NURSE CLAIRE REPORTING:
If you have a baby right now, you need to read this post. (*note: the information below is not intended to be medical advice – just sharing info from mom to moms. )
ICYMI, there is a massive shortage of baby formula in this country. I am not here to debate the merits of breastfeeding……everyone has heard “breast is best” but some women cannot breastfeed for a number of legitimate reasons. 85% of American babies start out being breastfed, but most do not continue. The reasons for this are multifaceted & beyond the scope of this post. So, if you’re looking to criticize these women, then move on and remember even St Therese’s mother had to entrust her to the care of a wet nurse. The point of this post is to charitably help those who are truly struggling to feed their babies right now. This multi-part series will look at the abysmal standards of U.S. infant formula, the higher standards maintained in other parts of the world, and the actions of the U.S. government to help ease this crisis.
But first, let’s quickly look at what’s got so many moms scrambling for help. In November 2021, a nationwide formula shortage emerged and was attributed to “supply chain shortages.” In February, an outbreak of Salmonella and Cronobacter exacerbated the shortage when Abbott Laboratories voluntarily recalled four of their most popular brands. Even though an investigation has determined Abbott’s formula was not the result of the illnesses, its manufacturing facility remains shuttered some three months later per the FDA and no timeline for its reopening has been given. Regardless of the reason, there is no end in sight: the national formula supply was down 43% last week, an increase from the week prior which saw the shortage at 40%.
So what can moms do? Importing European baby formula is an option especially in light of the fact that it’s of higher quality and is generally healthier than its American counterparts (more on this later). One such importer is www.formuland.com , a site I have personally used. However, it appears this idea has caught on with moms of hungry babies & many of the European products are rapidly selling out – get them if you can. The Biden Administration, of course, is limiting retailers from ordering imported formula, so I don’t expect these supplies to be replenished any time soon. If you can employ a trusted friend or relative as a wet nurse, then certainly that’s an option available to you. Human milk banks are also a potential source of milk, but there are some cons. First, that milk is pasteurized, which can damage proteins and destroy micronutrients. Second, can you really trust anyone to be unvaccinated & following a healthy lifestyle? How would you know if said donor just guzzled an entire pot of coffee before pumping out caffeinated milk for your baby? Or worse? Tons of websites have popped up where women are selling their breast milk, but how safe and reliable is that? By my estimation, there is really only one option: MAKE YOUR OWN.
Perhaps this shortage is a blessing in disguise; American infant formula is the epitome of processed food, often containing soy, genetically modified components, pesticide-laced ingredients, and synthetic, lab-created nutrients. Making your own homemade baby formula seems like the cleanest, healthiest, non-breast milk option to nourish your baby. Source raw milk if you can; otherwise, choose grass-fed, organic milk that has been pasteurized, not “ultra-pasteurized” which completely destroys nutrients by denaturing proteins. If your baby has a cow milk allergy, goat milk is the best alternative. You will need to add nutrients, since cow and goat milk lack the completeness of human milk. There are a multitude of recipes available online to make your own infant formula, but caution is warranted: Never use any “vegan” or vegetarian recipes. Never use skim milk, 1%, 2% or fat free milk as babies need fat for the development of their nervous system. And always source organic ingredients.
Here is just one example of a quality homemade formula:
2 cups raw cow milk OR organic grass-fed, whole milk yogurt
1 7/8 cups filtered water
1/4 cup liquid whey (straining the yogurt will provide this – do not use powdered whey)
4 Tablespoon lactose
1/4 tsp Bifidobacterium infantis powder
2-4 Tablespoons raw or pasteurized cream (2 tablespoons if milk is from Jersey cows, 4 if milk is from Holstein)
1/2 tsp cod liver oil unflavored (do not substitute fish or krill oil as they lack vitamin D)
1/4 tsp butter oil unflavored
1 tsp sunflower oil (ONLY cold-pressed, organic, and unrefined)
1 tsp organic extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp organic virgin coconut oil
2 tsp nutritional yeast (use the smallest flakes you can find so they fit through bottle nipples)
2 tsp grass fed gelatin
1/4 tsp acerola powder
Instructions:
Fill a 2 cup measuring cup with filtered water and remove 2 tablespoons (this will give you 1 7/8 cup water).
