Infant formula

[lexgem]

I've been doing the whole30 for 4 days now and I have just finished reading the book. I wanted to breastfeed but it didn't work out for a variety of reasons I don't really want to go into. My DD is 5 months old so it's too late to go back now and start breastfeeding.

I briefly started her on solids (for 2 weeks) at 4 months, with just a few spoonfuls of carrot, pumpkin, and banana purees and I even tried a little rice cereal. I stopped when I realized it was too soon and I won't start again until she is at least 6 months old.

When I start her on solids, I want to do it right from the start and I'm planning on doing lunch at home when she goes to school and her daycare provider is happy to feed the children meals provided from home only. So it sounds possible to avoid all the foods she shouldn't eat as I start introducing more foods. I will look into it more within the next month, thankfully I still have time.

My concern right now is the ingredients in her formula! Soy! Vegetal oils! Taurine!

I'm going to switch her to a different formula, I'm considering this one, it seems to be the "less awful" one I have seen so far in the stores, but there are still ingredients on there that wouldn't pass for a whole30. Do you know if ANY infant formulas would pass that test?

http://www.hipp.fr/f...f/FR2048.95.pdf

Basically I got off to a pretty bad start (solids too soon! Not breastfeeding beyond colostrum! rice cereal! formula with bad ingredients!) but I want to improve things as soon as possible.

ETA: this is her current formula http://www.frenchclick.co.uk/p-1462-gallia-ds-la-naissance-lait-1er-age-900g.aspx

The Hipp one seems better but is there a perfect, ideal formula out there at all?

[missmary]

I don't know of any commercially available baby formulas that pass the test. You could try the weston a price recipe, or maybe a milk bank? Breastfeeding moms donate their excess milk and make it availble for other babies this way in many cities.

https://www.hmbana.org/milk-bank-locations

http://www.westonaprice.org/childrens-health/recipes-for-homemade-baby-formula

Sorry it didn't work out for you to continue, but know that even if you end up needing to use commercial formula for a while longer it is ok. Do the best you can. Babies are resilient and strong. Once your baby is ready for solids you can refine things more.

[Robin Strathdee]

Miss Mary threw out some great options to look at.

Just as a side note: My girls were both formula babies. They are strong, healthy, happy, brilliant Good Food kids now. You do the best you can.

[CraftyCarnivore]

Please, please, please don't beat yourself up for feeding your kid formula.

[Robin D]

I'd like to add to the don't-beat-yourself-up thread here.

I breastfed my daughter exclusively until she was 5 1/2 months and drove myself absolutely crazy in the process. I thought her having ANY formula was the end of the world. It wouldn't have been. If it happens with the next baby then so be it. I'm going to try my hardest not to drive myself nuts with pumping and obsessing over every single ounce of breastmilk like I did with V. It was totally unhealthy.

There's a good book I read a few months ago that you might want to check out called Bottled Up (by Suzanne Barston). It really changed how I felt about the ridiculous amount of pressure we put on women to breastfeed. I'm a huge advocate for breastfeeding, and we should do more to support women who decide to breastfeed, but not at the cost of thier mental health and well being.

Have you thought about goat's milk? I keep hearing that's a great alternative.

[Moluv]

I weaned my oldest around 8 months and then he did about 1 of every 4 bottles of standard formula (maybe even soy, I cringe to think of it now) and the others were goat milk with liquid supplements recommended by our naturopath. He's 6 and AWESOME and totally a good food kid now. If I had a baby right now I probably would try the Weston A Price way, also Sally Fallon Morrel has a new book out in the same vein- Nourishing Kids or something like that.

But also, yes, so the best you can and don't stress too much. Babies have superhuman resiliency!

[lexgem]

Thanks for all the suggestions. Where I live not very many women donate to the milk bank so it's all given to the babies who are in NICU (makes sense, they need it most). I'm not comfortable making my own formula yet but I'll look at it a bit more just out of curiosity. I think I'll switch her to the better brand since it's time to switch her anyway as she grows.

I will look into Bottled up! I think what happened is I had a bunch of residual guilt over not BF, and eating better myself really brought it back to the front & center of my mind. Thankfully I'm feeling better now. I should just feel lucky that I know what I do now so that I introduce solids accordingly and DON'T introduce unhealthy foods like grains. She'll have them soon enough as she grows older, same for added sugars, at least I'll know to be careful when shopping for foods for her as she grows up. "Moderation" has taken on a very different meaning for me than it did even a week ago!

[Beets]

Agree with Robin D 100% I am completely pro-breastfeeding, babywearing, etc., but I think the pressure to do everything perfectly is just another way we make moms feel bad about themselves. Not helpful.

My good friend was really beating herself up over not being able to BF but she finally came to the conclusion that it's just one year of your kid's life and you have the rest of their lives to feed them well. Don't stress too much about it. Yes, breast is best but what's even better is having a mom who is fully present and not completely anxious and depressed. It's not worth it!

If you are worried about the emotional aspects of BFing then get into babywearing. Your baby will still benefit from that physical closeness.

