Study claims fortified milk powder prevents childhood diseases

NEW ZEALAND – A new study has shown that feeding children fortified milk powder can help to prevent childhood diseases such as diarrhoea and pneumonia.

The news comes from a large-scale clinical trial investigating the health effects of fortified milk powder consumed by young children aged between one and four years. The study was commissioned and funded by Fonterra’s international consumer goods business New Zealand Milk.

Lead Researcher Professor Sunil Sazawal, an associate research professor at Johns Hopkins University in the USA presented the study results at the World Congress of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition in Paris, France on Tuesday.

Breaking the news, Sazawal said: “These findings will have importance for child health globally. It has provided clinical evidence that particular fortified milks can greatly impact on prevention of anaemia, the burden of common acute illnesses in childhood and their growth.” The objectives of the trial were to demonstrate the effectiveness of fortified milks in the prevention of childhood illnesses such as diarrhoeal disease, respiratory morbidity, ear infections and iron deficiency anaemia in young children, as well as to observe improvements in their growth.

1,272 children aged between 12 and 36 months from a lower middle-class residential area in Sangam Vihar, India, were involved in the 12 month trial. The children were randomly assigned to four groups and asked to consume a minimum of two glasses of the assigned milk powder each day for one year.

The results showed that children consuming a milk powder fortified with vitamins and minerals were 22% better protected against diarrhoea, 18% better protected against acute lower respiratory infections, 32% better protected against severe respiratory infections, and 88% better protected against measles.