For the first 6 months of your baby’s life, his/her nutrition is primarily taken care of by breastmilk, the purest and most unadulterated of all sources.
The worry begins after that, however, when breastmilk and baby formula needs to be supplemented by other, slightly more solid sources.
When your child’s nutritional intake shifts to sources external to you, it becomes pertinent to look for the most reliable and nutrient-rich options.
Baby food products are often classified into different stages, depending on the age of your child, and each stage comes with a different mix of age-appropriate food items. For example – the first few stages come with a mix of veggies and cereals, whereas the latter ones come with meaty food as well.
Likewise, baby food products are often classified into other types as well. For example – Some are more appropriate as snack treats whereas others are designed to be whole meals.
While the classification of baby food items that are appropriate for your child is an extremely important consideration, it all goes to waste if those food items don’t come packed with essential nutrients.
During the first six to twelve months of your baby’s life, his/her immune system is in its formative stages, and it also shows much greater vulnerability to iron deficiency.
Apart from this, your baby’s growth and brain development are also significantly affected by the quality of nutrition he/she receives during these months of life. Thus, the importance of supplementing breast milk with the right food intake isn’t something that can be stressed upon enough.
Your child’s nutrition isn’t something we take lightly, and thus allow us to walk you through the most trustworthy, nutritious, and tasty baby food products in the business!
These are the Top 11 Best Baby Food Products in India
| Products | Age | Item Weight | Buy Now |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nestlé Cerelac Baby Cereal with Milk | 6 months | 379 g |  |
| Timios Mix Flavours Melts Healthy & Natural Energy Baby Food Product | 9 months | 200 g | |
| Slurrp Farm Organic Baby Cereal | 6 months | 200 g | |
| Nestle Nestum Infant Cereal | 10 months | 300 g | |
| PRISTINE 1st Bites Stage 3 Organic Baby Cereal | 10 months | 300 g | |
| ByGrandma Homemade Weight Gain Baby Food | 8 months | 200 g | |
| Early Foods Sprouted Ragi Almond Date Porridge Mix | 4 months | 200 g | |
| First Solids Organic Baby Food Sprouted Ragi Porridge Mix | 6 months | 300 g | |
| Nestlé LACTOGEN 1 Infant Formula Powder | 6 months | 400 g | |
| PediaSure Health and Nutrition Drink Powder | 6 months | 400 g | |
| Enfagrow A+ Nutritional Milk Powder Health Drink | 2 years | 400 g | |
Best Baby Food Products in India (2023)
1. Nestlé Cerelac Baby Cereal with Milk
Nestle is an all-star brand and clearly Indian’s favourite baby products company. From chocolates, to non-fat milk and even our favourite noodles, Nestle never ceases to bring smiles to our faces.
This Cerelac Baby Cereal is easily one of the highly preferred baby food products in India. Thanks to the assured standards of quality that come with all Nestle products, and also the mix of 12 essential vitamins and 8 essential minerals that this baby food comes packed with.
- Suitable for all babies over the age of half a year and under one year
- Available in four natural flavours- Wheat, Rice, Wheat Apple and Wheat Apple Carrot
- Consists of a mix of twelve vitamins and eight minerals
- Consists of plentiful Iron, that can make up for 8.75 mg of the required 11 mg that your child should consume daily, in just two servings
- Steers clear of harmful chemicals like colouring agents and preservatives
This Nestle baby food is appropriate for all babies that are over half a year old, and to make things more exciting, it comes with as many as four flavors, so your baby never gets bored!
These flavours include Wheat, Rice, Wheat Apple, and even Wheat Apple Carrot! This isn’t a ready to eat cereal, but it instead requires cooking with small portions of milk.
For a baby between the ages of six and ten months, 3 spoons of baby food require cooking with 75 ml of milk, whereas for a baby between the ages of ten and twelve months, this portion changes to four spoons of baby food and 100 ml of milk.
The best thing about this baby cereal is that it comes stuffed with just about every baby-friendly nutrient on the face of this planet. Vitamins A, C, D, E, B6, and B12, include some of the more important vitamins, wheres as Calcium, Potassium, Phosphorus makes for some of the minerals.
Zinc and Iron are available in plenty, in fact feeding this Cerelac baby cereal to your child twice a day will allow you to provide him with atleast 8.75 milligrams out of the 11 milligrams of iron that he should ideally consume daily.
