Recent advances in infant formulas

Feeding during the first months of life has a decisive influence not only on early developmental phases in infants but also in their long-term health. The World Health Organization points out that exclusive breastfeeding is the ideal feeding from birth to sixth months of age in the healthy term newborn. When a mother cannot breastfeed her offspring, infant formulas stay as a good alternative for infant feeding. The deeper our knowledge on the nutritional needs of infants the more precise the composition of infant formulas. New functional ingredients have been incorporated to paediatric milk formulas with the goal of mimicking the functional properties of human milk. In the present article we review the most recent advances in infant formulas: alpha-lactalbumin, polyunsaturated fatty acids, beta-palmitate, nucleotides, prebiotic oligosaccharides and probiotics.