{"componentChunkName":"component---src-templates-post-query-tsx","path":"/blog-post/milk-and-babies/","result":{"pageContext":{"post":{"slug":"/blog-post/milk-and-babies/","title":"Milk and babies","date":"Nov 07, 2012","timeToRead":2,"description":"","body":"function _extends() { _extends = Object.assign || function (target) { for (var i = 1; i < arguments.length; i++) { var source = arguments[i]; for (var key in source) { if (Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call(source, key)) { target[key] = source[key]; } } } return target; }; return _extends.apply(this, arguments); }\n\nfunction _objectWithoutProperties(source, excluded) { if (source == null) return {}; var target = _objectWithoutPropertiesLoose(source, excluded); var key, i; if (Object.getOwnPropertySymbols) { var sourceSymbolKeys = Object.getOwnPropertySymbols(source); for (i = 0; i < sourceSymbolKeys.length; i++) { key = sourceSymbolKeys[i]; if (excluded.indexOf(key) >= 0) continue; if (!Object.prototype.propertyIsEnumerable.call(source, key)) continue; target[key] = source[key]; } } return target; }\n\nfunction _objectWithoutPropertiesLoose(source, excluded) { if (source == null) return {}; var target = {}; var sourceKeys = Object.keys(source); var key, i; for (i = 0; i < sourceKeys.length; i++) { key = sourceKeys[i]; if (excluded.indexOf(key) >= 0) continue; target[key] = source[key]; } return target; }\n\n/* @jsxRuntime classic */\n\n/* @jsx mdx */\nvar _frontmatter = {\n  \"title\": \"Milk and babies\",\n  \"date\": \"2012-11-07\",\n  \"template\": \"post\",\n  \"slug\": \"milk-and-babies\",\n  \"postedLink\": \"https://riceinstitute.org/blog/milk-and-babies/\",\n  \"old-tags\": [\"breastfeeding\", \"nutrition\"],\n  \"description\": \"\",\n  \"tags\": \"Blog Post\",\n  \"banner\": \"\"\n};\nvar layoutProps = {\n  _frontmatter: _frontmatter\n};\nvar MDXLayout = \"wrapper\";\nreturn function MDXContent(_ref) {\n  var components = _ref.components,\n      props = _objectWithoutProperties(_ref, [\"components\"]);\n\n  return mdx(MDXLayout, _extends({}, layoutProps, props, {\n    components: components,\n    mdxType: \"MDXLayout\"\n  }), mdx(\"p\", null, \"Milk and babies seem like things that go together. It turns out that many rural Indian moms think so too. Here is a graph of the fraction of rural infants under 1 year of age who were fed cow\\u2019s milk in the day before their moms were surveyed by the National Family Health Survey (NFHS). (The fraction of infants getting cow\\u2019s milk may have declined in the two surveys shown, but it\\u2019s hard to tell if that\\u2019s real since the survey changed the way it asked the questions.) About half of infants are drinking cow\\u2019s milk by the time they are a year old.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, mdx(\"a\", {\n    parentName: \"p\",\n    \"href\": \"http://riceinstitute.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/milkgraph1.png\",\n    \"target\": \"_blank\",\n    \"rel\": \"noopener noreferrer\"\n  }, mdx(\"span\", {\n    parentName: \"a\",\n    \"className\": \"gatsby-resp-image-wrapper\",\n    \"style\": {\n      \"position\": \"relative\",\n      \"display\": \"block\",\n      \"marginLeft\": \"auto\",\n      \"marginRight\": \"auto\",\n      \"maxWidth\": \"960px\"\n    }\n  }, \"\\n      \", mdx(\"span\", {\n    parentName: \"span\",\n    \"className\": \"gatsby-resp-image-background-image\",\n    \"style\": {\n      \"paddingBottom\": \"75%\",\n      \"position\": \"relative\",\n      \"bottom\": \"0\",\n      \"left\": \"0\",\n      \"backgroundImage\": \"url('data:image/png;base64,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')\",\n      \"backgroundSize\": \"cover\",\n      \"display\": \"block\"\n    }\n  }), \"\\n  \", mdx(\"img\", {\n    parentName: \"span\",\n    \"className\": \"gatsby-resp-image-image\",\n    \"alt\": \"milkgraph1\",\n    \"title\": \"milkgraph\",\n    \"src\": \"/static/adbd79a33e3fd8beb5aaedf4b710da5e/fde0f/milkgraph1.png\",\n    \"srcSet\": [\"/static/adbd79a33e3fd8beb5aaedf4b710da5e/36ca5/milkgraph1.png 200w\", \"/static/adbd79a33e3fd8beb5aaedf4b710da5e/25cf9/milkgraph1.png 520w\", \"/static/adbd79a33e3fd8beb5aaedf4b710da5e/fde0f/milkgraph1.png 960w\"],\n    \"sizes\": \"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\",\n    \"style\": {\n      \"width\": \"100%\",\n      \"height\": \"100%\",\n      \"margin\": \"0\",\n      \"verticalAlign\": \"middle\",\n      \"position\": \"absolute\",\n      \"top\": \"0\",\n      \"left\": \"0\"\n    },\n    \"loading\": \"lazy\"\n  }), \"\\n    \"))), mdx(\"p\", null, \"In Sitapur, lots of moms that I spent time with supplemented their babies\\u2019 diets with cow\\u2019s milk: 8 of the 15 babies were getting cow\\u2019s milk before 7 months, although two of these babies died before they reached seven months. Some moms said they didn\\u2019t have enough breast milk, one said her milk made her child sick, and another said that she was spooked by a spirit, which took away her milk. A couple of moms reported that their milk dried up after they started introducing cow\\u2019s milk. Moms also spent quite a bit of money on milk, and the ones who had cows or buffaloes at home gave up the opportunity to sell the milk, or drink it themselves.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"It\\u2019s tough to know whether this practice is a good idea. The World Health Organization recommends that babies be exclusively breastfed (no animal milk, no water, nothing other than breastmilk) until 6 months of age. After that, they should be introduced to complementary foods such as grains, fruits and animal proteins. The American Academy of Pediatrics does not recommend feeding infants cow\\u2019s milk before one year of age.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"Is the practice of feeding babies cow\\u2019s milk a bad thing? If bottles are improperly cleaned or prepared, they might expose babies to extra pathogens that give them diarrheal infections. But then again, maybe babies are going to get similar exposure to environmental pathogens anyway. (I tend to think not, but it\\u2019s possible.) Moms almost always add water to the milk, which makes it more digestible, but also cuts down on the nutritional content. Despite the poor nutritional content of watered down cow\\u2019s milk, it is important to note that rural Indian moms introduce complementary foods very late; only 44% of 6 month olds in the NFHS 3 are fed solid or semi-solid foods, and 8% of 12 month olds are not fed solid or semi-solid foods. Does cow\\u2019s milk provide calories that babies wouldn\\u2019t otherwise be getting? What about the relationship between cow\\u2019s milk and breastfeeding? Lots of the moms in Sitapur thought that they didn\\u2019t produce enough breast milk to satisfy their babies: if they didn\\u2019t feed cow\\u2019s milk, they said, the babies would cry and cry. But breastfeeding advocates say that introducing non-breast milks leads to reduced breast milk production due to less demand from the baby.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"The evidence seems to point strongly in the direction cow\\u2019s milk being a bad thing for infants. Considering that so many mothers do it, it may be an important topic for early life health and nutrition programs to address head on. But as far as I can tell, there have been no focused studies of the relationship between cow\\u2019s milk and growth and why mothers introduce cow\\u2019s milk. What do you think such a study might find?\"));\n}\n;\nMDXContent.isMDXComponent = true;","tags":[{"name":"Blog Post","slug":"blog-post"}],"banner":null}}},"staticQueryHashes":["318001574","3787687951","3787687951"]}