More than 80 per cent of parents use processed pre-packaged baby foods during weaning. With such a high percentage of parents using pre-packaged baby foods, Weaning World, The Gut Stuff, BioGaia and Lucy Upton have teamed up to provide parents with healthier recipe alternatives, advice and answers to their burning questions.

Weaning World has conducted a survey asking 660 parents how often they use or used pre-packaged baby pouch food during weaning. 80 per cent of parents from the survey said they used processed pre-packaged baby foods during the first months of weaning.

The first 1,000 days of a baby's life are crucial for development and pre-packaged baby food pouches may be doing more harm than good.

Pre-packaged baby foods have nutritional differences from home-cooked foods that can impact the long-term gut development of babies. For example, a recent study found that two-thirds of commercially available pre-packaged baby foods exceed the WHO’s guidelines for volumes of salt, sugar and calories. 44.8 per cent of parents in the survey believed that pre-packaged baby food was either Natural or Unprocessed. There is a clear need to educate parents on what goes into pre-packaged baby foods and what they should look out for as consumers. From the survey, 68.8 per cent of parents viewing an image of a baby pouch meal answered that they believed it would be healthy.

“Nutritional choices in a baby’s early weeks and months of weaning and beyond play a pivotal role in shaping the gut microbiome development,” says Lucy Upton, Specialist Paediatric Dietician.

Establishing a healthy gut microbiota during early development lays the foundation for lifelong well-being, making it essential to prioritise gut health interventions during this formative time.

Evidence points towards that ultra-processed food-rich diets, particularly in the early years, can negatively impact long-term health. Poor gut health can be implicated in driving obesity, among other problems, which makes it crucial to get right during weaning. In the survey, 40.5 per cent of parents answered that they used pre-packaged baby foods in the first week of starting solid food.

“BioGaia recognise how important microbiota development is to all ages, especially in the first three years. Our extensive research has shown that a good microbiome is an essential part of long-term health and needs to be a priority for parents who are beginning their weaning journey,” adds Steven Hicks, UK Director at BioGaia.