Health
Most baby foods may not meet nutritional guidelines and use 'misleading claims,' study finds
As much as 60% of baby foods on the market may not meet the nutritional standards set by the World Health Organization (WHO), a new study found.
The findings were published in the journal Nutrients last week.
Researchers at The George Institute for Global Health — an independent medical research institute headquartered in Australia — reviewed 651 infant and toddler food products sold in the top 10 U.S. grocery chains, according to a press release.
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Seventy percent of the products did not include adequate amounts of protein, 25% did not meet calorie requirements, and 20% had sodium levels that exceeded WHO’s recommendations.
The researchers compared the foods’ data to WHO’s nutrient and promotion profile model (NPPM), which supports “appropriate promotion of food products” for infants and young children in Europe.
As much as 60% of baby foods on the market may not meet the nutritional standards set by the World Health Organization, a new study has found. (iStock)
Baby food “pouches” were ranked as some of the least healthy choices, with fewer than 7% meeting total sugar recommendations, the institute noted.
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Infant formulas were not included in the study, as those are regulated separately by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the researchers noted.
“Only products available in the baby food section of the grocery store were included. This meant [that] yogurts located in the fridge section, drinks section, or under the ‘dairy, eggs and fridge’ tab online were not included,” they wrote.
Convenience foods labeled as culprits
Dr. Elizabeth Dunford, research fellow at The George Institute and adjunct assistant professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina, expressed concern about the prevalence of “processed convenience foods” for babies and toddlers.
Baby food pouches were ranked the unhealthiest of the reviewed options. (iStock)
“Early childhood is a crucial period of rapid growth, and when taste preferences and dietary habits form, potentially paving the way for the development of chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes and some cancers later in life,” Dunford said in the release.
“Time-poor parents are increasingly choosing convenience foods, unaware that many of these products lack key nutrients needed for their child’s development and tricked into believing they are healthier than they really are.”
A ‘health halo’
The study also highlighted “misleading marketing practices,” claiming that more than 99% of baby food products contained at least one “prohibited claim” on the packaging.
“We found that all but four products featured at least one prohibited claim on the pack, with an average of four prohibited claims per pack,” Dr. Daisy Coyle, research fellow and dietitian at The George Institute, told Fox News Digital.
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“These claims often give products a ‘health halo,’ deceiving busy parents into thinking they are a lot healthier than they are.”
Some of the most-cited misleading verbiage included “non-genetically modified (GM),” “organic,” “no BPA” and “no artificial colors/flavors.”
“These numbers are truly alarming when you consider we’re talking about food for infants and toddlers,” a nutritionist told Fox News Digital. (iStock)
“We saw this not only in the use of misleading claims, but also in the use of misleading names, where the product name did not reflect the main ingredients found on the ingredient list.”
Some products claimed to be “fruits” or “vegetables” even though those were not the primary ingredients, for example.
Among U.S. children 2 to 5 years old, the prevalence of obesity was 12.7% from 2017 to March 2020.
“Our findings highlight the urgent need for better regulation and guidance in the infant and toddler foods market in the United States — the health of future generations depends on it,” added Dunford.
Among U.S. children 2 to 5 years old, the prevalence of obesity was 12.7% from 2017 to March 2020, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Based on the study findings, the researchers advised parents and caregivers to pay close attention to the claims made on baby food packaging. (iStock)
Based on the study findings, the researchers advised parents and caregivers to pay close attention to the claims made on baby food packaging.
“The ingredients list and nutrition label provide a far more accurate representation of what is in the product,” Coyle said. “One important thing to look out for is the amount of added sugar.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the American Academy of Pediatrics, major baby food manufacturers and WHO requesting comment.
‘Critical issue’
Katie Thomson, an Oregon-based registered dietitian and founder of the Square Baby nutrition system, was not involved in the study but said it sheds light on a “critical issue.”
“These numbers are truly alarming when you consider we’re talking about food for infants and toddlers,” she told Fox News Digital.
“Time-poor parents are increasingly choosing convenience foods, unaware that many of these products lack key nutrients needed for their child’s development,” a nutritionist warned. (iStock)
“The core issue is that many of these products, especially pouches, are far too sweet to offer proper, balanced nutrition. This not only fails to meet nutritional needs, but also hinders the development of a child’s palate.”
