Breastfeeding is ideal for feeding the baby. During the first 6 months of life breast milk should be its only food. Then, while introducing other foods, it should continue to be a basic part of the baby’s diet until 2 years old or until the mother or child wants. It is the natural choice for feeding the baby. Breast milk provides all the nutrients necessary for the baby’s growth and development, as well as protecting against infections and other diseases, and its properties do not have an expiration date. Have you also been told that after a year breast milk does not provide nutrients? Well, that is not true. It does provide nutrients - even more than before, because it is richer in fat and calories.
If the mother cannot or does not want to continue breastfeeding until the baby is at least one year old, specially modified milk should be given.
A baby of less than 1 year old cannot drink normal cow's milk, nor milk of other mammals, or vegetable drinks. It can be dangerous for the baby’s health, as well as compromising his/her development and growth.
Any artificial milk given to the baby in first year of life must comply with nutritional and food safety characteristics that are fully regulated and which we already discussed in a recent entry.
But growth milks, enriched or type 3, specially designed for children from one year of age on, are not really necessary.
The EFSA (European Food Safety Agency) made this ruling, which was confirmed by leading experts in infant feeding. For this group of milks there is no specific regulation regarding its composition, and the name of the milk does not imply anything in particular. Enriched milk may have added vitamins or minerals and would have the same calories as normal cow's milk. But it may also be supplemented with cereals or cocoa, considerably increasing, unnecessarily, the calories. The term growth milk does not mean anything either. Or is it that a child fed on normal cow's milk will stop growing?
From one year on a baby can drink full cream cow's milk.
They do not need enriched milk. Cow's milk already contains all the vitamins and minerals that we look for in milk, mainly calcium and vitamin D. If we want to provide vitamin C, for example, it makes more sense to give fruit, which is a natural source of vitamin C, rather than supplementing milk. The same is true for other nutrients, such as iron, which is naturally found in meats or pulses, or the omega 3 that we find in fish.
If a child needs a little extra of a specific nutrient, the first thing is to adapted the diet so that to provide all the necessary nutrients. And if for some specific health reason, those needs cannot be met with a suitable diet supplements prescribed by the pediatrician should be used.
This type of milk cannot make up for deficiencies caused by an inadequate diet in the long term.
On the other hand, it is practically impossible for a healthy child to have a vitamin deficit – no matter how badly a child eats. But if it were the case, feeding the child with one of these preparations would only make the disorder worse, since we would not be solving the base problem, which is to ensure a good diet and educate the child’s taste for healthy eating habits.
Furthermore, these products are not really milk, but dairy preparations. They are mixture of proteins, fats and carbohydrates that do not necessarily come from milk. In fact, most of them include low quality fats, such as palm oil or simple sugars such as sucrose or glucose, instead of lactose, which is the natural sugar in milk.
Reading the labels of what we eat should always be mandatory, even when it comes to feeding a child.
The fact that a product is specially designed for children does not necessarily make it suitable.
Only we are responsible for what we feed them.