Ingredients in Breast Milk and Formula

Have you ever wondered what's in breast milk verses formula?

Source - Click on the poster to view it larger!

I've never looked on the back of formula to see what is in it. 

I do know that new things are discovered every year in breast milk. Breast milk has tons of ingredients. A Mom's body changes what it produces to meet the needs of their baby, or toddler.

There is a rumor that once the child is past a year that they no longer need momma's milk. While it's true that babies start eating other things, breast milk still has antibodies that is good for them. Breast milk is similar to blood. It changes with the needs of your body. 

Riordan & Wambach (2012) state, “Human milk is similar to unstructured living tissue, such as blood, and is capable or transporting nutrients, affecting biochemical systems, enhancing immunity, and destroying pathogens ”  They they go on to say, “Breastmilk, like all other animal milks, is species-specific.  It has been adapted throughout human existence to meet nutritional and anti-infective requirements of the human infant to ensure optimal growth, development, and survival” (p. 97).

Breast milk is good for children that are sick, and children that are healthy. There is no magic age a baby, or toddler should stop drinking Momma's milk. It's up to the momma and baby to decide when to wean. To be honest weaning begins the moment foods are introduced in a baby's diet. When to stop breast feeding all together is a decision for those involved.

Then things that stay in breast milk after babyhood: 

• Vitamins
• Minerals
• Enzymes
• Elecrolytes
• Antibacterial Properties
• Antimicrobial Properties
• Antifungal Properties
• And More 

Cow's milk and cow's milk formula are made for a baby cow.

Formula can be life saving in different situations, but there is no research to support the idea that a toddler should switch to a milk that is specific to a different animal.

People do not/should not all fit into a mold. Some women have trouble breastfeeding, or have to go on medicines that prevent them from breastfeeding.

If a child is sick, and won't eat anything, the fact that they are drinking breast milk that has so many wonderful properties is a big relief. Often times kids don't want to eat anything when they are sick. Doctors want them to have Pedialyte. Pedialyte is fine if they'll drink it. Breast milk naturally has elecrolytes in it.

Formula is marketed for consumers to think that there is more in it than breast milk. This simply is not true. AHA and DHA is naturally produced from breast milk, and synthetically produced in a factory lab for formula.

Here is a portion of what a great ARTICLE mentions about the review of available research and literature by the Who and Cochran Review:
 
 “ARA (promoted as enhancing “visual acuity”) and DHA (touted for advancing “neurological development”) have been added to infant formula since 1997. Both these long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids are found in human breast milk and, in this form, contribute to eye and neurological development. But over the past five years, WHO and the Cochran Collaboration, a London-based research organisation, have published policy statements and studies concluding that ARA and DHA, when used as additives, do not improve infants’ development.”

It goes on to say:

“According to the US Food and Drug Administration, the scientific evidence is ‘mixed’ over the benefits of adding ARA and DHA to baby formula, with no currently available published studies on the long-term impact. ‘Scientists can’t make the same form of ARA and DHA that human breast milk contains,’ said Elizabeth Myler, a spokeswoman for the US-based NGO that promotes breastfeeding, La Leche League International. ‘Instead, they extract it from fermented algae and fungus using a toxic chemical called hexane.’ “

Even though this addition has been made to these formulas, babies are not having any improvements compared to artificially fed babies without ADA and DHA added!  Marketing execs are a smart bunch and know how to make a serious amount of money with campaigns such as this…

The World Health Organization recommends the following for babies if their mother cannot breastfeed. The order is in preference from most preferred to least preferred; expressed breast milk from the infant’s own mother , donated breast milk from a healthy wet-nurse or human milk bank, formula.  

Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding, World Health Organization

Click on this LINK for another great poster listing how little artificial milk has to offer compared to breast milk.

 

Here is a list of ingredients from a can of formula: The first three ingredients are lactose from cow’s milk, vegetable oils and “enzymatically hydrolysed whey protein (milk)” also from a cow…

• Lactose (milk)
• vegetable oils
• Enzymatically hydrolysed whey protein (milk)
• Minerals (calcium phosphate, magnesium chloride, potassium chloride, potassium phosphate, sodium chloride, ferrous sulphate, zinc sulphate, copper sulphate, calcium carbonate, manganese sulphate, sodium selenate, potassium iodide)
• Maltodextrin, omega LCPUFAs (DHA from fish oil, AA)
• Vitamins [sodium ascorbate (vit C)
• Dl-alpha-tocopheryl acetate (vit E)
• Retinyl acetate (vit A)
• Niacinamide (niacin)
• Calcium pantothenate
• Cholecalciferol (vit D3)
• Thiamine mononitrate (vit B1)
• Riboflavin (vit B2)
• Pyridoxine hydrochloride (vit B6)
• Phylloquinone (vit K1)
• Folic acid
• Cyanocobalamin (vit B12)
• Biotin
• L-phenylalanine, L-histidine
• L-tyrosine
• Choline bitartrate
• Acidity regulator (citric acid)
• Taurine, inositol
• Nucleotides (cytidine 5′-monophosphate, uridine 5′-monophosphate, adenosine 5′-monophosphate 
• Guanosine 5′-monophosphate 
• L-carnitine
• Culture (bifidus)
• Antioxidant (ascorbyl palmitate)

Starter infant formula. The enzymatically hydrolysed protein source is from cow’s milk.

