Recently, I attended an event with other mommy bloggers about milk – breastmilk and formula milk. Of course, I am a strong advocate of breastfeeding and it was great that the speakers during the event agree that breastmilk is the best for our babies. Wyeth invited Dr. Atul Singhal to talk about alpha-proteins also known as alpha-lactalbumin, which can be found and derived from the mother’s own milk.
According to Dr. Singhal breastfed babies show slower growth rate than formula fed babies, but do not be alarmed – slower growth (as I understood it) is more beneficial to babies. Breastfed babies catch up with formula fed babies and manifest lower chances of heart disease and obesity.
In our country, we think bigger is always better. And so we tend to oversize our babies to become the chubby and cute creature that they are. But according to studies, infants’ early nutrition has a major impact on their long-term health. This includes cognitive function, bone health, and risk factors for cardiovascular disease. If we overfeed our babies early in life, they are more prone to become overweight in the future.
Therefore it is important to give babies quality protein from breast milk or, if there are circumstances when mothers cannot breastfeed due to medical reasons – your choice for formula milk should be the one closest in structure to breast milk. This is what Wyeth researched about and developed together with the beneficial alpha-proteins. Although they did not mention what brand of formula milk has alpha-lactalbumin (alpha-proteins), they advice parents to ask their pediatrician to find out more about their baby’s nutrition and how they can benefit from alpha proteins.
