Yes, I did not make this up. There is such a thing as chocolate toddler formula.
It's a product created by Mead-Johnson's Enfagrow. The Premium Chocolate Toddler Formula has "natural and artificial flavors" and is specifically made for toddlers age 12 to 36 months. It's for fussy eaters, to make "sure" they get the nutrition that they need.
Parents have it hard. Try walking a toddler down a grocery store isle. Little ones shout out for the Dora yogurt, the Disney Princess crackers and the multicolored Goldfish. Now, they want to get kids hooked even earlier, before they can talk, on chocolate and sugar? Sugar and cocoa are two of the prime ingredients. Don't worry, they have vanilla too if your infant isn't a chocolate fan.
Should products like this be allowed on the market? This is a heated debate amongst the warriors of childhood obesity (Jamie Oliver, Michele Obama, Dr. David Ludwig etc.) and adult obesity. Jamie Oliver on the Food Revolution tried to get flavored, sugary milk (strawberry and chocolate) out of schools. The chocolate milk had more sugar than a soda. I imagine he would not be thrilled about this.
Some say that we have a responsibility to fill grocery store shelves with healthy options and to get rid of toxic foods (think trans-fat) and other chemically processed foods. Kelly D. Brownell, is a Yale professor, who coined the phrase "toxic food environment" in his book, Food Fight: the Inside Story of the Food Industry."
It's pretty safe to say that chocolate toddler formula would be part of this "toxic environment" which is described as "high-calorie, high-fat, heavily marketed, inexpensive, and readily accessible foods." "Brownell and many of his colleagues attribute the nation's obesity epidemic to the toxic environment."
Others would argue that it is the job of the parents and consumers to choose foods wisely. They argue for food freedom -- that you should be free to feed yourself and your kids whatever you want. And that as a industry you should be at liberty to make whatever you want and let the consumer decide.
I wrote about a similiar issue a few weeks ago announcing the release of the new Double Down Kentucky Fried Chicken sandwich, with two pieces of meat and no bun. Everyday we are faced with new food choices that challenge the way we eat. With new products like this constantly coming out we can see it geting harder and harder for people to make sound, healthy choices. We think, "how bad can it be if it is on the shelves at the grocery store?"
Regardless of where you stand, hopefully, many parents are going to save the chocolate milk for a treat. What will they think of next?
By Dr. Susan Albers, psychologist and author of Eating Mindfully, 50 Ways to Soothe Yourself Without Food, Eat, Drink & Be Mindful, Mindful Eating 101. www.eatingmindfully.com
BabyCenter's Tips of Helping Your Toddler to Eat Healthy
http://www.babycenter.com/0_how-to-get-your-toddler-to-eat-more-healthy-food_1186688.bc
Healthy Eating for Kids
http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes_menus/collections/healthy_eating_kids
Amie Newman: Got Breast Milk? First We Need Equity
KidsHealth - the Web's most visited site about children's health
Children's Health: MedlinePlus
WebMD Children's Health Center - Kids health and safety ...
AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS WEB SITE
Children's health - MayoClinic.com
ScienceDaily: Children's Health News
Highest percentage of obese children in Mississippi
What? How would a baby even know that chocolate existed if his mother hadn't given it to him?
Also, are toddlers not supposed to be off formula? My granddaughter's doctor wanted her weaned from formula by 12 months and on milk from a cup. Regular, unflavored, whole milk.
This is a moronic move on the part of manufacturers. . .and I bet it will sell like hotcakes.
http://www.sensorysmartparent.wordpress.com
I remember those bland years, first when I was breastfeeding, trying to stay away from things that would "flavor" my milk and then when we were making baby food for our kids, keeping salt and sugar out of our dinner so we could blend it for the boys.
I don't remember either of my kids getting fussy or refusing my breast. They seemed pretty happy with mommy milk of the unflavored variety but once they began eating solids, they would always have gone for fruit or dessert type meals if we'd have let them. I remember when my son had his first taste of strawberry, he spit out everything that wasn't a berry for almost a day but we stuck with it and he resumed his normal eating habits.
Kids have parents so they don't make their own meal choices. They don't yet understand the correlation between food and nutrition. Taste is the first factor for them so as parents, we're charged with the responsibility of giving them nutrition. It's not always easy, in fact, it's often simpler just to let the kids do what they want but when we signed up for this task, no one promised us easy.
My daughter remembers feeling deprived when she was 4 and taking dance lessons and all the other kids got to stop at the coke machine after dance. But, when I picked her up, I would have a cooler of water in the car and a picnic lunch and we'd head to a park or to the river instead of home to watch Saturday morning cartoons. Now that she has a child, she's decided I was a pretty good mom after all.
No one in my family drank pop except me.. for some reason, I started drinking diet pop a few years ago and had a hard time stopping but my kids convinced me to give it up. Teach them right and they start teaching you :)
Like everything else, education is the key and if more people become aware of the crap they are buying and then ingesting, perhaps over time, those horrible products will go away of their own accord...because no one will buy them. And if people would realize that every time they purchase something they are voting with their wallet...it might encourage them to purchase healthier products.
The company wants to legitimize the product by saying it would help parents of finiky eaters. So doesn't that send a message to our children, before they can even talk, that if they don't like healthy food that its perfectly acceptable to substitute it with high-fat, high-sugar foods?
Besides when they get older you can teach them how to make their much better chocolate milk from scratch with Hershey Cocoa, Sugar and Milk, teach them about tempering so it won't float on top, make a paste first add the milk slowly and make a paste and then add the rest of the milk gradually while stirring-teaching patience, science, food prep all in one.
I did not read the whole article but the Title is mispelled Favor instead of Flavor and then shortly thereafter in the article the word aisle is spelled isle.
Anyway maybe you can make the changes and republish to the web.