The Additives in Baby Formula Milk

There is a wide range of baby formulas available in the market. Still, the best of them have all the essential nutrients and ingredients that are much similar to breastmilk because only breastmilk is the best thing for babies; that helps them nourish and grow healthier. It is nature's great blessing for all the little ones.

Baby formula milk is designed with a much more similar composition to human breastmilk, and the parents buy these formulas for better growth and development of their babies. Along with the ingredients that are essential for babies and need to be added to formula milk, certain ingredients should be avoided in baby formula, and these are known as additives.

Most brands manufacturing baby formula milk know that European Commission has set specific guidelines for creating the baby formula. The food additives are restricted to add in the milk powder as they are not good for your infant's health.

Through this blog, many parents will develop an understanding of the harmful and commonly used additives which should be strictly avoided, and some important ingredients are meant to be added to the milk formula for babies.

Essential Ingredients

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HEALTHY FATS

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Infants need to have enough healthy fats, which are required by growing babies for healthy development. The ideal amount of fat that is meant to be given to babies daily is about 6 tablespoons daily, depending on the size and age of the baby.

Babies can get a good amount of fat in their daily diet. The best way to do this is to feed them formula milk containing the whole amount of cow or goat milk enriched with good fat content instead of giving them skimmed milk with lower fat content.

Popular formula milk is often labeled with the first ingredient, skim milk, which confuses parents in buying them. Some milk formula manufacturers do this because they replace whole milk fat with a carbohydrate source named lactose, which is essential to provide energy and calories to your baby. They replace whole milk fat with skim milk, which contains more lactose than whole-fat milk.

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DHA & ARA

DHA is known as Docosahexaenoic acid, and ARA is widely known as Arachidonic acid. Both are long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids potentially found in vegetables, nuts, and seed oils and are liquid at room temperature. In contrast, saturated fatty acids are solids at room temperature commonly found in butter and meat.

These are the two fatty acids that are considered essential and act as the building blocks that are joined to form healthy fat molecules. DHA and ARA are likely known to promote a healthy brain and eye-light development in growing babies. Suppose these two fatty acids are found in the ingredients list of any baby formula. In that case, it is surely considered the best formula milk for your little ones.

Unwanted Baby Formula Additives

CARRAGEENAN

It is a derivative typically obtained from a type of red seaweed. Its practical uses are in the food industry of humans and pets manufacturing foods in order to stabilize, thicken and alter the consistency of foods. In the baby formula, like a liquid ready-to-feed formula or any concentrated formula found in solid cans, Carrageenan is used as an additive that keeps all the ingredients spread evenly all over the product.

This brings out convenience for parents as they don't need to shake a can or the bottles feeding that are partially used. Still, despite all this, Carrageenan has a lot of health-related risks. It is a reason for causing irritable bowel syndrome in babies, along with other health issues.

Carrageenan is also a susceptible carcinogen because it is derived from wild seaweeds and untreated with chemicals. In different formulas, Carrageenan is legally labeled as Organic. Still, it has no nutritional value, and its use is also banned in all European baby formulas. It is also possible that plant-based formulas contain amounts of Carrageenan too.

ARTIFICIALLY DERIVED NUTRIENTS AND ADDED PRESERVATIVES

There are a lot of formulas that have added preservatives and nutrients that are labeled as natural. These ingredients occur naturally and come from nature. Still, the manufacturers of many formula milk companies claim the ingredients as duplicitous because these are most of the times treated chemically or created in the lab and occur as synthetic ones due to their extraction that is done using dangerous solvents like hexane.

Infantiz recommends its valuable customers avoid such formulas for your baby as these preservatives aren't meant to be added to baby formula milk. Some preservatives that need to be avoided are Beta-carotene, Ascorbyl palmitate, nucleotides, Lutein, Lycopene, Taurine, L-carnitine, and L-methionine. These are known as healthy substances but when found naturally in substances, not when synthetically derived by using harmful chemicals in the baby formula.

REFINED SUGARS

Most of the brands from America that are popular brands of producing baby milk formula contain higher amounts of refined sugars, including sucrose, fructose, glucose, rice syrup, and corn syrup. Some brands containing 50% percent of sugar are not healthier for babies.

The best idea is to add lactose as a sweetener which is known as the naturally occurring sugar in milk. It is the best replacement for corn syrup and sucrose in all European baby formulas, making them ideal for your little bundle of joys.

It is a fact that refined sugars provide no nutritional value and also are a major cause of obesity in children in the future if they start consuming refined sugars from the age of infancy.

RISKS OF INSULIN AS A RESULT OF DIETARY SUGAR

By consuming too much amount of dietary sugar, inulin can occur. When the sugar is taken, the insulin is released through the pancreas. Then further, it is metabolized and absorbed into cells where it is required for energy.

Refined sugars cause too much insulin release, causing the blood sugar levels to drop, resulting in more cravings for sugar. It is a clear fact that consuming processed sugars is unhealthy for babies and anyone else.

SOY LECITHIN

It is derived from soybeans and acts as an emulsifier. It is used in food products to stabilize and works as a blending agent. The function of lecithin is to keep the tiny drops of the formula ingredients well-dispersed all over the product.

The addition of lecithin in the baby formula can be a reason for causing problems due to its origin from soy. Most of the soy grown comes under the GMO category as they have been grown in non-organic conditions. Soy contains phytoestrogens and is known as a baby allergen. Soy also reflects long-term effects in babies that are still unknown. The beneficial side of the European baby formula is that they contain sunflower lecithin instead of soy lecithin.

MONO AND DI-GLYCERIDES

These are used as an emulsifier, and it also enhances the texture of the food. These are the products obtained from the processing of vegetable oil. Both of these are the types of fatty acids containing trans fat.

There isn’t any proven safety for the consumption of artificial trans fat, so these should be avoided, especially in your baby's diet. Mono and Di-glycerides are dangerous chemicals, so these should not be taken for anyone, especially babies.

Conclusion

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Infantiz highly recommends that parents look out for a reliable baby formula that contains all of the good and beneficial ingredients for their babies, as your little ones need to have a safe diet through the right formula milk.

We recommend having Organic European baby formulas as a preferred choice because these formulas come with several advantages like no chemicals, no use of harmful food additives, ingredients derived from natural sources, and free from GMOs because these formulas are made with pure organic farming methods that are regulated by European guidelines.

Whenever choosing a formula for your baby, you should follow the instructions of your pediatrician, with whom you can discuss all your concerns regarding baby formulas and food additives, along with the information regarding adding any harmful ingredient you might feel is unsuitable for your infant. We always recommend breastmilk feeding for babies as it is the most nutritious meal for the little ones, but in case of any problem, you can switch towards a baby formula but always look for the best one.

We recommend using European formulas due to their beneficial impacts and the use of ingredients that cannot cause any harm to your baby. We have a full range of baby formulas, from organic to specialized formulas, from which you can easily choose the best ones for your babies by reading the complete list of ingredients mentioned in the formula milk.