As a mother with an ADHD (hyperactive) child, I can get really, really paranoid when it comes to my child’s diet, cuz feeding the child with food that contains too much sugar can give him sugar rush, and he’ll be pretty ‘high’ and very active. Active as in, couldn’t stay still, couldn’t sleep, couldn’t concentrate, etc, and it can be a terrible problem when he translate the hyperactivity into climbing onto furniture and refusing to come down. It’s dangerous, and therefore… too much sugar in my boy’s diet is a NO, NO!
Besides, who needs excessive sugar intake in children’s diet that will lead only to loads of health issues? I, for one, do not need child obesity problem along with diabetes, dental cavities as well as high blood pressure that comes with taking excessive sugar intake. I have enough health issues with my son to deal with in the first place, anyway.
If you’ve been following my blog, I’m sure that some of you may have noticed that I’ve recently changed my son’s growing up milk to the newly formulated Anmum Essential- the one with no added sugar in it as an initiative to reduce unnecessary added sugar in his diet.
Well, after more than two weeks of using Anmum Essential with no added sugar, I ran out of them and I had to re-stock. And so, I went to the supermarket and while I was walking on the milk powder aisle in my regular supermarket, something caught my attention; an awareness poster that says that we could have been feeding our children up to 10-13 tsp of sugar with the regular growing up milk as well as a laptop with sugar calculator displayed on the screen, ready for the consumer to use to verify how much sugar there is in their children’s formula milk.
Curiosity gets the better of me and therefore, I used the laptop and test out the sugar calculator provided and started to make comparison between the previous growing up milk that I’ve been using and the newly formulated Anmum Essential with no added sugar.
I was really shocked on how much added sugar there was in the previous growing up milk. Boy, am I glad that I’ve chosen non added sugar product for my boy now.
Okay, I’m sure most of you are confused right now. You may ask how is it possible for children’s growing up milk to contain so much sugar when there’s practically almost no sugar written on the label?
Well, mummies and daddies out there, we got to play a little bit of Sherlock Holmes when it comes to detecting sugar in our children’s growing up milk, cuz the contents, as you might already notice after all these years, are written in their scientific or chemical terms. All sorts of added sugars in growing up milk were also written on the labels in their scientific terms.
As I mentioned in my previous entry regarding the danger of excessive sugar in our children’s diet, there’s two types of sugar. Naturally present sugar and added sugar. Both natural and added sugar exists in the form of carbohydrate.
Natural sugar can be found in fruits, veggies and many other class of food in the diet pyramids. Added sugar on the other hand are the type of sugar that’s used as additives, preservatives or taste enhancers in various food products, including children’s food.
So, mummies and daddies out there, if you see ‘sucrose’, ‘fructose’ or ‘glucose’ on the labels of the growing up milk packaging that you’ve bought, that means you bought growing up milk that contains added sugar. And, if you see ‘corn syrup solid’ or ‘glucose syrup solid’ on the milk packaging, that means those are added sugar too.
If you see the higher contents of carbohydrate is dictated in the growing up milk label, that means the higher the added sugar level is.
Mummies and daddies, beware and be more alert when you choose growing up milk for your children. I’m sure you’d be as horrified as I am if you’re to count how much added sugar there was in the growing up milk that we’ve been feeding our children.
Wanna know how you can actually check how much added sugar you’ve been feeding your children with your current growing up milk? You can go click HERE
The ‘SEMAKGULA’ website provides a sugar calculator for us to use. The website can be viewed in 3 languages, Bahasa Malaysia, English as well as Mandarin and it’s best viewed with IE6 as well as Firefox.
I’m sure you’ll have no problems using the calculator, it’s pretty simple and the instruction provided is pretty clear, really. Feel free to share the calculator on your Facebook or Twitter too… I’m sure alot of parents out there are concern about excessive sugar intake in their children’s diet too.
And oh… before I forget…if you’re interested in changing your children’s growing up milk to a growing up milk that contains no added sugar after using the calculator, you might want to consider growing up milk like Anmum Essential with no added sugar. It is the only growing up milk in the market so far that has no added sugar in it’s formula.
If you have any qualms about changing the growing up milk for your child to the new Anmum Essential, you can go to Anmum Club Facebook page or call ANMUM CARELINEÂ at 1800-88-3122. They’ve both been very helpful resource when I was having doubts on changing growing up milk for my child.
what about the Madu? Artifical?
no matter what there still have sugar. If want low sugar then try ad Ling said. Buy fresh goat milk. Some more less chances of allergy.
