Parents, this is an important read. Here’s what you need to know.
It’s been a bad week for products you might keep in your kid-friendly food arsenal. Between the news that Cheerios may contain traces of a weed-killer linked to cancer,and now Consumer Reports’ recent findings of heavy metals in popular baby and toddler foods, you might have to re-think your pantry options.
In a report released on Aug. 16, Consumer Reports analyzed 50 nationally-distributed packaged foods made for babies and toddlers in order to check for heavy metals, including cadmium, mercury, inorganic arsenic and lead. The test produced some concerning findings, including:
- “Every product had measurable levels of at least one of these heavy metals: cadmium, inorganic arsenic, or lead.”
- “About two-thirds (68 percent) had worrisome levels of at least one heavy metal.”
- “Fifteen of the foods would pose potential health risks to a child regularly eating just one serving or less per day.”
Consumer Reports said most of the products it analyzed came from the two biggest U.S. baby food manufacturers, Beech-Nut and Gerber. Other brands included were Baby Mum-Mum, Earth’s Best, Ella’s Kitchen, Happy Baby, Parent’s Choice (Walmart store brand), Plum Organics and Sprout.
As a way of limiting the amount of heavy metals your child consumes, Consumer Reports advised parents to limit the amount of infant rice cereal a child eats, and opt for other cereals, such as those made from whole grains.
Parents can also consider making their own baby food, as well as purchasing the 16 products from the study that “had less concerning levels of the heavy metals.”
Here are three easy recipes you can make at home:
A full list of the tested products and corresponding results can be found on the Consumer Reports site.