"Despite pediatric guidelines endorsing "allergy-friendly" whey-based infant formulas, a new study finds the products don't ward off allergies in babies at high risk for sensitivities."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/01/us-infant-formula-idUSTRE7605G220110701

The formula industry is intentionally causing some confusion here. The whey-based "formulas" are not hydrolyzed "formulas," nor are they hypo-allergenic. The study affirms this. In fact, the US government has forbidden Carnation-Nestle from referring to its whey-based infant "formula" as hypoallergenic since 1989.

The formula companies call whey-based "formula," "partially hydrolyzed," in order to blur the line between this product and extensively hydrolyzed products. Here is the giveaway: 

"Hays also noted that pHWF is not known to have any harmful side effects and 'is available at every grocery store at the same cost (as traditional formula).'"

Whey-based "formulas" are available at the same cost as the regular skim milk "formula," but hydrolyzed "formula," such as Nu------n and Al------m, cost twice as much.

I don't know why doctors confuse the two, but I have had doctors who didn't know "formula" was cow's milk, either.

BTW, whey is/was an expensive waste product, a by-product of manufacturing, that was initially dumped into rivers. Then it was identified as a powerful pollutant, because it increased the BOD, or biological oxygen demand, when dumped into rivers, so the industry was forced to find more expensive ways to get rid of it. This happens to be a lucrative way to use it.

Perhaps some babies, who are denied their own or any mother's milk, tolerate this better than the heat-treated skim milk we call "formula." But it is definitely not hypo-allergenic.

Even the hypothetical hope that hydrolyzed (or more properly, extensively hydrolyzed, as these "formula" are still not 100% hydrolyzed) infant "formula" will prevent or avoid allergic reaction has not been sufficiently studied.

One article, ten years old, published in Arch Pediatr. 2001 Dec;8(12):1348-57, [Protein hydrolysates: hypoallergenic milks and extensively hydrolyzed formulas. Immuno-allergic basis for their use in prevention and treatment of milk allergy].[Article in French] by Moneret-Vautrin et al., states:

"Hypoallergenic milks are partial hydrolysates of proteins with lactose. Extensive hydrolysates of casein are mainly small peptides and do not include lactose in their formula. A primary allergenicity as well as a cross-sensitivity are shown for all partial hydrolysates. Even extensive hydrolysates have a weak potential of cross-allergy."

This should be amended to read, "Self-proclaimed hypoallergenic milks are..." to clarify that "hypoallergenic" is the advertising moniker the formula company gives its whey formula.

In July 1989, the US ordered Carnation-Nestle to stop labeling whey formula as hypoallergenic and to pay damages for having done so. http://articles.latimes.com/1989-07-07/business/fi-3433_1_health-claims

"Carnation Co. said Thursday that it had agreed to pay a total of $90,000 to nine states--including California--to settle allegations that it used misleading advertising to promote its new infant formula as unlikely to trigger allergies.

"Los Angeles-based Carnation, without admitting any wrongdoing, also agreed to drop the word hypoallergenic from the labels of its Good Start formula product, which was introduced last November. The $90,000 will go toward paying the costs of the states' investigations.

Conclusion: Whey-based "formulas" have never been hypo-allergenic. 

The Reuters article is excellent because it shows how confused even the medical staff at teaching institutions are, while reiterating the allergic dangers of whey-based formula."

Arly Helm, MS, Nutrition & Food Science, IBCLC
In the lovely, summery Sierra Nevada mountains

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