Feed your babies junk food, NHS tells mothers

Fact checked
Feed your babies junk food, NHS tells mothers

NHS staff are advising some mothers to feed babies junk food to help them overcome feeding problems.

Leaflets given to families attending feeding clinic appointments with young children recommend feeding babies aged over eight months crisps, chocolate bars, fried foods and sugary sweets.

The advice  given out by Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is aimed at parents whose children have “problems managing lumpy foods”

The Mirror reports: The leaflet suggests so-called “finger foods” under three headings: Easy Chew Food, Bite and Dissolve and Bite and Squash/Suck.

Quavers, Skips, Wotsits and Pom-Bears are examples of the crisps to feature under Bite and Dissolve.

Mini Cheddars and meringue also features in this category.

The flier adds that Crunchies, Milky Bars, Kit Kats and Ripple chocolate bars are also suitable “if a child sucks food well”.

Recommended daily allowances do not exist for babies and toddlers.

However, paediatric nutritionists recommend that children under a year should be given foods containing no added sugar.

This means junk food would NOT be advised.

Furthermore, the advice runs contrary to guidance given on the NHS Choices website.

For example, one section of the site states: “Do not give them [babies] foods or drinks with added sugar, or salty or fatty food, as this will make them more likely to want them as they get older.”