I looked into the "formula" recipe from Weston Price when my 10mo son started gnawing my nipples raw and I was done with nursing and not quite ready for milk. But it's pretty intense and has a lot of ingredients for a sleep-deprived mama. And I think it would be stressful. (Like, holy crap! I'm down to the last bottle and I ran out of XYZ ingredient that takes two weeks to ship!) I still had some PPD, so I just tried to get him to choke down the least offensive organic formula (I think I used the brand rec'd by WAPF) I could find while trying to feed him good food. (He flat out refused goat's milk.)

There is a lot of other good info on the site about feeding babies when the time comes (liver, egg yolks, etc.). I also definitely suggest looking up Baby Led Weaning for that stage.

Good luck and focus on other stuff, mama.

[mommysfitlife]

Here's a recipe for natural raw formula. I can't vouch for the success of it, but am considering would consider it for my infant. I actually do breastfeed when I'm with her but while I'm at work I supplement with forumla. Anyway, here's the link:

http://www.seasonjohnson.blogspot.com/2011/03/raw-milk-baby-formula.html

[missmary]

Here's a recipe for natural raw formula. I can't vouch for the success of it, but am considering would consider it for my infant. I actually do breastfeed when I'm with her but while I'm at work I supplement with forumla. Anyway, here's the link:

http://www.seasonjoh...by-formula.html

The blogger you link is using the Weston A. Price raw milk formula recipe. It is exactly the same down to the acerola powder. I hate when people copy stuff around the web without crediting the source. hate it. but at least you know the recipe is actually well tested.

[Beets]

The blogger you link is using the Weston A. Price raw milk formula recipe. It is exactly the same down to the acerola powder. I hate when people copy stuff around the web without crediting the source. hate it. but at least you know the recipe is actually well tested.

Agreed. It's rampant thanks to Tumblr and Pinterest (and irresponsible blogging) but credit where credit is due.

And I was giving it some more thought and I guess if you were more organized than me (not difficult) it probably wouldn't be too hard to mix up the the formula once you got a system down.

Then again I nursed my daughter till she was 18mos even though I was done with around 12 weeks, and she never took a bottle (not once! and not by choice!) and I would NOT recommend that route either. Ugh. Still gives me bad vibes. Be kind to yourselves, mamas. There are plenty of healthy kids who grow up eating wonderful foods. And there is my EBF'd son who ate everything--till he turned two. And who now eats about ten foods.

[CaseyD]

Where I live, you can only get milk from the milk bank if there is some medical reason you can't breastfeed your baby (i.e. you are going through kemo or something big like that). That was not an option for me, unfortunately.

I beat myself up so bad over not being able to breastfed (no amount of professionals could ever get her to latch) that I pumped for a long time, and was very miserable doing that. I hope you don't beat yourself up over it. My daughter was mostly formula fed - and the cheapest stuff on the market (the mass production formulas are all the same, whatever the brand anyway). I hated the ingredient list but there was no way I could afford better. My daughter is almost 3, eats a great variety of healthy foods, is very intelligent, very happy, and not even close to overweight. The pro-breastfeeding people like to scare women into thinking that kids are doomed if they are formula fed. I get it, they're trying to reverse the pro-formula attitude that my parent's generation grew up with. I think children are in more trouble if they have unhappy moms. So make peace with all your choices and don't care about what anyone else is doing!

Did you read this post? http://whole9life.com/2013/04/feeding-our-children/ I think this is a great, down-to-Earth way to raise your kid from a food perspective (since you were also asking about food choices beyond formula). Set a good example at home. Give your kid the opportunity to experience lots of different healthy foods, but try to relax too. You will never be able to control everything that goes in their mouth, nor should you try. That was a tough one for me to get over, but I'm starting to realize that even though my daughter gets fed crap at the grandparents, she still comes home and asks for healthy foods. While her cousin is refusing to eat dinner because he wants cakes or cookies every night, the only food "fighting" we do in my household is over her wanting to eat more fruit. But, most the time she'll sit there and eat her veggies and meat first. That, to me, says I'm doing a good job.

[Javagal78]

There is actually a huge grass roots milk sharing movement happening world wide- Human Milk 4 Human Babies. You can find them on Facebook and they actually have pages for every state (and province and country, for international needs). Mamas donate their milk to other local mamas. It is a fantastic resource and worth looking into.

My younger 2 children did not get baby cereal. They went from breast to table foods. Baby cereals have an interesting background and, for most healthy, thriving babes, are completely unnecessary. I second Baby Led weaning!

My first babe was formula fed soy. I had an awful time with breast feeding and recovering from a c-section. We can't go back in time, unfortunately, but we can do the best job now with new knowledge. ((hugs)) mama! Don't beat yourself up!

[Robin D]

I wish I could like Casey D's post a la Facebook. Babies are much better off with happy mothers, whether that source of unhappiness is sleep deprivation, breastfeeding, or whatever, do what you need to do to fix it!