It's been four years since the first Daddy Types Formula Taste Test, and I have not been eager to do another one; they all pretty much taste like crap, if they taste like anything at all. Well, clear the table and get out the scooper, because we're gonna have another one.
After they found out that Similac Organic formula is sweetened with good ol' sucrose instead of lactose, the NY Times conducted "a professional sensory-tasting panel. Their official finding: Similac Organic is as sweet as Country Time Lemonade.
Which many pediatricians--not to mention crunchy, organic-buying parents--have a real problem with, because getting babies hooked on sucrose early could screw them for less sweet foods later on. While emphasizing the lack of scientific studies proving sucrose is a gateway sugar, one sweetness researcher still felt compelled to pull out both his disapproval trump cards: "Making sweeter formula so that babies like it more seems to me contrary to the ethos of organic food, as a doctor and as a grandfather.” Oh, slam!
On the other hand, it should help ease the transition to Cinnamon Toast Crunch when they turn one.
A Top-Selling Organic Formula Is Also Sweetest [nyt]
Previously: Baby Formula Taste Test, circa 2004
Related: Sugar Babies infant Halloween costume, $16 [foureyesjokeshop.com]
Also, check out how much sugar is in your average organic kids' yogurt. About as much per volume as Coca-Cola! Nice.
Yes, I too, am uncomfortable with the sugar in the Stonyfield yogurts (and for some reason I'm more concerned with #2 than I was with #1...normally it's the other way around).
How much of that is milk sugar, I wonder.
I tried some of the blueberry flavor yesterday and was surprised at how not-sweet it was.
Better sucrose than Similac's Isomil, which is sweetened with High Fructose Corn Syrup.
[yow, I was going to make a joke about HFCS, thinking surely no one would use that in their formula formula... -ed.]
Oh, and the soy formula powders are more than 50% sugar. Isomil is 43% corn syrup and 10% sucrose. No wonder my second had so much energy
[50% by weight/volume/what? There's this line in the NYT article, "All infant formulas contain added sugars, which babies need to digest the proteins in cow’s milk or soy. " I'm going to look into this science of formula thing a bit. All I really knew about it was that it was approved by the government and that it's as good for babies as breast milk. heh. -ed.]
I've always hated the fact that YoBaby used added sugar - couldn't they just add some applesauce or something? They just came out with a plain YoBaby - it's just smaller containers of plain whole milk yogurt, and the sugars (listed as milk sugars) are 1/2 of what the flavored ones are. 6 g. v. 12 or 13 gs. I think I'm the only one around who thought plain yobaby was a good idea - my store stopped carrying them two weeks after they started!
I just have to say that I LOVE the picture you put with this post.
As for too-sweet foods changing a kid's palate, I'm afraid it may be true. Our four-month-old has reflux and ate a formula bottle or two a day while on terrible-tasting Zantac. We switched to Prevacid and pop! -- he won't take the formula any more. How does Prevacid taste? Sweet as Country Time Lemonade. Hmmm....
I don't know if that is weight or volume, but the percentages are right on the abbott labs site http://abbottnutrition.com/products/products.aspx?pid=236
my mistake, corn syrup solids are so much better [/sarcasm]
That freaks me out. I have an 8 month old that I have just started on formula (formerly b-fed) and I have been using a free sample of the Similac Organic. YIKES. I was relieved to see the cheapie-but-good Parents Choice Organic from Wal-Mart was sweetened wilk milk-based sugars. Whew.
BTW, breastmilk (while best) is very sweet in its own right, and trying to avoid sweet solids (like fruit) from a b-fed baby is pointless. Luckily, my kids seems to like everything so far.