Since baby food is only a supplement to breastmilk, you can rest assured that the rest of his requirements will be sufficiently met as well.
This baby food maintains its purity and upholds your baby’s sensitive health by steering clear of any unneeded chemicals like food colouring, and preservatives.
The absence of preservatives is also why you should ensure that you feed the cereal to your baby within 30 minutes of cooking it as post that there is a chance of excessive bacterial build-up that could upset your baby’s tummy.
2. Timios Mix Flavours Melts Healthy & Natural Energy Baby Food Product
When it comes to little munchies and snacky treats for your babies, there are hardly any brands that stand quite as tall as Timios. Infact, as a frequent awardee in the kids’ food category, this is easily one of the safest choices out there.
This snacky delight is suitable for all little ones above the age of nine months, and while maintaining its yummy taste and fun shape, this snack makes it a point to steer clear of all things harmful to your baby.
- This ready to eat snack pack comes in two flavours
- Every 100 gram pack comes with ample iron content, that is, 4.22 milligrams
- This snack is rich in proteins, minerals and fibers
- It avoids chemicals like preservatives, dyeing agents and each snack comes in cute, star-like figures
The Timios Melts baby food product comes in two flavours, one is Apple and Cinnamon, and the other is Carrot and Cumin. These snacks come in a light 0.1 kilogram packages, wherein all treats come in cute, a catchy star-like figures that appeal to your babies as well.
Because this product doesn’t serve as a full meal, it stands on a lower front than a lot of other baby food products in terms of its nutritional value.
But nevertheless, this product comes enriched with proteins and minerals, especially iron wherein every 100-gram pack comes with 4.22 milligrams of iron, which when supplemented with other meals will definitely help your baby meet his daily 11 milligrams of the iron mark.
These snacky delights come with loads of fiber that keeps your baby’s digestion on track. Plentiful proteins ensure that your baby’s organs and muscles develop adequately and that your baby grows in as healthy a way as one can.
Not only does this product steer clear of harmful chemicals like food dyeing agents and preservatives, it also keeps its white sugar and sodium content to a minimum.
Additionally, these snacks don’t come dripping in oil and thereby also actively avoid trans fats, which are typically associated with cholesterol build-up and a range of other ill effects that you should keep your precious little ones miles away from.
3. Slurrp Farm Organic Baby Cereal
Slurrp Farm is a brand that originated from the very perils of trying to find food that would not only enrich your baby with a truckload of nutrients but would also taste yummy and sit well in your baby’s belly.
Often times, nutritious baby food products taste and look like bland, claggy goop; the makers of Slurrp Farm saw that and aimed to correct it with their yummy, fruity cereals that also go back to our traditional roots, by incorporating finger millets or what we call, ragi.
- This cereal employs not only standard ingredients like Rice, but also of more nutritious ones like Finger Millets and Jowar
- Comes with bite-sized chunks of real strawberries
- Comes incorporated with milk-powder
- Comes with high amounts of Zinc and Iron, that is 5 milligrams and 9 milligrams per 100 grams of cereal
- Doesn’t make use of any colouring or additives
- Employs Gur as a sweetener and not white powdered sugar, plus it has a 0 milligram trans fat content
This Slurrp Farm baby cereal rather successfully brings to you an option that isn’t only healthy but is also finger-licking yummy, besides it comes with real chunks of strawberry, it doesn’t get much better than that!
This baby cereal, as we mentioned before, incorporates finger millets, which although has been a staple in rural India for a long time.
Its health benefits are only now being increasingly recognized across the world, which is also why it’s been called a super-food. Finger millets are extremely rich sources of fiber, something your baby needs plenty of to keep his digestive system on track.
Additionally, Ragi comes with loads of calcium, the benefits of which for a growing baby cannot be understated.
It is also important to note that although this product comes with ample iron content, that is 9 milligrams for every 100 grams of baby cereal, to be precise, there’s no point to this iron intake if your baby’s body isn’t able to soak all that iron up.
In order to do that, your baby needs a sufficient Vitamin C intake, which luckily, finger millets are extremely rich in! This product, too, is free of any additives and colouring agents.
Real fruit chunks aren’t laced with harmful preservatives either, and the only sweetening that this cereal has is from natural Gur, or jaggery.
4. Nestle Nestum Infant Cereal
What is a baby food products list without at least a few listings from Nestle? Nestle is a brand that tops just about every category it is included in and this list is no different.
