Breast milk is considered the most valuable food for the newborn. If it is impossible to carry out natural feeding for certain reasons, parents have to choose between the finished mixture and the milk of goats or cows. Is goat milk useful for infants and how to give it to the crumbs so that it brings exclusively benefits? About all this below.
Benefits of Goat Milk
The baby, just born, the digestive system is imperfect, so there are no necessary enzymes that contribute to the full digestion of food. When a newly mummy cannot provide her baby with breast milk, pediatricians recommend giving adapted milk formula to the children up to six months.
Goat milk for babies is also beneficial, because it has a large list of useful properties:
- From whatever age it was introduced into complementary foods, the risk of developing allergies in infants is reduced to zero.
- The composition contains potassium, calcium, vitamins B, A, folic acid.
- It contains calcium, which is completely absorbed by the body, which prevents the occurrence of rickets.
- It does not contain a lot of lactose, so it is permissible to give it to children who have lactose intolerance.
- It is rich in fatty acids, which are perfectly absorbed by the baby's body.
- The composition of milk is almost the same as that of the mother, since taurine is present in it.
As for the question of how old goat milk is for babies to be completely safe, doctors advise putting it on the baby’s menu starting at 9 months old. In milk, you can cook porridge, make cottage cheese from it, or give it separately as a drink.
Goat milk deficiencies
If we compare goat milk with cow milk, the former has a larger list of benefits. Nevertheless, it should not be considered as a separate product for certain reasons:
- Casein is a protein in goat’s milk. This substance is poorly digested by the body of the baby. Once in the stomach, the protein is converted into a hard clot that resembles cottage cheese, as a result of which colic is observed in the crumbs.
- Goat milk is a source of mineral salts, so there is a risk that the kidneys of the baby will be exposed to increased stress. For proper hematopoiesis, a child up to a year needs iron, which is not enough in goat milk.
- The product is characterized by increased fat content. Despite its nutritional properties, it is considered unsuitable for normal digestion.
- Goat milk does not contain lipase, which slows down the breakdown of fats.
Goat milk: what parents need to consider
It is worth mentioning that in children under one year old, cow protein intolerance is often diagnosed. In this case, the child should not be given milk of farm animals. An adapted substitute for breast milk is adapted milk formulas. It is advisable that they be hypoallergenic. In such products, milk protein was subjected to special processing, which led to its neutralization.
Another important aspect to consider when choosing complementary foods for children is that farm animals often feed on foods that contain hormones and antibiotics. Of course, all this in a certain amount enters the baked milk. In this regard, it is important to verify the quality of goat milk.
Feeding period
For the full activity of the gastrointestinal tract, the child's complementary foods should consist of dairy products. So the baby’s menu will be full and will not cause problems with the chair. Cottage cheese plays a significant role in creating the desired microflora in the intestine. If the child is allergic to cow's milk, it is worth making cottage cheese based on goat milk. You can cook it as follows:
- Pour 1 liter of goat milk into an enameled bowl, warm it to 40 ° C. Place 0.5 liter of yogurt with a low percentage of fat in a saucepan and mix well. To cottage cheese had a light consistency, you can dilute the yogurt with milk.
- Remove the pan from the heat, wrap in a towel and put in a warm place overnight.
- In the morning, the mixture should become more dense. It must be stirred and heated over minimal heat. After 20 minutes, the mass must be mixed. If you want the curd flakes to be large enough, you need to mix the mixture from the bottom up, for fine-grained should mix the mass in a circle.
- Bring the mixture to 80 ° C, put in a large pot with cold water and allow the curd to cool. Place the mixture in a colander, the bottom of which is covered with a cloth or gauze. Tie a cloth, put a colander with curd in the refrigerator for 24 hours. Serum, which will be constantly separated, must be drained.
Goat milk for babies: at what age to give
Goat milk is not allowed to enter crumbs in the menu until six months. As for the mixtures based on it, then you can give them to the baby only if the pediatrician does not prohibit such a menu. The body of a child under 6 months old is not able to cope with the high fat content of goat's milk. Moreover, in the first months of life, folic acid and vitamin D are extremely valuable to children. These substances are not enough in goat milk. Goat milk for babies is beneficial after 9 months. Starting from this age, you need to give the child cottage cheese and cereal.
If the baby is on artificial feeding, you can start to introduce these products into the diet after 6 months. In order to prevent a negative reaction, it is necessary to dilute milk with water. It is advisable to start the introduction with cottage cheese. Porridge in goat milk for infants will also be useful at the initial stage of acquaintance with this drink. How to give goat milk to an infant? In order to prevent problems with the development of the child, you need to know at what age goat milk for babies will be safe and how to give it correctly.
It is worth noting that the product is forbidden to give in its pure form. It must be diluted with water in a ratio of 1: 1. If this recommendation is neglected, a serious blow will be inflicted on the pancreas and digestive organs. Moreover, goat milk for babies must be boiled, remove foam from it and pass it through cheesecloth three times. Such precautions will protect against infections. Shelf life of goat milk for an infant is 24 hours.
Product Selection Rules
Can babies goat milk? A question that is relevant for many parents. If it was decided to introduce goat's milk into the crumbs menu, they should know how to choose it correctly. To do this, consider the following recommendations:
- Dairy products should be purchased exclusively from trusted sellers. If possible, you can check the conditions of the animal. It is advisable to come and see how the goat is milked. Thus, you can be sure that all relevant standards are strictly observed.
- If milk is purchased on the market, the seller should request documents from the veterinarian stating that the animal is healthy. When buying milk in a store, you also need to make sure its freshness and quality. It is necessary to study the composition and make sure that the product is free of harmful additives.
- It is necessary to familiarize yourself with the date of manufacture of the product and in no case do not buy milk, the shelf life of which is near the end.
- Goat milk must be boiled. Keep the drink in a ceramic, enameled or glass container.
Mix or milk: recommendations of Dr. Komarovsky
Regarding whether it is possible to give goat milk to infants, Komarovsky recommends studying all the subtleties of this issue. Goat milk does not harm the baby after six months, but the doctor says that for children at this age, an adapted milk mixture in which vitamin D and phosphorus are in the right amount is better.
Goat milk is not a source of iron, so if you give it to your baby regularly, it may develop anemia. In finished mixtures, iron is present in the appropriate dosage. If after 12 months the baby flatly refuses milk and dairy products, they should not be forced to use them.
Evgeny Komarovsky assures that the benefits of dairy products in the crumbs menu are quite exaggerated, so replace it with another food.
Does milk boil?
Boil pasteurized milk, which is presented in grocery stores, is not necessary. However, when this drink is purchased on the market, it must be boiled. Of course, if you breed goats and are confident in their health, you should not boil milk that is baked no more than 2 hours ago. In such a product there is a huge amount of beneficial bacteria, the content of which after 2 hours from the moment of milking begins to decline.
During boiling, vitamins and germs contained in the drink are destroyed. However, this process does not affect proteins, fats and carbohydrates, so the energy composition of the product remains the same.
Conclusion
You need to start complementary foods using goat's milk only when the baby is completely healthy. First you need to dilute the milk with water (10 ml of goat product will require 40 ml of boiled water). At first, it is necessary to observe how the child will react to such a product: will he have problems with stools, allergies, intestinal colic. If after eating goat milk there are negative consequences, its entry should be stopped. In reviews of goat milk for infants, it is rarely mentioned that this product causes an allergic reaction.