Are There Good Reasons to Be Using DHA Infant Formula For Your Baby ?

More and more as our scientists discovers the benefits of omega 3 fats to health and to the development of the growing babies and children we will see a continuation of the recent trend towards adding DHA to foods. 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 the most important of the omega 3 fatty acids that are now known to be so important to our health. Along with EPA DHA is essential to so many aspects of our brain and heart health and it is now becoming established that an adequate supply of DHA to the growing fetus and to the baby once born is essential for optimum infant development.

But it’s another matter to decide whether using DHA Infant Formula is a good idea or not. However a recent event gives us a clue. This was a lecture by a representative of a baby food manufacturer who are making a new DHA baby formula. 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.

Also of interest was the statement made that established benefits to infants and babies from an adequate supply of DHA included better. “cognitive development, improved visual acuity, memory retention and ability to communicate and solve problems as well as psychomotor development”. So you can see there are powerful reasons to ensure that the fetus or baby has an adequate supply of DHA available.

But there are also good reasons to be doubtful about the benefits of DHA Baby Formula. For a wide range of reasons breastfeeding is much better for the health of the developing baby than using infant formula. Provided the mother has an adequate supply of DHA then this becomes available to the baby via her milk.

Of course this relies on the mother getting an adequate supply of DHA in her diet.

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. Except for mothers who have other reasons to avoid breastfeeding the baby will get enough DHA in the milk provided the mother get’s enough in her diet.

Of course it is always possible to get an adequate supply of DHA in our diet from increasing the amount of oily fish we eat. But sadly fish is contaminated with a range of toxins such as Mercury.

The best fish oil supplements are totally clean and are also very cost-effective to take daily. But not all DHA supplements are good.

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.