Excessive‑price range advertising campaigns for toddler milk‑combine merchandise typically mislead mother and father with claims of being ‘sugar‑free’ or ‘no refined sugar’. Specialists advise mother and father to keep away from added sugars till age two and reasonable consumption thereafter.
Revealed Date – 10 January 2026, 10:55 PM
Hyderabad: For brand spanking new mother and father and younger {couples}, the arrival of a kid brings a wave of protecting instincts, which is commonly focused by high-budget advertising campaigns. Labels on toddler milk-mix like ‘no-refined sugar’, ‘sugar-free’, ‘incorporates no sugar’ or ‘assist your baby develop’ are particularly designed to attraction to those parental anxieties.
Attributable to fixed publicity to such high-voltage advertising campaigns, {couples} typically find yourself confused or shopping for into the hype. Nonetheless, does the toddler actually need a milk-mix? And does such ‘milk-mix’ actually not have sugar?
Prior to now 12 months, along with Hyderabad-based Nationwide Institute of Vitamin (NIN), public well being specialists and pediatricians have constantly warned about ‘milk-mix’ and well being drinks that make deceptive guarantees.
In its newest dietary pointers, the NIN is crystal clear “Infants needs to be completely breastfed for the primary six months. Breastfeeding needs to be continued for 2 years. Keep away from feeding honey, glucose or dilute milk components earlier than the initiation of breastfeeding and anytime in the course of the first six months”.
Famous senior pediatrician from Hyderabad, Dr Sivaranjani Santosh has been fairly vocal about how milk combine merchandise make deceptive claims.
“To begin with, there is no such thing as a want for milk-mix. If {couples} have determined to feed their infants with milk-mix, then they need to keep away from falling for the ‘Sugar Advertising Lure’ by getting misled after studying deceptive claims like ‘sugar-free’ or include ‘no refined sugar’. In actuality, producers typically substitute white sugar with jaggery, honey, or date sugar,” she says.
The NIN 2024 dietary pointers level out that the physique is incapable of distinguishing between these ‘pure’ choices and desk sugar. The Glycaemic Index (GI) of jaggery is almost similar to sophisticated sugar, inflicting the identical fast insulin spikes.
A couple of days in the past, Dr Sivaranjani, in a chat, drew consideration in the direction of a very misleading tactic of utilizing Maltodextrins.
These components typically have a glycemic index even increased than glucose, but on account of a regulatory loophole, they aren’t legally categorised as ‘sugar’ by the FSSAI, permitting manufacturers to market merchandise as ‘sugar-free’ whereas truly delivering an enormous blood-sugar hit to infants and toddlers.
“As much as two years of age, no added sugar is really useful. Giving a date as a recent fruit is okay, however sweetening the meals with date sugar shouldn’t be. Even after the second birthday, {couples} should reasonable the consumption of sugar,” Dr Sivaranjani advises.
