Comparative metabolic study of older infants fed infant formula, transition formula, or whole cow's milk

The Effect of Consumption of Animal Milk Compared to Infant Formula for Non-Breastfed/Mixed-Fed Infants 6–11 Months of Age: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Figure 1 shows the results of the literature search. After screening the full texts of 96 studies for eligibility, we ultimately included nine studies [ 7 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 ] available in 11 publications (complete list in Table S1 ). We excluded 87 studies, and reasons for exclusion for each study can be found in table of excluded studies in Table S2 .…”

“…Four of the included studies were RCTs [ 19 , 20 , 23 , 26 ], and five were prospective observational cohort studies [ 7 , 21 , 22 , 24 , 25 ]. Four studies were conducted in the United States [ 7 , 19 , 25 , 26 ], two were from the United Kingdom [ 21 , 23 ], one from Iceland [ 24 ], and one from Peru [ 20 ].…”

“…Four of the included studies were RCTs [ 19 , 20 , 23 , 26 ], and five were prospective observational cohort studies [ 7 , 21 , 22 , 24 , 25 ]. Four studies were conducted in the United States [ 7 , 19 , 25 , 26 ], two were from the United Kingdom [ 21 , 23 ], one from Iceland [ 24 ], and one from Peru [ 20 ]. One study had a multicenter design and took place in 10 countries, including Greece, Spain, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Germany, Chile, Sweden, and Austria [ 22 ].…”

“…The studies’ median sample size was 133 participants with a range from 15 participants [ 20 ] to 971 participants [ 21 ]. The mean age of initiation of cow’s milk feeding was 6.95 months of age with the range of 3.6 months [ 7 ] to 10 months of age [ 22 ].…”

“…All studies compared cow’s milk feeding as the animal’s milk group and formula feeding only as the comparison. Five studies [ 7 , 19 , 20 , 23 , 26 ] used pasteurized homogenized cow’s milk. One study [ 26 ] used fortified cow’s milk.…”