Report Says Nearly All US Baby Foods Have Harmful Metals.
The analysis and tests were done by Healthy Babies Bright Futures.
Of nearly 170 types of food tested, 95 percent contained lead.
One in five even had over 10 times the public health limit.
The report also reveals that cadmium and arsenic were discovered in over 70 percent of the foods.
Even in the trace amounts found in food, these contaminants can alter the developing brain and erode a child's IQ. The impacts add up with each meal or snack a baby eats.
Among the foods and drinks containing the metals were sweet potatoes and fruit juices.
Rice-based products, such as infant cereal, were the biggest culprit, .
This is due to the food absorbing inorganic arsenic while it is in water.
These popular baby foods are not only high in inorganic arsenic, the most toxic form of arsenic, but also are nearly always contaminated with all four toxic metals.
The report adds that the FDA and baby food companies must take more action.
We need the FDA to use their authority more effectively, and much more quickly, to reduce toxic heavy metals in baby foods, HBBF research director Jane Houlihan,
via statement.
Pediatrician Tanya Altmann recommends a variety of other products instead of rice as a first food.
Best first foods for infants are avocado, pureed veggies, peanut-butter oatmeal and salmon. They all provide important nutrients that babies need, help develop their taste buds to prefer healthy food and may decrease food allergies
