Goat milk and cow milk have different nutritional profiles, including differences in their proteins, fats, and prebiotics.
While cow milk is high in A1 protein, goat milk is naturally rich in the smaller A2 protein and may be easier for babies to digest. Goat milk also has smaller fat globules, which can support easier digestion.
Another key difference is their prebiotic profile. Goat milk contains naturally occurring milk oligosaccharides (MOs) that more closely resemble those found in human breast milk than those found in cow milk. Goat milk also shares at least 12 milk oligosaccharides with human breast milk, and research has shown that infants fed goat milk formula develop a gut microbiota profile that is more similar to breastfed infants compared with those fed cow milk formula.
Learn more about the benefits of goat milk in our research paper, Goat Milk and the Infant Gut Microbiota, which draws on more than 50 studies exploring goat milk formula and its nutritional properties compared with cow milk formula.