One of the most controversial topics surrounding the issue of breastfeeding is what a woman should do if she finds herself unable to nurse her baby. An even more prickly subject is whether learning how to make homemade baby formula is a good idea.
I myself nursed all three of my children for an extended period of time. The first two were nursed for two years and the third for three and a half years. I practiced parent led weaning for the first 2 children as I did not want to be nursing and pregnant at the same time. For my third and youngest child, I simply allowed her to wean herself whenever she chose.
I’ve often considered what I would have done should I have found myself unable to nurse. Certainly commercial formulas are not a good option as these highly processed powders are loaded with rancid vegetable oils and denatured proteins. Even the organic baby formulas on the market should be avoided for this reason.
Is Homemade Formula Superior to Donor Breastmilk?
What about homemade baby formula made with milk, kefir, or yogurt from grassfed cows or free roaming, foraging goats? Would this formula be superior to human breastmilk from a donor milk bank?
To me, most folks’ opinion on this issue basically boils down to whether they feel that human breastmilk is suitable for an infant regardless of the diet of the Mother. I am of the persuasion that the breastfeeding Mother’s diet is critical to the nutrient density of her breastmilk. I wrote about this in an article commenting on the news story about a vegan Mother whose breastfed baby died.
Nutrient starved Mother = nutrient poor breastmilk
Science is backing this up. Published 2019 research found that the diversity of beneficial probiotics varies greatly from woman to woman perhaps due to dietary factors.
Color and Creamline of Breastmilk Varies Based on Diet
I know from personal experience how my diet affected the color and thickness of my breastmilk. With my first child, I ate everything organic but did not consume many traditional fats or sacred foods. My breastmilk was white with little cream on the top. My baby was also hungry all the time and wanted to nurse frequently. He also spit up a lot which I now know was my consumption of pasteurized organic dairy and improperly prepared grains during that time.
With my next 2 children, my breastmilk went from white to beige and had considerably more fat simply by adding lots of butter, cream, egg yolks, grassfed meat, and fish eggs to my diet. As an added bonus, my children were satisfied more quickly and stayed full much longer between feedings. They also never spit up unless I ate out at a restaurant or had consumed some low quality, non-Traditionally prepared food for whatever reason.
I sure wish I had frozen a few ounces of that breastmilk before and after my Real Food conversion. A picture would have been worth a thousand words!
Few Breastfeeding Women Follow a Real Food, Traditional Diet
Because the vast majority of women do not follow a Real Food, Traditional diet and because I so clearly observed the difference in my own breastmilk when I made the change myself, I would have chosen to make a homemade baby formula with raw milk from grassfed cows instead of seeking donor breastmilk.
To me, it would have been way too risky and far too likely that the donor breastmilk would have come from Moms drinking coffee or diet drinks, eating fast food, taking over the counter prescription drugs and the like. At least with grassfed cows, you know what they are eating and that they aren’t taking any drugs!
Holder Method of Pasteurization
Then there’s also the huge problem that many donor milk banks pasteurize the breastmilk!
And, no, the “Holder method of pasteurization” used by breastmilk banks is just as damaging as conventional pasteurization at dairy plants.
Yes, the Holder method is not as high (62.5ºC/144.5ºF) as flash pasteurization (71ºC/160ºF or higher), but all the enzymes and probiotics are still destroyed at 48ºC/118ºF, so don’t buy that line frequently spouted by donor bank advocates.
I give my opinion on this topic with one caveat.
If I could have found a few Moms that I knew who were eating a Real Food diet, I definitely would have accepted their breastmilk donations for my child if necessary.
But, from a donor milk bank, this information is 100% unknown. And, with Real Food Moms in the minority, using donor milk is just not worth the risk.
What about you? Would you have chosen homemade formula or a donor breastmilk bank? Why or why not?
Oh Sarah I have a struggle! I would NEVER get someone else’s milk, for one. I am WAY too picky about what I put into my body! I am in my 7th month of breastfeeding my second child. When did you begin introducing some solid foods? My baby is not interested as of now and honestly neither am I. I do not want to risk my milk supply dwindling but wanted your opinion on when you began supplimenting solids? Second part…My husband is only about 50% on board with a traditional diet. He is all for the homemade cream cheese and fermented veggies and soaked grains (although the grains are not fresh as I do not have a food mill, he doesn’t agree that is a necessity). I also do not have access to raw dairy at an afforadable price (local healthfood store has it for 7.50 a half gallon!). My little one does spit up with some regularity. Though I eat a fully traditional diet (except for a few things such as raw dairy when it isn’t in my budget, cod liver oil, and I do drink some coffee) I was wondering if she spits up due to those non changes? So those are my problems….I would love to know (in addition to these points) if you have made or plan on making a post in regards to people around you (family, friends, HUSBANDS) and how to implement these huge lifestyle changes. My husband loves the “comfort” of the food he “grew up on” and though he is going along with MOST of the changes I have made over the past several months he still struggles. BTW, I have always been “healthy”, “natural” and “organic” and that is one of the reasons he is so confused about why all these changes!
I do think pasteurized dairy eaten by the mother does contribute significantly to spitting up in the baby. You don’t need to do many solids at that age .. but I would try some soft boiled egg yolk for sure. Just a few tastes off the spoon is so great for baby’s developing brain.
And, if you make homemade soups, puree some for baby. These are excellent first foods.
