History of the creation of infant milk formula

Adequate nutrition during the first months of life is essential for newborns and infants to ensure their growth and development. If women are unable to breastfeed for medical or social reasons, milk formulas become the primary source of nutrition for infants. Modern infant milk formulas are developed with due account for the latest discoveries in science regarding the growing body needs and include various functional components that contribute to a baby’s healthy growth and development. However, the histories of creation and evolution of milk formulas are always interesting. The article describes how different nations approached the issues of feeding babies using alternatives to the breast milk, including goat’s and cow’s milk, as well as plant-based formulas. Special attention is paid to the research discoveries in the field of nutrition and medicine that inspired the creation of safe nutritional formulas. Currently, rapid technological advancements can provide modern formula-fed infants with oligosaccharides with structures identical to human milk oligosaccharides, polyunsaturated fatty acids (omega-3 and omega-6) such as docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and arachidonic acid (ARA) and other useful components. New infant formulas for artificial and/or mixed feeding from birth stand out particularly. Their composition meets all the requirements for the production of infant formula and is enriched with a combination of 2′-fucosylated oligosaccharides (2′-FL) and galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS), which can give a long-range outlook for the use of infant formulas.