baby foods

Pregnancy Taking care of yourself with baby on the way.

General term to include infant formula milk and weaning foods.

The consumption of food is an extraordinarily social activity laden with complex and shifting layers of meaning. Not only what we eat but how and why we eat tell us much about society, history, cultural change, and humans' views of themselves. What, when, and how we choose to feed infants and toddlers, the notion of "baby food" as opposed to "adult food," and whether or not these foods are nourishing and satisfying reveals how mass production, consumption, and advertising have shaped attitudes about infancy and corresponding parenting philosophies and practices. From the late 1920s to the postwar baby boom of the 1950s, mass-produced solid infant food, especially fruits and vegetables, shifted items of rarity into a rite of passage, a normal, naturalized part of an infant's diet in the United States. In the early twenty-first century commercially produced infant food not only remained a mainstay of an infant's diet in the United States but manufacturers also sought new markets, including developing countries.

Preindustrial First Foods

Historically, semisolid mixtures of grains and water, animal milk, or broth, variously known as "pap," "panada," or "gruel," have been the first semisolid food (also known as "beikost") an infant receives. (Cone, 1984, p. 12; Quandt, 1984). In many cultures mothers chew food, making it similar in consistency to gruel, then feed it to their infants. The earliest known infant feeding devices date back to the second or third centuries, though few specifics regarding their use are understood (Fildes, 1995, p. 116). Commonly infants have been introduced to pap mixtures as a supplement to breast milk. The pap then becomes an increasingly prominent part of infants' diets until they are completely weaned, which varies from several months old to three to four years of age.

Mass-Produced Baby Food

The industrialization of the food supply laid important groundwork for dramatic changes in infant feeding. By the 1920s in the United States canned goods were mass-produced in sufficient quantity to be affordable for most, allowing Americans to consume, among other things, more fruits and vegetables year round. Also at this time the discovery and promotion of vitamins helped change Americans' wary attitude toward fruits and vegetables. These foods previously were not fed to children before two or three years of age as they were thought to cause cholera and dysentery.

Thus the market was ripe for the introduction of commercially canned food for babies, especially produce. In 1928 the Michigan-based Fremont Canning Company, owned by the Gerber family, began producing strained vegetables for infants, which proved so successful that the company changed its name to the Gerber Products Company and became the exclusive maker of baby foods. By 1935 Gerber's biggest competitors, Beech-Nut, Heinz, and Libby's, entered the baby food market. Despite these competitors' quick development of their own mass-produced strained baby foods, Gerber managed to maintain its dominance of the market (Nisbet, 1954). Mothers, both those at home full-time and those with paid employment, embraced and benefited from commercially prepared solid infant food, and within a matter of decades the product became a common part of an infant's diet. The easy availability of, prominent advertising for, and increasing use of commercially prepared infant formulas acclimated mothers and doctors alike to infants' ingestion of substances other than breast milk.

Increasingly Earlier Introduction of Solids

In the late 1920s, just as Gerber began its national advertising and distribution of canned baby foods, the prevailing wisdom advocated introducing strained fruits and vegetables around seven months. The market for baby food increased with the idea that babies could eat solids, especially fruits and vegetables, at an earlier age. During the 1930s the recommended age was four to six months, and by the 1950s it was four to six weeks, with some doctors advocating feeding infants strained cereals and vegetables within days of birth. As this early introduction of solids became standard advice and practice, solid baby food, like infant formula, functioned not only as a supplement to but as a substitute for breast milk.

Commercial Baby Food: Modifications Over Time

While mass-produced baby food increased infants' year-round consumption of fruits and vegetables and provided a welcome efficiency in preparation, it also had its deficiencies. Throughout most of the twentieth century commercially canned baby food was overcooked and contained added salt, sugar, starches, fillers, artificial preservatives, and even, though infrequently, dangerous contaminants, such as lead, glass shards, or pesticides. Moreover until the 1990s baby food manufacturers did not have to list the precise percentage of each ingredient on the label (Stallone and Jacobson, 1995).

