Pediatrician's Homemade Goat Milk Infant Formula

I have to start of by saying breast is best. So far I have nursed both my girls. But due to a variety of problems I have had to supplement with formula. Several months ago the thought dawned on me that I had no clue what was actually inside the infant formula that I had fed and was feeding my babies. I hadn’t given this a second thought.  I remembered back in college sitting in a class where were the professor discussed the high amounts of sugar in commercialized formula. Back then I didn’t really care because I didn’t have kids and thought I would exclusively breastfeed (because no ever has issues with breastfeeding ;). I wasn’t even loyal to a certain brand I just bought whatever formula I had a coupon for that day. Are commercial formulas the evil and terrible for babies? No of course not. But do they have some questionable things in them? Yes. High levels of sugar (mostly from corn syrup), GMO Corn, traces of hazardous chemicals and not knowing what 60% of the ingredients listed on the label are all drove me to move away from this form of infant milk.

Thanks to my awesome crunchy friend out there I found an alternative homemade formula. The idea seemed to foreign at first and it scared me. What if I was doing things wrong and messed up my kid’s digestive system. A lot of questions entered my mind. I spoke to our pediatrician about it and she was really on board. My baby was 5 months old, I still nursing and she was eating food like a champ. So on board was she that she handed me her own goat-milk based infant formula recipe (which followed the one my friend gave pretty closely). With her approval we felt confident in moving forward with this decision. Although I am all about reducing the chemicals my kids take in $$, time and energy spent has to be taken into consideration as well. This recipe is not time consuming, basic ingredients that can be found anywhere, and its easy to make!

Recipe 8 oz of Goat-milk based infant formula:

In 8 oz of (warm) water mix

41/2 tsp powdered goat milk

1 tsp coconut oil

1 tsp sunflower or olive oil

2 tsp agave nectar or maple syrup or brown rice syrup

1/8 tsp un-sulphured blackstrap molasses (nutritionally this has some iron, b vitamins and trace minerals)

Once day include a multivitamin and probiotics

*I add the multivitamin and prebiotic into the night time bottle. I do it once a day so I don’t forget, and the amounts I use are based on recommendations on the back of the multivitamin and probiotics bottle. Amounts given depend on size and age of the infant.

Quick Tip: I use a blender so that the coconut oil doesn't clump up.

One of the biggest concerns between 6-12 months of age is iron intake. Goat milk in low in iron. Our pediatrician recommended an egg yolk at least once a week and Spinach or other greens to be added to babies diet to increase the amount of iron in her blood.

If you try this recipe let me know how it works out for you :)

(Please remember to consult your doctor before trying anything new with your baby)