The best part about Nestle baby food products is that it categorizes its baby food products into stages, as per the age of your child, and the composition of food in each stage varies as per your baby’s age-specific requirements.
- Comes with as many as 9 vitamins and 7 minerals
- Doesn’t require cooking, can simply be mixed with warm milk or water
- Comes with rice as the grain base and three fruit extracts- namely, cherries apples and oranges
- For each 100 grams of baby cereal, this product enriches your child with 8 milligrams of iron, 2.5 milligrams of zinc and 8 micrograms of selenium
- Ample selenium content keeps your baby’s immunity at its best and helps with cell regeneration
This is of great importance as your baby’s needs change significantly as he grows, and thus the nutrition of a six-month-old baby will be much different than that of a ten-month old baby.
This product is a stage three baby food, which means that it’s suitable for all babies aged over ten months and under twelve months and should be ideally supplemented with more solids like veggies and even meat food items!
This Nestle cereal, as the name suggests, is rice-based but the exciting part is that it comes with bite-sized chunks of real cherries and extracts from apple and orange, making it a yummy fruity delight!
As always, Nestle has enriched this product with more minerals and vitamins that our fingers can count. This baby cereal consists of 9 vitamin supplements and 7 minerals, with vitamins A, C, D, E and Iron, Zinc, Calcium, Potassium being the primary ones.
For every 100 grams of cereal, this product gives your baby a boost of 8 milligrams of iron and 2.5 milligrams of zinc. What’s also interesting is that this cereal is amply rich in Selenium, which is 8 micrograms for every 100 grams of cereal, to be precise.
Selenium is extremely important for your child as it keeps free radicals away. These are particles that damage your organs and hurt cell generation, and if your baby’s body is unable to regulate the presence of these agents then your baby will be more prone to diseases like cancer.
Selenium greats help with the development of your child’s immune system and the active regeneration of cells, making it of the utmost importance. Nestle has made it a point to avoid harmful chemicals like food dye and preservatives, making this product as natural as it can be.
5. PRISTINE 1st Bites Stage 3 Organic Baby Cereal
While organic food products have been in trend for quite a long time, this trend didn’t spill over into baby food products until quite recently.
It was Pristine Organics, an Indian food processing company, that through the launch of its baby brand,1st Bites, introduced the concept of organic baby food products in India, and these products have been all the rage ever since!
- 100% organic baby cereal, avoids use of ingredients grown using chemicals like pesticides and artificial fertilizers
- Makes no use food dyes, preservatives and other additives
- Comes with 11 vitamins and 10 minerals
- For every 100 grams this cereal comes with 8 milligrams of iron, 2.5 milligrams of zinc and 12 micrograms of selenium
This is also a stage three product, like the last one we saw, making it age-appropriate only for those kids aged between ten and twenty-four months.
It is important to note that while this cereal is incredibly nutrient-rich, it hasn’t been designed to serve as a full meal and should instead be treated like snacks in between meals.
This product comes in two flavours, the first is Finger millet with strawberry and apple powder, and the second is Finger millet with spinach and carrot powder, each extremely rich in natural sources.
The presence of diverse flavours ensures that you can try and test what your child likes better or even just switch up every now and again so your baby doesn’t get too bored.
Being organic, this product ensures that all the extracts used come from natural sources and that none of the grains have been subjected to artificial chemicals like insecticides and fertilizers.
This is important because oftentimes, heavy use of these chemicals seeps into the grains and then into your food and bodies. Long term exposure to these has even been associated with carcinogenic effects.
Thus, organic baby food product like this 1st bites baby cereal, keeps your children protected from such ills from infancy itself.
This baby cereal comes with more nutrients than you could ever possibly remember, thanks to the 11 vitamins and 10 minerals it consists of.
Out of these Vitamins A, C, D, E B1, B2 and Iron, Zinc, Selenium, Calcium, and Potassium are the most common ones. For every 100 grams, this baby cereal enriches your child with 12 micrograms of selenium, which is the highest amount we’ve seen so far.
Being organic, this product also avoids food dyes and other additives, maintaining the purity of this cereal and the countless health benefits for your baby.
6. ByGrandma Homemade Weight Gain Baby Food
ByGrandma brings to you products at the heart of which lie all your grand mom’s homely remedies and recipes.
These products are natural, and attempt to replicate those age-old recipes that our preceding generations grew up consuming, before the advent of increasingly processed food, while also supplementing their nutritional value.
