Not All Milks Are Equal

(Newswire.net — December 24, 2017) Cheyenne, Wyoming — Believe it or not, there are many are who still don’t understand how vastly different breast milk is from cow’s milk. They both come from lactating moms for the purpose of feeding an offspring so they’re pretty much the same, right? Wrong. Very wrong. In early July 2017, a man in Hong Kong, China was arrested for stealing his co-worker’s breast milk from an office fridge, he drank it and went the lengths of replacing it with cow’s milk. 

Now let that sink in for a moment, a grown man stealing breast milk to drink himself and totally disregarding the harm of cow’s milk to an infant. In all fairness, he probably really didn’t think about how different they were, otherwise he would have just confessed to the theft and apologetically returned the empty bottle. Washed and sterilized of course, but that’s just pure speculation.

“The Office of the Communications Authority in Wan Chai confirmed that Yiu [the breast milk thief] was a telecommunications officer and said it would ‘deal with the situation in accordance with the relevant procedures’,” reports Coconut Hong Kong. “In order to prevent similar incidents from recurring in the future, the broadcasting watchdog has now provided a lockable refrigerator in its pantry exclusively for breastfeeding mothers.” 

But what’s the big deal about, some may still ask. Well, for starters, cow’s milk is dangerous to infants under one year old. The baby’s body lacks the digestive abilities to process cow’s milk when younger than that age as the stomach lining isn’t able to breakdown such components adequately. In some cases, even severe vomiting and diarrhea may be induced. 

“Babies can’t digest cow’s milk as completely or easily as breast milk or formula. Cow’s milk contains high concentrations of protein and minerals, which can tax your baby’s immature kidneys,” explains BabyCenter.com. “Cow’s milk doesn’t have the right amounts of iron, vitamin C and other nutrients for infants, it may even cause iron-deficiency anemia in some babies since cow’s milk protein can irritate the lining of the digestive system, leading to blood in the stool.” 

It isn’t that cow’s milk is bad and shouldn’t be drunk at all, it’s a matter of how soon in life it should be consumed. While we don’t know the actual age of the baby in the aforementioned incident, the situation is disconcerting enough to leave a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. 

The benefits of cow’s milk are well known as it builds strong bones and teeth thanks to it’s high calcium content but for babies under 12 months old it does more harm than good. Breast milk is truly king in the realm of nursing babies so it’s paramount to safeguard it at all costs, whether from theft or becoming tainted by the likes of alcohol.

During nursing, a mother has to become vigilant of what she consumes as everything contributes to the production of her milk supplied. Just as eating excessively garlic meals can transfer unfamiliarly strong tastes or smells to one’s breast milk so does alcohol freely pass into milk ducts. Checking the safety of your breast milk prior to continuing feeds is important for the health of mother and child so a breast milk alcohol analysis kit much like the PureMilk™ by HealthyWiser™ should always be at hand whenever you decide to have a drink.