Kids are sucking down baby food pouches at record rates.

Every week, Caitlin Scuttio stops by Target and piles her cart with pureed food pouches for her 4-year-old and twin 18-month-old sons.

In goes a 24-pack of unsweetened applesauce. Then a 24-pack of the fruit and veggie blend. And finally, the yogurt pouches for her oldest son’s breakfast. “He’d eat six applesauce pouches a day if I let him,” Scuttio said.

Total monthly pouch budget: $200.

“They have such a choke hold on my family. I can’t imagine our grocery list without it at this point,” she said. “We are definitely a pouch family.”

And they aren’t alone. Sales of food pouches — soft bags with plastic spouts for easy consumption — have increased 900% since 2010, overtaking jarred purees as the predominant baby food on the market. Parents generally spoon-feed jars of pureed foods for a few months in the first year of life when introducing solids, but pouches marketed to parents of toddlers and older children have prolonged pureed food eating by years.

Though the occasional pouch can be part of a healthful diet, doctors and nutritionists are raising concerns that an overreliance on pouches can interfere with nutrition, long-term food preferences, dental hygiene and even speech and language development. And marketing practices can leave parents confused about what’s actually inside the packages.

“Pouches are highly processed foods,” said Dr. Steven Abrams, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School. “They certainly serve as a quick snack, but we need to make sure that pouches don’t make up too much of a toddler’s diet. We want kids to learn to chew and eat foods like meat, and fruits and vegetables that are not processed.”

What’s inside varies greatly — some contain only fruit, while others have a mix of vegetables, grains, yogurt and even meat. Whereas many jarred foods contain a single ingredient like pureed peas or carrots, pouches are more often a blend that features a sweet fruit such as apple or pear as the primary ingredient.

A 2019 study found that infant and toddler food in pouches contained significantly more sugar per serving than foods available in other forms of packaging.

To be sure, there is not an epidemic of children who don’t know how to chew. But Dr. Mark Corkins, a pediatric gastroenterologist at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center who chairs the American Academy of Pediatrics committee on nutrition, said he sometimes sees children who are so reliant on the smooth, sweet taste of pouches that they have developed food and texture aversions and refuse to eat regular fruits or vegetables.

“In the long run we’re going to pay for it,” he said.

Why are baby food pouches so popular?

Pouches are convenient: Unlike glass jars, they don’t shatter when dropped, and toddlers can suck down the slurry without help from a caregiver. However, most pouches are not recyclable.

“It is so dang hard to be a parent of young children in the U.S. Having [pouches] on an airplane, having them in the car — it is so convenient that I would never take that away from parents. I used pouches with my children,” said Bridget Young, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Rochester School of Medicine.

“The industry has gone from jars to pouches because it’s more cost-effective and convenient,” said Dr. Tanya Altmann, a pediatrician in Calabasas and author of the book “What to Feed Your Baby.” But it’s what’s inside that’s important, she said, and “not all pouches are created equal.”

As a tool, she said, pouches “can be a contributor to a family’s nutrition,” but not a prime source. Those without added sugars or salt may even have advantages over other processed snacks.

Heidi Martinez, a mother of three in the Bay Area city of Pittsburg, said she always buys the pouches with at least one vegetable. As her oldest son goes through “picky stages, I like that he is still getting some kale and beets,” she said. “I don’t know that they’re actually healthier but I feel better about it.”

At the age of 7, he eats two to three pouches a day.

Manufacturers appeal to parents by marketing a pouch as “all natural,” “organic” or containing vegetables.

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Beth Saltz, a pediatric dietitian in Woodland Hills, said a general rule of thumb is to make sure that all of the ingredients listed could be sold in the grocery store. If the ingredients include things such as “organic tapioca starch” or “pea protein isolate,” or even natural coloring, you might reconsider.

“A little toddler does not need those,” she said.

This article is part of The Times’ early childhood education initiative, focusing on the learning and development of California children from birth to age 5.