Artificial Feeding
Cow’s milk is the milk commonly used for artificial feeding. But the problem with this kind of milk is its being less digestible. However, with pasteurization, boiling, spray drying and homogenization this problem of digestibility is solved.
The different forms of cow’s milk are the following:
A. Certified milk
– it is said to be a certified milk when there is a strict supervision of dairies and their personnel; this eliminates the principal source of contamination of milk, bovine tuberculosis, and infections resulting from handling like typhoid, dysentery, streptococcus and staphylococcus
– after drawing the milk, it is cooled to below 7 degrees centigrade immediately and kept at this temperature till delivered
B. Pasteurized Milk
– Pasteurization is heating the milk at 63 degrees centigrade for 30 minutes or for 15 seconds at 72 degrees centigrade followed by rapid cooling to 65 degrees centigrade
– this procedure of pasteurization will destroy all pathogenic bacteria but only 99% of saprophytes. The spores are not affected.
– Pasteurized milk should be kept at 10 degrees centigrade and should not be used after 48 hours.
C. Homogenized Milk
– Homogenization means the processing of milk so that the fat globules are broken into a fine emulsion by passing milk through a fine aperture at high pressure at pasteurization temperature
– the fine emulsion will prevent creaming and renders the fat more easily assimilated
– homogenization is also the method used to incorporate vitamin D in milk
D. Evaporated Milk
– this is cow’s milk evaporated in vacuo at 55-60 degrees centigrade to about 50% of its volume then homogenized, sealed in cans and autoclaved at 116 degrees centigrade for some time to destroy spores
– if the can is unopened, it can keep for months without refrigeration
E. Condensed Milk
– 45% of cane sugar is added making it nutritionally “out of balance “ for an infant
– it has less fat soluble vitamins and vitamin C
– it has high carbohydrate content
F. Dried Milk
– this is prepared by spraying whole or pasteurized milk into a hot chamber or by using revolving drums at a very high speed so that the water is volatilized immediately or by freeze- drying
– vitamin C is not affected by the drying process
G. Skimmed Dried Milk
– here the fat is removed before the milk is dried so that the fat content is only .05%.
Half-skimmed dried milk has a fat content of 1.5%.
– this is useful for people with fat intolerance, for those recovering from diarrhea and for some prematures
H. Fermented Milk
– there are different types of fermented milk and these are:
a. Buttermilk
– milk is allowed to turn sour by nature and its fat is removed by churning
b. Fermented whole milk
– after inoculation, the milk is incubated to 27-30 degrees centigrade for 6-12 hours after which it is refrigerated for several days
c. Protein Milk
– introduced by Finkelstein
– used in the treatment of diarrhea but lately proven that the putrefaction flora it produces has no value
I. Acid Milk
– prepared by the addition of dilute mineral or organic acids to the milk
– this type of milk overcomes the buffer value of cow’s milk besides producing a bactericidal effect in the stomach and duodenum