“We’re essentially setting them up for a lifetime of poor eating habits.”
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As a mother, Thomson said, she understands the appeal of convenient, self-feeding options like pouches — but warned that this approach is “ultimately detrimental to children’s long-term health and eating habits.”
Lack of protein is the most glaring issue, according to Thomson — “it’s fundamental for everything from muscle development to immune function in growing bodies.”
“Many of these foods are also lacking in healthy fats, which are essential for brain development, and important micronutrients like calcium, iron and vitamin D,” she said.
“There’s also a noticeable absence of those nutrient-dense green and earthy vegetables.”
The researchers reviewed 651 infant and toddler food products sold in the top 10 U.S. grocery chains. (iStock)
Another often overlooked aspect, Thomson noted, is failure to include common allergens.
“Early introduction of allergens, like peanuts, eggs and dairy, can actually help prevent food allergies from developing,” she said.
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“However, many baby food products fail to include these important components, which can create a whole host of health issues later in life.”
When choosing nutrition for babies, Thomson recommends offering a diverse range of foods, flavors, textures and colors, with a balance of fat, fiber and protein, while keeping sugar content low.
Infant formulas were not included in the study, as those are regulated separately by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the researchers noted. (iStock)
She recommends the following breakdown for a 4-ounce balanced meal.
- Less than 6 grams of sugar
- 2-4 grams of fat
- 2-4 grams of fiber
- 2-5 grams of protein
Potential limitations
The George Institute for Global Health, which has received previous funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the National Health and Medical Research Council, and other investors, stated that it received no external funding for this specific study.
The study did have some limitations, the researchers acknowledged.
“Although we analyzed data from a large representative dataset, we were unable to link to sales data for each product,” Coyle told Fox News Digital.
“More research is needed to know whether American families are more likely to purchase products that fail to meet WHO requirements,” the researchers said. (iStock)
“More research is needed to know whether American families are more likely to purchase products that fail to meet WHO requirements.”
Another limitation was that the WHO NPPM was developed for the European region.
So it is “not necessarily 100% applicable to the U.S. infant and toddler foods market,” the researchers stated in the findings.
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Parents and carers are not to blame, the researchers emphasized.
Coyle of The George Institute told Fox News Digital that “government regulation” is needed “to transform this sector to ensure infant and toddler foods are healthy and marketed appropriately.”
She added, “The health of our youngest generation and future generations depends on it.”
Over the two and a half years following the 2022 rollout of the 988 national suicide prevention hotline, the rate of suicides among young people in the United States dropped 11 percent below projections, decreasing most sharply in states with a higher volume of answered 988 calls, a new study has found.
The findings, published today as a research letter in JAMA, compared suicide deaths from July 2022 to December 2024 with sophisticated mathematical projections that were based on historical trends. This yielded good news, with 4,372 fewer suicides of adolescents and young adults, ages 15 to 34, than had been projected.
To ensure that the decline was related to the use of the hotline, researchers at Harvard Medical School teased out the trends in states with high and low usage of the hotline. The findings were striking: The 10 states with the largest increases in 988 calls experienced an 18.2 percent reduction in observed suicides compared with expected suicides; in the 10 states with the lowest uptake, the reduction was smaller, 10.6 percent.
The results suggest that the government’s investment in the 988 rollout has translated into “a measurable reduction of deaths,” said Dr. Vishal Patel, a resident physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and one of the authors of the study.
“What our study has added,” he said, “is evidence for the deeper benefit of the program, and that is, that at the population level, among young people at least, suicide mortality is lower than it would have been without the program.”
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He added, “The implication of that is that sustained funding for this program matters.”
The United States rolled out the three-digit hotline with bipartisan support in July 2022, replacing a 10-digit hotline number, and augmented it with a $1.5 billion investment in crisis center capacity. Since its inception, the service has fielded more than 25 million contacts, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. The agency has asked Congress for $534.6 million to fund the program for 2027.
