Infant feeding guidelines worldwide recommend first foods to be Fe rich with no added sugars and that nutrient-poor discretionary foods are to be avoided. Feeding guidelines also recommend exposing infants to a variety of foods and flavours with increasingly complex textures. Here, we compare nutritional and textural properties of commercial infant and toddler foods available in Australia with established infant feeding guidelines. Nutrition information and ingredient lists were obtained from food labels, manufacturer and/or retailer websites. In total, 414 foods were identified, comprising mostly mixed main dishes, fruit and vegetable first foods and snacks. Most products were poor sources of Fe, and 80 % of first foods were fruit-based. Half of all products were purées in squeeze pouches, and one-third of all products were discretionary foods. The nutritional content of many products was inconsistent with guidelines, being low in Fe, sweet, smooth in consistency or classified as discretionary. Reformulation of products is warranted to improve Fe content, particularly in mixed main dishes, expand the range of vegetable-only foods and textural variety. Greater regulatory oversight may be needed to better inform parents and caregivers. Frequent consumption of commercial baby foods low in Fe may increase the risk of Fe deficiency. Excessive consumption of purées via squeeze pouches may also have implications for overweight and obesity risk.

Given that commercial complementary food (CF) can contain high levels of added sugar, a high consumption may predispose to a preference for sweet taste later in life. This study examined cross-sectional associations between commercial CF consumption and added sugar intake in infancy as well as its prospective relation to added sugar intake in pre-school and primary-school age children. In all, 288 children of the Dortmund Nutritional and Anthropometric Longitudinally Designed Study with 3-d weighed dietary records at 0·5 and 0·75 (infancy), 3 and 4 (pre-school age) and 6 and 7 years of age (primary-school age) were included in this analysis. Individual commercial CF consumption as percentage of total commercial CF (%cCF) was averaged at 0·5 and 0·75 years. Individual total added sugar intake (g/d, energy percentage/d) was averaged for all three age groups. Multivariable logistic and linear regression models were used to analyse associations between %cCF and added sugar intake. In infancy, a higher %cCF was associated with odds for high added sugar intake from CF and for high total added sugar intake (>75th percentile, P<0·033). Prospectively, a higher %cCF was related to higher added sugar intake in both pre-school (P<0·041) and primary-school age children (P<0·039), although these associations were attenuated in models adjusting for added sugar intake in infancy. A higher %cCF in infancy may predispose to higher added sugar intake in later childhood by virtue of its added sugar content. Therefore, offering home-made CF or carefully chosen commercial CF without added sugar might be one strategy to reduce sugar intake in infancy and later on.