However, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) acknowledges that for typically healthy babies there is no medical evidence stating that starting with infant cereal
yields greater health benefits over starting other common first foods.
This amounted to a return of more than $ 2 for every taxpayer dollar spent and a social return of nearly $ 4 for every dollar spent.13 The social return included
benefits such as improved skills and human capital,
greater lifetime civic engagement, lower delinquency and criminal activity, and even improved
health status for volunteers.14 Cost -
benefit analyses of more than 50 individual AmeriCorps programs have
yielded similar results.15