Ingredients will never be matched
Even with the ingredients currently in formula, they are a poor match for the very small number of breast milk components they are copying. They are not identical. Many are in much more poorly absorbed forms, and therefore present in larger quantities, so a baby produces much larger smellier faeces on formula. Why anyone thinks that is good for the baby, I don't know. The 'milk' basis will always be something that is a highly processed but poor imitation as well. A breastfeeding mother's breasts can produce antibodies to her baby's illness within hours, even if the mother herself has never caught that illness, and fend off sickness, along with all the other antibodies delivered every single feed. Formula will never contain antibodies. No-one even knows the purpose of the recently discovered stem cells in breastmilk, but we could not make them, nor could they be kept alive in a container of formula. Breastmilk changes in composition throughout a feed to match a baby's hunger vs. thirst, throughout the day, and adapts to the age of the baby over the months/years. The thirty or so ingredients in current formula don't very much resemble what they are trying to copy now - why anyone would ever think the hundreds of things in breastmilk could be manufactured, I don't know. Even the formula companies know that is impossible. You can bet even if oligosaccharides were added, they would not be bio-identical. Anyway, I would rather snuggle close skin to skin and feed my baby. For a mother who cannot provide sufficient milk herself for whatever reason, formula is a useful supplement to keep a baby alive. But that's it. And that's all a manufactured product will ever be.
