Lactose

Few weeks back i had problem of breast engorgement. One of my duct was clogged. I even caught fever and whole body was aching due to the engorgement. Asked around what should i do, mostly replied i should dap with hot towel. It was so painful to even touch it. For 2 days i was lying on my bed in pain. Uwais direct feed but didnt manage to unclog it. Sis-in-law asked around for me and contacted a family friend who is a gynae doctor (my gynae was away for umrah). Doctor is a male but i was desperate. Went to his clinic, was told engorgement smpai infection, lucky thing blum tahap pus (nanah) that required surgery. Was given antibiotic n was told not to feed uwais with the infected b00bs. i have to express the milk and throw away all milk from infected breast for 5 days till i finish my antibiotic.

Thus obviously that lead to drop in milk supply for uwais. I happen to see uwais’ paed the following day for his jab. Asked if its okay to give uwais fresh milk (coz i find that convenient…;) but doctor said it is not advisable coz the content of needed nutrition (i.e calcium, magnesium ect) is higher (not suitable for babies). I then asked the doctor, why is breastmilk sweet? He told breastmilk is sweet because of lactose. Breastmilk is up to 90% of lactose.(Yes, this was what my son’s paeds told me.)

Lactose is a disaccharide sugar formed from galactose and glucose. As we all know breast milk is the best but not everyone is bless to breast feed their child, thus the have to choose the next best milk.

Have you actually taste you baby’s powder milk. It is also sweet! In fact very sweet! no joke. Most powder milk has additional sugar as years of research showed that high percentage of Malaysian children having lactose tolerance problem when they drink powder milk, hence the addition of natural plant sugar to solve this issue in powder milk. Most mom think sugar source from natural plant source is okay, but think again. Even those with diabetic can’t simply take a large amount of fruits (despite the fruits are natural source of sugar). No doubt our growing child need carbohydrate, but do u think the added sugar in their milk is necessary?  Among the common name for sugar that are being used are natural sugars, added sugars, corn syrup solids, sucrose and glucose syrup solids. Whatever name it may be, at the end of the day it is still sugar and ends up in our child’s body. Well yes, sugar are not necessarily bad as they can help provide energy that a growing child needs. However problem occurs when the level of added sugar in the milk powder becomes excessive. This could increase risk of health problems for children. In fact this does not align with any local nor international recommendation.

In fact under the Malaysian food labelling regulation, the ‘carbohydrates per serve’ number in the Nutrition Information Panel on child’s growing milk powder is only made out of two things; sugar that is naturally present in the milk powder. And the only naturally present sugar in milk is lactose. For your information the natural lactose level in a glass of standard milk is approximatly 11g-12g per serve. Thus the bottom line is anything higher than 11g-12g is added sugar. Check the packaging Nutrition Information Panel on this (amount of carbohydrate) and be on look out for names like this in the ingredient list ; corn syrup, sucrose and glucose syrup. And yes, if you have not taste your child’s milk, it is time to do so 😉

Here’s a recent photo of my latest edition 😉