Jimmy Kimmel -- inspired by a viral video of a little boy listing all the bad words he knows to his uncle -- asked some youngsters to repeat all of the "naughty" words in their vocabulary forAnd they knew some pretty naughty phrases! 
 
 Read More... ||||| By Julie Wernau | 
 
 A new formula for toddlers that comes in chocolate and vanilla flavors 
 
 is facing harsh criticism in the blogosphere by moms and nutritionists 
 
 who are calling the product an early road to childhood obesity. 
 
 “Is it really a good idea to get our kids hooked on all things chocolate 
 
 at the same time they’re learning to walk?” one blogger posted on 
 
 Momlogic.com. 
 
 “What’s next, genetically modifying moms to produce chocolate breast 
 
 milk?” wrote another. 
 
 
 
 Introduced by Glenview-based Mead Johnson Nutrition Co. in February as a beverage for toddlers who are making a transition from infant formula or breast milk, Enfagrow Premium’s toddler chocolate and vanilla formulas are milk-based but contain more sugar than milk — 19 grams of sugar per 7-ounce serving. 
 
 The company said product is no sweeter than other things toddlers may drink, such as chocolate milk or orange juice, and contains added nutrients that milk lacks, such as Omega-3 DHA and prebiotics. 
 
 ”The toddlers years can be particularly challenging since food preferences may be erratic and unpredictable,” said Mead Johnson spokesman Chris Perille. “Products such as Enfagrow Premium can play a role in helping children achieve a more balanced, healthy daily diet.” 
 
 Perille said the idea is to get a toddler to consume milk, even flavored milk, because it will lead to a healthier lifestyle. 
 
 Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University, disagreed. 
 
 “Milk is not an essential food,” said Nestle, who purchased a 29-ounce package of Enfagrow recently for $18.99 (22 servings) and says she disagrees with the way the product is being marketed. 
 
 When children are toddlers, she said, they are developing a taste for foods. Products such as Enfagrow, she said, will lead those children to crave sugary beverages. 
 
 “You want kids to be interested in eating a very very wide range of foods because variety helps create nutritional balance,” she said. “You don’t want them to think that every food needs to be sweet or salty.” 
 
 Enfagrow is in what the food industry calls the “follow-on formula” category, which takes the concept of baby formula and extends it into toddlerhood. Abbott Nutrition produces a similar product, Similac Go & Grow, for older infants and toddlers, but it’s unflavored. 
 
 Nestle criticized the product on her blog www.foodpolitics.com. The post automatically feeds to The Atlantic Monthly’s website and has been cross-posted on mommy blogs across the Internet. 
 
 She complained to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, arguing that the product is claiming health benefits for children younger than 2. FDA spokesman Michael Herndon said the product is considered a food and not an infant formula under FDA guidelines and does not appear to be in violation of the law as it doesn’t claim to “cure” anything, only to “support” normal body functions. 
 
 JP Morgan analyst Terry Bivens said infant formula is still the “bread and butter” of companies such as Abbott and Mead Johnson. Follow-on formulas, which are labeled as food products and don’t fall under the same labeling guidelines as infant formula, are in a smaller specialty category, he said, similar to the specialty formulas that are popular in Europe for children with digestion problems or other special needs. 
 
 Jessica Parisi would do just about anything to get her 1-year-old to stop throwing food or feeding it to the dog. She’s even tried masking veggie protein links as hot dogs. 
 
 “Sometimes he’ll eat blueberries, and other times he’ll say ‘No blueberries!’ and throw them,” said tMount Prospect resident. 
 
 Two weeks from his second birthday, Chase is underweight, and Parisi says she’d gladly try chocolate- or vanilla-flavored toddler formula if she thought he would eat it. 
 
 “I probably would try giving it to him as a supplement just to try to get more nutrients in him,” she said. 
 
 Stacy DeBroff, founder and CEO of MomCentral.com, a website geared toward busy moms, said that while at first glance, chocolate-flavored formula sounds like a bad idea, in some cases, it might be a “second best” option for parents with picky toddlers. 
 
 “If something stands between your children and drinking milk, than this becomes a better choice than juice or juice-based products, even, theoretically water,” she said. 
 
 Toddlers crave carbohydrates all the time, she said, and sometimes their palates need to be “bribed,” she said. 
 
 Terri Freeman knows all about the carb cravings. The Streeterville resident’s 3-year-old, Shayna, won’t touch vegetables. She just wants chicken nuggets, pizza and pasta, she said. 
 