Pour about half the water into a pan and heat on medium.
Add the gelatin and lactose and let dissolve, stirring occasionally.
When gelatin and lactose are dissolved, remove pan from heat and add the rest of the water to cool.
Stir in the coconut oil and butter oil until melted.
Put remaining ingredients in a blender.
Add the water mixture and blend for a few seconds.
Place baby bottles or a glass jar and refrigerate.
When ready to use, warm in a pan of heated water or a bottle warmer. NEVER microwave!
Many of these ingredients can be sourced here: https://www.radiantlifecatalog.com/ nourishing-traditions-kit-for-homemade-baby-formula-domestic-version/
It’s important to make this fresh every day or two.
If baby struggles with constipation, 1 teaspoon of molasses can be added.
If cow milk is unavailable, goat milk is suitable, but be aware it must be used with caution as it lacks folate and is low in vitamin B12, both of which are necessary. Therefore the addition of nutritional yeast to provide folate is essential, along with finely-grated chicken liver.
The Weston A. Price foundation has many resources available on this topic. I highly recommend visiting their articles to learn more (www.westonaprice.org) and to find non-cow- milk recipes.
Raw milk can be sourced here: www.realmilk.com or GetRawMilk.com
Next up, we will take a closer look at the horrific products that pass for “infant formula” these days so stay tuned for part two. In the meantime, happy feeding! – Nurse Claire
Thank you for invaluable service Mark. Your information about the scamdemic and now this situation has been an incredible help.
Please extend to Nurse Clare my gratitude for her tireless work during the last several years.
You, Nurse Clare, Dr. Beep, and Ann Barnhardt have saved many lives.
“ultra-pasteurized…destroys nutrients by denaturing proteins”
Is the concern here that vitamins & minerals will be broken down too much / too soon? Because human digestion itself denatures proteins (breaking them down to small peptides or amino acids).
Nurse Claire: “The concern is the ultra-pasteurization process ruins the nutrition of the milk itself. So you’re drinking a cup of empty calories….there’s nothing for your body to digest”
That re-states; it does not explain.
I’m sure the claim is true (over-heating milk will destroy some key nutrients ie. break down their molecules).
Still, I’d avoid adorning phrases – such as “by denaturing proteins” – that don’t add much.
Hi Jeff,
Different proteins denature at different temperatures and some are more sensitive than others. With milk, when the proteins are denatured by the high-heat UHT process, their solubility is affected, as well as other enzymes etc within the milk. There are quite a few sources out there that discuss this process, and the advantages of raw milk in particular or even just “regular” pasteurized milk. In the interest of brevity, I won’t link them all but here are just a few:
https://www.livestrong.com/article/507949-loss-of-nutritional-value-in-ultra-pasteurized-vs-pasteurized-milk/
https://www.realmilk.com/risks-pasteurized-milk/
This article demonstrates that the proteins are so damaged by UHT that their solubility is affected but then goes on to say there’s no change in nutritional value. I don’t know how anyone can honestly make such an argument: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf00103a004
https://nourishingourchildren.org/2012/03/11/why-eliminate-soy-and-pasteurized-milk/
https://nourishingourchildren.org/2020/03/26/new-evidence-that-processing-destroys-milk-proteins/
I stick by more original notion that this milk is devoid of nutrition for anyone, let alone infants.
Nurse Claire, thank you for the reply.
I’ve tried to explain this already but, when it comes to protein and by the nature of digestion and the chemical processes involved, “denaturing” and “solubility” make no difference because the proteins are broken down violently – into tiny pieces – by digestion anyway.
If I’m smashing marble statue into dust, does it matter if it started out as perfect or damaged? Of course not. Because a lot worse damage is about to happen.
If any readers could use a quick reminder of the chemistry, here it is:
1. amino acids – think of each molecule (each amino acid) as an individual paper clip
2. peptides – amino acids linked to form a chain – think of a peptide as a chain of paper clips
3. denatured proteins – amino acids / peptides linked as one long super-ultra-chain
4. folded proteins – think of it as the super-long-chain having somehow folded itself into a funky 3-D sculpture, kind of like a ball, but not quite, as its actual folds & surfaces do matter for that special protein to do its special job.
