We’ve all been there. We are desperately looking for new snacks to add to our pantry that we can give to our child when they’re hungry and we don’t want to make a full course meal. We tend to turn to the staples that we know our kid already enjoys but every now and then a new product appears on the shelf at the grocery store. It’s colorful, has animals on it, says it’s specifically for kids… so we are tempted to add it to our cart. Before you do that mama, let’s take a closer look.
One recent example I discovered is with LARABAR. I love their LARABAR Original bar. It contains simple ingredients (usually 7 or less), is delicious, and easy to take on-the-go. I noticed a new product they have added is called LARABAR Kids. As I said above, it has fun packaging and is geared toward our kiddos. The product still contains mostly simple ingredients but the real kicker is the grams of added sugar compared to the original bar. The original bar may contain as little as 0-3g of sugar in a 45g bar. The kids bar contains 10g in a 27g bar. That’s a pretty steep increase in the amount of sugar in one product vs another. In my experience, the prices between the two are pretty comparable between the two products but, as you saw above, you are getting more product in the Original bar. The solution: Just buy the Original bar and give those to your kids. The lesson: Always take a second look at products marketed toward kids. They’re not always “better” for our kids and could cost your more money in the long-run.
Have you run into this before with other products? Which brands have you seen do something similar?