Will Formula Feeding Harm My Baby?

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Formula makers continue to identify new substances found in breast milk and add them to their formulas if possible, and then claim that they are now “more like breast milk!” Unfortunately, this approach ignores two very real properties of breast milk (and breastfeeding):

•    Breastmilk is a living, dynamic substance—full of cells providing immune protection, and ever-changing, based on the needs of the child. The milk that a mother makes for her newborn is not the same as what she’ll make days or weeks later. And the milk that she makes in the morning is not the same as the milk she’ll make in the evening. Formula can never hope to be such a responsive fluid.

•    Breastmilk is synergistic—the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Merely identifying a new substance in breastmilk and adding it to a formula does not guarantee that this substance will behave the same way as it does in breastmilk. The immunological components interact in ways that aren’t yet fully understood, and the nutritional components complement each other in ways that improve their absorption and use by the infant.

With this approach to creating the formula “most like breastmilk” comes the possibility that adding one new ingredient without other yet-to-be-identified ingredients, or in quantities that can’t match the changing composition of breastmilk, will create a formula that is either deficient or overloaded with a particular component. There have also been many accidental omissions or excesses in the manufacturing process that have led to serious problems in the infants who ingest the resulting formula.

There are many mothers and infants who do rely on formula, for whatever reason. There are a few conditions for which breastfeeding is contraindicated for mother or baby, and there are many mothers who choose not to breastfeed. For these situations, it is critical that formula companies continue to work towards creating the best product they can.

It is also critical that mothers be given all the information with which to make the decision concerning how they will feed their infants. It is also critical that mothers who choose to breastfeed are fully supported in their efforts to do so. This is the mission of La Leche League International:

To help mothers worldwide to breastfeed through mother-to-mother support, encouragement, information, and education, and to promote a better understanding of breastfeeding as an important element in the healthy development of the baby and the mother.