Turns out my fears about nursing were pretty much unfounded because I wasn't actually able to nurse. I did nurse anyway for six weeks, but I had a very, very, very low milk supply. We did everything we could to increase my milk: lactation specialists, herbal supplements, renting a hospital grade pump, skin to skin contact, you name it, we did it. (I use we here because Andy is a freakin' first class hero for helping me try everything and bearing with me as I cried my way through this). Being a somewhat/wannabe natural mama, I really wanted to nurse my baby, although the thought of it all terrified me, it was important to me to try and give Avett the best that I could. It actually really sucked to not be able to nurse, but inside of that inability were so many blessings. Thank GOD for the days, nights, midnights, and early mornings when I wasn't the only one who fed our newborn baby. There are usually four capable adults in this house and I know if I was the only one who could feed the baby I would have died a martyr. I really do thank God for the special moments of nursing Avett. It was a precious experience that I am grateful to have had, but honestly having added 3 kids to our family in a year, I'm sure something else would have made me give up nursing and I probably would have felt super guilty. Now, because of God's grace I am able to say- I did all I could and it just wasn't meant to be. And that's OK.
However, when faced with the prospect of feeding Avett formula from the can, everything in me cringed. If you take a close look at the ingredients, you'll notice it's full of stuff you can't pronounce and a bunch of chemicals to boot. Before I go on, please understand that I am NOT judging you if you fed your baby formula. He or she will be fine and I had to come to grips with that fact before I looked for Plan B on feeding my baby. Kids have been surviving on formula for a long time and mine would have, too, I just wanted something better. Now, in my head, I know that 80% of the stuff I eat is processed garbage and I want to change that (more on that soon as we're starting a Whole 30 this week!), but more than that, I really wanted better for Avett. I tried looking into human milk banks and asked every friend I know if they had extra milk so I could give him breast milk, but it was all for naught. Turns out that an ounce of breast milk is actually worth more than a pound each of rubies, diamonds and real saltwater pearls all put together. Anyone who has it keeps it and anyone who doesn't have it wishes they did- and that's all they can do is wish because mamas do not part with that precious commodity. After asking around (through tears, I'm sure), I learned that there is actually another way to feed your baby if breast milk isn't an option: Make your own formula. I know you might be saying, "Wait, what? You make your own formula?" Yup. We do. And we have since Avett was about 3 weeks old. Of course, we do still use commercial formula for the road and in a pinch, but his main source of food is homemade formula.
So, now you want to know (if this is indeed interesting to you as my mother presumed it would be) what's in it? Well, hang onto your knickers because the main ingredient is raw cows milk. Yep. Milk.
Straight from the cow.
The recipe for the formula we make is thoroughly researched by The Weston A. Price Foundation and they are devoted to exactly this. The recipe for homemade formula is obviously backed by scientific research as well. Anyway, besides raw cows milk there's water, coconut oil, olive oil, whey, (from yogurt- not the powdered kind) cod liver oil, sunflower oil, lactose and a few other things you probably don't have in your cupboard. This combination provides exactly what a baby needs. As you can see, Avett is as healthy as a horse. He's got everything he needs. Except here, he doesn't have a tissue. And he clearly needs one of those.
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| Please don't call CPS on me. I only left him for one sneeze and came back to this fun house. |
- Cost: Although I know that it has cost us more to make our own formula, we haven't really felt it the way I thought we would. A quick scan of the internet showed me that formula costs between $1000-$2000 a year. Weekly, we only have to buy about 1 1/2-2 gallons of raw milk ($15-$20). There was an upfront cost of about $200 since all of the ingredients have to be ultra pure- no Great Value brand olive oil- and an occasional cost to replenish an ingredient, but it really hasn't been that bad. A quick calculation says if I had to buy all ingredients 3 times and milk ever week at the rate listed above, I'd be at about $1600. These are super rough numbers since my lack of math savvy is well documented on this blog, but you get the idea. The cost isn't that much more. Additionally, a friend tried this with her little one and she couldn't feed him this formula it because he has serious allergies, so she ended up giving us her stash of stuff! This helped us tremendously.
- Pros: When we gave Avett commercial formula, he would spit up like crazy! When we switched to homemade, he really stopped spitting up so much. Of course, his spit up smells much, much worse with the homemade version (leave milk out on the counter for a week in the summer, then spill it all over your clothes.) Another pro: peace of mind. I know exactly what is in the food I give Avett.
- Cons: You really can't travel with this stuff without a ton of hassle. Spit up smells horrible as mentioned above. Probably costs more than commercial formula.
- Time: I have to make baby food about once a day or every day and a half. It literally takes me 10 minutes from start to finish to make a batch of baby food. I can do it with my eyes closed. For ease of use, I put everything on one shelf and I just pull it all out and whip up a batch. Easy. Note the can of formula on the bottom shelf. We do use it when we have to- I don't think it's poison or anything...
- Raw Cows Milk: It actually skeeves me out a bit, too, to tell you the truth. I rarely drink it, but mostly because I was raised on pasteurized milk. I like the consistent taste of store-bought milk. Raw milk is amazing because the taste is totally impacted by the cows diet. One week it's grassy and another week it is a darker color. It's really cool. I LOVE the fresh cream from raw milk. It is thick, creamy and delicious! In Colorado you have to be part owner of a cow in order to buy raw milk (thank God the government regulates this!!), but my step father drinks raw milk since he was raised on a farm and he actually found Wendy (our supplier) before we decided to even do this, so when it came time to do this we were ahead of the game. I haven't actually been the one to pick up the milk yet and so I haven't met Wendy, but from all accounts she is amazing. She just has one cow that she takes good care of. The milk we buy in the store is from hundreds or thousands of cows being treated God-knows how and fed God-knows what. Wendy's cow is actually due with a baby of it's own and so she will stop producing as much milk and as turns out Wendy has us at the top of the list to get milk, "because of the baby". How kind!
I hope you found this interesting/debatable/funny or thought provoking.
Mom, you're welcome for posting this and thanks for feeding the baby and going to get the milk.
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