Woolworths has responded to pressure from parents for stocking a juice drink that claims to be suitable for babies six months and up
The Bebi fruit drink range claims to be the world’s first infant suitable beverage, and is marketed as being suitable for infants from six months. The bottle the juice is sold in comes with a teat, just like a baby’s bottle.
CHOICE has reported that Midwife and mother Jessica Williams started a petition at Change.org calling for Woolworths (which appeared to be the only stockist) to stop selling the drink.
Williams says “Parents should be able to choose what to feed their babies, but calling these drinks safe is misleading, and a lot parents will be confused into thinking they’re perfectly healthy. I know this will happen because I see it all the time at work.”
Even if it’s diluted, fruit juice contains natural sugars which can lead to tooth decay. Tooth decay causes pain, sleeping problems and may stop children from reaching a healthy weight.
CHOICE reported that Dr James Best, GP and author of the upcoming book Kidsense said “To market this sort of product for babies sets them up for bad dietary habits and is simply irresponsible. Drinks containing sugar, including juice, are not needed by small children. It is far healthier for children to have fruit rather than fruit juice. Not only does the sugar in the drinks contribute to childhood obesity, but there are serious and common dental decay problems.
[box type=”note” icon=”none”]Breast milk or infant formula should be the main drink for children under 12 months old. For toddlers and older children water is the best drink. Source: Current dietary guidelines vias CHOICE[/box]
On Friday Woolworths released a statement advising their intention to act.
Last week a customer contacted us regarding their concerns about Bebi’s advice about the suitability of juice for infants. We undertook to look into these concerns, and we’ve consulted our in-house nutritionist and discussed the ranging of this product.
What is clear is that there is widespread debate about the suitability of a juice product made specifically for infants. Given this, we’ve listened to our concerned customers and made the decision to delist the Bebi® organic White Grape fruit drink and Bebi® organic Apple and Banana fruit drink from our range and it will come off our shelves over coming weeks.
For crying out loud – look at the damn bottle. It’s a diluted fruit juice with less than the Heinz equivalent. Don’t need some 25 year old know it all deciding what I can and can’t buy at the shops. Handy solution if out and about, or something to wash down a meal. She was assuming only people with babies would buy it – no idea that people with toddlers would prefer it to a straight juice or sugar packed alternative when on the go. Hope she starts campaigning against the Heinz alternative or she is just a hypocrite. Handy product, better choice than other drinks out there, and convenient clean bottle. Look at the calorie/kj content of the baby food available, and then put some perspective on it.