Homemade Baby Formula

Today I am going to let my daughter who had twins on August 22, 2013 talk to you about homemade baby formula.

My babies were born at 34 weeks to the day. My sweet baby boy who was the top baby, and not supposed to come out first, broke his water early. It was three days before I was going to be 34 weeks so they stopped the contractions and made me wait 3 days then induced labor early on the morning of the 22. At 6:07 PM my baby girl was born she weighed 4 pounds 11 ounces. At 6:10 PM my boy was born he weighed 4 pounds 3 ounces.

They were the most precious things I had ever seen in my life. I got to hold my sweet girl for a while but the boy was having some difficulties breathing. I held him for all of two minutes before they whisked him and his sister down to the NICU. About two hours later I got to go visit them. It was heartbreaking to see them both inside those incubators. My girl only had an IV in her my boy though had a cannula in his nose to help him with breathing and IV. I know many babies have more problems than mine did, but it does not matter what you know. It still kills you inside to see your babies there knowing there isn't much you can do for them.

I knew there was one thing I could do though, I could give them the best darn milk they had ever had. And so began my strict pumping regimen. From that first night I began pumping religiously, every 3 hours. I went to the hospital at least once a day to bring in milk and cuddle with my babies. A week later my first baby came home she wasn't breastfeeding so I was still trying to pump every three hours but was having to supplement with formula. Four days later the other one came home and there went my pumping. I was still trying but I was pumping less and supplementing more.

I started noticing that my babies were more and more fussy and pooping less and less. They went a week without pooping and screaming all day before I finally asked my pediatrician if the formula could be a problem. She told me that it wasn't that around their age babies start pooping less. That just didn't sit right with me. So I pumped and saved the milk until I had enough to feed them only my milk for a whole day. After the second feeding they were both pooping like crazy. The pediatrician was wrong, needless to say she did not stick around long for that and other reasons. I tried it two more times with same results and I knew without a doubt that the formula was causing my problems, but I didn't know what to do.

I began researching about different baby formulas looking for a good option and became absolutely horrified by the things I was finding out about them. Most formulas contain soy which is really bad for babies. The iron in the formula may constipate babies if it is not the right kind there have also been studies linking too much iron to cognitive problems. There are also many other bad things done to formulas and you can read about them in this article.

Then my cousin who had a premie son 2 years ago introduced me to the Weston A. Price Foundation and their homemade baby formula that she used for her son. She said it was great and I was willing to try anything to help my babies. So I got all the ingredients and tried it. At first it seemed like they were spitting up more and it smelled awful, I almost wanted to give up but decided to stick out a little bit longer. Soon their stomachs got used to it and now I absolutely love it. It does take a bit of work each day but it is well worth it knowing my babies are getting a healthy organic formula.

Once the twins were used to the formula they started pooping at least once a day and stopped fussing all the time. When I went to their two month check up my girl weighed 9 pounds 15 ounces and my boy weighed 9 pounds 5 ounces they had doubled in size! I love this formula and can't even begin to tell ya'll how much this has helped my babies.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients

• 2 cups whole raw cow's milk, preferably from pasture-fed cows
• 1/4 cup homemade liquid whey (See recipe for whey, below) Note: Do NOT use powdered whey or whey from making cheese (which will cause the formula to curdle). Use only homemade whey made from yoghurt, kefir or separated raw milk.
• 4 tablespoons lactose¹
• 1/4 teaspoon bifidobacterium infantis
• 2 or more tablespoons good quality cream (preferably not ultrapasteurized), more if you are using milk from Holstein cows
• 1/2 teaspoon unflavored high-vitamin or high-vitamin fermented cod liver oil or 1 teaspoon regular cod liver oil
• 1/4 teaspoon high-vitamin butter oil (optional)¹
• 1 teaspoon expeller-expressed sunflower oil¹
• 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil¹
• 2 teaspoons coconut oil¹
• 2 teaspoons Frontier brand nutritional yeast flakes¹
• 2 teaspoons gelatin¹
• 1-7/8 cups filtered water
• 1/4 teaspoon acerola powder^1,

1. Available from Radiant Life 888-593-8333, www.radiantlifecatalog.com.

Instructions

• Put 2 cups filtered water into a pyrex measuring pitcher and remove 2 tablespoons (that will give you 1-7/8 cups water).
• Pour about half of the water into a pan and place on a medium flame.
• Add the gelatin and lactose to the pan and let dissolve, stirring occasionally.
• When the gelatin and lactose are dissolved, remove from heat and add the remaining water to cool the mixture.
• Stir in the coconut oil and optional high-vitamin butter oil and stir until melted.
• Meanwhile, place remaining ingredients into a blender.
• Add the water mixture and blend about three seconds.
• Place in glass bottles or a glass jar and refrigerate.
• Before giving to baby, warm bottles by placing in hot water or a bottle warmer. NEVER warm bottles in a microwave oven.

Variation: Goat Milk Formula

Although goat milk is rich in fat, it must be used with caution in infant feeding as it lacks folic acid and is low in vitamin B₁₂, both of which are essential to the growth and development of the infant. Inclusion of nutritional yeast to provide folic acid is essential. To compensate for low levels of vitamin B₁₂, if preparing the Milk-Based Formula (above) with goat's milk, add 2 teaspoons organic raw chicken liver, frozen for 14 days, finely grated to the batch of formula.

If the only choice available to you is commercial milk, choose whole milk, preferably organic and unhomogenized, and culture it with a piima or kefir culture to restore enzymes (available from G.E.M. Cultures 253-588-2922 or http://www.gemcultures.com).

You can support your local health food store and get many of these ingredients there or online at radiant life.

Radiant Life also sells formula kits.

To find out where to get milk go to Real Milk Finder.

Remember you know your baby best and if you feel like what you are doing is not working, no matter what the pediatrician says  or what friends or family say. Do what you think is best for you and your baby. For me it was using homemade formula.

Any questions or experiences using this formula please comment below.