To be useful *in cells* – say, as a working enzyme – a protein must be in state 4. Plain enough.
But here’s the thing. Every human protein is soooo special (relating its shape & content to its particular job) that the body doesn’t trust whatever plant & animal proteins you just ate. Instead, the stomach & intestines violently break them up to states 1 and 2. The tiny pieces are absorbed and distributed to your cells, who then rebuild as needed to states 3 and 4.
So the stomach & intestines don’t care if a food protein started out as a 3 or 4, because cells gotta rebuild their special needs anyway from states 1 and 2.
P.S. Now, is raw milk better in other ways? (like, say, vitamins) Yes.
My real point here is: “marketing blather” is universal. Just because web site is on our side, & sounds impressive with its talk of “denatured proteins,” does not make it accurate. Exaggerating, going over the top, saying more than one actually knows, is universal. (hmm – a piece of Original Sin?)
“To be fair to Jeff, he’s not wrong but he’s over simplifying.
Yes, the stomach acid causes ingested proteins to denature. That’s the beginning of digestion. But when it’s done to milk via ultra heat pasteurization, the protein is nearly destroyed and amino acids are not able to be utilized at all by the body”
Sorry Mark but amino acids – or small peptides – are exactly the useful part of protein that the gut absorbs during digestion. This is why bodybuilders sometimes consume straight-up amino acids as a substitute for food/proteins. Faster absorption of the useful part. The broken-down amino acids are what enters the blood & gets used by body processes (muscle building, tissue repair, immune cell creation etc.).
Next day, I feel like my explanation is not clear. Another little try. Think about cooking. Well-scrambled eggs & well-done steak also have proteins denatured, “destroyed” by heat. That’s what cooking is. Yet no loss of protein value. Digestion breaks it all down to the same small peptides & amino acids. But other nutrients may be lost, say vitamins. Same principle when you over-heat milk – ultra-pasteurizating.
P.S. This is why it’s silly to buy “collagen” food powders. No price tag, no marketing blather can make your gut & blood absorb the fancy-sounding proteins. Only the broken-down fragments…which you can get from a nice beef soup or grandma’s jello.
So apparently no one knows that for years before baby formula, mothers gave their children evaporated milk, water, and karo syrup. My dad was born during WW2, and was given that. There are even doctor’s prescriptions from the 60s recommending it. Let’s not worry.
Well, people are panicking, so I’m providing solutions.
I know, I”m helping too. It’s all good. Let’s remember it’s all of the devil.
I come from a poor family. My mother breastfed me but not my siblings. She couldn’t produce enough milk. She fed my siblings Pet evaporated milk and Karo syrup. I doubt she used vitamins or even sterilized the bottles. All my relatives used evaporated milk and Karo syrup. No baby died from this formula recipe.
Ok
Thank you both for this. It doesn’t impact my life but I’m sure this will help many people. You’re both great people!
Every help is good help, thank you. I think my young relative with babies would be skeptical of anything not out of a can at this point, but I will share this, as I shared with them that as a child of the 50’s, we were fed the Carnations formula and we all turned out fine. I have read however, that baby vitamins should be added to the mix, as it is incomplete nutrition for baby.
Never in my wildest dreams would I imagine we would see in America food insecurity for our babies. There is not one good reason for this except in Washington. When ventilator shortages were evident Washington made sure ventilators got made. Why is our government not ensuring formula is cranked out 24/7. We all know the answer, and if we don’t know the answer, we’re stupid. Hopefully people are waking up, but does it matter anymore. When food for babies is treated so casually, who do they care about. Bastards.
I was Carnation fed in the 70s. I’m fine. My grandmother gave all her children milk straight out of the cow using the bottles she had for the lambs. My grandfather worked on the telegraph lines in the summer and she had to keep the farm going by herself, so it was easier I guess. The oldest of her children is now 90. What an awful situation!
