Wendyl Nissen: Corn puffs lack substance

Little Bellies Baby Puffs, Yummy Carrot - $2.29 for 12g. Photo / Wendyl Nissen

These puffs are recommended for babies who are 9 months and older and are described as "soft & melt-in-the-mouth".

I'm struggling to see why a toddler needs something to melt in their mouth, unless you are training them to enjoy snack foods such as extruded corn snacks when they are older. These have very little taste, they do melt in the mouth but they also carry very little nutrition apart from the added iron and vitamin B1.

There is also a risk of choking on a food like this, which is why the package clearly states "remember to always supervise your children and have them seated in an upright position when eating to reduce the possibility of choking".

Little Bellies Baby Puffs, Yummy Carrot - $2.29 for 12g

Ingredients (in order of greatest quantity first):

Organic corn flour (73%)

This is the stuff they put in Twisties and other extruded corn snacks. Cornflour has little nutritional value as all the wonderful nutrients found in corn are lost in the processing. It does have carbohydrate, a tiny bit of protein, fat, potassium and sodium and a little bit of fibre.

Organic dried carrot (14%)

Carrots are great! They have lots of vitamin A, potassium, some sugar and some vitamins C and B6 as well as some iron, calcium and magnesium. But there's not a lot of them in here, in fact, per 12g serve you will get 14% or 1.68g.

Organic sunflower oil

Sunflower oil is a healthy oil because it is low in unsaturated fats.

Mineral (iron)

This is added in here to enrich the puffs.

Vitamin (vitamin B1)

Also added in here for enrichment.

My recommendations

Feed the kid real carrots and real corn! It's really very easy to cook up some carrots and corn, stick them in the food processor and feed your toddler this very nutritious combination.

I get the idea of having a handy, portable snack you can throw your toddler in the back seat of the car, but that's what bananas are for.

Highlights

• Extruded corn snacks designed for babies.

• Little nutritional value.

• "No artificial nasties."