Baby Clues
Information & advice on dealing with babies

The calorie counts used as the foundation for diet plans and healthy-eating guidance for the past 18 years may be wrong. The recommended daily intake of calories could be increased by up to 16%, a draft report by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition said.

Intake levels are currently 2,000 calories for women and 2,500 for men. However the panel stresses that people should only eat more if they exercise more, given rising levels of obesity. The committee says its report provides a much more accurate assessment of how energy can be burnt off through physical activity.
A 16% increase would mean that adults could safely consume an extra 400 calories a day, equivalent to an average sized cheeseburger.

The proposals, seen by The Times and The Grocer magazine, are due to go out for a 14-week consultation period. Final recommendations will then be made after that time. Health campaigners say the Department of Health and the Food Standards Agency could seek to “sweep this report under the carpet” in a bid to avoid sending out mixed messages in the middle of an obesity epidemic.

Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, said it was a “dangerous assumption” to say that adults could safely consume an extra 400 calories a day. “This is not a green light to eat yourself silly,” he said.

This seems to be another one of those situations where there is conflict such as the situation with alcohol some say that a glass of red wine is good for you where other say alcohol is bad, so I guess as long as you eat healthily and are not overweight then don’t worry about how many calories you are consuming as these figures are only guidelines anyway. Everyone’s calorie intake varies depending upon their activity level and their metabolic rate.

A coalition of charities is demanding baby milk be treated like tobacco and subjected to a total advertising ban. The National Childbirth Trust, Save The Children and Unicef say the current partial ban is not enough, and parents have been left confused.

They want the government to extend a ban on infant milk adverts to include “follow-on” milks for older babies.
England’s policy on the promotion of formula milk is currently being reviewed by the Food Standards Agency.
At present, companies are not allowed to advertise formula milk for babies under six months. But they are allowed to promote so-called follow-on milks, a range for children aged between six months and two years.

Many mothers feel an immense sense of guilt and failure when they move on to the bottle, and this latest debate about advertising is likely to make them feel even worse. The charities accuse baby milk companies of using their follow-on milks to promote their products for younger infants by giving them the same name and logo so as to make them “virtually indistinguishable” to parents.

“In similar ways to how tobacco companies found their way through loopholes in legislation restricting the advertising of cigarette promotion, formula milk companies are finding ways to exploit ambiguity in the law and to continue aggressively marketing their products to parents,” says Belinda Phipps of the NCT.
The World Health Organization recommends that babies are given breast milk exclusively for the first six months, and that a mother should continue to breastfeed up to the age of two years.

The charities note that those children who are breastfed are better protected from infections and potentially from even more serious conditions later on in life. Formula milk companies are finding ways to exploit ambiguity in the law and to continue aggressively marketing their products to parents
Belinda Phipps

At present, some 76% of UK mothers start out breastfeeding – up 7% from 2000. However most move on to formula within weeks, and fewer than half still breastfeed by the time their child is six weeks old. By six months, only 25% of mothers are breastfeeding at all. But Dr Ellie Lee of the University of Kent who has researched women’s experiences of infant feeding said the impact of advertising on the decision to switch from breast to bottle was “negligible”.

In a study of mothers commissioned by The Infant and Dietetic Foods Association (IDFA), Dr Lee found that the decision to bottle feed was a “pragmatic decision based on personal circumstances”. “Some do it because of the pain of feeding or so they can feed their child at more regular intervals, some so they can share responsibility for feeding the baby, others because they are thinking of going back to work.

It has also been suggested that the increasing reluctance of health professionals to discuss formula milk as an option may mean some parents are not aware of the thorough sterilisation of feeding equipment that is needed to limit the risk of infection.

The Food Standards Agency is currently working on new regulations for the promotion of formula milk which would take into account the latest EU directive. The charities involved in the report want the FSA to agree to a ban, noting that the new European recommendations in particular stress that information on formula “should not counter the promotion of breast feeding”.

It is unclear whether a ban is likely, but it is thought that companies will no longer be able to make claims about similarity to breast milk on their packets under new restrictions. A number of companies have slogans such as “even closer to breast milk”, “the closest to breast milk” on their packaging, pointing to the fatty acids and probiotic bacteria found in breast milk that are included in the ingredients.

From a parents point of view there is a huge amount of pressure on mothers to breast feed for some this isn’t always possible for a variety of reasons. For those who don’t manage to breast feed for the full recommended time there is often a feeling of failure, guilt or disappointment. Advertisers shouldn’t add into the mix feelings of confusion and uncertainty, I think parents should be given the facts about breast feeding and the different formula brands then parents can make up their own minds without being pressured down a specific route.

If their mothers are obese the statistics show that the daughters are 10 times more likely to be overweight; with sons the chance is 6 times more likely that they will be overweight if their father is overweight.

These results came from a study into whether childhood obesity was linked to environmental influences instead of genetic ones. The study involved looking at BMI’s for 226 five-year-olds and their parents. The researchers noted a relationship between the BMI of the children and the same sex parent. However no link was found between the children and the parent of the opposite sex. This suggests that the link is environmental as if it was genetic it would be unlikely to be gender selective.

These findings are not really surprising as it is a logical step that the parents eating habits and lifestyle would influence the child but what is surprising is that it seems to be gender specific. One possible explanation for the relationship between children and same sex parents is that the children use their parents as role models and so model their behaviour on the parent of the same sex.

If this is the case you would have thought that the parents would ensure that they are a positive role model for their children. Also they should take into consideration that the “fat kids” are usually singled out by bullies and are more prone to health problems such as diabetes and heart problems, add into the mix the psychological problems such as low self esteem. It is also worth pointing out that your eating habits can be passed down through the generations so not only are your children affected but your grandkids and great….grandkids.

My daughter for the past year has become really fussy about eating her main meal. If you are experiencing the same problem with your child here are a few ideas that may help:

• Stop all snacks
• Reducing the size of the other 2 meals
• Change the time of the main meal
• Substitute juice for water
• Make it clear to your child that there is no alternative
• Make it into a game
• Keep your child active throughout the day
• Use reward charts

Don’t make the child see that you are frustrated as they pick up on that and it makes the problem worse. Having spoken to health professionals for ideas to encourage my daughter to eat as it she gets crabby because she is hungry but then when her main meal is put in front of her she refuses to touch it; the health professionals claim that part of the reason toddlers become fussy eaters is due to their taste buds changing. Their advice was just to ignore it; it is just a phase and they will grow out of it. If your child refuses to eat simply say “OK but there’s nothing else”, and carry it out.

I’ve found that this response although shows the child that they either eat their dinner or they go hungry but it doesn’t give them much of an incentive to actually start eating. If you are concerned about your child not eating visit your health visitor and be persistent, eventually they may do something about it.

Everyone has their likes and dislikes but everyone knows someone who is labelled as a “fussy eater” these people seem to dislike the majority of food.

My advice would be to offer your child a variety of different food from the very start (of weaning that is) also give your child the opportunity to try foods that you don’t like as it is unfair to stop your child having things purely on the basis that you don’t like it for example I tried my daughter with peanut butter; neither me nor my partner like it but she loves it.

Also DON’T offer cakes and biscuits (nice things) as an alternative when your child won’t eat the food you put in front of them, they need to learn that they eat what they are given obviously if they clearly don’t like it then offer them a substitute but again don’t make it something like a biscuit. I’ve found that if you try a child with something and they don’t like it doesn’t mean that they wont like it later. Lucie wouldn’t eat banana when we were weaning her but now she does; basically this is purely the result of their taste buds developing