How to help your baby choose a suitable and cost-effective milk powder?

Faced with the dazzling array of milk powders on the market with varying prices, choosing milk powder may be the most troublesome thing for mothers. So how can new mothers choose a milk powder that is both suitable for their babies and cost-effective? And for those experienced mothers, what factors do you consider when choosing milk powder? Let's talk about it today.

Generally, we compare the milk from the following aspects: ** milk source, research and development technology, formula. ** Let's look at them one by one.

01. Milk source

The source of milk is an important factor affecting milk powder. After all, as the core raw material of milk powder, the quality of milk directly determines the factors of milk powder. Although almost all countries in the world are raising dairy cows, and the distribution of dairy cows basically covers most of the geographical range of the world, according to extensive statistical data, better sources of milk still exist. It is generally believed that they are located in the temperate grasslands between about 40° and 50° north and south latitude. The climate in this range is more suitable, and both pasture and dairy cows can be in a better state. Therefore, this area is also called the "golden milk source belt."

Relatively speaking, the milk source of domestic milk powder is in China, and the location is relatively clear; while many foreign milk powders have diverse milk sources and there are differences in versions. Therefore, when choosing imported milk powder, you should consider the differences between different versions and choose according to your own needs.

02. R&D Technology

Milk powder is not simply separated and extracted from milk. In fact, the technological content of milk powder is not low, because it goes through many complex processes, and these technological levels also determine the quality of milk powder.

For example, milk fat is a basic component of milk powder. It seems to be a natural component of cow's milk, but the processing of milk fat from milk to milk powder is a process of continuous innovation and has undergone a long period of technical improvement. This is because the presence of milk fat will directly affect the processing of milk powder, so the milk fat needs to be removed first in the processing of milk powder. At the beginning, milk fat was directly removed to form milk powder, which was the era of milk fat 1.0; later people realized that milk fat also had a certain effect, so they chose to add fat, and the easiest to obtain was plant fat in nature, which is also the main source of fat in our daily life. This is the era of milk fat 2.0. However, with the development of science and technology and cognition, people gradually realized that there are actually big differences between plant fat and maternal fat. The typical one is the structure of its fatty acids. The plant fat structure is a POP structure, while the maternal fat is an OPO structure. The abnormal structure naturally affects the function. Therefore, a new generation of milk fat addition appeared, which is the artificially synthesized OPO structure of milk fat.

Nowadays, the technological content of milk fat has become the focus of investment for major milk powder companies.

The extraction and retention process of active nutrients also affects the quality of milk powder. After all, the process from production to transportation and sales of milk powder requires a long cycle, and companies have invested a lot of effort in this regard.

03. The formula is more important

After all, milk comes from cows, so in order to match the growth and development of babies, special optimization must be made to make the formula of milk powder more suitable for the growth of babies. For example, for babies, the most obvious thing is brain development. One of the most unique differences between humans and many animals is the very high relative brain capacity, which is the basis for our various intelligence, speech, and behavior. And there is a golden period for the development of the baby's brain.

As shown in the figure above, this is a study on children's brain development. We can see that in a period of time after birth, the baby's brain develops very rapidly. Regardless of gender, the development of brain capacity (brain size, Figure b) and cortical surface (cortical surface) almost shows a linear increase [1].

This stage does not last forever, and is basically between 0 and 3 years old. In fact, 80% of the brain's development is completed around the age of 2. This ultra-fast brain development means that babies need not only basic nutrition, but also more targeted nutrition for brain development.

**So what substances are needed for brain development? **This starts with the material structure of the brain. Apart from water, the main component of all cells, what is the first molecular component of the brain? Many people may think it is protein or something like that. The answer is not so. In fact, the most abundant substance in the brain is lipids, accounting for as much as 12%. This is also the place where the fat content of the human body is second only to adipose tissue, followed by protein.

Among the fat in the brain, a very important component is phospholipids, including phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, etc. Their existence is essential for the function of the brain.

In fact, studies have found that between birth and 2 years old, this is the critical period for the development of brain myelin, and the formation of brain myelin is considered a key sign of brain maturity. In the myelin sheath, phospholipids account for the largest proportion, up to 46%, including phosphatidylcholine (PC), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), phosphatidylinositol (PI), sphingomyelin (SM) and ethanolamine phospholipids [2].

So where do these brain nutrients come from? Naturally, they are obtained through our baby's nutritional intake. As baby food, the phospholipids in milk are very important, and the phospholipid content of nutrients from different sources is actually different.

Because of this, the formula must be adjusted to make the milk lecithin content in the milk powder closer to the maternal source, so that it can best suit the baby's brain development.

Of course, with the development of milk powder, people are gradually realizing that the localization of milk powder is very important, because the nutrition of people in different places is still different. As for formula milk powder, the nutritional ratio needs to be adjusted according to the maternal source, so domestic high-quality milk powder will be more suitable for domestic babies, after all, it is specially optimized for Chinese people.

This aspect has also been recognized at the national level. For example, in 2021, my country issued a new national standard for infant formula milk powder. CCTV also specifically mentioned that the nutritional formula of milk powder products purchased from overseas is not customized according to the physique of Chinese people. In fact, over the years, China has also been working hard to promote the research and development of infant milk powder. For example, the 14th Five-Year National Key R&D Plan covers research on infant formula powder, which also represents the country's attention in this regard.

I believe that more excellent infant products will emerge in the future, allowing our country's infants and young children to grow up more healthily.

1. Dubois, Jessica, et al. "MRI of the neonatal brain: a review of methodological challenges and neuroscientific advances." Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging 53.5 (2021): 1318-1343.

2. Xie Qinggang, et al. "Research progress on phospholipids promoting infant brain development." China Dairy Industry 46.1 (2018): 33-36.

3. Sun H, Ren Q, Zhao X, et al. Regional similarities and differences in mature human milk fatty acids in Chinese population: A systematic review[J]. Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes and Essential Fatty Acids, 2020, 162.