Like many modern parents Sally Luckraft and Lynda Power have been keen to give their children the healthiest possible start in life. The friends – who met at antenatal classes when they were expecting their first children Ben and Thomas – both took care to eat healthily when they were pregnant. So when their sons were old enough to start solid food they diligently pureed fresh fruit and vegetables to make sure the youngsters were getting the most nutritious food they could.

But when their boys reached the next stage of feeding they hit a problem. ‘This was when you are supposed to start introducing a wider range of foods, particularly dairy products like fruit yogurts,’ says Sally. ‘We were shocked to find that many of the products aimed at children of this age and all of the yogurts on the supermarket shelves were full of sugar, added flavours and often colourings too, some children’s yogurts contain around 2-3 teaspoons of sugar per pot and only a small amount of fruit!’ As toddlers are often fed at least one yogurt a day both parents felt if they fed them the yogurts available – which contained more sugar than fruit - this was far too much sugar.

Both Sally and Lynda were struck by the inconsistency between what was available at the supermarkets and the advice widely given to mums for feeding toddlers. ‘All the books and all the magazines were telling us to feed our children low sugar, low salt foods with no added flavourings and colourings and yet these products didn’t seem to be around," says Sally ‘and we knew that plenty of other mothers felt the same way from the results of the research we did into what mothers feed their toddlers and what they would like to be able to buy.’

So Sally, who studied home economics at university, and Lynda, who previously worked in sales and marketing, set about solving the problem – not only for themselves but for concerned parents all over the country. They have set up Mums4 - a range of healthier everyday foods for toddlers with no added sugar, artificial sweeteners, salt, flavourings or colourings. The first foods in the range – Mums4 Yogurts are the only organic yogurts sweetened purely by fruit not added sugar, artificial sweeteners or fruit concentrates available in Britain. Not only that, but they contain 20 – 30 per cent fruit rather than the 5-10% in a lot of other fruit yogurts. Therefore they have the equivalent of about half a teaspoon of sugar in each pot which comes purely from the high fruit content and the milk. Following the success of the yogurt range, more products are planned including breakfast cereal with no added salt or sugar, mini bags of crisps with no added salt and more yogurt flavours.

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Not surprisingly, Mums4 has provoked a huge response from parents. ‘We are inundated every day with emails and letters from people writing in to thank us for producing the products and how much their children love them,’ says Sally. ‘One woman told us she nearly cried when she saw them as they were just what she had been looking for.’

Mums4 products are available from selected Tesco, Waitrose, by home delivery from Ocado.com, and from independent organic and health food stores nationwide.

For more information on Mums4 products visit www.mums4.comor call 01926 771 285. If you would like to receive a copy of the Mums4 email newsletter to keep you up-to-date on new products and activities plus children’s food and nutrition news in general drop Mums4 a line with your email address to newsletter@mums4.com

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