Thanks, as for the other items i was asking about (husbands)…I made a post on my blog and if you get the time I would love if you would check it out…http://wp.me/p1wWtl-2E
As someone who implemented these changes many years ago I would love your input!
I also initially thought raw milk or goat milk …but I think if you can educate people in the process of donor milk that would be wonderful. You need to make sure you educate people and not arbitrarily get angry because people don’t think the way you do. Believe me vying for non GMO’s I have a chance to be angry constantly but each day I realize anger takes away my strength and passion increases it.
I would probably ask a nursing friend first, and supplement with goat’s milk.
So well said Natalie 🙂
I donated breastmilk to a milk bank for two years. Before I was allowed to donate, I had to answer a million (very invasive) questions about my health, diet, habits, and sexual behaviors. But I answered them, because I knew it was serious business. I had to promise to adhere to strict guidelines about drug usage, and I knew my milk was tested frequently. If I took something for a headache, I had to wait a certain number of hours for the drug to clear my system before I was allowed to pump milk for donation. I could pump and freeze for my own baby, but not for the bank. The milk bank was careful to match my baby’s age with the recipient’s age, so the babies would be on the same growth curve. I know where my recipient baby lived, and why she needed donor milk. (I still keep her in mind, although she’s now almost 11 years old.) She had severe allergies to other milk products, including organic goat’s milk. Homemade was not an option for her. As a donor, knowing that I was not only feeding my own baby, but another fragile baby as well, I was very careful about my diet. I didn’t want my own baby ingesting artificial nonsense, so I naturally didn’t want the recipient baby to, either. However, I know it was terribly expensive for the recipient family to receive the donated milk. Homemade would be much cheaper for most folks. But for some babies, homemade is just not an option.
In addition to donating through the milk bank, I also provided a three friends with unpasteurized milk for their babies that they were having trouble breastfeeding. But they knew me, knew my habits, and knew I provided high quality milk. They could tell by the health of my own two. All told, I nursed my own two daughters, and I have three milk children.
Gah. sorry if my comment was bitchy. i just get so sick of comments about donor milk. do people really think mamas who feed their own babies, and still make time to pump and store donor milk are really just walking around eating fast food and spreading aids? come on…. i wish common sense was more common, some times. we all want the best for our babies and the best thing for them is human milk.
You’d be shocked to discover how many young mom’s have NO clue about nutrition in regard to breastmilk/breast feeding. Some are so totally clueless it’s disgusting. I have been an infant day care provider for 22 years and I know whereof I speak.
D,
She isn’t talking about those moms…she is talking about ones who also take the time to become a milk donor…I seriously doubt any of the ‘clueless’ moms you referenced would take the initiative to be a donor.
As a “young mom” I find your comment pretty darn offensive. I eat better than pretty much every single older mom at our local play group. As a matter of fact most of the younger moms are the ones asking me about what I’m eating while the older ones are contented to feed their kids Happy Meals and Mac N’ Cheese and roll their eyes when I’m talking.
My cousin is a donor – and I would call her clueless about nutrition. Very pro standard American diet. I would only get milk from a family
member or close friend who ate very well.
NOT all donor milk is pasteurized. Some places just hook up moms together and do the medical paperwork. Then milk is frozen and sent on or picked up.
I’m 10 weeks along and praying I’m able to breastfeed. Living in the NYC-area, I’m not sure how fast I’ll be able to find raw milk if I can’t breastfeed the baby (its illegal to sell it in the city). This information is very helpful for me to store when the time comes. I’ve been on a mostly traditional foods diet for about a year and it is fantastic, I cured my slight hypothyroidism! (blood results came back this week with no trace of a thyroid problem). I attribute it mostly to eating lots of good, nutritious fats again.
Unfortunately my morning sickness/nausea has made grass-fed ground beef repulsive to me along with avocados. 🙁 Hoping it passes quickly as my diet has suffered in the past few weeks because of it.
I just read an article somewhere which said morning sickness can be helped by eating foods rich in vitamin B6. Some of those foods are: baked potato (with the skin); bananas; salmon; chicken; spinach (cooked); avocado (sorry but it’s on the list!); turkey; hamburger; collard greens; brown rice. That list goes in order of highest to lowest concentration of B6 per food source. One medium baked potato each day would probably solve the problem quickly, and add a good sized dollop of real butter if you can do that. Hope that’s helpful.
I have always wondered if a Traditional diet helps with nausea and vomiting during pregnancy. I have always been very sick for my pregnancies and have only recently discovered Traditional diets/WAPF. My husband and I would like to have another baby but I’m scared to be so sick again. Does anyone have any stats on whether this improves with your diet?
The level of morning sickness varies completely from one pregnancy to another with the same woman on the same diet so stats would be very hard to come by. It would be extremely difficult to prove a change in diet was an isolated causal factor.
Yes I was on a ‘mostly’ TF diet (I say mostly b/c my husband still loves his chips; at least we exclusively shop at Trader Joe’s) and have been doing my best to stick to it… thanks for the info on B6! My doctor said the same thing and last night I had some kombucha and pierogis (yes I know, I know, not on the list but delicious!) slathered with real butter (mmmmmmmm butter) and felt great.
Medically cleared DONORS.
I would attempt to find a friend who could help. It is important to note that donor bank breastmilk is pasteurized.