During the early months of an infant’s life, nutrition is vitally important because at no other time in their lives will they rely solely on one food source to supply all their nutritional needs. Optimal nutrition is vital for an infant’s healthy growth and development.  For this reason, the field of infant nutrition is constantly changing to meet the needs of bottle-fed babies.   One of the challenges for manufacturers of infant formulas is to produce an infant formula with a protein composition as close as possible to that of breast milk.

Everyone knows that breast milk is the gold standard when it comes to providing infants with the best source of nourishment. It contains the ideal balance of proteins to ensure they do not ingest more protein than is necessary.    Breast milk has a high concentration of the whey protein alpha-lactalbumin and does not normally contain beta-lactoglobulin, whilst cows’ milk contains a significant concentration of beta-lactoglobulin and lower levels of alpha-lactalbumin.¹

In the 1970s, whey dominant infant formulas were introduced with a whey/casein profile that was similar to breast milk. Today, advances in infant nutrition have gone one step further with the launch of the new SMA Gold*, which is enriched with alpha-lactalbumin rather than beta-lactoglobulin. Compared to other typical whey-dominant protein infant formulas, new SMA Gold has increased levels of alpha-lactalbumin from 11% to 19%, and decreased levels of beta-lactoglobulin, from 29% to 12%.^†2

The improved protein profile of new SMA Gold provides significant nutritional advantages to infants. It is tolerated similar to breast milk, leads to a reduced renal solute load, has an improved essential amino acid profile and, thanks to the improved quality of protein, the total amount of protein has been reduced, helping to ease the load on the developing infant kidneys.^2,3,4 

Dr Kevin Maitland-Smith, Scientific Information and Regulatory Affairs Advisor for SMA Nutrition, comments:  “Everybody knows that breast milk is the best source of nourishment for young babies.  However, for those mother’s that choose not to breastfeed, infant formula is the only alternative. In the1970s, SMA Nutrition was the first to introduce a whey protein-dominant formula with a whey to casein ratio similar to that of mature breast milk.  At that time, healthcare professionals recognised this as a fundamental advance in infant formula design.  With the launch of new SMA Gold containing alpha-lactalbumin-enriched whey protein, we are once again leading the way in improving the nutritional composition of infant formula.”

References
1. Fomon SJ. Nutrition of normal infants. St Louis, MO: Mosby; 1993
2. Lien EL, Davis DM, Euler AR et al. Growth and safety in term infants fed reduced-protein formula with added bovine alpha-lactalbumin. J Ped Gastrol Nutr 2004; 38: 170-176
3. Davis AM and Harris BJ. Increased alpha-lactalbumin infant formula fed to healthy term infants in a multi-center plasma essential amino acid study. J Ped Gastroent Nutr 2005; 40: 630N and data on file
4. Lien EL. Infant formulas with increased concentrations of alpha-lactalbumin. AM J Clinical Nutrition 2003; 77(6): 1555S-1558S

^†Percentage of true protein

*Trade Mark