Sabine’s Organic Baby Food Blog

It seems that hardly a month goes by without more evidence that the chemical nasties sprayed on our food in so-called ‘conventional farming’  are bad for the health of our babies and growing children. The importance of feeding babies a largely organic diet cannot be overstated. For more about the latest study and how to protect your baby, read on…

Last month’s edition of the internationally respected journal ‘Pediatrics’ carried an article suggesting that even low levels of  chemical pesticides are associated with an increased risk of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children.

Researchers at the University of Montreal and Harvard University looked for organophosphate pesticide metabolites, an indicator of pesticide exposure, in the urine of 1,139 kids ages 8 to 15 and found that close to 95 percent had at least one of these chemical byproducts in their system. Those with the highest levels were 93 percent more likely to have received an ADHD diagnosis than children with none in their system. Those with above-average levels of the most common organophosphate byproduct – they made up a third of the whole group – were more than twice as likely as the rest to have ADHD.

Even Low Levels of Pesticides are Harmful

“This is not a small effect,” says study co-author Maryse Bouchard, a researcher in the University of Montreal’s environmental and occupational health department, “and it is certainly cause for concern.” She adds that while prior research has proved that high levels of organophosphate exposure can have negative impacts on children’s behavior and cognitive function, in this study “we are talking about very low levels of exposure . . . levels that were believed previously to be safe and harmless but which are now associated with a serious health risk.” She points out that most pesticide exposure today comes through food, particularly conventional fruits and vegetables.

Reducing Pesticide Intake in Babies

So what can concerned mums do to protect their precious babies? You’d be hard-pressed to find an expert who doesn’t advise that people, especially pregnant women and small children, reduce their pesticide intake as much as possible.

The top recommendation is to eat an entirely fresh organic diet, which has been shown to significantly lower children’s pesticide exposure levels. For many that is not reasonable or possible as there just isn’t the variety of foods always available that you would like to feed to your baby.

It also helps to carefully wash and scrub all your fruits and vegetables thoroughly in cold water. But be aware that you can’t scrub away all the risks because most pesticides don’t wash off, and seep into the produce itself.

A more practical answer for many parents is to avoid fresh non-organic foods that have the highest risks because of the large amount of pesticides used on them and the porous nature of their skins in retaining pesticides. See an earlier article on Weaning Your Baby With Organic Food – Pesticides in Fruit and Vegetables for more information. The list provided there gives us useful guide if we are serious about feeding our babies a safe and wholesome diet.

Of course, you want your baby to grow up enjoying a varied diet and so, whilst avoiding the non-organic fruits and vegetables that pose the highest pesticide risk, why not top up mealtimes with some guaranteed pesticide free baby foods?

Pesticide Free Baby Food

Many parents tell me that the large variety of Holle baby jars perfectly complemented by their huge range of organic baby porridges, alongside the homemade food that mum makes from locally bought fruit and vegetables makes the ideal combination. This mix and match approach will help you avoid pesticides while giving your baby the nutritional variety he or she needs.

Share your experiences with other parents. How do you make sure you avoid feeding your baby a cocktail of chemical nasties?

Fresh fruit and vegetables - which are safe for weaning babies?

At Ulula we always recommend parents to wean their babies with organic ingredients. Babies delicate and developing bodies do not deserve to be bombarded with the cocktail of potentially harmful chemicals used in the production of so many of our foods.

Latest research from the Environmental Working Group states (my emphasis):

“The growing consensus among scientists is that small doses of some pesticides and other chemicals can cause lasting damage to human health, especially during fetal development and early childhood. Scientists now know enough about the long-term consequences of ingesting these powerful chemicals to advise that we minimize our consumption of pesticides.”

Confused on which fruits and vegetables you should be buying organic? Yes, it can be a few more pennies, but studies by the Environmental Working Group show that there are some fruit and vegetables that you should always be buying organic because of the amount of pesticides used on the non-organic kind and the porousness of their skins in retaining the pesticides.

The foods on the Dirty Dozen list (see below) are foods that have very porous skins and which receive heavier doses of, sometimes multiple, pesticides. These are the fruit and vegetables that you should always be buying organic.

The Clean 15 (see below) are those fruit and vegetables that either have a skin that cannot be penetrated by the pesticides and/or those that do not receive as many pesticides. The Clean 15 are those foods that are more okay to not buy organic if organic varieties aren’t available.

The EWG research has shown that, “consumers can reduce their pesticide exposure by 80 percent by avoiding the most contaminated fruits and vegetables and eating only the cleanest”.

I wouldn’t advise starting weaning babies with some of the items in the above lists, but I think that this offers us a useful guide if we are serious about feeding our babies a safe and wholesome diet.

Holle Organic Baby Food – Guaranteed Pesticide Free

I know as a mother feeding a family of five that buying organic can be a few more pennies, but I really believe that such expenditure is an investment in our children’s future health.

Because buying fresh fruit and vegetables was not terribly easy or convenient when I was weaning my babies, I looked into the various organic baby food alternatives available in jars. The Holle brand clearly stood out above the rest for the quality of the food and the gentle production methods that respect the food as well as the baby they go on to feed. It was for those reasons that I wanted to stock Holle baby foods when setting up Ulula. I also found the Holle baby jars perfectly complement their huge range of organic baby porridges, so that combining different jars with different porridges during the course of a week I could feed my babies a great selection of meals.

Share your weaning experiences with other parents. How do you ensure you feed your baby organic weaning recipes?