Mass-produced baby food was created and became successful in response to an emerging industrialized society, meeting the needs of changing work patterns and an increasingly fast-paced lifestyle. It remained a rite of passage for most American babies at the advent of the twenty-first century, though with modifications. During the 1970s the return to breast-feeding and the renewed popularity of homemade baby foods were products of the public's more skeptical attitude toward corporate capitalism and institutions in general. In the 1980s and 1990s, mostly in response to consumer demand, baby food manufacturers eliminated sugar, salt, and modified starch from most products, introduced organic lines, and eschewed the use of any foods containing genetically modified organisms. Because of an overall declining birthrate in the United States at the beginning of the twenty-first century, baby food manufacturers, to maintain and even increase market share, began to forge new markets, targeting Latino and African American populations in the United States and trying to expand market share in developing countries around the globe.

Bibliography

Cone, Thomas E., Jr. "Infant Feeding: A Historical Perspective." In Nutrition and Feeding of Infants and Toddlers, edited by Rosanne B. Howard and Harland S. Winter. Boston: Little, Brown, 1984.

Fildes, Valerie. "The Culture and Biology of Breastfeeding." In Breastfeeding: Biocultural Perspectives, edited by Patricia Stuart-Macadam and Katherine A. Dettwyler. New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1995.

Nisbet, Stephen S. Contribution to Human Nutrition: Gerber Products since 1928. New York: Newcomen Society in North America, 1954.

Quandt, Sara A. "The Effect of Beikost on the Diet of Breastfed Infants." Journal of the American Dietetic Association 84 (1984): 47–51.

Stallone, Daryth D., and Michael F. Jacobson. "Cheating Babies: Nutritional Quality and the Cost of Commercial Baby Food." Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) Report, April 1995. Available at www.cspinet.org.

Strasser, Susan. Never Done: A History of American Housework. New York: Pantheon, 1982.

Stuart-Macadam, Patricia. "Breastfeeding in Prehistory." In Breastfeeding: Biocultural Perspectives, edited by Patricia Stuart-Macadam and Katherine A. Dettwyler. New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1995.

Tice, Patricia M. Gardening in America, 1830–1910. Rochester, N.Y.: Strong Museum, 1984.

—Amy Bentley

A baby eating pureed green beans with a bib on.

Baby food is any food that is given specifically to infants, roughly between the ages of six months to two years. The food comes in multiple varieties and tastes, can be produced by many manufacturers, or may be table food that the rest of the family is eating, mashed up. A common trait of the many different baby foods is that they are designed for ease of eating; either a soft, liquidy paste or an easily chewed food. This is due to the fact that infants lack teeth and experience in eating.

Nutrition

Each baby is different: some may need food other than breast milk or infant formula sooner than others, and as there is no Baby Food Pyramid, it is hard to tell the nutritional requirements of any given baby. Babies typically move to consuming baby food once nursing or formula is not sufficient for the child's appetite. Babies do not need to have teeth to transition to eating solid foods. Teeth, however, normally do being to show up at this age. Care should be taken with certain foods that pose a choking hazard such and hot dogs, popcorn, grapes, and hard candy. Babies should begin eating liquid style baby food, sometimes mixed with rice cereal and formula. Then as baby is better able to chew, small, soft pieces or lumps may be included. Care should be taken, as babies with teeth have the ability to break of pieces of food but they do not possess the back molars to grind, so parents should carefully mash or break baby food into manageable pieces for baby. Around 9 months of age, babies may begin to feed themselves (picking up food pieces with hands, using the pincer grasp- thumb and forefinger) with help from parents.

It is often recommended to give a baby solid food at around 6 months of age, but babies differ greatly. The only good way to know when to introduce baby food is to watch for signs of readiness in the child. Signs of readiness include the ability to sit without help and the display of active interest in food that others are eating. A baby may be started directly on normal family food if attention is given to choking hazards. Because breast milk takes on the flavor of foods eaten by the mother, these foods are especially good choices.