 “My doctor hasn’t been that concerned,” she said. 
 
 Freeman said she asked her doctor about it and was told that her daughter is healthy nutritionally and to try the best she can to incorporate small portions of vegetables or even fruit into her diet. 
 
 “They just want to eat bread and crackers,” said Jill Houk, co-founder of Center Chef Food Studios in Chicago and participant in Healthy Schools Campaign, “They want to eat fruit or anything sweet. In the short-term it may seem like ‘I just want to get nutrition in this child.’ But in reality, you’re creating a very bad situation.” 
 
 Houk said that parents buy products to bribe their children’s taste buds because they are concerned about their nutrition, but that they could be hurting them in the long-term. 
 
 Chicago pediatrician Rebecca Unger said feeding the Enfagrow chocolate or vanilla formula is similar to adding three teaspoons of sugar to a glass of milk. She said while she couldn’t rule out using the formula in certain cases, generally, she thought it was an unnecessary purchase. 
 
 “For a healthy child who doesn’t have medical problems affecting growth and behavior and development, I don’t think it’s necessary. Could there be reasons for a child who is a really picky eater who is having other issues to drink it — maybe?” she said. ||||| Mead-Johnson, the company that prides itself on its “decades-long patterning of infant formulas after breast milk,” now goes one better. It sells chocolate- and vanilla-flavored formulas for toddlers, fortified with nutrients, omega-3s, and antioxidants. 
 
 The company’s philosophy: Your toddler won’t drink milk? Try chocolate milk! 
 
 The unflavored version of this product, Enfagrow, has been around for a while. In 2005, nutritionists complained about this formula because it so evidently competed with milk as a weaning food. Mead-Johnson representatives explained that Enfagrow is not meant as an infant formula. It is meant as a dietary supplement for toddlers aged 12 to 36 months. 
 
 Really? Then how come it is labeled “Toddler Formula”? 
 
 And how come it has a Nutrition Facts label, not a Supplement Facts label? 
 
 Here’s the list of ingredients for everything present at a level of 2% or more: 
 
 Whole milk 
 
 Nonfat milk 
 
 Sugar 
 
 Cocoa 
 
 Galactooligosaccharides (prebiotic fiber) 
 
 High oleic sunflower oil 
 
 Maltodextrin 
 
 I bought this product at Babies-R-Us in Manhattan. It’s not cheap: $18.99 for 29 ounces. The can is supposed to make 22 servings (one-quarter cup of powder mixed with 6 ounces water). At that price, you pay 86 cents for only six ounces of unnecessarily fortified milk plus unnecessary sugar and chocolate. 
 
 No wonder Jamie Oliver encountered so much grief about trying to get sweetened, flavored milks out of schools. 
 
 But really, aren’t you worried that your baby might be suffering from a chocolate deficit problem? Don’t you love the idea of year-old infants drinking sugar-sweetened chocolate milk? And laced with “omega-3s for brain development, 25 nutrients for healthy growth, and prebiotics to support the immune system”? 
 
 Next: let’s genetically modify moms to produce chocolate breast milk! 
 
 FDA: this package has front-of-package health claims clearly aimed at babies under the age of two. Uh oh. Shouldn’t you be sending out one of those package label warning letters to Mead-Johnson on this one? 
 
 Addition, May 1: in response to interest in what other products are made by Mead-Johnson, or its parent, the drug company Bristol-Myers Squibb, I’ve linked their names to product pages. 
 
 Addition, May 6: Julie Wernau of the Chicago Tribune did a front page (business section) story on this and is following up on it in her blog.
– A popular formula for toddlers available in chocolate and vanilla flavors is drawing fire from nutritionists and parents, notes the Chicago Breaking Business blog. Critics have slammed Mead Johnson Nutrition's Enfagrow Premium on the blogosphere—starting with Marion Nestle at Food Politics—as another gateway to childhood obesity. "What's next, genetically modifying moms to produce chocolate breast milk?" asked one parent on a forum on Momlogic.com. Mead Johnson has argued that the health benefits of getting kids to drink milk outweigh the effects of the sweetening. But critics say sweet formula hampers a broader goal—instilling in kids early an appreciation for lots of dietary variety. "You want kids to be interested in eating a very very wide range of foods because variety helps create nutritional balance," says Nestle, an NYU professor of nutrition and public health. "You don't want them to think that every food needs to be sweet or salty."