Dha Infant Formula | Trendy Baby Showers

Should You Be Using DHA Infant Formula For Your Baby Or Not?

December 6th, 2009 by author

Gradually there is a growing trend to DHA supplementation of food as science discovers more and more the benefits of omega 3 essential fatty acids to our health and to the health and development the growing fetus and baby. It is now entirely possible to source a range of DHA fortified baby foods including such foods as baby cereal with DHA.

DHA (Docosahexaenoic Acid) is now considered to be the most important of the omega 3 essential fatty acids to our health. EPA is another of the important omega 3 fatty acids however DHA extremely important in so many areas of our heart and brain health and it is now clear that an adequate supply of DHA delivered to a fetus or growing baby is essential for the optimum development of the infant.

But that doesn't necessarily mean that all of should be using DHA Infant Formula. However a recent event gives us a clue. This event was a lecture given to doctors and nutritionists by a representative of baby food manufacturer who make a DHA baby formula. This event was one staged by representative of a manufacturer of a DHA baby formula and was a lecture. The lecture included some interesting information, particularly that residents of the US and Canada have some of the lowest levels of DHA of any country in the world. This is due to our low level of fish intake.

And a further statement of interest was that clear benefits of adequate DHA intake were now established for babies and infants including benefits to “cognitive development, improved visual acuity, memory retention and ability to communicate and solve problems as well as psychomotor development”. From that statement you can see the importance of having an adequate supply of DHA available to the fetus and baby.

But that doesn't mean that there are significant benefits to using DHA Baby Formula. For a wide range of reasons breastfeeding is much better for the health of the developing baby than using infant formula. If the mother's supply of DHA is adequate then this becomes available to the baby through her milk.

This relies of course on the diet of the mother having an adequate intake of DHA

It isn't clear yet what benefits there are to using DHA in baby formula. And in fact the representative of the infant formula company noted that “No infant formula can ever substitute breast milk. It will take years before anybody can tell us how to add the hormones in breast milk to infant formula”.

So it would seem that it is far too early conclude that we should all be feeding DHA baby formula to our babies. Provided the mother gets enough DHA in her diet the baby will get sufficient DHA in the milk.

It is always possible to increase our intake of DHA by eating more oily fish. But sadly fish is contaminated with a range of toxins such as Mercury.

The best DHA supplements are entirely clean and are a very cost-effective way of getting an adequate daily supply of DHA. Note that not all DHA supplements are good value or good supplements.

Visit my website to find out where to source the best DHA Supplements so that you too can get an adequate supply of DHA to your baby through your milk.

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