Greetings

Hello everyone, welcome to our July newsletter! As always, we provide an overview of what is happening within our childcare community. This month, we will focus on the effects of ultra-processed food on babies and young children.

It's hard to escape eating ultra-processed food. It's everywhere from the milk we drink to the breakfast cereal we enjoy and even the chocolate bar we eat when we need an energy boost. With infants, parents and caregivers have a lot less to worry about when it comes to their diet and nutrition. However, if they use a baby milk formula that has way more added sugar, that's when the trouble sets in. When a toddler  transitions to solid food and learns how to say ‘no’ and starts developing food preferences, parents who easily give in might lead the child to develop a diet that's nutritionally poor. 

A UK study found that nearly a third of baby and toddler food on the market are ultra-processed foods. These are food items which have undergone significant changes in its composition. Some examples can easily be spotted in any baby food aisles in the supermarket such as baby snacks and cereals, fruit purees and concentrates, and biscuits. 

Ultra-Processed Foods

Ultra-processed foods for babies and young children start with baby milk formulas to baby transition food like vegetable and fruit purees to fruit juices, breakfast cereals, mass-produced bread and snacks. Here are some of the most common types of food and additives in ultra-processed foods that’s very hard to avoid. 

Baby milk formula

Manufactured baby milk formula today is too far removed in composition compared to breast milk. Containing powdered milk proteins, vegetable oils, lactose and other added sugars, micronutrients and additives, these baby milk formulas fall under ultra-processed food. 

While baby milk formula processing has been guided by the World Health Organization (WHO) International Code of Marketing of Breast-Milk Substitutes, when manufactured under loose supervision, can still be a huge factor in contributing to childhood obesity and malnutrition in babies and young children.However, Infant Feeding Alliance argues that even if baby milk is considered as an ultra-processed food, it cannot be denied that it provides complete nutrition for babies. 

However, a young child’s preference for ultra-processed food may start even before it is born. Research suggests that a mother’s diet can reach a foetus and influence its appreciation for certain foods. It also found that babies who drank formula milk not based on cow’s milk are more accepting of bitter, sour, and savoury tasting-food, making vegetables easier to consume than those who were fed formulas based on cow’s milk. Meanwhile, those who drank sweetened water strongly preferred sweeter beverages as early as age 2. 

Artificial Sugar

As natural food ingredients go through extensive processing, a lot of its natural taste, texture and organic composition gets lost along the way. To bring it back and make the product taste better, additives like sugar are added to make it more palatable. 

Sugars, especially artificial ones, added in baby food and snacks are particularly high, leading to children being exposed to a sweeter diet. And with ultra-processed foods, the sugar content not only comes from natural sugars but usually from artificial sweeteners derived to give the food a sweet taste.

These sweeteners adjust a child’s developing palate to higher levels of sugar and train their taste buds to a new baseline for what they deem as sweet. Recently, WHO also recommended against the use of artificial sweeteners for weight loss, except for diabetic users. And that long term use of artificial sweeteners actually leads to negative metabolic outcomes and weight gain. However, there also have been conflicting studies where use didn’t lead to weight gain. 

Emulsifiers and other Chemical Additives

Emulsifiers are simply the ingredient that binds ingredients together. These are chemically complex additives that ensure the food product combines well and does not fall apart. It also gives a better mouth feel or smoother  texture for the ultra-processed food. 

Other chemical additives are also added to bring back lost flavour, add colour, texture vitamins and minerals or stabilise the product. These industrial ingredients which cannot be found in a domestic kitchen, while it does help make the end product more palatable, are not found in our natural diet and put a tax on our bodies.  

3 Adverse Effects of Ultra-processed Food Consumption in Child Development

Starting from baby milk formula to baby transition food, babies who are in a precious development stage, babies and young children are exposed to ultra-processed food. This not only trains their taste buds to recognise its taste profiles as their standard, it also produces adverse effects on their development.

Brain Changes

As a young child’s brain is still developing, being exposed to a diet of ultra-processed foods trains their brain to look for similar types of foods as they grow older. The sweeter, saltier, and more addictive ultra-processed foods take centre stage when their food preferences start to build instead of natural organic fruits and vegetables which may taste more bland or have varied textures  to their developing palate. 

Young children on ultra-processed food have also been found to have poorer cognitive skills in terms of working memory, planning, organisation and shift and emotional control. 

Childhood Obesity

Research has found links between ultra-processed food and childhood obesity. The University of Sydney found that consumption of highly processed and refined food is a leading contributor to obesity.  In children, ultra-processed food may contribute to more than half of their dietary intake. From being overweight to increased waist circumference, this leads children to be less active.

Socio-emotional development

Studies have shown that higher intake of ultra-processed food already has a negative effect on children between 18 months and 2 years old, specifically in their emotional control, inhibition, and planning and organising skills.

Physical Ailments

From tooth decay to anaemia and even difficulty sleeping, eating ultra processed food can lead to physical ailments early on that can follow a child as they grow up. Some studies have shown that consuming ultra-processed food also influences high blood pressure prevalence in children as young as 6 years old.

3 Strategies to Avoid Ultra-Processed Foods

Beware of the health halo when food shopping.

