My Experience with Raw Milk Formula

I've held off on creating a public post about this subject for quite some time. One reason being I wanted to have enough experience under my belt to be confident in my information, and the other reason being that this particular subject has such a level of controversy around it I usually aim to steer clear of. This is also a more personal subject I tend to avoid on a business page. However, given the rough times I found myself in with my third baby, I'd like to offer some hope for mothers who find themselves in a similar situation.

Disclaimer: As I struggled to feed my own baby, I understand the deep pain and shame that can arise from not being able to "properly" feed your baby, and in a world that does not cater to mothers or babies, it can be incredibly difficult to accomplish the bare minimum. I am the last person to ever judge a mother on well, being a mother.

A little background

My third baby was born with a tongue tie, lip tie, and double cheek ties. As you can imagine, that made breastfeeding quite difficult (basically impossible). Thanks to some wonderful friends, I was able to get through the first three months with pumped breast milk from me as well as other moms. However, after three months, I needed an alternative plan. I did not want to offer my baby conventional formula. I had worked hard to avoid all harmful ingredients during pregnancy and those first three months breastfeeding, that to me, giving in to something that had all of those ingredients (and more) I had been avoiding for so long in the name of health, seemed like a total failure. Thankfully, I knew about the Weston A Price Foundation, and thought they might have a solution. To my joy, they did!

Homemade Baby Formula

I got to work and read as much on the subject of homemade formula as I could, the Weston A Price formula included. The Weston A Price website even has a page for frequently asked questions for concerned parents. I began giving my baby the raw cow's milk formula at three months of age, and he has been drinking it happily and healthily for almost nine months now. I am happy to report that he went from the 25 percentile to now the 97th percentile, which I believe was a direct result of the homemade formula (a similar instance happened to my first child when we switched from pasteurized dairy to our raw Guernsey milk). While it can be inconvenient to make homemade formula in those very early days when you are so tired, I believe it to be a necessary inconvenience *especially* in those early days when nutrition is SO impactful for infants. I understand that from conventional health advice, giving a young baby something as controversial as raw milk, sounds horrific and experimental. On the contrary though, raw milk is something that has kept thousands of babies alive before the invention of commercialized formula. While I would certainly do my due diligence in research on the subject and most certainly the farm in which I bought milk, raw milk itself should not be a concern. I would also make sure to try to buy from a farm that has certified A2 cows as the A2 molecular structure more closely resembles human milk (goat's and sheep's milk is naturally A2 as well as most Guernsey and Jersey cows).

Why Conventional Formula is a Tertiary Choice

There is no contest in the superiority of breastmilk. Breastmilk straight from mom to baby has immeasurable and measurable benefits and is superior in every way to any other form of feeding, this is not up for debate. However, there are instances where it is not an option for mothers and so a second best is homemade formula with real, natural ingredients like the Weston A Price Formula. Conventional formula is jam-packed with all of the no-no ingredients of the holistic mother's guide (I just made that up, but I'm sure it exists somewhere). Not only is there not one single ingredient left in its natural state, but there are many ingredients that don't actually exist in any form in nature (synthetic vitamins). I've shared my disdain for man-made junk (and many studies backing that sentiment) on the redbellfarms Instagram page. There are many other places to look for issues with the ingredients, issues that I won't be discussing any further here. Obviously, it should go without saying that a fed baby is better than an unfed baby and that there are many other factors at play than simply nutrition, this post is merely meant to inform mothers that there are options other than conventional formula.

The Cost

You might be wondering about the cost comparison between homemade formula and conventional formula. Based on our area products retail prices (The Ozarks), the monthly cost of homemade formula is around $65-80, which even with WIC is much less than even the cheapest conventional formula. So for much less cost, one could feed their baby a highly nutritious homemade formula versus a higher cost and less-than ingredients with conventional formula, with the only issue being convenience.

A Few Tips

I followed the homemade formula to a T except I did not add in sunflower oil. Per my own research and experience, seed oils are a major ingredient we avoid. In creating the formula, I used all of the brands Weston A Price suggested. I had a hard time finding the correct brand of Lactose, to which I finally found on Amazon. We already used and had on hand most of the other ingredients since we follow an ancestral diet any way.

I made sure to grab raw milk that had a thick cream line and was A2 always.

When preparing the formula, I gathered all ingredients in a specific order every time to ensure I followed the recipe exactly and didn't leave anything out. I also chose to make the formula daily in the evenings when my husband was home so I would not have any distractions.

Travelling with Homemade Formula

In the day-to-day life, travelling with homemade formula is not that difficult. You simply need a cooler and you or your baby's caretaker will need a place to make hot water to warm the milk (preferably in a glass bottle). However, travelling a greater distance over several days can be a challenge. Since I did not have to do this until my baby was much older (8 months), I was happy to simply bring along plain raw milk. There were instances in which powdered formula was a necessary option for me to which I chose Kendamil Organic formula which offers significantly less harmful ingredients than the mainstream formula brands.

I hope this post serves you well and am happy to answer any questions you may have. Just email me!

I write this to offer help for mothers that are seeking alternative routes to conventional formula. I am not an expert, just a mom with a fierce desire to give her babies the absolute best.