Oh-no, not ice cream, French fries to infants?

William Atkins
Tuesday, 07 September 2010 00:26

Science - Health

An Australian study has determined that mothers are introducing ice cream, French fries, and soft drinks to the diets of their infants. Such inappropriate eating habits make it more likely that such babies grow up to be overweight.

 

 

The article “Exposure to non-core foods and beverages in the first year of life: Results from a cohort study” (DOI: 10.1111/j.1747-0080.2010.01445.x) was first published online on August 25, 2010, within the journal Nutrition & Dietetics.

The Australian researchers studied the percentages of “non-core” foods and beverages that were introduced to Australian infants during the first year of their lives.

Such “non-core” foods and beverages included biscuits/cakes, hot chips/French fries, ice-cream, and soft drinks/fruit juice.

These items are not recommended to be fed to infants because they contain high percentages of salt, sugar, and fat.

Instead, medical professionals recommend "breastfeeding only" for the first six months of life.

For their study, the Australian researchers used 587 women from two maternity hospitals in Perth, Australia.

Published in the September 2010 issue of the journal Nutrition & Dietetics (volume 67, issue 3, pages 137-142), its authors are Gloria A. Koh and Jane A. Scott (both from the Nutrition and Dietetics, School of Medicine, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia) Wendy H. Oddy (from the Telethon Institute of Child Health Research, University of Western Australia), and Kathleen I. Graham and Colin W. Binns (both from the School of Public Health, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Western Australia, Australia).

Page two discusses the study on infants and diet.