- Makes use of natural beetroot and almond extracts
- Helps baby gain weight while also maintaining effective digestion
- Requires a few minutes of cooking on medium flame for preparation
- Doesn’t come with any added sodium and white sugar
This baby porridge is specifically designed to enhance your toddlers weight and is suitable for only those babies that are over the age of eight months and haven’t been showing age-appropriate weight gains easily.
This baby cereal is composed of sprouted wheat, which basically refers to wheat grains that have been allowed to sprout or grow shoots. These are rich in fiber and have a much lower carb and gluten content than whole wheat, making it a lot healthier as well.
Adding to the high fiber content are the beetroots and almonds. Beetroots are amongst the healthiest veggies out there. They have a high iron content, which is extremely important for babies given their heightened vulnerability to anemia.
Additionally, beetroots also high potassium and magnesium content, which greatly help strengthen nerves and the signaling and communication between them. The benefits of almonds for brain activity are known far and wide.
Just because your baby can’t consume whole almonds yet doesn’t mean that he should be denied its high potassium content.
Beetroots are extremely rich in calcium too, so collectively these three key ingredients help enhance almost all functions of your baby’s body be it digestion, brain activity, relaying of messages through nerve endings, growth, strengthening of bones and muscles and what not!
As mentioned before, all extracts are natural and this product doesn’t make use of any additives including sodium and white sugar!
7. Early Foods Sprouted Ragi Almond Date Porridge Mix
Early Foods is another brand that specializes in organic food products for the little ones. This brand prides itself on its unique, flavourful food combinations that have been meticulously laid down keeping in mind doctors’ recommendations on child health nutrition while also ensuring that each meal your child consumes tastes like a yummy treat.
This porridge mix is suitable for all babies between the age group of six to nine months and it, too, makes use of some of the most unique ingredients we’ve seen so far. It consists of a bunch of nuts and also superfood like Finger millet!
- This porridge mix is suitable for consumption by all kids between 6 to 9 months of age
- Comes with a high dry fruits content with dates, almonds and fox nuts
- This porridge is made out of sprouted ragi
- Fox nuts and cardamom extracts help keep your babies organs safe with their anti-oxidizing properties
- Fully organic product, doesn’t come with any added sweeteners, sodium or chemicals
Starting with the nuts, this product primarily uses dates and almonds. Dates add a natural sweetness to this porridge dish while also bringing an incredibly high iron content that keeps your baby safe from problems like anemia.
Dates are also rich in calcium, magnesium, and a bunch of other minerals and vitamins, making them a well-rounded ingredient in baby food. Almonds, as we’ve discussed before, enhance brain activity, and function significantly.
Their inclusion in diet from infancy helps your baby’s brain develop faster and their high potassium and magnesium content help with muscle and nerve strengthening and function as well.
A third nut that this porridge includes is the Fox nut, which is supremely rich in proteins and is thus super important for body growth.
These also come with great anti-oxidizing properties, which means that they help fight off agents that could damage your organs and threaten cell generation.
To add to this porridge’s calcium content it comes loaded with lotus seeds. Additionally, this product consists of watermelon extracts too that are rich in vitamin C, without which your baby’s body will not be able to soak up any of the iron it takes in.
The fiber richness of sprouted finger millets is complemented with hints of cardamom that not only helps with digestion but also helps fox nuts in fighting off free radicals that attack your organs and cell generation.
8. First Solids Organic Baby Food Sprouted Ragi Porridge Mix
First Solids is a baby brand of the organic food products company The Great Banyan. It produces food stuffs for babies of all ages, the ingredients of which are free of any artificial chemicals, like pesticides and fertilizers in particular.
This porridge mix makes use of sprouted finger millets with cardamom, whereas the other flavour in this category makes use of rice as opposed to finger millets.
- 100% organic porridge is free of any chemical additives
- Uses sprouted finger millets as the primary ingredient which is extremely rich in vitamin C
- Finger millets and cardamom are both super rich in antioxidants and keep diseases away
- Not ready to eat; Requires cooking on low flame for a few minutes
This product further enhances the benefits of the super food of finger millets by making use of it in its sprouted form. Sprouted finger millets are essentially ragi grains that have been soaked in water and have been allowed to grow shoots.
Sprouting finger millets enhances their vitamin C content, which is extremely essential for your child to be able to use the iron that goes into his body.
