New Discovery Should Make Formula-Feeding Moms Feel Like Less Of A Colossal Failure

formula feedingOne of the assertions that is often used to guilt mothers who find themselves relinquishing the breast and turning to formula is that formula fed babies are overweight. Faster weight gain in that first year of life can lead to obesity problems later in life, a fun breastfeeding fact that many lactation experts have no problem throwing in your face if your newborn baby doesn’t latch on. The logic seems to be that with icky formula feeding, new babies aren’t able to gauge when they’re full or not, a notion that often equates formula to McDonalds and and the breast to the Four Seasons according to one reader.

Yet, a new tiny study reveals that that tendency with formula-fed babies can be easily rectified. Reuters reports that in a study of 30 parents, researchers learned that when the amino acid glutamate was added to formula, babies often consumed less and exhibited no signs of hunger. Glutamate is apparently high in breastmilk, but often not so present in cow’s milk formulas. The researchers concluded that glutamate may very well suggest to babies that they are satiated and therefore should be added to formula.

Since a variety of women need to rely on formula for many reasons, including their own health in some instances, Dr. Ian Holzman said that, “We should try to make formula as good as it can be.”

That very well should be an imperative considering that legions of new mothers lose sleep — and sanity — over “failing” to nurse, a complex that often stays with them long into the early forays into parenting. These findings highlight that formula is catching up to meet the needs of struggling mothers who must justify that measuring cup to themselves every couple of hours, and that perhaps, a guilt-free generation of formula-feeding mothers could one day walk among us.

(photo: Dimitrios Rizopoulos/Shutterstock)

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