To cope with the resurgence of allergies in children, manufacturers have developed techniques to minimize the risk of allergies in infants at a young age. Hypoallergenic milks are the result. However, their effectiveness with regard to the prevention of allergies is not unanimous among health professionals.

Hypoallergenic milk – also called HA milk – is milk made from cow’s milk which has been modified to make it less allergenic for children with allergies. Thus, milk proteins are subjected to partial hydrolysis, ie they are cut into small pieces. This process has a double advantage;

• Reduce the allergenic potential of milk proteins compared to the whole forms contained in conventional milks
• Maintain a higher antigenic potential than proteins which have undergone extensive hydrolysis, as is the case in milk specifically intended for children allergic to cow’s milk proteins.

A hypoallergenic milk retains the same nutritional virtues as an infant milk whose proteins have not been modified and covers baby’s nutritional needs just as much.

Stop preconceived ideas: if Dad, Mom, a brother or a sister, has a food allergy, baby will not necessarily be allergic! It is therefore useless to rush to hypoallergenic milks in a systematic way. However, if the pediatrician or family doctor judges that your baby presents a real risk of allergy, he will most certainly prescribe hypoallergenic (HA) milk for at least 6 months, from birth to food diversification if the child is bottle-fed. The objective is to limit the subsequent risks of seeing an allergic manifestation appear.

This type of milk is also often recommended in case of breastfeeding, during the first 6 months of weaning or in case of mixed breastfeeding (breast milk + industrial milk) to avoid any risk of allergic manifestation but this does not make sense. only if there is a familial atopic land.

Be careful, however: hypoallergenic milk, also said to be partially hydrolyzed, is a primary prevention product only, and not a curative treatment for an allergy! These types of milk should therefore absolutely not be offered to a child who has an allergy or intolerance to lactose or even a proven allergy to cow’s milk proteins (APLV).

Since their appearance on the market, hypoallergenic milks have aroused a certain suspicion on the part of health professionals: their supposed interest in the prevention of allergy in infants at risk is relatively controversial.

These doubts were exacerbated from 2006 when the revelation of falsified results concerning the work of Pr Ranjit Kumar Chandra who had published more than 200 studies on the effectiveness of HA milks. The latter has in fact been accused of scientific fraud and involved in conflicts of interest: “He had analyzed and published all the data even before they were collected!” declared Marilyn Harvey, the professor’s research assistant at the time [1, 2].

In October 2015, the British Medical Journal even withdrew one of its studies published in 1989 on which the recommendations regarding the benefit of HA milks for children at risk of allergies were based.

In addition, in March 2016, British researchers published in the British Medical Journal a meta-analysis of 37 studies carried out between 1946 and 2015, involving a total of nearly 20 participants and comparing different infant formulas. Result: there would not be sufficient evidence that partially hydrolyzed (HA) or largely hydrolyzed milks reduce the risk of allergic or autoimmune diseases in children at risk [000].

The authors of the study therefore call for a review of nutritional recommendations in the United States and Europe in the absence of coherent evidence on the value of these milks in the prevention of allergies.

Ultimately, it is necessary to observe the utmost vigilance with respect to hypoallegenic milk: only HA milks having demonstrated their effectiveness should be prescribed and consumed.