Apart from helping your child ward off anemia, sprouted finger millets also come with great ability top fight off free radicals, that as we mentioned before, do no good to your baby’s little organs and can also make them sick.
Along with sprouted finger millets, this porridge mix also comes with a hint of cardamom. Cardamom adds a rich flavour and aromatic effect to this porridge, while also bringing with it numerous health benefits.
Cardamom too helps in fighting off free radicals, allowing your baby to stay healthy always. It is also extremely beneficial for digestion, which is a must for babies as their tummies are often a bit sensitive.
This product comes with a high protein content, with 6.27 grams of protein in every 100 gram serving of the porridge.
The fiber content is also quite high with 6.76 grams of fiber in each 100 gram serving of the porridge. Needless to say, this organic product is free of any additives like sodiums and sugars and food dyes.
9. Nestlé LACTOGEN 1 Infant Formula Powder
Here’s Nestle, yet again, with another life-saving product for all the new parents out there. Nestle understands how overwhelming parenthood can be in its early stages and that breastfeeding isn’t always the most feasible option, which is where formula milk comes in as your knight in shining armour.
This baby formula is suitable for all babies that are up to half a year old and is incredibly helpful for colic babies that may suffer from discomfort as a result of indigestion.
- Acts as a supplement to breast milk and is suitable for babies that are up to half a year old
- Consists of 16 different vitamins and 12 different minerals
- Comes with probiotic agents like lactobacillus reuteri that helps with indigestion, gas and diarrhoea
- Whey proteins help effective protein synthesis by introducing ample amounts of amino acids into the body
- Should be administered with great care, after advice from pediatrician, and served in specified volumes
This baby formula acts as a supplement to breast milk and should only be fed to your baby in moderation with stringent adherence to the volume specified by your pediatrician.
This product comes incorporated with over 25 nutrients, with 12 minerals and 16 vitamins to be precise. Plentiful calcium, iron, zinc, Vitamins A, C, D, and E try to replicate the unadulterated nourishment received from breastmilk.
Babies, in the first few months of their lives, often suffer from upset tummies and in such cases, probiotic agents can be of great help.
Not only do these agents help with easy digestion but also help improve your baby’s immunity to infections, during this sensitive stage in his life.
Lactobacillus reuteri is one such probiotic agent, which as the name suggests, is found in milk products, and also in this Nestle baby formula. This agent helps with easy digestion and calms your little one’s tummy down reducing the risk of gas, discomfort, and diarrhoea.
This formula milk mix also comes loaded with whey proteins that are extremely useful in stimulating muscle growth and muscle strengthening.
These are also rich in amino acids in the deficit of which your baby’s body cells won’t be able to effectively produce proteins on their own, which may stunt a range of other biological processes.
Thus, this baby formula is extremely well-rounded and can bring both you and your baby great comfort if administered with sufficient care.
10. PediaSure Health and Nutrition Drink Powder
This is the first product we’ve seen so far that is for toddlers and kids of over two years of age. This product is brought to you by PediaSure, India’s most prestigious brand when it comes to growth and healthcare products for kids.
PediaSure produces a range of products that promote growth and well-rounded nutrition amongst young kids. This drink powder does just that by helping toddlers gain height, weight, and even enhance brain and body function on a more holistic level.
- Makes use of almost 40 nutrients to enhance child’s immune system
- Comes with lactobacillus acidophilus
- L carnitine helps removal of fat
- Comes in four flavours- Chocolate, Cookies and Cream, Kesar Badam and Vanilla Delight
- Trans fat content is as little as 0.2 grams per 100 gram serving
This product comes with almost 40 nutrients, with 10 nutrients specifically directed towards enhancing your child’s height and weight, another 11 directed towards well-rounded development of your child’s brain, another 9 towards enhancing your child’s immunity, and a few more for overall well-rounded body functioning and development.
Proteins, fats, and calcium are the major contributors to height and weight gains; selenium and vitamins A, C, and E keep your child safe from diseases by enhancing immunity; and finally, brain activity is boosted by linoleic acid, magnesium, and potassium.
This product comes with L- Carnitine, which is extremely important for your body to get a boost of energy, while breaking down fats. This enhances weight loss and it also helps with effective digestion and metabolism.
Another important ingredient is lactobacillus acidophilus which allows kids that are intolerant to milk-based food products to consume this powder without suffering from indigestion.