You can find a source for this article here.

Breastmilk Ice Cream

I'm all for nursing, but the idea of getting a sample of someone else's breastmilk is a little on the odd side to me. Should it be? 

This photo was found here.

A few stores were going to start to sell an organic ice cream that is made from breastmilk, Madagascan vanilla pods and lemon zest. It's name? "Baby Gaga". The pre-thought of most people is, "Yuck"! But it is actually very healthy and yummy.

I have really bad tummy problems, and always wondered if cow's milk was totally eliminated from my diet, and replaced with soy or say breastmilk, how would my tummy do then?

I made what I called, "Boob Cube Ice Cream" for Mica and Isaak for their 1st birthday parties. I called it this because my breastmilk was frozen in ice cube trays. My little tikes were the only ones that consumed this ice cream. We joked about giving it to other people at the party. The joke was between my sister and I that were both nursing our little ones. I never thought at the time that breastmilk ice cream was something they'd actually start selling in the stores.

My sister and I had a lot of frozen milk left over, and we thought, "Why not make ice cream for our 1 year old's out of it?" It gave us a good laugh.

There was talk that ice cream parlors and grocery stores across the U.S. were going to begin selling ice cream made from breastmilk.  It’s organic! The Baby Gaga ice cream flavor has been confiscated by the Westminster Council due to safety concerns of transmittable diseases, and is undergoing testing. It might be something that you see in the future.

Wal-Mart, Costco, and Kroger are all following the lead of Whole Foods, which is the first chain store to agree to offer ice cream made from the breast milk of nursing mothers.

“Baby Gaga” was invented by  Matt O’Connor (from London).

Recipe to make Breastmilk Ice Cream: 

I found this recipe here.

Step 1 Ingredients

Gather all of the needed ingredients. This is enough for one serving, but you may double or triple as you see fit, depending on how much breastmilk you have.

• 1/2 cup breast milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 4 cups crushed ice
• 4 tablespoons salt
  
• 1 standard sized coffee can
• 1 economy sized coffee can
• Hand towel or gloves (to protect your fingers)

Step 2 Directions

Combine the breast milk, vanilla and sugar into the standard sized coffee can and mix thoroughly. Tightly seal the can with its plastic lid and place inside the larger sized coffee can. Fill that can with the crushed ice, then sprinkle the salt over on top.

Now, use your gloves or towel to protect your hands as you roll the can back and forth on the ground, until the ice cream sets. The time required depends on the number of servings in the can.

Tips

• The salt causes the ice to melt slightly, lowering its freezing point. Water freezes at 32 degrees F. water with 10% salt freezes at 20 degrees F.
• You can use plastic ziplock freezer bags instead of coffee cans. Just combine the breast milk, vanilla and sugar in a 1-quart freezer bag, then putting that bag inside another 1-quart freezer bag to protect it from the salt. Now, put those bags inside a 1-gallon freezer bag, pour the ice and salt in, and use gloves to mix it around until set.
• About 8 minutes is needed to freeze one serving of the ice cream mixture.
• The following video will show you the general process using the plastic bag method.

How To Make Homemade Ice Cream in a Plastic Bag on Howcast

Over 100 Ingredients

• Human breast milk contains at least 100 ingredients that can't be found in cow's milk.
• Formula manufacturers have not been able to duplicate all the ingredients.
  
• Breast milk is not as hard on babies tummy's as formula.
• Nursed newborns suffer less from constipation and diarrhea.
  
• Some babies might be allergic to cow's milk or soy alternatives. This does make nursing harder because many things have to get cut from a mom's diet if she's nursing.

Treating Baby Eczema

• We've used lots of products for both kid's skin. Both of our kids had baby eczema on their heads. I thought it was cradle cap at first, so I was scrubbing it, only to find out I was making it worse.
  
• I found that Walmart's brand of eczema lotion worked better than anything.
• Both boy's had a huge flair up after their major sicknesses as babies. I gave them probiotics to put the good bacteria back into their bodies from all the antibiotics they took. Their flair up's disappeared fairly fast.
  
• I just recently read that breast milk can be applied to the skin of a baby that suffers from eczema. It's supposed to be better then anything.
  

Storing Baby Food and Breast Milk

• With Mica I used ice cube trays to put my milk in. I didn't even know they made ice cube trays with lids at the time, so I put HUGE plastic bags over the trays.
  
• I found some ice cube trays that I really liked after Mica was born.
  
• I used them for Isaak, and LOVED them! I used them for breast milk and baby food.
  
• They are called Orca Ice Cube Trays. It's great that they come in different colors (orange, blue and white). This way you know what was pumped the most recent.
  

• I just ran the bottom of the trays under warm sink water, then the cubes popped out very easily.
• They then went in the freezer in sandwich bags. I dated the bags with Sharpies.
• When they were ready to be used, cubes were put in drop in liners. Daddy would warm up water in a glass 2 cup measuring cup, he heated it in the microwave for 2 min. The bottle would sit in the water until it was thawed.
  
• Daddy preferred this method over milk bags. They expand when they freeze, so when they thaw they leak. No leaking with our method.
• I loved making baby food in these trays because I knew the food stayed fresh. I didn't get things like apples and pears mixed up because they were each put in a different colored tray. 
• There are a lot of baby food trays on the market, and Orka tops my list!