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Speaker 1: Let's talk about a push for better standards for toddler

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Speaker 1: and infant food and this is South Australia leading the

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Speaker 1: way here again some products found to have more sugar

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Speaker 1: than chocolate bars in totaler and infant food. Surely that's

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Speaker 1: got to be done better. Doctor Merenetting is pediatrician and

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Speaker 1: dietitian at Samary Good. Meren, how are you? Thank you

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Speaker 1: for your time?

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Speaker 2: Thank you?

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Speaker 1: So what have you found? I'm just surprised to read this.

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Speaker 1: You'd think toddler infant food would be pretty right in

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Speaker 1: terms of things like sugar and salt.

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Speaker 2: Well, look, people would think that infant and toddler foods

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Speaker 2: were very highly regulated, but the fact is that they're not.

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Speaker 2: There are some guidelines related to infant foods. They're composition,

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Speaker 2: but generally, you know, when we've looked at them, they

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Speaker 2: are sweet, they're very smooth, and they're very low in iron.

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Speaker 2: So they are not ideal to only your babies or

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Speaker 2: your children. Those those foods.

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Speaker 1: Okay, the state government wanting to change that to put labeling,

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Speaker 1: proper food labeling on them.

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Speaker 2: So the state government, yes, definitely, and the federal governments.

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Speaker 2: So there's actually a consultation happening at the moment and

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Speaker 2: improving commercial foods for infants and young children, and we're

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Speaker 2: hoping that these foods will become much more regulated.

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Speaker 1: We're talking the sort of food you give an infant

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Speaker 1: once it stops breastfeeding or at least gets to the

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Speaker 1: age where it can start eating solids. I imagine that's right.

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Speaker 2: So our infant feeding guidelines stay encourage people to breastfeed

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Speaker 2: untill they're around six months of age and when the

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Speaker 2: babies are ready to start introducing solid foods, and so

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Speaker 2: these commercial foods fit fall into that sort of that

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Speaker 2: second six months of life and main guidelines actually say

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Speaker 2: to include a variety of foods as long as they're

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Speaker 2: iron rich, and our research is showing that these foods

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Speaker 2: are not rich in iron at all.

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Speaker 1: Okay, we're talking about yogurts and the like.

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Speaker 2: We're talking about the pouch baby fruits, So there are

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Speaker 2: some baby yogurts in there as well, But these are

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Speaker 2: about the foods that are marketed at babies and young children.

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Speaker 2: So you know, the mixed vegetable food the yeah, the

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Speaker 2: pure as and you know the issue with those is

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Speaker 2: that they're fine when your baby's very first starting to

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Speaker 2: learn to eat. But babies very quickly learn how to

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Speaker 2: manage soft slumps, and it's important that they progress that

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Speaker 2: they are not just given foods that are only the

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Speaker 2: same texture or they just don't learn to eat properly.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, how about salt content? Have you found along with sugar?

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Speaker 1: Are they high in salt as well? Which can't be good?

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Speaker 2: Look for baby fruit, it's themselves, the one targeted under

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Speaker 2: twelve months are quite regulated with salt. But it's the

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Speaker 2: foods that are for the toddlers that have a higher

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Speaker 2: salt content because they pull under the same regulation as

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Speaker 2: the adult food. Okay, and of course you know which

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Speaker 2: parent hasn't given their baby a food aimed at a toddler.

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Speaker 2: You would think that they would be the same.

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Speaker 1: Of Course, the best thing to do, no doubt, I'm

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Speaker 1: sure you'll say, is a nutritionist and pediatric dietitian. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: is to try and pureate good food yourself. But of course,

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Speaker 1: time and people working and all the rest of it,

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Speaker 1: and managing a household and maybe older kids and everything.

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Speaker 1: You just run out of time as parents. But everyone's

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Speaker 1: busy these days. But I imagine that would be the best

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Speaker 1: thing to do if you could is mash up some

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Speaker 1: food at home for them to eat.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and ideally, you know, children will learn to eat

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Speaker 2: the same food as the rest of the family, and

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Speaker 2: ideally families will be eating healthy foods from with a

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Speaker 2: variety of foods. But you know, life is busy and

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Speaker 2: what parents hasn't you know, had a commercial food that

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Speaker 2: they popped in their nappy bags for when you know,

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Speaker 2: when you get stuck somewhere and your baby or your

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Speaker 2: toddler is hungry and you've already given them a milk feed.

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Speaker 2: You know, it's actually important that there are good and

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Speaker 2: healthy commercial about our foods available.

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Speaker 1: We know, don't We through research that good nutrition at

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Speaker 1: the start of life can lead to lifelong habits. Bad

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Speaker 1: nutrition can potentially lead to serious illness later in life.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, so the foods that we eat in the first

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Speaker 2: thousand days are really programmers towards developing. You know, a

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Speaker 2: whole lot of programs us for good health and it

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Speaker 2: can programmers for you know, unhealthy habits as well. It's

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Speaker 2: absolutely essential. And you know, in that first year of life,

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Speaker 2: you think of what's happening developmentally, So baby go from

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Speaker 2: doing not much to themselves to sitting to standing, to walking,

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Speaker 2: they learn to talk. They're making all of these neuronal connections.

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Speaker 2: It's quite remarkable and they need good nutrition to support that.

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Speaker 1: So this overhaul at the moment is what under review

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Speaker 1: as to what happens next. Is that right?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So there's a public consultation and that will go.

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Speaker 2: That's been run by the Astroney government Department of Health

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Speaker 2: and Aged Cares, and so now the time is so

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Speaker 2: the general public can can comment on that. They're closer

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Speaker 2: Friday and then it will go. Then the outcomes of

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Speaker 2: that will go to the Food ministers and they'll make

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Speaker 2: some decisions about whether we go down the pathway of

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Speaker 2: improving the regulations around the food. So that will take

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Speaker 2: a bit longer, but I'm hoping that we will be

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Speaker 2: able to just have a little bit more regulation in

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Speaker 2: the space. And it needs to be about what's in

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Speaker 2: the food their text and also what's on the packets,

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Speaker 2: so the kind of marketing to about the foods, it's

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Speaker 2: very important.

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Speaker 1: Got a text here from Susie mare And who says,

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Speaker 1: what about milk? Where do we stand on milk for

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Speaker 1: Toddler's infants and Toddler's moving forward?

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Speaker 2: All right? So look, cow's milk provides iron, it provides

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Speaker 2: a deep cow's milk provides energy and protein. It's very

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Speaker 2: low in iron, and it contains calcium and phosphorus and

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Speaker 2: a whole lot of things for bone help. So in Australia,

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Speaker 2: one of our five food groups is the dairy food groups.

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Speaker 2: Out feeding guidelines. At the moment say breastfeed, and then

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Speaker 2: during the second half of the first year, when you're

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Speaker 2: eating solid foods, you can actually start to introduce dairy

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Speaker 2: food and then from one year of age we encourage milk,

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Speaker 2: you know, as a drink. But you know, if you're

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Speaker 2: still breastfeeding, you can still breastfeed, you know, for as

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Speaker 2: long as you like.

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Speaker 1: All right, good advice, Meren. Thank you so much for

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Speaker 1: your time public consultation. As you say, open now and

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Speaker 1: that we'll see where it ends up.

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Speaker 2: Thank you very much.

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Speaker 1: Thank you, doctor Meren Netting, pediatrician, dietitian and research fellow

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Speaker 1: at Samary