JAKARTA - Choosing milk for children turns out to be not just about the taste that the little one likes or the packaging that catches the eye on the supermarket shelf.
Moreover, with so many choices of growth milk currently circulating, parents are required to be more thorough in understanding the nutrients that children really need during the growth and development period.
Moreover, at the golden age of growth, children's nutritional needs are not only related to height and weight, but also brain development, eating habits, to long-term consumption patterns. Therefore, understanding the nutritional label and the composition of milk is an important thing that is often overlooked.
AceKid Indonesia Nutrition Partnership and Research Manager, Ratri Aryanti, S.Tr.Gz., explained that one of the basic things that parents need to understand is the difference between growth milk and UHT or pasteurized milk.
According to Ratri, growth milk generally has certain additional nutrients that are indeed formulated to support child growth and development, such as DHA and AA.
"If UHT or pasteurized milk still contains full cream milk, but usually DHA and AA are not added which are needed to support children's growth and development," explained Ratri in the Acekid Media Gathering in Jakarta, Monday, May 25.
He added that the content of DHA and AA is not only important in milk, but also needs to have a balanced ratio. In addition to these two contents, Ratri assessed that parents also need to pay attention to the macro nutrients in milk, such as calories, protein, carbohydrates, and fat.
Growth milk is generally also enriched with vitamins and other additional nutrients such as vitamin D3 and omega-6 which may not always be obtained by children from daily food.
"The most important thing is to keep basic needs such as calories, protein, carbohydrates, and fat. After that, we will see additional fortification such as DHA, AA, or other vitamins," he said.
Equally important, parents are also advised to read more carefully the composition of the ingredients on the packaging, not just looking at the nutrition label. Some additives such as maltodextrin or corn syrup are often not visible on the nutrition table, but are listed in the product composition list.
"Now many parents are starting to look for milk without maltodextrin. Well, it's not visible on the nutrition label, but it has to be checked in the composition section," he explained.
The content of sugar and additional flavors also needs attention because it can affect children's taste preferences later. Moreover, children today are very easily exposed to sweet foods.
If their taste buds or tongue are already used to that taste, then later on, they will look for or like similar tastes.
Seeing this, Ratri advised parents to start reading the contents of children's milk more carefully, starting from the main nutrients, sugar levels, to other additives used in the product.
"So it's not just looking at the ads or claims on the packaging, but really understanding what's in the milk," he concluded.
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