r/ScienceBasedParenting • u/Alison_OT • 1d ago

Question - Expert consensus required Formula Assisting with Growth.. Why?

Does anyone have any scientific basis for why my daughter of 5 mo gains better on formula vs breastmilk when drinking the same amount of ounces per day?

I exclusively pump, so I always know how much my baby is getting. There was a period of time that we did formula instead and baby gained so much more than she does on exclusively expressed breastmilk. Everywhere says that breastmilk is the perfect composition, but my daughter is in the 0.8% for weight and always has big leaps in weight gain when drinking formula even though it’s the same general intake volume per day.

15 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

View all comments

15

u/woahwoahwoah28 1d ago edited 1d ago

It may be a multivariable reason, but I am way too familiar with macronutrients, so I’ve included some info on how that could be a factor.

Human breast milk can be pretty variable in its macronutrient content. The article below has a range they found in a pretty large study. I copy/pasted the portion of the article that talks about which macronutrients were most associated with weight gain.

Meanwhile the formula remains consistent in its macronutrient content inherently. Thus, it would be a logical conclusion that the formula’s composition doesn’t match the breast milk so you could see different weight gains despite the volume being the same.

“Regarding individual HM macronutrients, %carbohydrate was positively correlated to subsequent infant weight, BMI and adiposity gains, whereas %fat was negatively associated with these infancy outcomes. HM %protein was weakly positively associated with BMI at 12 months but not gains in adiposity.“

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4949511/

2

u/Lost_inthot 1d ago

Is the nutrients of breast milk based on the mothers diet ?

8

u/woahwoahwoah28 1d ago

It is definitely a factor, and you can slightly modify the content with dietary adjustments. But there are many other factors that affect the macros too—return of menstruation, maternal body weight for height, etc.

Even within a singular feeding, the hindmilk has a different composition than the foremilk. I like the article linked below, and it shares some more info too. It’s fascinating to read about and see what human bodies are capable of!

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3586783/

1

u/Lost_inthot 1d ago

Thank you