Recently, we received a consultation from a parent about the problem that the baby does not grow meat after drinking special formula.
We often encounter such questions in our work, in fact, there are many mothers on the Internet who let their babies drink special formula milk powder and feel that their babies are gaining weight very slowly.
The parent who consulted provided the child's growth curve
From the height curve and weight curve, it can also be seen that it is basically consistent with the feedback from parents, and the baby who is young at the age of one month has little impact on weight when he drinks special formula, but after 6 months or even older babies continue to drink special formula, there may be slow weight gain or even weight loss.
Some parents think that it is caused by their children's allergies, and some parents think that milk powder is not good, and they are eager to change their children to ordinary milk powder as soon as possible. So why are babies who drink special formula milk powder prone to the problem of "not growing meat"? Today we will share some content in this regard.
Special formula is defined as "powdered or liquid formula designed to meet the nutritional needs of an infant with a particular medical condition, such as a particular disorder, disease or medical condition".
According to the national food safety standards, parents will also find such instructions on milk powder cans:
Formula food for special medical purposes that can be consumed by infants over 6 months of age should be labeled with "Supplementary food should be added when infants with special medical conditions over 6 months of age consume this product"
and
The label should clearly indicate "Please use under the guidance of a doctor or clinical dietitian".
Many parents ignore what is mandatory in these countries. From the babies who come into contact with drinking special milk powder in our work, it is relatively common for them to have unsatisfactory weight development or even lag behind. It's not that the child doesn't drink enough milk and therefore doesn't grow meat, but this is determined by the characteristics of the special formula.
What we usually call "long meat" to gain weight is essentially the accumulation of calories produced when food is digested. We gain weight when our calorie intake is greater than our calorie expenditure, and if we consume more calories than we consume, we become thinner.
60%~70% of the calories we consume through diet maintain the body's basal metabolism, and the rest is supplied to physical exercise, sitting, walking, and any activity of the body will consume calories. Our human body also consumes calories when digesting and absorbing food, but the proportion is negligible.
Compared with ordinary milk powder, special formula milk powder is a hydrolyzed protein, which is to cut the complete macromolecular protein into small molecule protein or even free amino acids. Simply put, the chemical digestion process of the human body is replaced by a special process. Ordinary milk powder for babies to digest and convert various nutrients in food into calories and nutrients for absorption through a series of digestive reactions, while special formula milk powder omits this step and is directly absorbed by the body after the baby drinks.
It is this digestive process that is omitted that produces enough calories to maintain the baby's normal health. However, if the baby's age increases, the basal metabolic consumption increases or the amount of exercise increases, the calorie consumption becomes larger, and the calories provided by the special milk powder cannot meet the consumption, or it is just the same as the consumption, and there is no excess calorie converted into fat and stored in the body, the baby's weight will naturally not increase, and may even decline.
So is it possible to solve the problem of no longer drinking special formula milk powder and changing to ordinary milk powder?
Taking stage 2 milk powder as an example, we found the requirements for the heat supply of special formula milk powder and ordinary milk powder in the national food safety standard:
The General Principles of National Food Safety Standards for Infant Formula for Special Medical Purposes stipulate:
The energy content of the product per 100mL in the ready-to-eat state should be 250 kJ (60 kcal)~295 kJ (70 kcal)
The National Food Safety Standard for Older Infant Formula stipulates that:
The energy content of the product per 100mL in the ready-to-eat state should be 250 kJ (60 kcal)~314 kJ (75 kcal)
Although it seems that the energy requirements of ordinary milk powder in the national standard are higher than the capacity requirements of special formula milk powder, in actual production, the difference between the two is not large. We randomly found a few special formulas
This special formula has an energy of 67kcal per 100ml of milk
This special formula has an energy of 67kcal per 100ml of milk
The following is an ordinary milk powder, which is 70.7kcal per 100ml of milk energy
The energy of the following ordinary 2-stage milk powder is 67kcal per 100ml of milk
Such an energy gap is almost negligible.
It can be seen that whether it is a special formula or a regular milk powder, the energy provided by each 100ml of milk is about the same.
So why are babies who drink special formula easy to have problems gaining weight?
If parents continuously record the growth and development of the baby, they will find that even if the baby drinks special formula, the weight and height development before 6 months is basically normal.
As mentioned above, the baby's weight gain is essentially to have a caloric surplus. That is:
The calories consumed (milk + complementary food) > the calories consumed by (basal metabolism + exercise).
