Not all infant formulae alike

NEW findings from the Monell Centre reveal that the type of formula the infant is consuming influences weight gain of formula-fed infants. The findings have implications related to the infant's risk for the development of obesity, diabetes and other diseases later in life.

In the study published online in the journal, Pediatrics, infants whose parents had already decided to bottle-feed were randomly assigned at two weeks of age to feed either a cow's milk-based formula (35 infants) or a protein hydrolysate formula (24 infants) for seven months.

Both formulas contained the same amount of calories, but the hydrolysate formula had more protein, including greater amounts of small peptides and free amino acids. Over the seven months of the study, the protein hydrolysate infants gained weight at a slower rate than infants fed cow milk formula. Linear growth, or length, did not differ between the two groups, demonstrating that the differences in growth were specifically attributable to weight.

"All formulas are not alike," said study lead author Julie Mennella, Ph.D., a developmental psychobiologist at Monell. "These two formulas have the same amount of calories, but differ considerably in terms of how they influence infant growth."

When the data were compared to national norms for breast-fed infants, the rate of weight gain of protein hydrolysate infants was comparable to the breast milk standards; in contrast, infants fed cow's milk formula gained weight at a greater rate than the same breast milk standards. "One of the reasons the protein hydrolysate infants had similar growth patterns to breast-fed infants, who are the gold standard, is that they consumed less formula during a feed as compared to infants fed cow's milk formula" said Dr Mennella.