Baby Formula in a Crisis—Applying the Principles Here to Other Situations

As you’ve undoubtedly heard, one of the latest crises we’ve faced as a nation involves the baby formula shortage.  You’re also probably aware that we’ve been sending precious pallets of baby formula to the southern border and Ukraine even as our shelves here are bare.  And while it is important to help those less fortunate, you have to take care of yourself first before you can truly take care of others.  It’s like when you’re on an airplane—if the oxygen masks drop down, you put your own on first and then you help others put theirs on.

Soon after the crisis hit, desperate parents started Googling homemade baby formula recipes.  And right on cue, dozens of doctors and government officials decrying the horrors of the homemade stuff, babies were gonna die, etc.  All this from the same people who have managed the covid debacle so well.  Who are we going to trust?  Them?  Or our own eyes?

Right at the start, let’s get this out of the way—when it comes to feeding babies, breast milk from the mother is best.  Second best is breast milk from another woman, preferably a close relation.  Breast milk can be induced in women; it takes a bit of time and effort.  Click here for a blog article on the topic.

Those two options are going to be a baby’s best bet in a crisis.  If, however, neither of those is an option, here are some DIY alternatives. 

The above image of David James’ baby formula recipe given to his parents when he was discharged from the hospital in 1960 has been plastered all over the internet in the past month.  My husband’s parents received the exact same card and we have it somewhere in the basement.  I’m sure I was sent home with the same, though my mother didn’t keep mine.  She tried breastfeeding for a few weeks and gave up. 

Pediatricians have ranted about how terrible the above instructions are, water will adversely affect a baby’s kidneys, etc.  No one is going to claim that the recipe is better than breast milk.  It may not even be a good substitute, especially with what we currently know about infant nutrition.  But you know what?  A couple of generations of babies were raised on that DIY formula.  Most of them are still here and pretty healthy.  That formula will work just fine in a pinch, even if that pinch lasts several months.  (Make sure the evaporated milk is whole milk, not lowfat or nonfat.)

Rice Milk Formula

1 cup brown rice, cooked

1 quart boiled water

1 tablespoon light corn syrup OR 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

Combine all ingredients in a blender until completely liquefied. (This may take 5 minutes or more.)  Refrigerate and use within 48 hours.

Goat Milk Formula

1 cup boiled water

1 serving goat milk powder, according to the package

½ teaspoon nutritional yeast

1 teaspoon  brown rice syrup

2 teaspoons blackstrap molasses

½ teaspoon cod liver oil, optional

Combine all ingredients in a pint jar and mix until fully dissolved and incorporated. Refrigerate any unused formula immediately. Discard after 24 hours.  Due to the short shelf life, only make one bottle at a time.

Added Vitamins

All of the above recipes may have vitamins added in the form of infant vitamin D drops, infant DHA drops, and 1-2 teaspoons of nutritional yeast.

The Weston Price raw milk baby formula has been touted as the best.  It also calls for a lot of ingredients people are unlikely to have on hand after a disaster, but if you’ve got a milk cow around, you might choose to give it a try.

Weston Price Raw Milk Formula

2 cups whole fat raw milk, from pasture-fed cows
¼ cup homemade liquid whey
4 tablespoons lactose
¼ teaspoon Bifidobacterium infantis
2 tablespoons good quality cream (can be pasteurized but NOT ultra-pasteurized, or UHT)
½ teaspoon high vitamin cod liver oil (or 1 teaspoon of regular cod liver oil)
¼ teaspoon high vitamin butter oil (optional)
1 teaspoon unrefined sunflower oil
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons coconut oil
2 teaspoons nutritional yeast flakes
2 teaspoons gelatin
1 7/8 cups filtered water
¼ teaspoon acerola powder

Pour 1 cup water into a pan and heat on medium. Add the gelatin and lactose to the pan and stir until dissolved.  Remove pan from heat and add remaining water.  Add coconut oil and butter oil and stir until melted.

Pour this water mixture and remaining ingredients into a blender and combine.  Pour into bottles or a glass jar and refrigerate until use.

Our entire way of life is crumbling before our eyes.  There are a lot of things that need fixing in this country of ours—we all look forward to an end to abuse of children and other helpless.  We can hardly wait for the end of the welfare state and a return to a good work ethic.  And a million more things. However, all of that is accompanied by some rough times and shortages or outages.  We’ll encounter a lot of problems that we didn’t plan on—some of us post-baby stage could find an infant on our doorstep.  And then we’ll need to know that even if we can’t make the Weston Price formula, we can probably do a pretty good job with one of the other formulas.

Links to related posts:

Emergency Baby Formula  

Inducing Breast Milk to Feed a Baby  

3 july 2024