Honey is not artificial sugar, isn’t it? It’s natural sugar. Hmmm… goat milk? But goat milk very smelly… cannot tahan the smell… later anak vomit, how?
Kenot simply change milk wor(I wish to), my girl very fussy in terms of milk selection… later the new product all gone waste! >_<
Hmm, mebbe before you change to any new milk, you shud request for sample and let your kids try first. But I agree with you, kids are very sensitive towards milk, especially toddlers. Mine is ok, cuz he’s much older now, not so sensitive… I change oso cuz doc’s advice on cutting sugar in his milk, or else… i wun bother either…cuz sked of problems during transition period. 🙁
Your boy big enough, I think…no problem changing. Usually only babies…may ceret if not ngam! So choose sugar free milk…Devondale fresh milk from Australia, they have sugar free, fat free…Around RM4 per carton.
Exactly. My boy dun have problem when change milk cuz he’s much older. It would be a problem if he’s younger, though. You see, when he’s still small… I changed a few brands after I stopped breastfeeding… some really gives him terrible effect… some diarrhea, some constipation… some even made him vomit!
sugar free, fat free… minum ayak puteh saja deh…
Or diet Coke!!! Bwhahahaha… damn, dietitians will scroo me if they hear me say this!
Good information, Cleff…
Thank you, Claire. 😀
LOL!!! Fresh goat milk….aaahahhaha…me and Mamarazi borong jor.
Dun feed me ah… I lactose intolerant wan…
@Cleffairy – My gal only take the formula milk one cup per weekday. I sguess one cup should not make much different right.
@Ling & Mamarazzi – Fresh cow milk also can right…. cheaper than fresh goat milk… LOL! Anyway, my kids not too keen on the goat milk….
I guess this does not apply to you, Cheeyee…I dun think one glass a day would make much difference to her, considering that she is still growing up and quite a small eater.
let’s see what the other companies say about this:
https://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=297831720231&topic=17104
Thanks for sharing, the Other Side.
hmm..thanks for d link..very useful..
i found the web below very useful oso..another semakgula web
https://www.semakgula.org.my/03_factsAndMyth.html
Hi Anon, thank you for sharing this. 😀
hey there – the semak gula website is not quite righjt – why is it they use carbohydrate as the equivalent to sugar in the calculator? carbo also has other ingredients right>?
Hmmm… I think they used carbo as sugar cuz when it’s consumed, the body processed it and it became sugar? I think that must be why.
Thankjs cleffairy – was doing more research cause i want to see if i really should change to another milk brand for my daughter. cos u know lah changing to a new milk brand is quite hard. foudn this story https://www.marketing-interactive.com/news/26444 which makes the whole thing confusing. according to it the ad has been stopped cause authorities say that wat anmum say is not correct about the 13 teaspoon of sugar in other milk ….!! ai yo!
*sigh* Truthfully, I am concern too, considering that my son is an ADHD child and cannot take too much sugar in his diet, or else he will go very very hyper and uncontrollable; the reason why I choose Anmum Essential in the first place. I have been assured that there’s no harm in taking Anmum cuz they have no added sugar.
So far the effect on the boy is okay…but I can’t speak for everyone. You see, every child’s needs is different. Have you tried consulting the pharmacist or your paed about changing milk for your daughter? I think it’s best if you consult your paed and ask for suggestion.
crap… the No added sugar by annum is misleading. You thought they reduced the sugar for good? instead, they adding in flavouring to enhance the taste & replace sweetness caused by the added sugar. When they remove the added sugar, they will have to increase the fat 7 protein to balance it…check it with your paediatrician & they will tell you that this is marketing strategy of the company itself!
Hi Sherene, thank you for dropping by and informing me about this.
My paed and my son’s therapist is the one who suggested Anmum Essential in the first place for my child since he is an ADHD child and cannot take too much sugar in his diet. I used to use Dumex growing up milk for my son.
I am aware of marketing gimmicks and whatnot but what I am not quite aware of is that they added ‘something else’ to balance up the formula? Is that true? Do you have any official statement to support this allegation? I mean it would be helpful if you could share with us concern mothers over here.
Anyway, what is right for my child is not necessarily right for others. So far my son is responding well to Anmum, so I’ll be going with it awhile longer til he doesn’t want to take any milk anymore. I plan to just give him fresh milk when he stopped formula… I suppose fresh milk would be better than formula in some ways… considering that there’s no added sugar and whatnot.