The milk It is a liquid food with a high proportion of water and a fairly balanced composition of carbohydrates, lipids and proteins that contains a significant amount of salts, vitamins and enzymes. It is a food with proteins of high nutritional value and an important source of calcium.
The milk It is part of the group of dairy products, which play an important role in feeding babies and children. During the first year it constitutes the main food (taking into account that from six months onwards, new foods that provide new flavors and different concentrations of nutrients begin to be offered), although not as we know it. Breastfed babies drink breast milk, which is quite different from the cow's milk we are talking about here and babies who are not breastfed should take adapted formulas that come from cow's milk, as this would be highly harmful to them.
As I say, cow's milk is not a suitable food for infants (infant: baby from 0 to 12 months) because it has adverse effects on the nutritional status of iron, it contains many solutes, which produce an excessive renal load and has a low content of linoleic acid, zinc, vitamin C and niacin, in addition to a high proportion of saturated fatty acids.
In addition, cow's milk is highly allergenic and the risk of developing hypersensitivity to cow's milk proteins decreases greatly after 12 months, when the intestines of babies are much less permeable and stop absorbing molecules that months before They easily passed into the bloodstream producing allergies.
Renal load of solutes in cow's milk
Cow's milk has a high protein content (no less than triple that of breast milk) and mineral salts, so infants who drink cow's milk between 6 and 12 months (luckily less and less, although in 1987 40% of 6-month-olds and 75% of 9-month-olds did) take between 20 and 100% more than infants fed with formula milk and 2 to 3 times more than the right amount for babies of this age.
This excess protein, added to the excess of mineral salts, causes a renal overload of solutes. Under normal conditions, an older infant has little difficulty excreting the renal load of solutes, but in situations where there is a reduced intake of water or if water losses are high (fever, high ambient temperature, diarrhea, ...), Diets with high renal load of solutes help dehydration to occur more quickly.
To see it more graphically, while an infant fed with formula milk may need 5 or 6 days to lose 10% of body weight, a child fed with cow's milk may need only 2 or 3 days to reach the same situation.
Cow's milk and fats
The fatty acid composition of cow's milk is very different from that of breast milk. Cow's milk contains short-chain fatty acids that irritate babies' digestive tract and even inhibit the erythropoietic function (generation of red blood cells) of the bone marrow.
It also has more saturated long chain fatty acids, which causes a worse absorption and a greater hypercholesterolemic effect and is deficient in linoleic acid, essential fatty acids and in long chain polyunsaturates.
The truth is that these characteristics, and observing that in some studies carried out on 12-month-old infants who drank cow's milk, significantly elevated levels of total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol (the so-called bad cholesterol) have been evidenced, make controversy about the amount of fat that children should eat and, above all, about the type of milk they should drink.
The current recommendation is that of do not limit fat intake until at least 2 years, for fear that such limitation affects growth. In addition, skimmed dairy products are not recommended as they do not contain essential fatty acids, are deficient in vitamins and charge the kidneys too much, as they have many proteins for the low energy they provide.
Semi-skimmed milk can be found between whole and skim milk. WHO accepts it after 12 months, but suggests continuing with the whole one, for providing more calories. Perhaps it would be best to start taking it from 24 months of age.
Importance of calcium in infant feeding
Calcium is important in infant feeding because it is necessary for the formation and maintenance of the skeleton and teeth. It is also necessary for the proper functioning of the muscular system and the nervous system.
99% of calcium is found in the bones and goes from assuming 30 g in the newborn to 1,200 g when the person is an adult.
A daily calcium intake of 400 mg is recommended in the first six months, 600 mg in the second semester, 800 mg in the period between 12 months and 10 years and 1,200 mg during adolescence. This is equivalent to between two and four servings of dairy products per day, according to age.
Cow's milk and iron nutritional status
Cow's milk significantly affects the nutritional status of iron for various reasons:
- Have a very low iron content, so it is easy for an excess of intake to produce a deficit (if children drink a lot of milk, they eat less of other foods with more iron content) and, taking into account that milk is liquid and that many children continue with the bottle for years (easier to swallow than in glass), there are too many children who get to drink more than a liter of milk a day, obviously excessive if we also add yogurts, custards and the like and if we consider that when they are Small is enough with two rations a day (500 ml or two yogurts).
- Reduces the bioavailability of iron coming from other foods and have iron absorption inhibiting factors. Not only does it have little iron, but it also has the ability to alter the bioavailability of iron that comes from other sources, making it less useful for the body and making it difficult to absorb such iron. This does not mean that you do not have to drink milk, but if you drink too much, little iron is ingested and the little that comes from other foods is absorbed worse.
- It has a tendency to cause intestinal bleeding. The consumption of cow's milk, especially in the first months of life, can cause gastrointestinal blood losses. This makes the risk of anemia high in babies. Intestinal hemorrhages seem to disappear progressively between seven and a half months and 12 months of age.
For all these reasons it is recommended not to offer cow's milk until at least twelve months of age. If the baby is breastfed, it is not necessary to drink such milk until later, although obviously nothing happens if you take it (sometimes in the form of shakes, with cocoa or the like). If the baby drinks artificial milk, he can start taking it from twelve months, although personally it seems more logical that they start after 18 months, since the adapted formulas have less protein and more iron.
Photos | adjustafresh, Tambako the Jaguar on Flickr
In Babies and more | Complementary feeding: milk and its derivatives, Whole milk is not good for babies under one year, Milk is the first cause of allergy in children
