Sunday, August 1, 2010

Ultra Heated Temperature and Pasteurized Fresh Milk?

When my Bella hit her one year of age, I decided to gradually wean her from breastmilk. One of the reason why was, I becoming so thin. Small size is not so small anymore on me. Also, I am way over my quota. I didn't think of breastfeeding when I was pregnant. I, was one of the formula-fed babies.

When I started breastfeeding and learned about the wonders of breast milk, I gave myself it at least 6 months...then 6 months became a year and still counting up to date.

When I resigned from work, i said to myself, being a stay at home mom will give me enough time to concentrate on giving my Bella substitute milk. However, the reverse is happening, instead of reducing the number of nursing, it is becoming more frequent than ever, and I believe that my Bella even thinks that I am her human pacifier. I don't mind it at all, whenever she's not feeling well or she's crying, she turn to breastfeeding to soothe her. I observe how she become so at peace during these times. Also, when I exclusively breastfeeding her instead of breastmilk in a bottle, her weight improved. I was also able to look after the other solid foods that she's taking.

Nevertheless, I still try to introduce her to fresh milk so she will be accustomed to the taste. So why fresh milk and not powdered one? Because the former has lesser sugar and the latter is partly artificial. After the milk poisoning scandal, think more than twice on products you are giving your love ones.

Most milk in the market went to UHT processing. Ultra Heated Temperature or Ultra Heat Temperature is giving fresh milk less nutrients. I don't know how it is even called fresh milk when in fact it has a shelf life of 6 to 9 months even at room temperature. So this is called UHT milk.

Milks that are only pasteurized and homogenized only has shelf life of 3 to 4 days which also requires refrigeration. These milk have been only heated to destroy any bacteria or harmful organisms. Thus, only remove minimal nutrients. This is called Pasteurized milk.

"UHT stands for “Ultra High Temprature processing,” which is just another way of heating milk to kill bacterial spores. In the pasteurization process, the milk is heated to 72°C (161.6°F) for at least 15 minutes, whereas the UHT process heats the milk at 135°C (275°F) for one to two seconds. This flash of extreme heat is said to kill off any spores in the milk, and is currently a process that is being used for other products such as fruit juices, cream, yogurt, wine, and soups."

I am determined to give my Bella only fresh milk. The first time I tried pasteurized milk on my Bella, I saw rashes developed on her neck, so I stopped and continued with breastmilk. I also tried carabao's milk, but I don't like it and my Bella only tasted it once. So after several consideration, I again tried giving my Bella fresh cow's milk today.

I love the taste of Holly's Fresh milk, this is the first pasteurized milk available in the market that I tried with Bella, unlike the first attempt, I have not seen any rashes. So far, so good. However, I've realized that it is not practical for me to continue with only pasteurized milk, as I have mentioned earlier, pasteurized milk only lasted for 3 to 4 days thus, making it more expensive than UHT milk. After extensive research on milk, in my opinion there's nothing wrong with drinking UHT milk, its safer to store and drink due to its longer shelf life." I may have to give other products to compensate the damaged mutrients that these milk went through the processed though. As much as I can continue giving my Bella pasteurized milk, I will. Nevertheless, I will consider UHT milk as well as alternative.

Kids don't necessarily need milk in particular, but calcium, a mineral that our body need to help build strong bones and healthy teeth. This mineral can be take from sources, milk being the most popular one, but aside from it, there is also other dairy products, dark green, leafy vegetables (e.g. Spinach, brocolli, Bok choy), tofu, orange juices, soy beverages, and breakfast cereals or breads. 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is nice information that you posted here. Pretty helpful to nursing mothers, I guess.
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