One may wish to introduce only one new food at a time, leaving a few days in between to notice any reactions that would indicate a food allergy or sensitivity. This way if a baby is unable to tolerate a certain food then it can be determined which food is causing the reaction.

In the past, it was traditionally common to start infants on solid food from 4+ months onwards – however current research and WHO/UNICEF "Baby Friendly" guidelines recommend only breast milk until at least 6 months of age.

See also: Baby-led weaning

History

From Cookery for Children, Sarah Josepha Hale, 1852:^[1]

“

Food for a young infant — Take of fresh cow's milk one table-spoons full, and mix with 2 table-spoonsfull of hot water; sweeten with loaf-sugar as much as may be agreeable. This quantity if sufficient for once feeding a new-born infant; and the same quantity may be given every 2 or 3 hours—not oftener—till the mother's breast affords the natural nourishment.

”

In most cultures pastes of a grain and liquid were the first baby food. In the western world until the mid 1900's baby food was generally made at home. The industrial revolution saw the beginning of the baby food market which promoted baby foods as convenience items.^[2] Commercial prepared baby foods in the Netherlands were first prepared by Martinus van der Hagen through his NV Nutricia company in 1901.^[3] In United States were first prepared by Dorothy Gerber in 1927.^[4] The first precooked dried baby food was Pablum which was originally made for sick children in the 1930s.

Some commercial baby foods have been criticized for their contents and cost.^[5]

The demand for organic food began to grow throughout the '60s, '70s and '80s there were no companies producing completely organic baby food until Earths Best Baby Food was founded in 1987 by twin brothers Ronald and Arnold Koss.^{[citation needed]} Since this innovation many larger commercial manufacturers have introduced organic lines of baby food.

Around the world

Baby food varies from culture to culture. In the United States babies are usually started with bland grain cereals and then move on to mashed fruits and vegetables. In Japan home made baby food is common and babies are started on Okayu and then move on to mashed fruits, vegetables, tofu and fish.^[6]

Variations

Baby food is available in dry, ready-to-feed and frozen forms, which are prepared by the caregiver or parent in small batches and fed to the child. Dry baby food, such as rice or oatmeal cereals, are mixed with a liquid until reconstituted.

Frozen baby food is a form of heat processed baby food that enables lower cooking temperatures by finalizing the product in a frozen, rather than the more traditional jarred, form. Frozen baby food is made by cooking, pureeing and freezing fresh fruits and vegetables. Frozen baby food is an alternative for parents who make baby food at home and freeze it in ice cube trays. Some nutritionists believe that freezing gently cooked ripe produce could be even healthier than cooking under-ripe produce^{[citation needed]}. While major baby food companies have yet to venture into a frozen product, they have been galloping toward organics. Sales of organic baby food have shot up 58 percent in five years, 16 percent in the last year alone, according to ACNielsen. ^{[citation needed]}

Major manufacturers

• Beech-Nut
• Earth's Best
• Gerber (recently purchased by Nestlé)
• H. J. Heinz Company

References

1. ^ http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/cookbooks/display.cfm?TitleNo=74&PageNum=439
2. ^ http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodbaby.html
3. ^ http://www.nutricia.nl/asp/index.asp?id=12111
4. ^ http://corporate.britannica.com/press/inventions.html
5. ^ Cheating Babies: Nutritional Quality and Cost of Commercial Baby Food
6. ^ http://www.japaninc.com/fw91

External links

• Infant nutrition information from Seattle Children's Hospital.
• Introducing solid foods: What you need to know from the Mayo clinic.
• Knowing What’s Best for Baby To Eat from the USDA.
• Gerber Start Healthy Feeding Plan developed with the USDA-ARS.

See also

• Breastfeeding

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