New tool for weaning: egg yolks

New tool for weaning: egg yolks

Study says they pick up where mother's milk leaves off.

"Weaning your baby sometimes can cause nutritional deficiencies, but Australian researchers say they've found an inexpensive and healthy way to avoid that: egg yolks.

Egg yolks can be enriched with a fatty acid essential for the growth and development of babies' brains and may prove an ideal weaning food, the scientists say.

In a report in the June issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the researchers studied the nutritional value of two varieties of egg yolks as weaning foods for breast and formula-fed infants.

Breast and formula-fed babies face nutritional challenges when they're weaned at 4 to 6 months of age, including iron deficiency and a lack of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), an n-3 fatty acid that, until recently, wasn't added to most baby formulas.

Egg yolks are a rich source of iron and DHA.

The researchers used 137 mothers with 6-month old babies. The babies were randomly assigned to receive either no dietary intervention, regular eggs or eggs that had been enriched by feeding hens diets rich in n-3 fatty acids.

Blood samples were taken from the babies at 6 months and 1 year to measure their DHA, iron and cholesterol levels. The babies who received the n-3 fatty acid-enriched eggs had 30 percent to 40 percent higher DHA levels than the babies who received regular eggs. They also had higher iron levels. There was no effect on their cholesterol."