Parents can feed their babies without fear that their kids will suffer constipation, diarrhea, bloating, or frequent belching. Parents often have to make hard decisions when selecting goods for their children, so baby food manufacturers do everything possible to create safe and nutritious baby food. Unfortunately, not all companies care for a child’s health and add harmful substances such as flavors, taste enhancers, sugar, colorings, stabilizers, and preservatives. So, one should better prefer organic formulas to traditional baby food.
Speaking about the milk type, parents can choose between cow’s and goat’s milk for babies. What is the difference? Is one baby food formula better than the other one? Let’s find it out.
What Is Baby Food Type Easier to Prepare?
There is no difference between cow’s and goat’s milk preparation for babies. All baby formula packages have instructions to follow, so the main difference will be about the food type you decide to choose:
- ready to feed;
- liquid concentrate;
- powdered formula.
All variants are usually mixed with water, but it must not be the tape one. One should boil and cool down any water type before using it. Parents should follow instructions given in baby food manuals. Otherwise, a baby will not get the required minerals, proteins, carbs, vitamins, and fats. It’s hard to find many alternatives in America, though European baby formula companies produce goat’s formulas alongside cow’s baby food, including such trends as Holle, HiPP, and Kendal. One can find them in Organic’s Best online shop.
Taste, Color, and Flavor Distinctions
If a European country uses powdered milk, the essential requirement will be its organic nature because the European Commission is against any chemicals, antibiotics, and supplements in baby food.
Speaking about the peculiarities of goat’s milk, its smell and taste differ slightly from cow’s variants because they are stronger. That’s why some toddlers refuse to consume goat’s milk and products made of it, like cheese and yogurt. Nevertheless, goat’s milk is promised to be well-tolerated by kids and contain more nutritional components compared to cow’s products.
Most infants adapt to fresh food quickly if parents stick to one baby food type. So, if parents want their infants to eat goat’s formula, they should buy it from the first days of a kid’s life. If parents decide to replace cow’s products with goat’s, one should be patient because babies need time to adjust to their new tastes.
When people use cow’s milk, they will see that it is not homogeneous because cream goes up the bottle, and one can skim it. Goats milk is more homogenous and converts all carotene into vitamin A, while cow’s carotene becomes its cream and makes derivatives yellow.
Advantages of Goats and Cow’s Baby Food
Baby food companies use cow’s and goat’s milk for their baby formulas because they are rich in nutrients that are crucial for a baby and make it healthy and virus-resistant. Both milk types have similar nutritious values. Nevertheless, goat’s formula contains more calcium, vitamin A, and potassium, and cow’s milk has more folic acid, vitamin B12, and selenium. Eventually, this comparison does not matter because companies balance ingredients based on a baby’s age requirements. They do their best to copy a mother’s breast milk, so one should not worry that a baby will lack or get an excessive amount of vitamins or minerals. Let’s compare all ingredients separately. Each serving has as many nutrients as a baby needs to get healthy skin, hair, teeth, and overall health conditions.
Proteins
Casein and whey are the two main proteins in both milk types, and their ratio is 80:20. When a mother lactates, the proportion of whey and casein changes because a baby requires different amounts from 0 to 12 months. That is why most parents prefer European baby formula to be FDA-approved. European companies produce from three to five stages, each one having everything one needs. Sometimes they combine several packs to guarantee smooth transition periods.
As a rule, 0+ and the first stage formula contain more whey protein because they are easier to digest and avoid problems with accumulating gasses or difficult defecation. Goats milk is marked as A2, which is healthier compared to A1 cows milk. A2 is more similar to a mother’s breast milk, so goat’s milk for babies is a better option.
Another advantage of goat’s milk is that it is less allergic than a cow’s formula.
Fats
Speaking about fat content, there isn’t any difference between cow’s and goat’s milk for babies. Nevertheless, goat’s milk is more gentle for a baby’s tummy than a cow’s formula. It contains more omega 3 and 6, but this fact is not so significant because the procedure has a perfect proportion of all nutrients per serving.
Lactose
Both milk types have sugar known as lactose that belongs to carbs, though cow’s milk is more sugary—excessive amounts of lactose cause meteorism, diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting. So, goat’s milk for babies is a safer starter for 0+ infants.
Conclusion
Generally, goat’s milk for babies fits newborn kids more than its cow’s alternative. Some kids dislike the taste of goat’s formula, so organic cow’s formula will be the best choice. However, one should not select baby food without the recommendations of a health advisor who considers all the pros and cons of each formula, depending on a concrete child’s needs.