Last summer, the Trump administration terminated one element of the hotline, the Press 3 option for L.G.B.T.Q.+ callers. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration said that the Press 3 option was being discontinued because it had exhausted its funding from Congress and that the hotline would “focus on serving all help seekers.”
But advocacy groups and policymakers protested the decision, and in testimony before the Senate on Tuesday, the health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said his agency was planning to restore the Press 3 option.
Dr. Patel said his group had become curious about measuring the program’s effectiveness after Press 3 was eliminated. While call volume and satisfaction surveys suggested that 988 was succeeding, he said, the harder question was, “Did the creation of this 988 program, the transition from the old hotline to this hotline, actually move the needle on suicide mortality?”
Experts said it was difficult to tease out the beneficial effect of 988 from other things that changed in 2022, the year that the new hotline was created. Around that time, suicide prevention programs were being introduced in schools, in faith communities and on social media, but more important, the pandemic was ending.
“We were finally out of this crazy time, and there was a sense of optimism and hope,” said Jonathan B. Singer, a professor of social work at Loyola University Chicago and a co-author of “Suicide in Schools.” He called the downward trend in youth suicides “encouraging, but it is tempered by the fact that we don’t have a good explanation as to why.”
The authors acknowledged that their findings could not account for the influence of social and economic changes, changes in mental health services or public awareness about services.
But they did make comparisons to exclude other possible explanations. The authors looked for similar effects among American adults over 65, who are less likely to use the hotline. In that group, there was a reduction in suicides that exceeded expectations, but it was smaller, at just 4.5 percent.
To ensure the decline in suicides did not reflect a general improvement in young-adult mortality, the researchers tracked cancer deaths, and found there was no change. They also looked at the rates of suicide among young people in England, where no change had been made to the national crisis line in that time period; they found no reduction in youth suicides there.
Hannah Wesolowski, chief advocacy officer for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said she was persuaded that the hotline had contributed to the improvement in suicide rates, in part because it did not appear among English youths or in older Americans.
“To me, that really helps hone in that this might really be the differentiator,” she said. “We are seeing potentially a pretty significant decline in suicides among young people. For public policy, this is strong evidence to double down on that we are doing.”
Emily Hilliard, a senior press secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, said H.H.S. and SAMHSA are “committed to ensuring that all Americans have access” the 988 line, which she said “clearly provides lifesaving support, helping millions of people every year.”
If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.
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A highly contagious digestive virus is surging across the U.S., experts warn.
Rotavirus, a double-stranded RNA virus, causes acute gastroenteritis — inflammation of the stomach and intestines — which can lead to severe diarrhea, vomiting, fever and stomach pain.
The virus primarily affects infants and young children, but there have also been outbreaks in elderly populations, such as nursing homes.
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Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that in the week ending April 4, out of 2,329 rotavirus tests, 7.3% were positive for the infection. Last year’s highest infection rate was 6.77% as of the week ending April 19.
Rotavirus, a double-stranded RNA virus, causes acute gastroenteritis — inflammation of the stomach and intestines — which can lead to severe diarrhea, vomiting, fever and stomach pain. (iStock)
“We’re seeing a lot of rotavirus in the wastewater right now,” Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News senior medical analyst, confirmed to Fox News Digital. “Testing for rotavirus is way down, but the percentage of positive tests is up.”
While the virus typically peaks in the spring, it is not currently slowing down, he noted.
Why cases may be rising
Patricia Pinto-Garcia, M.D., a medical editor at GoodRx who is based in California, said there are several possible reasons for the rotavirus spike.
“Vaccine rates are down overall among young children, as they decreased during COVID,” she told Fox News Digital. “This means there’s a growing number of infants and young children who are vulnerable to infection.”
The rotavirus vaccine series must be completed by the time a child is 8 months old, she noted.
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As a result of the declining vaccinations, herd immunity isn’t protecting vulnerable children, according to Pinto-Garcia. “Children who haven’t finished the vaccine series yet, are too young to get vaccinated, or can’t get the vaccine due to medical illness are more likely to get exposed to the illness because other children aren’t vaccinated,” she said.
Siegel noted that before the vaccine became available, rotavirus resulted in 55,000 to 70,000 in the U.S. per year.
