eli5: why isn’t formula milk just formulated to be better than breastmilk?

Question

eli5: why isn’t formula milk just formulated to be better than breastmilk?

In: 1316

Answer 1

We can’t do that.

There’s too many different nutrients in breast milk that we can make and mix together to make a replacement. Some of the materials are not stable or prone to spoiling, so all the ingredients would need to be freshly made. To a certain extent, the milk also adjusts to the babiy’s needs, changing the amount of water in it, adding antibodies, etc. There’s no practical way to do that.