ChowBaby

a friend who's toddler kept getting croup recently mentioned that she believes her son has been in much better health (and croup-free) since she switched him to goat's milk. fascinated (after all, i am greek), i began doing research.

apparently, goat's milk is the milk of choice in most of the world (not just greece!). and many adults who have cow's milk allergies can tolerate goat's milk, though it's not exactly clear why (nor is it as clear when it comes to very young children).

there seem to be two issues at hand: allergy & intolerance and nutrition. oh, there's also a matter of over-industrialized dairy in this country, but i'll leave that to you (or another post one day soon).

allergies and intolerance
while goat's milk tends to be more easily digested, it's composition (not nutritional profile--i'll get to that in a second) is pretty similar to cow's milk. one way that goat's milk is different, though, is that its fat globules don't cluster the way that they do in cow's milk. many, including dr. sears believe this is an explanation for why some people who have a hard time digesting cow's milk can more easily digest goat's milk.

some intolerance issues may be related to allergies. initial studies suggested that some of the proteins in cow's milk that cause allergic reactions are relatively absent in goat's milk. more recent studies have debunked that, concluding that... you guessed it... more research is needed to understand the role that proteins might play in milk tolerance. in fact, this article which i landed on from the Kelly Mom entry on goat's milk suggests that many researchers believe that infant's who are sensitive to cow's milk can also have serious allergic reactions to goat's milk.

nutrition
one of the first things i looked for when i started researching was a straight nutritional comparison of goat's and cow's milk. it may not seem at first glance like there is much difference, but there is. and it's meaningful. goat's milk has greater levels of vitamin A, riboflavin, calcium, potassium and niacin. awesome. it also has less iron, zinc, B6, and B12. (and, remember, folate is water soluble vitamin B.) not awesome, for infants especially.

it's important to consider these nutritional differences in the context of your or your child's specific health needs and overall diet before deciding which milk is the better option. you can also get a detailed profile of goat's milk at one of my favorite food research resources, World's Healthiest Foods.

the bottom line
everything i read suggests that children under 1 should never be given goat's milk (or cow's milk, of course) in lieu of breast milk and/or formula. and children under 3 who are allergic to cow's milk may also prove to be allergic to goat's milk. dr. greene provides specific guidance in his answer to a mom who asks about giving goat's milk to her cow's milk and soy sensitive 6-month-old.

if you have an older child who eats a well balanced diet and doesn't have any major health issues (or perhaps ones that might be well served by the nutrients in which goat's milk is abundant--check with your pediatrician), it seems that goat's milk is a fine addition (or substitution) to consider. and, if you're concerned about the impact of a massive cow dairy industry and the over-processing of cow's milk in the US, then it's something definitely worth looking into for older, lactose tolerant children.

as for isaac, my favorite (and the world's most willing) food guinea pig, he loved goat's milk. we've been switching between that and cow's milk effortlessly for a few weeks now and all is fine. (except when i can only find goat's milk for my coffee... then, not so fine. we're not in greece anymore, dorothy.)

-S