Of all the decisions pregnant women must make, how they will feed their babies is one of the most important. The breast versus bottle debate is a heated one, and now there may be a new contender to up the battle even more -- cows. Scientists in China have somehow created cows that can produce milk identical to that of human breast milk.
No, it's not some crazy science fiction novel where a breastfeeding superhero mother will overcome the evil cows, or anything that makes that much sense. It's real cows who have been subjected to all sorts of crazy technological treatments (much like those poor Dolly the sheep had to go undergo), and now they could nurse a human baby ... I guess. Cows as wet nurses? That's not actually the plan (though I'm sure someone will try it), but rather this new milk will be sold in grocery stores -- likely within the decade. For real.
I'm all for breast milk any way you can get it, pump it, donate it, on a train, in a tree -- whatever. But from cows? Call me crazy, but that just creeps me out. Plus, no matter what properties it contains, it's still coming from a cow, and I see nothing human about that. Genetically modified food freaks me out in general, but this is beyond freaky.
Though sweeter and "stronger," the human cow milk supposedly is more nutritious than traditional cow milk. If adults want to drink it, that's one (worrisome) thing; I'm concerned more about babies whose mothers would see this as an easy way out of breastfeeding. And who knows what the long-term effects of genetically engineered foods really will be.
Sure there are women who for whatever reason aren't able to breastfeed, and for those babies to get the wonderful qualities of breast milk would be wonderful, but not like this.
The milk is still undergoing safety tests, and isn't projected to the hit the market for years, so there's time to stop this mad cow mess. But wouldn't it be nice if they took all that time, money, and effort and figured out how to help all women breastfeed the old-fashioned way (with REAL human breast milk) and give them the support they need along the way?
Would you give your baby "human" milk from a cow?
Image via wwarby/Flickr
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Comments 26
Um, that is kinda cool in my opinion. We could eliminate the need for formula completely! Even if you worry about the risk of genetically altered animals- it could still be better for infants, children and adults than the stuff found in formula!
This will also allow for mass-marketing of breast-milk in cooking and medicinal supplies. :-)
Not enough long term research for me!!!
Anon- it isn't about the who breastfeeds vs. formula feeds argument... every person should be yearning to feed their child the best thing! If you could buy breast milk for your child, wouldn't you? We should ALL be striving to make formula the best it can be, for those that either NEED it or just WANT it. We should never settle for something when there can be better options out there. I don't care how you feed your child- but as a mother and a HUMAN, I am always for making something better.
Thank you but I'll stick to my formula.
I'm wondering how they managed to create a substance "identical" to human milk when we still have yet to identify thousands of components of human milk.
Common sense people!!!! It's not breast milk!!!
Yuck!