The composition of breast‐ and bottle‐milks fed to poor urban infants

Abstract

Despite the importance of breast‐milk over bottle‐milks for infants of lower socio‐economic status of less developed countries, few studies have been conducted to examine the differences in composition between these milks as fed to the infant. The calorific constituents of breast‐ and bottle‐milks fed to 133 infants under one year of age were studied cross‐sectionally in a poor urban settlement in Brasilia. Mean energy density of breast‐milk was significantly (p < 0.0001) lower (2.60 ± 0.07 MJ/L) than that of bottle‐feeds (4.30 ± 2.25 MJ/L). The difference in energy concentration was due to use of table sugar in bottle‐milks. Breast‐milk had a mean higher concentration (p < 0.0001) of fat but lower (p < 0.0001) concentration of protein (as total nitrogen), and total sugar. The fat concentration of breast‐milk slowly decreases with time. Compared to breast‐milk, bottle‐milks showed low fat energy concentration and a low protein to fat energy ratio. Overall protein energy concentration of breast‐ and bottle...