According to a recent study in Perth, Australia, babies here are being fed high calorie junk foods like biscuits, cakes, hot chips and ice cream before they turn one. This practice affects their eating habits for life say researchers. The report appeared in the Australian Journal of Nutrition and Dietetics. The study was undertaken by the Telethon Institute of Child Health Research, University of Western Australia and Curtin University and South Australia's Flinders University.
For the study 587 women from two Perth public hospitals were included and they recorded everything their children ate for the first year. They were interviewed on eating habits every six weeks. Results showed 91.6 per cent of babies were eating biscuits and cakes, while 78 per cent ate hot chips and 68 per cent were fed ice cream in that time. Researchers write, “By four weeks post-partum, some mothers already had introduced fruit juice, cordials, soft drinks, biscuits, cakes and ice-cream to infants…Fruit juice was the most common item to be introduced to infants by four weeks (2.3 per cent) and continued to be one of the most common items to be introduced to infants in the first year of life (67.5 per cent).”
According to Telethon's nutrition program leader Associate Professor Wendy Oddy nutrition in the child reflected dietary habits of the family. Dr. Oddy said, “It's really important for parents to give more healthy options like giving wholemeal bread instead of white bread and giving vegetable sticks instead of chips…Our (previous) research has shown significant relationships between a healthy diet and better mental health.” The World Health Organization guidelines recommend babies should be breast-fed exclusively until they reach six months. This study found that by the time babies had reached 17 weeks the Perth parents were introducing other foods to their diet.
According to study's co-author, Flinders University Associate Professor Jane Scott providing a balanced, healthy diet to the infant was fast becoming a “lost skill”. She said, “I guess I was disturbed but not necessarily surprised because traditionally infants are weaned onto the family's diet by about 12 months of age and I think this is reflective of what the families diet is…It's not really saying or implying that all those children are eating these foods on a regular basis but even so in those early months it's not the foods that we recommend for infants to be eating, there's no value in them.” She explained that the first year of life lays foundation of eating habits for life. “It's a window of opportunity for helping to establish good eating habits in early life, and once established these habits are actually very hard to break…This is the time when children are most receptive to new tastes,” she said. There is a natural predisposition to like salty and sweet foods in babies she said and that is reason why fruits and vegetables should be introduced and included in diet. “We do have dietary guidelines for older children and adolescents but this age group does seem to be falling between the gaps,” she said.
The study also showed that mothers with three or more children were more likely to give their infants ice-cream and hot chips. Mothers who were born in countries other than Australia, the UK and Ireland were less likely to give them hot chips. Varied socio-economic backgrounds were seen in this study with similar results.
A 2007 survey by the CSIRO found that 20 per cent of Australian toddlers aged between two and three years were overweight or obese, and food preferences of children as young as two closely predicted the child's eating habits at the age of eight. Louise Baur, professor of paediatrics at The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Sydney, said she was “saddened, but not surprised”. Brisbane dietitian Melanie Kelly said she was “horrified” to hear of the findings.
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