Kids’ Nutrition Brands Face A Familiar Struggle

India’s kids’ food market is filling up with brands promising better nutrition without sacrificing taste. But turning that promise into a repeat purchase is harder

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Kids want a bar of chocolate, but parents want a healthier snacking option. For years, this has been one of the toughest equations for nutrition-conscious parents, who often found themselves negotiating tantrums in the kids’ food aisle of every supermarket.

A new crop of Indian D2C brands believes it has found a way around that tug-of-war. Their proposition is simple: don’t ask children to eat differently but make the food they already love better.

One example is Little Joys. It is betting that adding protein to a ‘roti’ is easier than getting a child to try a new food. The health and wellness platform launched a protein mix to add into the dough and batter for rotis, dosas and pancakes. 

That’s one example of how healthy snacking and kids-centric food is getting a revamp. Jaipur-based Gladful puts sprouted lentils and millets into familiar breakfast mixes, while The Whole Truth’s Next Gen range includes milk mixes, snack bars and protein blocks. 

For the urban millennial parents these brands are targeting, paying a premium can be easier than finding the time to prepare everything from scratch. But the purchase still has to satisfy two people: the child who eats the product and the parent who pays for it.

Little Joys’ founder Revant Bhate told us, “The hard thing in building a kids brand is building for two customers. A 10-year-old wants great taste, while a parent wants proof that the product is good and effective. And the bar for winning both over keeps getting higher.”

Little Joys’ founder Revant Bhate told us, “The hard thing in building a........

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