What baby formula is best?
Most baby formula milks are made from cow’s milk, which is modified to be like breast milk as close as possible. The manufacturers modify cows milk for infants by adjusting carbs, proteins and fat levels and adding vitamins and minerals. There are also special types of formula made for premature infants.
DHA is already added for quite some time in infant formula given to premature babies. Some companies have started to offer fortified formula for all babies.
Babies fed a formula enriched on an experimental basis of the fatty acid DHA seem to develop higher cognitive skills in babies who receive baby formula as usual, a new study shows.
Earlier studies already established that the cognitive skills of breastfeeding babies were higher than those of babies fed on formula milk, and this benefit seemed to persist throughout childhood. The researchers had proposed that the difference was perhaps due to the naturally high concentration of DHA that contains human breast milk.
Researchers from the University of Texas have therefore investigated about 200 babies who were randomly assigned either the fortified formula or standard infant formula. Every baby were then evaluated at the age of nine months who were fed milk enriched with DHA performed significantly better on a test their ability to solve problems.
A spokesperson for the Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS) said it would studying long-term children who participated in the study to determine whether the advantage persists detected in nine months. For the moment, said Dr. Robert Issenman, CPS continues to focus on exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life and, ideally, until the age of one year.
The DHA is a fatty acid essential for the normal functioning of the brain and retina. DHA deficiency has been linked to changes in mood, loss of memory, and visual and neurological problems.