Why Your Baby Doesn’t Need Added Sugar Before 1 Year of Age

The first thousand days of a child's life is what sets the benchmark for their health for the rest of their lives.

Sugar is a simple carbohydrate- so it just provides energy and calories. It is quickly absorbed by their body and leads to an immediate surge of energy but it quickly also then results in a dip of energy making them feel lethargic.

Refined sugar has no nutrients and simply is not beneficial for a baby or toddler's growth. Also to get sugar to be refined it goes through a chemical process where there are a lot of unnecessary things added to it which our kids do not need.

High amounts of sugar has been linked to major health issues in the future such as obesity, high cholesterol, blood pressure, tooth decay.

We also don't want them to get used to having all foods with something sweet added to it. Breastmilk/formula already is a bit sweet so they have a natural sweet tooth.

 We should use this opportunity between 6-12 months to teach them that food has a variety of flavors and expand their taste palette. If they get used to only sweet foods, they will become picky eaters and reject other foods.

Instead, you can use fruits as natural sweeteners when needed.

Avoid honey before 1 year of age as it can lead to bacterial poisoning

Post 1, you can add a bit of coconut sugar, date syrup, honey,maple syrup, jaggery to their foods but only on occasion as even though these do have some vitamins and minerals,the body still treats it as sugar.

The American Academy of Pediatrics advises to avoid even these till post 2 years of age. Best to avoid refined sugar as long as you can.

Post 2, keep it to less than 25 grams of  added sugar ( 6 teaspoons).