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What Lunchbox Snacks Are Healthy?
Most kids' snacks are dessert in disguise—but a few clean brands are actually worth buying.
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Baby food pouches, kids cereal, juice boxes, Lunchables, and snacks marketed to children — often the worst offenders for sugar, dyes, and heavy metals. We protect the little ones.
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Most kids' snacks are dessert in disguise—but a few clean brands are actually worth buying.
Lunchables were just pulled from schools due to high lead and sodium—is Applegate's clean alternative actually safer?
They ditch the artificial dyes and chemical preservatives, but 'natural' lunch kits still pack a heavy processing punch.
You don't have to give up the convenience of a lunch kit—you just need to swap the heavy metals and phthalates for cleaner ingredients.
Processed meat concerns
A 2024 Consumer Reports investigation found that a single Lunchables kit contains up to 74% of California’s maximum daily limit for lead.
Consumer Reports recently found lead, cadmium, and hormone-disrupting chemicals in nearly every Lunchables kit tested.
Most kids' yogurts are glorified desserts, but a few brands are finally making zero-added-sugar options that toddlers actually like.
Gram for gram, yogurt tubes pack the same amount of sugar as cups—but they rely on extra gums and unrecyclable plastic to pull off that squeezable convenience.
A tiny 3.1-ounce Danimals smoothie contains 6 grams of added sugar and zero actual fruit.
It packs twice the protein of standard kids' yogurt, but the sugar content might still surprise you.
Stonyfield is USDA Organic and free of artificial dyes, but their classic tubes still pack 4 grams of added sugar per serving.
It lives in the pantry instead of the fridge—but that convenience costs you all the probiotic benefits.
Most kids' yogurts have more sugar per ounce than a can of soda, but a few brands actually get it right.
Many popular kids yogurts pack up to 9 grams of added sugar into a tiny 3-ounce serving—nearly half a child's daily limit before breakfast.
Many popular kids' yogurts pack more sugar per ounce than a can of soda, turning a healthy breakfast into dessert.
The wrong frozen chicken nugget can pack 30% of your child's daily sodium limit into five small bites.
Most frozen nuggets are sodium bombs packed with cheap fillers, but you don't have to banish them entirely.
It ditches the artificial dyes, but testing revealed hormone-disrupting plastics hiding in the cheese powder.
Kidfresh hides veggies in kid-favorite frozen meals, but their reliance on seed oils and a massive 2023 allergen recall are causes for concern.
Clean options for busy families
A single Kid Cuisine meal packs 1,270mg of sodium—more than a child's entire recommended daily limit.
100% apple juice has just as much sugar as Coca-Cola—here is what pediatricians actually recommend.
They recently slashed the sugar content, but that iconic shiny pouch still comes with heavy metal and microplastic concerns.
They have half the sugar of regular juice, but do these organic pouches pass the heavy metal test?
New 2025 pediatric guidelines have a blunt message: kids should only be drinking water and plain milk.
Consumer Reports found measurable levels of heavy metals in 100% of tested fruit juices, with nearly half containing concerning amounts.
A standard 100% apple juice box has more sugar than a glazed donut—and nearly half contain concerning levels of heavy metals.
The same brand selling Red 40 in the US uses natural fruit juice in Canada—but there are plenty of dye-free options here if you know where to look.
The average bowl of kids cereal packs 12 grams of sugar—nearly half their daily limit before they even leave for school.
It wears the USDA Organic badge, but recent independent testing found alarming levels of glyphosate and lead in this popular cereal.
It lives up to its 'kid-tested, parent-approved' slogan better than most, but a few conventional ingredients keep it from being a perfect choice.
Regular Cheerios have just 1 gram of sugar, but recent tests found controversial pesticides in conventional oats.
A single serving of the average kids' cereal has more sugar than three Chips Ahoy! cookies—but clean options do exist.
In Europe, brightly colored cereals carry a mandatory hyperactivity warning—but in the US, the exact same brands use synthetic dyes with zero disclosure.
A child who eats one bowl of typical kids' cereal a day consumes 10 pounds of added sugar a year.
The average bowl of kids' cereal has more sugar than three Chips Ahoy cookies and contains artificial dyes that carry warning labels in Europe.
One melts in their mouth, the other requires a pincer grasp—but the real difference comes down to heavy metals and weedkillers.
They avoid the arsenic found in traditional rice puffs, but 2024 testing revealed concerning levels of lead.
They might be a baby registry staple, but these rice-based puffs pack added sugar and concerning levels of arsenic.
Parents ditched rice puffs to avoid arsenic, only to discover grain-free cassava puffs are loaded with lead.
A 2024 Consumer Reports test found that some organic veggie puffs contain more lead than any baby food they've tested in seven years.
Recent testing reveals that popular baby puffs—even organic and 'clean' brands—contain alarming levels of lead and arsenic.
Happy Baby knowingly sold baby food with up to 641 ppb of lead—here's what you need to know about their cereal.
Congressional testing found high levels of arsenic in Gerber's rice cereal—and they still haven't recalled it.
Switching from rice cereal to oatmeal reduces your baby's heavy metal exposure by 84%.
Over 25% of infant rice cereals exceed the FDA's limit for arsenic, making oatmeal and ancient grains the only safe choices.
Rice is uniquely terrible at keeping heavy metals out, making traditional rice cereal a leading source of arsenic exposure for infants.
Infant rice cereal contains six times more arsenic than other baby cereals, making it babies' top source of toxic metal exposure.
Sucking down baby food pouches doesn't just increase cavity risk—it can delay the oral motor skills needed for chewing and clear speech.
You might be making baby food to avoid heavy metals, but testing shows 94% of homemade purees are just as contaminated as store-bought.
Both pass rigorous heavy metal tests, but their processing and nutrition profiles couldn't be more different.
They revolutionized the baby food aisle with grass-fed meat and zero sugar, but their popular cassava puffs have a heavy metal problem.
Jennifer Garner’s baby food brand is one of the only pouch companies doing rigorous heavy metal testing—but you'll pay a premium for it.
They boast a USDA Organic label, but Happy Baby is fighting hundreds of lawsuits after testing revealed arsenic levels 18 times the FDA limit.
Only a handful of baby food brands test every batch for heavy metals—here are the ones that actually pass.
A recent FDA investigation found applesauce pouches with lead levels 200 times higher than safety limits—and root vegetable pouches aren't much better.
Independent testing reveals that up to 95% of commercial baby foods contain detectable levels of toxic heavy metals.
Heavy metals, recent recalls, and developmental delays mean parents can't blindly trust the pouch.