“And woe to them that are with child, and that give suck in those days.” Matthew 24:19
A2A2 milk is available at health food stores and even Fred Meyer. It is more digestible than A1, which the majority of the US dairy herd produces. Both human and goat milk are A2.
https://www.medicinenet.com/difference_between_a2_milk_and_regular_milk/article.htm
I have a 8 month old granddaughter. My daughter-in-law foresaw the shortage months ago and stocked and baby is eating some people food already and will make past the one year marker. When my d-i-l went to Target to get baby food of any kind, there was none. None. If the babies make it to birth, then the wicked ones want to starve them or inject them or whatever can be done to harm them. The noose is tightening in many ways.
May God reward you Mark and Nurse Claire for this incredible work of charity. There’s one passage here that I’d like to point out:
Perhaps this shortage is a blessing in disguise; American infant formula is the epitome of processed food, often containing soy, genetically modified components, pesticide-laced ingredients, and synthetic, lab-created nutrients.
Yes. And the same is true for processed food in general from GMOs. We should all make a point to eat as naturally as possible. We have no way to ensure that the quality controls are there and are doing what they’re supposed to do at these massive factories churning out this stuff. And, do we also know that none of this is outsourced to or insourced from China? I know it takes longer and can be inconvenient but we should all think about going as organic as we can.
Upvote!
I am really loving the return to basics, self-reliance, individual and community solutions.
One of my closest friends had a baby who had difficulty nursing, so she decided to do some research and made her own formula from a recipe she found online.
It seemed to be working, but after a month the baby was chronically fussy, stopped hitting milestones, and eventually stopped cooing. Pediatrician gently pointed out the critical nutrition that was missing from this homemade concoction.
I trust Nurse Claire. Otherwise, guys PLEASE exercise some prudence! Do not follow random internet recipes for something as important as formula, no matter how many mommy-bloggers insist they’re safe, or how many allegedly “did x and lived to tell the tale.” People overestimate their own knowledge all the time, and the latest “trust the experts” debacle comes laced with the temptation to a reactionary intellectual pride and all the folly that comes with thinking you know more than you actually do.
Thanks for the post!
P.S. In aforementioned anecdote, mom corrected and immediately saw improvement, and baby is fine now.
And yet, there was a time when there was no such thing as “baby formula”.
“In 1865, chemist Justus von Liebig developed, patented, and marketed an infant food, first in a liquid form and then in a powdered form for better preservation. Liebig’s formula—consisting of cow’s milk, wheat and malt flour, and potassium bicarbonate—was considered the perfect infant food.”
Children are resilient.
Eek I’ve heard that phrase way too much over the past two years 😉
Fivethousandi: What phrase? “Children are resilient”?
Well, they are. I’ve been raising kids for 30 years; have them at home for at least 10 more. My experience is they can put up with a lot. I’ve given them Ivermectin straight out of the bottle (against the advice of the Medical community – “science”). And I’ve completely ignored direct Pediatrician’s advice. Our Pediatrician told us to to keep one of our adopted children with a condition on a strict diet, and our son looked like an Auschwitz survivor as a result. The advice was counterintuitive to me from the beginning. Our child never started to thrive until we (I) completely ignored the Pediatrician’s advice and just let the child eat anything and everything he wanted (I insisted). Twelve years later he is a healthy, normal (relatively speaking) 15 year old. And now vaccines. We moved across the country and I quit my job to keep them away from State Doctors and a government who think our kids need mRNA jabs to survive (“science”/”experts”). We’re doing just fine with home remedies.
I look back over the years and if I felt like it I could tally huge numbers of mistakes. But overall, I think the kids have done the best when wifey and I just follow common sense, relax and parent the way it comes naturally. It (expert advice) doesn’t matter. That’s the point. The kids will let you know of something’s not working … so try something else.
My two cents.
So glad to see solid advice being put out there, truly a community within a community taking care of our little ones, our future and hope for the restoration to all things in Christ. 🙂
Thank you for posting the link to RealMilk.com, you can find us there, 2by2 farm 😉 if anyone is in Northern Wisconsin or the UP of Michigan, my lil herd of French Alpine and Alpine goats are at the ready and already have two families making this exact recipe for their infants and they are thriving.