I heard on the radio that infant formula hurts a baby’s brains. Is that true?

Breast milk is the best and safest form of nutrition for infants. Infants and breast milk are designed for each other. Infant formulas have been developed to substitute for breast milk when nursing is impractical, or in the unusual instances when it is physically impossible or contraindicated. The goal for infant formulas is to match as closely as possible the composition of human breast milk.

Over the past few years, two key ingredients have been identified in breast milk, which, until 2002, were not present in the infant formulas available in the United States. DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and ARA (arachidonic acid) are the most prevalent long chain fatty acids found in human breast milk. (These naturally occurring fatty acids are also found in fish oil.)

DHA and ARA are the most prevalent structural fats in the brain. Healthy brains are about 60% structural fat (not like the flabby fat found elsewhere in the body). Of this about 25% is DHA and 15% is ARA. DHA is also a major structural component of the retina of the eye. It makes up about 60% of the outer segments of the rods in the retina. Autopsies performed on babies who have died from other causes have shown that formula-fed babies have significantly less DHA in their brains than breast-fed babies.

A large number of studies have suggested that low DHA and ARA levels might be associated with problems with intelligence, vision, and behavior. Children fed standard formulas may have IQ's 5-9 points lower than breast-fed babies, even after correcting for other factors. Vision is measurably poorer by 4 months of age (although this seems to equalize with age), and behavioral problems, such as attention deficit disorder, are more common. These discrepancies have not been found when infants are fed formulas supplemented with DHA and ARA.

Research funded by the National Institutes of Child Health and Development (NICHD) found that infants fed formula with DHA and ARA at the levels recommended by the World Health Organization scored approximately seven points higher on a 100-point scale on a test of mental development at 18-months compared to infants fed the control formula without added DHA and ARA. The study also found that infants fed formula with DHA and ARA at these levels had improved visual acuity equal to about one line on a vision chart during the first year.

Some studies of DHA and ARA have not detected these striking differences. The studies don’t contradict each other – they are just different. They use different amounts of DHA and ARA, different sources, and different methods to measure benefit.

Because parents are becoming more aware of DHA and ARA, more products containing them are coming to market. In fact, over the last few years, nearly all major brands of infant formula have supplemental DHA and ARA.