The baby has no intake of complementary food before 6 months, and basically no exercise consumption, and the only food for the baby at this stage is only milk, even if the taste of special formula milk powder is worse than ordinary milk powder, the baby will not be rejected without comparison, and the amount of milk is easier to be guaranteed. Therefore, at this stage, the baby's caloric intake has a surplus, which is easily converted into fat accumulation.
Most of the turning points in your baby's weight loss come after the introduction of complementary foods.
The first reason is that most babies have eczema, urticaria, constipation and other problems in the process of adding complementary food, which are easily considered allergies by parents, so they choose to change the milk powder.
The second reason is that babies at this stage have already begun to add complementary foods, and the taste experience is much richer than before 6 months. With the taste cognition of various foods, it is highlighted that the special formula milk powder has a poor taste, is not tasty, and has a low acceptance. At this stage, it is more difficult for babies to drink special formula, and many babies cannot even achieve the minimum daily milk supply. If the milk supply is insufficient, there will naturally be a calorie gap.
The third reason is the mandatory national food safety standards for special formula milk powder, which are ignored by most parents
Formula food for special medical purposes that can be consumed by infants over 6 months of age should be labeled with "Supplementary food should be added when infants with special medical conditions over 6 months of age consume this product"
Note this sentence "When infants over 6 months old with special medical conditions consume this product, it should be combined with the addition of supplementary food"
Parents are often cautious when adding complementary food to babies with allergies, and the most common problems are the lack of added ingredients and the backward swallowing-chewing transition of complementary food. The slowest thing we encountered in our work was that the baby only added 5 ingredients at 11 months, and the child was eating rice noodles all the time.
Parents dare not add new ingredients, and may fall into a vicious circle of what the baby likes to eat and what to do, so that the baby can eat soft and delicate food such as rice cereal and porridge for a long time, repeatedly strengthen the swallowing function, and the chewing ability can not be exercised. As your baby gets used to swallowing, he rejects chewing even more. The behavior that manifests itself is to eat and vomit, and the food that is more grainy is heavier, and the coarser food is not eaten or spit out after a few chews.
In addition, because of concerns about allergies or health problems due to the addition of new ingredients, most parents provide their babies with low-nutrient density and low-calorie complementary foods such as rice noodles, porridge, and noodles.
For example, like the picture above, the baby drinks ordinary milk powder + eats complementary food normally, there are many kinds of complementary food, not only protein, but also carbohydrates and fats, and there is a caloric surplus after eating, and of course the weight will increase. But even if the baby drinks a lot of special formula milk powder, the nutritional density of the complementary food is poor, and every day is "full of water", even if he drinks more milk, it is like eating 1000 grams of broccoli, and the calories provided by milk and food are not as good as two fried chicken thighs.
If you want your baby to rely on special formula milk powder and low nutrient density of complementary food to meet caloric needs, the baby is likely to need to eat twice or even three times the food of each meal, obviously this is not what the baby can do, the baby's stomach volume is limited, each meal of milk or complementary food can only eat a fixed amount of food, it is impossible to become a "big stomach" to eat without moderation.
The fourth reason is that the baby enters a new stage of gross motor development after 6 months, and the calorie expenditure increases. For example, start trying to go from sitting to climbing, from climbing to standing, from standing to walking. These exercises obviously burn much more calories than lying down every day before the age of 6 months.
The above 4 reasons affect each other, and eventually cause the baby's weight to remain unchanged or even decrease, and the development is backward.
Therefore, if you want to solve the problem of not gaining weight caused by drinking special formula, the key is for parents to provide comprehensive nutritional support.
Recently, we also have parents reported that their babies have been eating special milk powder, and they have been diagnosed with backward growth and development during physical examination. After a month of dietary guidance, my baby has increased in height and weight.
In the past month, the baby has not been able to drink milk well, almost all of which are satisfied by complementary food, and his height and weight are still increasing normally.
Compared with ordinary babies, babies who need to drink special formula milk powder for various reasons have more and higher requirements for the types of complementary foods added, the order of adding various ingredients, the transition between swallowing and chewing, the arrangement of milk and complementary foods, and the detailed needs of various feedings. For parents, if they think that the complementary food is "sit back and relax" because the baby drinks special formula milk powder, and feel that they can add food at will like ordinary babies, I am afraid it is easy to have problems.
Only by providing these babies with comprehensive nutritional support can they meet their individual needs and allow them to grow up healthily. Parents should pay more attention to the reasonable addition and feeding of baby complementary food.