Is Infant Formula Really Better for Your Baby? Let's Take a Look Inside

Seventy-five percent of newly delivered mother's, at their pediatricians' request, trust and feed their new born babies some type of infant formula, rather then human breast milk or cow's milk. Why is such a high percentage of mothers opting to feed their babies infant formula instead of their own breast milk? Because they are told the infant formula is better for the baby than human breast milk. Is this really true? What is in infant formula which makes it better for a new born or infant baby than its mother's own breast milk? Let's take a look. Enfamil Lipil is the leading and most recommended infant formula. What is in it?

The number one ingredient is Nonfat Milk. Heat treated cow milk which turns it into a sort of faux human milk. Cow's milk proteins can cause extreme discomfort in some babies' stomach. Heat treating these proteins makes them more settling and easy for the baby to absorb and assimilate.

Cow's milk contain less natural sugar than human milk so to sweeten the infant formula Lactose is added which breaks down into a simple glucose and galactose carbohydrates.

Palm Olein Oil is a substitute palmitic acid which makes up 20% to 24% of the fat found in human breast milk. Enfamil supplements its infant formula with Palm Olein Oil, a modified triglycerides, which is know to produce yellow baby bowel and cause constipation in most formula fed babies.

To supplement the arachidonic acid needed to bulk up the babies' neurons, their brain capacity, and blood clotting ability, Mortierella Alpina Oil, an extract from Mortierella fungus is added to the baby's formula. Arachidonic Acid (AA) is also used by body builders to bulk up their muscles. AA is the principal omega-6 fatty acid found in our brains.

Crypthecodinium Cohnii Oil which is rich in docosahexaenoic acid is a new ingredient to the infant formula market. This long chain fatty acid is essential to the babies' eyesight development and appears to increase information processing in their brain and nervous system.

Inositol is an enzyme activator important in the babies' cell growth and development. Breast milk is loaded with it. Unfortunately the infant formula manufactured version does not last very long in the baby's bloodstream and must be supplemented by some other means.

For Iron supplementation, Ferrous Sulfate (FeSO4) is included. It is one of the best absorbed iron compounds. Too much produces green baby bowels.

L-Carnitine helps the baby metabolize fats better.

Nucleotides are immune system boosters to aid in jump starting the baby's antibody response to immunizations and help them sleep.

Reviewing this list of ingredients found in Enfamil Lipil, it reads like a modified cow milk cocktail which is attempting to emulate human's milk. How and why simulated nutrients are better for a newborn baby than natural nutrients somehow loses something in its translation. But the doctor knows best...Right?

Resource: Produces Neurons and Yellow Pop! - Wired Magazine - August, 2009

Tags: infant formula, Emfamil, newborn baby, parenting, baby health