This is not to say that all heavy metals are toxic. Some, like zinc and iron, are absolutely essential to the proper functioning of the human body.
However, many of the heavy metals are so toxic that even small amounts can possibly increase the risk of severe health problems and can directly affect the development of a child’s brain, leading to issues such as low IQ and behavioral problems.
Regular consumption of these metals, even in small amounts, can also increase the risk of a myriad of diseases as well.
You should be aware of the following products:
- Earth’s Best Organic Chicken & Brown Rice / Earth’s Best Turkey / Earth’s Best Organic Sweet Potatoes, 1st Stage / Earth’s Best Organic Whole Grain Rice Cereal / Earth’s Best Organic Sunny Days Snack Bars, Strawberry
- Gerber Chicken & Rice / Gerber Turkey & Rice / Gerber Lil’ Meals White Turkey Stew with Rice & Vegetables / Gerber Carrot, Pear & Blackberry / Gerber Carrots Peas & Corn with Lil’ Bits
- Sprout Organic Baby Food Garden Vegetables Brown Rice with Turkey
- Plum Organics Just Sweet Potato Organic Baby Food
- Beech-Nut Classics Sweet Potatoes
- Happy Baby Organics Superfood Puffs, Apple & Broccoli / Happy Baby Organics Superfood Puffs, Purple Carrot & Blueberry.
With the health and development of young children on the line, it is an absolute necessity that baby food manufacturers take responsibility and strive to remove such toxic materials completely from their products.
As awareness of this grows, hopefully, packaged foods for our children will be safe once more.
Until then, home cooked food, fresh fruits, and vegetables still remain the best option for our little ones.
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