“Vaccine rates are down overall among young children, as they decreased during COVID,” a doctor told Fox News Digital. “This means there’s a growing number of infants and young children who are vulnerable to infection.” (iStock)
“I am concerned that the vaccination rate has been declining over the past seven years and is continuing to decline in the current climate of vaccine skepticism,” he said.
Surveillance methods are also much better than they used to be, Pinto-Garcia noted, which means public health experts are able to pick up and track cases better than ever before.
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“But we see that rotavirus-related healthcare visits are also up, so improved detection is not the only reason we are seeing this spike,” she said.
The COVID pandemic also disrupted the pattern of infections, according to Pinto-Garcia, so it’s “tricky” to compare the current levels against older cycles.
“It’s possible that what we are seeing is still some post-pandemic rebound, but it’s unlikely that this year’s pattern is fully explained by just this factor,” she added.
Transmission and risk
Dr. Zachary Hoy, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Pediatrix Medical Group based in Nashville, Tennessee, often sees young patients with rotavirus.
“Rotavirus is spread via the fecal-oral route, meaning that a person comes into contact with virus droplets from contact with other children or adults, or from contact with objects such as toys that have been contaminated with the virus from someone who is sick,” he told Fox News Digital. “This can lead to outbreaks, especially at schools where many young children share the same toys.”
“It’s possible that what we are seeing is still some post-pandemic rebound, but it’s unlikely that this year’s pattern is fully explained by just this factor.”
Rotavirus is associated with many dehydration cases in the hospital due to the degree of diarrhea, according to Hoy.
In some severe cases, the virus can lead to seizures due to electrolyte imbalances from dehydration and loss of electrolytes in the stool.
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“Younger children do not have the reserves that older children and adults have, so they can become more dehydrated quicker and develop more severe electrolyte imbalances, leading to more severe infections,” Hoy said.
“Patients with problems with their immune systems or on medications that can decrease their immune systems can have more severe and prolonged infections, too.”
Treatment and care
Because rotavirus is a viral infection, antibiotics are not effective against it. There is no specific antiviral treatment for the condition, with doctors typically recommending supportive care.
“The mainstay of treatment is hospitalization for rehydration via intravenous (IV) fluids,” Hoy told Fox News Digital. “Sometimes it can take up to two to three days of IV fluids to help get patients rehydrated.”
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Blood draws are often necessary to evaluate patients’ electrolyte levels, such as sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium, according to the doctor.
“If these electrolyte levels are significantly low, sometimes patients need special IV solutions or individual electrolyte medications,” he added.
“The mainstay of treatment is hospitalization for rehydration via intravenous (IV) fluids,” a doctor told Fox News Digital. (iStock)
Dr. Daniel Park, medical director of the Pediatric Emergency Department at UNC Health in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, noted that most children recover with supportive care, but parents should seek medical attention if a child shows signs of dehydration. Those include decreased urination, lethargy or inability to keep fluids down.
“While rare, rotavirus can be life-threatening in vulnerable populations, especially very young infants or children with underlying medical conditions,” Park told Fox News Digital.
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Prevention strategies
Given the lack of antiviral medications for rotavirus, doctors emphasize the importance of prevention, primarily the vaccine.
There are two rotavirus vaccines – Rotateq (a three-dose series) and Rotarix (a two-dose series). They are given starting at age 2 months as oral drops, not injections, according to Hoy.
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“It’s important to get the rotavirus vaccines on schedule, because these younger infants are at greatest risk if they get rotavirus,” he advised.
Other recommended prevention methods include handwashing with soap and water.
Every day we’re faced with a zillion small choices: Go to sleep early, or watch one more episode of that Netflix drama. Call an old friend to catch up, or cruise social media. Of course, no single action will guarantee a long, healthy life or doom you to an early grave. But those little daily decisions do add up, and over the long term they can make a difference when it comes to both your longevity and your health span, the amount of life spent in relatively good health.
Scroll through this theoretical “day in the life” and select the option that best fits your typical day. Not every situation will apply perfectly, but think about which choice you’d be most likely to make. This isn’t a formal scientific assessment. The goal here isn’t to assign you a “good” or “bad” score, but to help you understand the central factors that shape the way we age and how long we live.
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