This growth powder can be consumed with both water, and milk and the best part is that it comes in four different flavours! The first is Chocolate, which is followed by Cookie and Cream, Vanilla Delight, and finally by Kesar Badam.
This varied range of flavours suits the different and ever-changing tastes and preferences of your little ones and ensures that they never get bored of this tasty drink.
All tasty food products are just assumed to be fatty, but not this one! This health and nutrition drink comes with less than 0.2 grams of trans fats for every 100-gram serving.
11. Enfagrow A+ Nutritional Milk Powder Health Drink
Enfagrow is a top-tier brand in the category of children’s growth and nutrition products. This brand is popular across the world for its effective growth supplements that don’t just help with your child’s physical development but also with mental, along with added benefits to your child’s emotional, respiratory, and digestive health.
This nutritional milk powder caters to all of those things and more, while also making for a yummy snack in between meals, thanks to its lovely chocolaty flavour.
- Suitable for all young kids between the age group of two to six years
- Helps with height and muscle gains
- Makes use of 12 different kinds of minerals and 14 different kinds of vitamins
- Multi-vitamin supplements are also present, for example Docosahexaenoic Acid
- Arachidonic Acid helps with muscle build-up when supplemented with sufficient exercise
This product comes with 12 minerals and 14 vitamins that combine their strengths to give your child a well-rounded nutrition boost.
While 16 milligrams of iron and 5.6 milligrams of zinc per 100-gram serving, help develop your child’s immune system to effectively battle everyday threats, other nutrients like calcium and magnesium combined with proteins help enhance height, bone, and muscle strength.
The best part is that this abundance of nutrients goes much deeper than surface level, bringing noteworthy enhancements to your child’s thinking ability, concentration, and emotional intelligence as well.
This is in part due to the added supplement, Docosahexaenoic Acid, which is basically a multi-vitamin that enhances your child’s overall growth, development, and well-being.
One serving of this powdered drink can help your child meet his daily mark of recommended dietary allowance, which in this fast-paced world, filled with fast and processed food products, is often neglected.
This milk powder also incorporates Arachidonic Acid, which is particularly vital in stimulating muscle build-up especially when coupled with physical activity and exercise, making it a perfect supplement for active, growing kids. This product is super easy to consume, and just requires stirring with warm water!
Buying Guide – Best Baby Food Products in India
Weaning is an anxious phase in every child and parent’s life and brings in much uncertainty regarding what your child likes, dislikes, what food is most suitable for him, what nutrients he requires, etc. This process becomes even more problematic if your child happens to develop allergic reactions or shows some deficiencies.
What’s also difficult is that introducing new food products to your child is always a gradual process and requires some amount of time wherein your child’s intake of the food is administered with incremental gains.
All of these complications mounted on top of the constant worry for your child’s sensitive health can be quite a stress. One obvious way to reduce that stress is to get guidance from a pediatrician who can help you pick the most age-appropriate and nutritious food products for your kids.
However, that isn’t an option that is always easily available and so here we are trying to help you figure out what factors you should look into while narrowing down on the right food products for your child.
Factors to consider while buying the Best Baby Food Product in India
1. Check for the Age
As mentioned before, Baby food products are often classified into stages depending on the age of your child. While stage one mainly includes the baby formula for kids up to six months of age, stage two, three, and four are for kids from six to eight months, eight to ten months, and ten months and older.
As your child gradually ascends from one stage to the next, the composition of the food tends to change and grow more towards the solid side. These food products gradually start to include fruit and vegetable components and sometimes even meaty chunks!
Additionally, the nutrient composition also tends to vary with the inclusion of some more age appropriate nutrients. There are other food products also that aren’t divided into stages and are composed so that they are suitable for all kids above the age of six months.
Since these food products are not going to be the only meals you feed to your child and are merely supplements to breast-milk, especially in the initial stages, these should suffice as well, provided they come with sufficient nutritional value.
2. Check for Vitamins, Minerals and Other Nutrients
This is of the utmost importance, especially if your child suffers from deficiencies in certain nutrients. All baby food products specify the amount of nutritional value they provide per 100-gram serving. Going through this list is a must.
In particular, you should check for the Iron and Zinc content. Iron because children are especially vulnerable to anemia during these years, and Zinc because of its benefits to the development of your child’s immune system.
