Why I Chose Raw Goat's Milk Over Infant Formula

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know that I give my son raw goat's milk (here's a post on it). I have never shared the progression on how I came to that decision. I picked up fresh goat's milk today and for some reason, the process of making the decision for raw goat's milk came to my mind and thought I should share. I have talked to lots of moms that have gone through a similar experience and don't know what to do to help their uncomfortable baby.

 All these pictures are from the goat farm where we get milk.

I want to first address breastfeeding, just because I know people will comment. I agree, breastfeeding is the best. It's great for mom and baby. But it's not always possible. Yes, there are things you can do when your supply is low and you can change your diet for your baby's sensitives. But in the meantime while you are figuring it out, you have a hungry baby who doesn't have time for you to test all your theories. So for supplementing, I think goat's milk is a great option.

For my situation, my son is adopted (see his placement story here), so breastfeeding was not an option. But knowing what I know now, if I ever have another child that needs a formula (supplement or whole diet), I will never, ever use a commercial formula. I will always choose raw goat's milk.

Moose (my son's nickname) was born allergic to everything. He was in transition care for 1 month after he was born while legalities were finalized. He gave his transition mom the hardest time! His transition mother has been doing this (watching babies during the legal transition time) for over 30 years and has watched over 200 babies. She said Moose was the hardest baby she had ever had and she was taking a few months off before taking another baby. He really did give her a hard time.

He was allergic to soy and dairy. All commercial, over-the-counter formulas are soy or dairy. Keep in mind she had him for about 28 days (he was in the hospital a few days and came home on day 32....give or take a day). This was what she tried (I still have her handwritten notes, she gave us pages of notes. The following is from her notes):

• Similac Advance - couldn't keep it down
• Similac Isomil Soy - Lots of gas and cramping
• Similac Sensitive - couldn't keep it down and cried for hours after eating
• Similac Alimentum - better but still cried a lot
• Neocate - This is a prescription. This is what he came home on.

She added 2 teaspoons of dairy free rice cereal (I am not a fan of rice cereal; it's a filler, there's no nutrition, I do not and will not feed it as a meal for my child ever) per ounce of formula. Yes, that's right. For a 4 oz. bottle, there were 8 tsp of rice cereal added. That's a thick formula. They did this to thicken it so he could keep it down. And it worked. He could keep the Neocate with the rice cereal down. But it was a big chore to burp him. He was still so uncomfortable. But at least he could eat.

We kept that routine for a few weeks. And I started researching. A lot of research. The Neocate was 57% corn syrup. Yes, 57% corn syrup!!! That is the prescription solution the medical world has come up with. I was not happy with that solution.

I kept running across raw goat's milk in my research. Nothing but amazing results. I wanted to try it, but was so nervous. So I went to a local homeopathic doctor (for local readers in Denton, TX, Dr. Newell). He answered all my questions and calmed all my fears. He gave me some names of some local farms. He said just buy a gallon, give him a bottle and see what happens. If it works, you will know within 10 minutes. If it doesn't work, you will know within 10 minutes. So that's what I did.

And it WORKED!!! It was instant. My son ate the whole bottle. We still mixed the rice cereal (we weaned him off that quickly, but we kept the consistency to start with. Every couple weeks we reduced the amount we added. So by about 2 months, we were doing just milk, no rice cereal). After he ate, he burped. It was amazing. Burping before took us a half an hour easy, and that's on a good feeding.

We called Dr. Newell back and he prescribed an iron and folic acid compound. We had to go to an old-fashioned pharmacy that hand mixed things to get this compound. We added this to his bottles until he started eating solid foods (then I changed to this supplement routine with cod liver oil, probiotics, aloe juice, and elderberry syrup) . All of his iron blood tests come back at perfect levels. There are many versions online for a homemade supplement to add. If I had more time, I would have researched that more and figured that out. But like I said earlier, when you have a hungry baby, you don't have a lot of time. Weston A. Price is a great resource for that information (I will link at the bottom of this post).

We switched him cold turkey. No transition. One day we were feeding 57% corn syrup Neocate, the next day we were feeding raw goat's milk.

When we talked to the doctor, he said that the rice cereal does thicken to help him keep it down. But......it doesn't stop the reaction. The reason he spits it up is because he is reacting negatively to it. So he's still having a reaction, he just can't do anything about it. Horrible. Horrible. Horrible.

We have started slowly testing his dairy allergy. So far so good! We think he has outgrown it.

Now for the nutritional stuff. Goat's milk is easier for a baby to digest than cow's milk (I will link to sources at the bottom of this post).

• Goat milk has a higher fat content than cow. The fat clusters are arranged  in a way that makes it easier for the baby to digest.
• Camel's milk is the closest milk to human milk, molecular structure. I don't know anyone with a camel in Texas. Goat's milk is the runner up.
• Goat's milk has a softer and smaller protein than cow milk, making it easier to digest.
• Goat's milk has less lactose than cow's milk. So if you are lactose intolerant (like my son), try goat milk.

Sources (all external links):

• Weston A. Price a great source for all things pregnancy and baby nutrition. Love Weston A. Price. The Nourishing Traditions book is amazing (find it here)
• Dr. Sears I love Dr. Sears. I follow his delayed vaccination schedule for my son (see his vaccine book here) and he has a great book on Omega 3 (find that here and see my post on that book here)
• Real Milk testimonies 

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