A new trend in artificial baby milk, popular in Europe and now on the shelves in U.S. supermarkets, is formula designed for the infant older than six months and are meant to be a bridge between regular formula and cow’s milk, which should not be introduced until some time after age one. Two questions arise about follow-up formulas: are they nutritious and are they necessary? The rationale for follow-up formulas is that the nutritional needs of infants greatly increase after the age of six months (especially for calcium, iron, and protein), and some infants may have difficulty meeting these increased requirements with greater volumes of standard formula, plus solid foods. The following discussion concerns Carnation Follow-up Formula. Here are the advantages and disadvantages of follow-up formula.
- Contains more calcium. From six months to a year the RDA for calcium in infants increases by fifty percent, from 400 milligrams to 600 milligrams. Carnation Follow-up formula contains 600 milligrams of calcium in 24 ounces. It would take 39 ounces a day of standard formula to meet these calcium requirements.
- Contains more iron. From six to twelve months a baby’s daily iron requirements increase from six milligrams to ten milligrams a day. This extra iron could be supplied in 26 ounces of follow-up formula or 27 to 33 ounces of standard formula, so there isn’t a great advantage to the follow-up formula here.
- Contains more protein. From six to twelve months an infant requires an extra three to four milligrams of protein a day. Follow-up formulas contain from 10 to 25 percent more protein. A baby would need an extra three to eight ounces of standard formula per day to get this extra protein.
- Costs less. The cost is around 20 percent less than the price of regular formula.
- May taste better. Because it is basically milk, it tastes more like milk.
- Casein/whey ratio different from human milk. Basically, Carnation Good Start Follow-up is like the older version of Similac: 82 percent casein and 18 percent whey, plus calcium and a newer fat blend.
- Sweetened with corn syrup. The rationale for replacing lactose in the milk with corn syrup is to get it to taste sweeter. In our opinion, using corn syrup as the prime milk-carbohydrate source in an infant under a year is nutritionally unwise. Besides insuring proper nutrition, one of the main goals in feeding an infant over six months is to shape young tastes toward the normal taste of fresh foods. Corn syrup is a sweetener and certainly shouldn’t be part of a food babies eat several times each day. Our conclusion: we do not recommend follow-up formulas that contain corn syrup. They are nutritionally unwise and unnecessary. Better to give your baby a higher volume of standard formula (growing babies need more fluid anyway), plus calcium and iron-containing solid foods.