Vitamin C is also important because without that your child won’t be able to soak in the iron it consumes. Vitamins A, C, D, E, Magnesium, calcium, Potassium, are all important nutrients as well.
3. Look at the Flavours and Ingredients for possible Allergic Reactions
Some baby food products seem a lot more attractive than others because they come in a number of flavours, from strawberry, to apple to even dates and cardamom. Additionally, some may be rice based, while others wheat or Ragi based.
Some may contain a lot of nuts and seeds. It is important to look into these ingredients because not all children can process each ingredient equally well.
Your child may be allergic to some food items and if you’re aware of these allergies then it is best to be smart and safe by taking a look into the ingredients before making your pick.
4. Check for presence of Food Dyes, Preservatives and other Additives
While most brands make it a point to mention that they don’t come with any artificial additives, food dye, in particular, some baby food products do come with artificial flavours.
It is best to steer clear of these, as best you can, and go for products with natural ingredients, as the lesser the chemical exposure, the better.
This also sparks the doubt of whether you should go for organic baby food only, considering that they’re free of chemicals in every stage, right from the production of the grains they use that are free from chemicals like insecticides and fertilizers.
While organic food products are a good choice, you shouldn’t go for these at the cost of your baby’s nutrition.
If there are inorganic options present, that doesn’t make use of any artificial additives and also come with higher nutritional value, then these should be preferred to their less nutritious organic counterparts.
5. Check if your preferred food is a Snack or a Meal
Some baby food products are produced so that they can be fed as snacks to your child in between meals, whereas others, cereals, and porridges in particular, are designed to serve as full meals.
Don’t get confused between the two as snacks also come with much lower nutritional value and often have trans fats, which you should ideally avoid. Snacks can’t be substituted for meals and thus if the product’s label doesn’t explicitly state if it’s a meal or snack, you should dig a little deeper.
6. The Brand is Important
When it comes to baby food products, you should always, always go for brands that are recommended by pediatricians, and come with certifications of assured quality. Being brand conscious may be frowned upon elsewhere, but we strongly advise it in the context of baby-food products.
Always go for a well-established brand offering a product that doesn’t come with too many fancy flavours, over an unheard of the brand offering peach and apricot flavoured baby food.
7. Additional Factors
These include whether the food requires cooking or can be eaten straight out of the pack; how safe and travel-friendly the packaging is, etc.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s) – Best Baby Food Products in India
Ans. As your baby grows older, his body weight usually tends to grow in accordance. If your baby’s weight isn’t growing in a way that’s age-appropriate then there are a number of baby food items that are designed specially so that your baby can gain weight faster and reach age-appropriate standards.
For example, the ByGrandma Homemade Weight Gain Baby Food is designed specially so that your baby can gain weight easier and faster.
However, this is not the case with most baby food products and unless these food products specify that they help your child gain weight, it should be safe not to assume so.
Ans. Yes! As long as the baby food is sold in the market and comes with a seal of quality assurance from food regulating authorities, they are safe for consumption, whether they are canned or not.
But with pouched baby food, you may want to look into whether or not the pouch is free of BPA. And no matter what kind of packaging your baby food comes in, you should always transfer the food to a thoroughly cleaned, air-tight container upon opening.
Ans. Yes, sometimes baby food products, formula milk in particular, can make your baby feel constipated. This is usually because baby food products come with several nutrient supplements that are hard for your baby’s digestive systems to break down. This is a fairly common problem and should not be cause for alarm. If the problem persists then a simple call to your pediatrician should help.
Ans. This question has been causing for a lot of debate, the conclusion is this, some preservatives like vitamin C are most definitely safe whereas others may not be. All in all, it is best to avoid baby food products with added preservatives as there are plenty of options available that don’t make use of these.
Ans. There’s no hard and fast rule, but most baby cereals are advised to be served twice as supplements to your baby’s usual intake of breast milk.
Ans. Some easy to chew fruits and boiled meats can be added depending on your child’s preferences, but these should be added in great moderation.
Conclusion – Best Baby Food Products in India
So there you have it, we’re at the very end of this guide. We would like to remind you that you should only look at this article as supplementary reading material to be referred to after consulting with your pediatrician.
At our end, we’d like to recommend to you the Nestlé CERELAC Baby Cereal with Milk, which suits all babies that are aged over half a year and come with more nutrients than you can count on your fingertips.
So that’s it out of us, do drop a comment should you find yourself in need of any assistance.
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