Breast milk clearly superior to industrial milk

Breastmilk is significantly superior to artificial baby food

07/18/2012

Manufacturers of industrially produced infant formula often advertise with the argument that artificial infant milk is just as rich in content as natural breast milk. According to reports of the National Breastfeeding Commission at the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), such products can not mimic the breast milk. For the breast milk in the compilation is far too complex to produce a dubious duplicate. According to this, manufacturers would mislead parents when they write on the packaging, "modeled on breast milk", or the milk is "breastmilk-close"..

Industrially produced infant formulas must be tailored to the nutritional needs of healthy infants and must be backed by generally accepted scientific data. The manufacturers of these products often advertise directly or indirectly that the composition of their products is comparable to that of mother's milk. The National Breastfeeding Commission at BfR has therefore compared the composition of breast milk compared to industrially produced baby food and evaluated the effects of different infant formulas compared to breast milk on the health of infants.

Breast milk protects against diseases
Breast milk contains many substances that are not included in infant formulas and follow-on formulas. These substances lead to a lower probability of disease in breastfed infants. Exclusive breastfeeding during the first 4 to 6 months reduces the number of infections in infancy by 40 to 70% and reduces hospital admission of infants in the first year of life by more than 50 percent. For example, breastfeeding reduces the risk of lower respiratory infections in infants by more than 70 percent. Other illnesses that are less common in breastfed infants include middle ear infections, gastrointestinal infections, and possibly later overweight and diabetes.

Although the feeding of industrially produced baby food has a decades-long history of safe use, infants fed on manufactured infant formula are at a higher risk for a range of diseases compared to breastfed children.

"Breast milk is the ideal food for infants in the first few months. It is easy to digest and is composed in such a way that it covers the need for nutrients and liquids in the first six months of the year ", said the BfR in a statement. Advertising for baby milk should therefore not give the impression that bottle feeding is as good as or better than breast milk.

Breast milk far too complex to imitate
Numerous studies have shown that natural breast milk has an exclusive composition that can not be mimicked by industrially produced baby food. Advertising that suggests that industrially produced infant formula is equivalent to or partially equivalent to breastmilk may, according to the National Breastfeeding Commission, be described as "misleading". (sb, pm)

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