Breast milk isn’t called liquid gold for nothing!

As a doctor practicing newborn medicine, my every day is focused on providing the best care possible for babies and a huge part of that care is optimizing nutrition. And let me tell you, breast milk isn’t called liquid gold for nothing! Breast milk is made up of a many components and each contribute to making it a precious and unique form of well-balanced nutrition for infants with vast health benefits.

At Milk by Mom, we provide you with the next best alternative to breastfeeding: freeze-drying your milk. Freeze-drying decreases the water content of breast milk by up to 86.5% (A2), transforms your breast milk into a portable powder that has been shown to be safe to feed to babies for up to three years, all while preserving the best properties of your breast milk.

Human milk provides sufficient fat, carbohydrates, protein, micronutrients, energy, and water to support newborn growth and development. When compared to formula, breast milk gives additional protection for the infant’s digestive system, immune system, and brain development. Human milk supports “good” bacterial growth in the lining of the intestines. This can help prevent the overgrowth of “bad” disease causing bacteria. It also provides a variety of antimicrobial factors (including immunoglobulins, lysozyme, and lactoferrin), which all work together to help your baby fight off infections. This isn’t just a bunch of medical jargon, these factors are incredibly important because infants’ immune systems do not start being strong enough to fight off infections until they’re two months old. Before two months, babies rely on infection fighting factors that are transferred through breast milk.

In addition, the essential protein and fat components in breast milk are easily digested by babies and different than those found in formula. Unique growth factors, hormones, vitamins, and essential proteins and enzymes in breast milk work together to enhance neurodevelopmental outcomes like improved cognition, motor development, behavior, vision, and hearing. Exclusively breastfed infants have been shown to also benefit from decreased rates of allergies, ear infections, breathing infections, severe diarrhea, and obesity. In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics most updated guidelines released in 2022 recommend “exclusive breastfeeding of infants for first six months of life before introducing nutritious complementary foods, while encouraging social and systemic changes to support mothers who choose to breastfeed.”

But at Milk by Mom, we know breastfeeding can be challenging for any parent. Many parents use formula or freeze their breast milk, both of which are great options for busy parents! But did you know that frozen breast milk has significantly less protein and energy than fresh breast milk (B2)? Recent research has shown that prolonged freezing to extend breast milk’s shelf life can result in a “significant decline in the concentration of fat and energy content.” (B2) This decline is also affected by length of freezing and temperature. (A1) By contrast, freeze-drying helps preserve all the best properties of breast milk, while also turning it into a light portable powder that not only extends its shelf life but also makes traveling and storage that much easier (A3 and A4). 

Our goal at Milk by Mom is not only to support parents everywhere by helping them invest in their baby’s growth and development, but also to turn mama’s breast milk and all its goodness into the convenience of formula, delivering freedom, flexibility, and peace of mind.