Milk Vitamin Comparison

Milk from different source have different contains, the contains of certain animals milk may useful for their children, but may less useful for human baby, to know the difference of each milk can see on the table below. For this reason our baby should be given their mother milk, because the contains is most useful for human baby. Like every baby need first out of mother’s milk, because this first mother milk contains antibody substance that is useful for baby, this substance called Colostrums. While colostrums is not contains in many formula milk or skim milk.

Infants below the age of one year should not be fed cow milk, goat milk, or soy beverage. These milks are low in iron and differ in the protein composition compared to mothers’ milk. Since infants depend so much on milk, it is likely that they will develop an iron deficiency if they consume cow, goat or soy beverage. Really, breast feeding or infant formula are the way to go, with breast feeding most superior. The iron in breast milk is highly bio-available and will cover the needs for the infant until about the age of 6 months. After that, the Academy of Pediatricians suggests, infants should be supplemented with iron-fortified infant cereals (such as rice cereal), while ideally breast feeding should be continued until at least the age of one.

Another reason that infants should not be fed cow or goat milk is because of the protein. Breast milk is higher in whey and much lower in casein compared to cow and goat milks. Casein is more difficult to digest than whey and may lead to internal gastrointestinal bleeding, which again, could lead to iron deficiency.

There are also mineral differences among breast milk, cow milk and goat milk. Goat milk, in particular, is low in the B vitamin folic acid.

Soy beverages provide more iron than cow milk. However, soy is deficient in many other key nutrients. Remember, soy is a plant and by no means can be compared to mammal milks, which are complex foods made to grow baby children/animals. The nutritional composition of soy and mammal milks are very different.

At the age of one, the American Academy of Pediatrics suggests children can be switched to whole milk. Again, soy beverage is not equivalent to milk and thus should not replace milk in the diet.

Finally, raw milk should not be fed to infants. Raw milk commonly contains food-borne illness-causing microorganisms (pathogens). Even low levels of certain pathogens can cause illness. Since infant immunological systems are not fully developed, they are at greater risk for disease and death than those with developed immune systems.