While the Health Star Rating is meant to guide busy parents when buying food for their children, the rating does not take into account the amount of processing a food has undergone. Thus, a great Health Star Rating may not necessarily mean it is healthy. It might have been rated as such due to added vitamins and minerals which are additives themselves instead of naturally occurring in the food product. 

Look at the ingredients list.

If you see too many unidentifiable chemically-sounding ingredients, chances are it’s an ultra-processed food. The more ingredients there, the more additives and processing the food has undergone. And usually, the more far removed it tastes from its original form. Since it’s hard to replace most ultra-processed foods entirely with organic options, food scientists suggest choosing items with fewer ingredients. 

For canned tuna, it’s better to choose canned tuna in water rather than flavoured ones. Or canned fruit slices in water rather than fruit juices or concentrates which have more added sugars in them.

Don’t ban ultra-processed foods, introduce alternatives instead.

It’s hard to control all food intake especially when your child eats outside of the home. Banning it completely will also backfire and will only lead to heightened cravings. What parents can do however is always provide a healthier alternative to the processed food snacks and chips like fresh fruits, home- or locally-baked cookies with much less additives in it than store-bought ones. 

The key is to wean them off ultra-processed foods gradually by slowly replacing ultra-processed ones with less processed options. It’s hard to make a dietary change overnight–for anyone. One thing parents can do is to slowly introduce food alternatives that are less processed. Pick a mealtime and use it to slowly retrain palates to favour organic, natural food. It’s not a dietary change that happens overnight but with willpower and strong encouragement and modelling from parents, children will soon be able to adopt better food choices.

0-12 month development

Babies crawl, scoot and shuffle when learning to move. Here’s what to watch for if you’re worried

Author: Charmaine Bernie

Crawling has long been a determining factor in a child’s gross motor development. But researchers say that it can be skipped altogether and that there’s no set ways in how babies crawl, scoot and shuffle around. 

Find out a few things to watch out for and investigate to ensure your baby, no matter how unique their crawling style may be, is on the right track here.

1-2 year development

Toddlers’ gut bacteria may predict future obesity, study suggests

Author: Tobi Thomas

Researchers at the Sorbonne University in Paris have found two types of gut bacteria that directly related to obesity. Presence of these bacterias predict there’s a less likely chance for a child to be obese in the future. 

Find out more about these bacteria and the study here.

2-3 year development

Why learning animal sounds can be crucial to children’s language development

Authors: Boshra Bahrami, Barbara Jane Cunningham, and Zoe A. Leyland

Animal sounds form a large part of the first sounds a baby or young child are able to make. Animal sounds are a way to teach your child speech in a fun and engaging way. They’re also simple and repetitive sounds which makes it easier for babies and toddlers to learn. From this, they begin to learn to associate sounds, concepts, and even words to the animal sounds they can easily reproduce. 

Find out more reasons about why learning animal sounds is crucial to your child’s language development here.

3-4 year development

‘Anti-dopamine parenting’ can curb a kid’s craving for screens or sweets

Author: Michaeleen Doucleff

When sweets and screens start to shift your child’s attention away from you or other more developmentally-stimulating tasks, researchers found that these are dopamine-surging activities. And since these activities stimulate the neural pathway deep within the brain, parents may have a hard time fighting against these activities. Researchers however have found out strategies that may help any parent from re-orienting their child away from these dopamine-rich and addictive activities.

Find out more about this research and strategies for ‘anti-dopamine parenting’ here.

4-5 year development

Can Your Child Learn Critical Lifesaving Skills at Age 4?

Author: Sarah Cottrell

Psychologists have found that 4-year olds can be educated and trained to help an adult that needs help, feels sick or has passed out. Whether it’s dialling emergency services or alerting another adult to help, young kids can learn how to respond to an emergency. Psychologists are quick to add that it also depends on a child’s general developmental level.

Find out more about how 4-year olds can be taught how to gain critical lifesaving skills here.

Edible Tapioca Slime

If the quality of sliminess is what children are looking for, this edible tapioca slime recipe is the best to achieve the closest consistency to the real thing. Using tapioca pearls, food dyes and water, you can melt and transform these pearls into the gooeyest slime ever. Adult supervision and help is needed when dissolving and mixing it on a stovetop.

Find instructions on how to create the slimiest edible slime here.

Sunscreen Experiment for Kids

Explaining the sun’s UV rays and effects of too much exposure to UV radiation can be hard for young children to understand. However, with this sunscreen experiment, children will see firsthand the sun’s UV rays effect and how sunscreen helps in protecting against its ill effects using construction paper cutouts. 

Find the instructions for this sunscreen experiment for kids here.

Scratch and Sniff Name Art: 5 Senses Activity

Teach letter identification and formation, left-to-right progression, and engage all five senses with this activity. Using construction paper, glue, and flavoured Jell-o, children will be able to spell their name and master their letters in this activity that engages all of their senses. Adult help and supervision may be needed when children are tracing their names using glue. 

Find instructions for this activity here.

Egg Grass Heads

It’ll be a great hair day once egg grass heads start to sprout. This activity teaches children how plants grow and how multiple factors help in plant growth. Adult supervision is needed when boiling the eggs. Scooping the boiled egg out of the eggshell is a great exercise for children to hone their fine motor skills; best to have extra boiled eggs in case egg shells break!

Get instructions on how to grow egg grass heads here.