Cow’s milk
From ChildWiki.com
Cow's milk is an excellent aliment and even required nutrient in the diet of bigger toddlers, children and adults. When included in a normal healthy diet, it can furnish an important amount of assimilable calcium that contributes to the normal development of a child's bones. The proteins are also easy assimilable for those that do not present allergies to them, so cow's milk is generally regarded as a wonder food.
However, when talking about infants things are different. The breast milk or the infant formulas used can only be replaced by cow's milk after the child reaches the age of one year.
This type of milk is restricted at lower ages because:
- It contains very few iron and when infants are only fed with this type of milk they are predisposed to develop an iron deficiency or even anemia
- In case of some infants it can cause intestinal bleeding
- It contains three times more proteins than a child aged below 1. The high protein levels lead to supra-soliciting the liver.
- It is very rich in fats, but they are not good fats; the saturated fats contained by cow milk will produce arterial problems and weight problems as the baby grows, leading to obesity. The essential fat acids that are needed for normal brain development are found in very small quantities in this milk.
Proteins and fats that are found in milk have a very complex structure and the digestive enzymes of an infant can not manage because the organs are not fully developed and can not function at full capacity. Cow's milk is also scarce in vitamins, iron and other minerals and contains a lot of sodium and potassium. Also, lots of salt can be found in this type of milk, which solicits the kidney of an infant. All these characteristic can turn from harmful in the early months in beneficial in the latter ones and during toddler year when alimentary diversification is completed and the child receives all the needed components that cow's milk does not present from other foods. Also, after 18 months, the toddler will be capable to digest the complex substances from cow milk and will also consume more energy, so the risk of obesity in children is diminished.
After 1 year, and when the child is two and more, cow milk is recommended by most doctors in moderate quantities (one-two glasses or bottles a day). Pediatricians often recommend the skimmed milk, beacuse it reduces the fats accumulation risk and it has been also found that it contains more calcium and more essential nutrients.
