Gerber Graduates Toddler Drink – A Fail of Obese Proportions
I received a free sample of Gerber Graduates Toddler Drink today. I will never feed this to my daughter. I threw it out after reading the ingredients.
Gerber Graduates Toddler Drink - I will never feed this to my daughter
Carbohydrates are important for all of us. They are turned into energy that our bodies can use quickly or stored (as fat) for later use. The problem happens when we intake too many carbohydrates and do not balance it with a corresponding level of physical activity. When we take in more carbs then we burn, we store the excess as fat in our bodies.
Considering that obesity is a worldwide epidemic, we consume more carbohydrates than we burn on the whole. Either we are becoming more lazy, our diets are becoming more sugary and starchy, or a combination of them both. Obesity can be a contributing factor in both heart disease and diabetes (just to name a few). Sugary diets can lead to tooth decay.
When I received my free sample of Gerber Graduates Toddler Drink, I immediately thought positive thoughts. Here is a company that has been making baby food since forever and surely must know how to aid child nutrition. The ingredients told a different story. Here are the main ingredients (in order):
Fresh Skim Milk
Cream
Sugar
Corn Maltodextrin
Corn and Canola Oils
Palm Olein
Soy Lecithin
Artificial Flavour
Bifodobacterium Lactis
So basically, Gerber Graduates Toddler Drink is a milkshake; milk, cream, and sugar. Last time I heard, milkshakes were (and still are) very, very fattening. The irony here is the quote on that sample liner “Try this FREE SAMPLE and make giving your toddler good nutrition the easiest part of your day”. If I am to understand Gerber correctly, I am supposed to give this milkshake to my 15 month old daughter in her sippy cup several times per day in order to ensure her good nutrition. Yes, there are vitamin and mineral supplements that come with this milkshake, but at what cost?
Can I not just feed my daughter a balanced and healthy diet without the milkshake aspect? Yes, I can, and I will continue to do so. I feed her each and every food group every time I feed her. She is used to eating this way, and enjoys all types of foods. The Gerber Graduates Toddler Drink milkshake idea is abhorrent to me. I believe that food preferences are wired at a very young age. I also feel that the child who is raised with sugary Num Nums and Gerber Graduates Toddler Drink will learn to love sugar and fat. This could lead to infant obesity or obesity later on in life (and the myriad of other ill-effects linked to obesity).
In short, thanks for the invite, Gerber, but I’ll give your toddler milkshake a pass. I’ll wait until my daughter is a bit older to introduce her to the deliciousness of milkshakes.
To discover alternative and excellent baby money saving ideas click here.
Gerber Graduates Toddler Drink - A Fail of Obese Proportions,
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If you have a child not getting enough intake of calories and carbs in other areas this drink is a better alternative than milk. My daughter is seeing a dietician and pediatrician as well as a family doctor for failure to thrive and a long cardiac history and they have all recommended a toddler drink or step two formula to make up for the nutrition she is not gaining from her limited intake of food and is turning down infant formula. Everything is safe in moderation and the drink is not a “milk shake” it is a flavoured milk. Infants and toddlers need higher fat and carb intake than any other age group which is why they are fed homo milk.
Hi Kat, Thanks for your message. I appreciate your comments and you taking the time to write. It sounds like it is just the right thing for your daughter and it seems that it might be a good choice in some circumstances. Thanks again for your input. All the best, froogalist
You are a dumb lady you throw out something that could have been given to the FOOD BANK FOR ANOTHER BABY! that bio thing you mentioned was something you can’t provide every day…and is normally consumed in dairy or yogurt form its probiotic which would have been very good for your daughter it contains 1 billion of them in her drink if you had let her try it..you rather give her food that has BPA and other pedicides in your fruits and veggies but a little sample that you threw away? whats wrong with you? You act like a crazy person…i feel sorry for your child if you didn’t want it send it back or give it to a starving child that needed it…
Thanks for your response, Lia. I do respect your opinion, and the fact that you took the time to reply. I only ask that you keep the tone here, a respectful one. I am neither dumb nor a lady. In hindsight, thanks to what Kat said in an earlier post, I do believe that donating it to someone else might be a better alternative. At that time, however, I simply did not feel right about offering to another parent something which I would not feed to my own daughter; in most cases, I still do.
froogalist