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Ask Dr. Sue
FEEDING GOAT'S MILK TO BABIES
Dear Dr. Sue,
I am raising my three month old grandson. He has
always spit up a lot on his formula. I feed the
rest of the family goat's milk, because I feel that it
is much healthier than cow's milk, and so I recently
started giving him goat's milk, too. He hardly
spits up at all on it! How do you feel about goat's
milk? (We have our own goats.)
Grandma
Dear Grandma,
I cannot recommend raw goat's milk for an infant under a
year of age, for several reasons. First, the use
of any raw (unpasteurized) milk brings with it a risk of
disease; especially from a bacterial
infection called brucellosis. Brucellosis can
cause such symptomsas weakness, fever, exhaustion, body
aches, joint swelling and pain, loss of appetite,
nausea, abdominal pain, constipation and weight loss.
Worst of all, since so few people are exposed to raw
milk these days, your baby could be sick for awhile
before anyone thought to ask whether he had been given
unpasteurized milk.
Secondly, raw goat's milk is significantly low in folic
acid, a nutrient that is needed to build healthy red
blood cells. Basically, a baby that is receiving
goat's milk as their sole source of nutrition WILL
develop anemia. Folic acid deficiency also affects
a baby or child's immune system: all types of
immune response can be affected, including the function
of white blood cells and antibody production. Some
commercially prepared forms of goat's milk do have folic
acid added, but I would not use any product that did not
clearly state that on its label. Folic acid is
unfortunately not available in any of the liquid vitamin
preparations, because it is not stable in liquid form.
Thirdly, goat's milk must be properly diluted to be fed
to infants, since it is too high in both potassium and
chloride as well as in total mineral content.
Feeding this overly concentrated
liquid can cause the baby's circulating blood to become
too concentrated, leading to a condition called
hypertonic dehydration that can be life-threatening.
Once the goat's milk is diluted, it then
becomes too low in carbohydrates, so they must be
replaced in the form of rice syrup, corn syrup or
dextromaltose, in the correct amounts.
Raw goat's milk is also low in Vitamin D (necessary to
properly use calcium), iron, and Vitamin B 12 (both also
necessary to prevent anemia). The bottom line is
that, in order to make goat's milk appropriate for your
baby, you would have to use a commercially prepared,
pasteurized product. You would then have to learn the
proper dilution for age, and dilute the milk. If
your product did not have added folic acid, you would
have to research the required amount of that nutrient,
find it at
a local health food store, and mix it each time you fed
the baby (remember, it's not stable in liquid form).
You would have to add the appropriate amount of
carbohydrate to the formula. And
finally, you would have to give the baby a vitamin
supplement containing at least vitamin D and iron.
On the other hand, for the rest of your family, and for
the baby once he reaches a year of age, there are some
reasons to believe that (pasteurized) goat's milk is a
healthy alternative to cow's milk, especially if anyone
in the family is truly milk allergic:
-
Many commercially prepared goat's
milk products are free of antibiotics and pesticides
and added hormones.
-
The fat particle of goat's milk is
naturally smaller and forms a curd that is easier to
digest, so it does not need to be homogenized like
cow's milk. Homogenization is the process of
artificially breaking up the fat globules present in
milk. When these fat globules are broken up
mechanically, however, it appears as though an
enzyme called xanthine oxidase is freed in unusual
amounts. This enzyme MAY play a role in
arteriosclerosis (the laying down of fatty deposits
in your arteries).
-
Goat's milk has 25% more vitamin B6,
47% more vitamin A, 350% more niacin, 13% more
calcium and 27% more selenium.
-
Although goat's milk does contain
casein, which is the offending protein in cow's milk
allergy, goat's milk proponents say that it has only
trace amounts of alpha S1 casein, which has the
highest incidence of allergic reactions.
-
Proponents also say that the smaller
curd allows it to be digested much more rapidly, so
that even if an allergen is present, the body is
exposed to it for a much shorter time.
-
By the way, for those of you who
shudder at the thought of goat's milk, reportedly it
does not have a terribly strong odor or taste if the
buck is kept away from the lactating goat, and if
the goat's diet is properly monitored.
 
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