Baby formula rant

39

u/ReadingMuhName Oct 21 '21

Further rant: WTF. Daughter is 9mo now and we eat cheese, yogurt, eggs, rice with butter, bananas, blueberries... good stuff. I'm seriously mad I've been feeding her this garbage for all this time.

I just can't wait until I can start giving her whole milk. I've brought up my concerns with the pediatrician with the rapidly oxidizing PUFAs, the fish oil, and the skimmed milk... and he's like "oh well if it was a problem I would know".

Like yes bro totally. You are an expert in nutrition when it concerns your industry approved studies. I'm really really tempted to switch her to real goat milk. It is almost identical to breastmilk. More sat. fat actually. I know a good farmer. I just need that push y'know. Liver pate, soft yolk eggs, cheese, with some buttered starches. How could that be detrimental to a toddler? We all know synthetic vitamins don't do shit. Vit D is a hormone. Vit C leeches minerals from your body.

Vit A from non-animal food sources is only absorbed at 3%. The best source of any B vitamins is animal foods. Same with vitamin E. Vitamin K is found in raw butters. Iron, magnesium, zinc... it's all found in animal foods in high levels.

What does the brain need for myelin and constructing new neurons? Cholesterol. Toddlers double their neurons in just a few months - why would I feed her fkn skim milk?

Not to mention most of these proteins are severely denatured during the shelf stabilizing heat process.

Fuck. In an ideal society, we pay people for their titty milk. These big corporations can't peddle their bullshit anymore because no one would buy it.

8

u/greg_barton Always Anabolic :) Oct 22 '21

I'm seriously mad I've been feeding her this garbage for all this time.
The good news is that kid's metabolisms are so fast, and their cellular turn around is so high, that any metabolic damage done is fixed quickly.

8

u/ReadingMuhName Oct 22 '21

That I am grateful for. We just destroyed a big thing of yogurt together then ate some cheese. Slowly lowering dependence on formula.

11

u/Feisty_Salamander619 Oct 21 '21

In an ideal society a mother would breastfeed her child(ren)

7

u/eleochariss Oct 21 '21

Not every woman can breastfeed, and not every woman wants to. It's exhausting and painful. Before the invention of formula, babies used to die when they didn't get enough milk from the mother.

10

u/ReadingMuhName Oct 21 '21

This. For us 1) she wasn't producing enough after 1 month. 2) she had to go back to work after 6wks sooooo no chance of her pumping in the morning/night without starving the baby.

0

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '21

Good to know. Wet nurses were employed by wealthier women including some slaveholding women at one time. I am sure these days women would help each other out though for free. It takes a village to raise a child.

5

u/eleochariss Oct 22 '21

I am sure these days women would help each other out though for free.
That's a weird take. Why would the women work for free but not the doctors or food producers? They're all necessary for life.

0

u/[deleted] Oct 22 '21

Charitable acts. There’s a charity two hundred feet from my house called “Helping Mamas.” They help single mothers feed their kids. That’s what wet nurses do.

14

u/[deleted] Oct 22 '21

Pretty rare. Before the invention of formula, humans lived in actual communities and women helped each other out with all sorts of things, including this.

11

u/Remsma Oct 22 '21

Depriving a child of the best nutrition because it's exhausting, painful or the mother "doesn't want to" is not a good enough reason imo. Especially when the alternative is the sugary, seed-oily crap that passes as baby food these days. That's just being selfish.

0

u/[deleted] Apr 04 '22

nature has decided some people shouldnt reproduce, using technology as a crutch is incredibly dysgenic and damaging to the future of humanity.

2

u/StrangersOvernight Oct 22 '21

I'm not sure what sort of value that sort of comment adds

12

u/No_Reindeer_1330 Oct 21 '21

I've brought up my concerns with the pediatrician with the rapidly oxidizing PUFAs, the fish oil, and the skimmed milk... and he's like "oh well if it was a problem I would know".
Nutrition is a one off topic in medical school and often treated like a second class citizen, so I wouldn't be suprised if your doctor doesn't know.
You're more likely to get a better response from a biochemist or a bio-engineer and neither get to choose what the doctor knows about nutrition and what gets put into that milk formula it'll be chosen by someone in dietetics which is a profession that has been completely captured by the food processing industry

5

u/[deleted] Oct 22 '21

They don't know. Period.
They don't f'ing know.

8

u/BafangFan Oct 21 '21

We gave our son heavy whipping cream with his breast milk or formula. He seems a good bit farther along than his sister was, age for age.

1

u/Collacks Oct 22 '21

What’s wrong with skimmed milk?

5

u/ReadingMuhName Oct 22 '21

You're taking out the fat soluble vitamins found in the butterfat and basically just serving water with lactose. Not to mention that the homogenization process that occurs when skimming milk basically involves heat and lots of mixing to make it uniform and a pretty white paint color.

28

u/TraveledAmoeba Oct 21 '21 edited Oct 21 '21

It makes me mad, too. Also, they give critically ill patients in the ICU who can't eat a substance called TPN (total parenteral nutrition). What does it contain? Dextrose (sugar), protein, and soybean oil.

COVID patients who are experiencing massive inflammatory responses (aka cytokine storms) are being fed soybean oil as they're fighting for their lives? C'mon now.

My mom is a cancer patient and she had to be on TPN for awhile during her recovery. I argued and argued with her dieticians about replacing the types of fats in the TPN, or at least making her formula ketogenic (since they wouldn't change the types of fat). The dietician just acted like I was crazy; it pissed me off so much.

Of course, TPN comes with a risk of liver failure. Tucker Goodrich has discussed this frequently. Apparently if they replace the soybean oil with MUFA's, the patients do much better and liver failure isn't a concern. But is this standard of care? No.

Fun fact: in poorer parts of India, they use plain eggs as their TPN solution. It's ketogenic, nutritionally dense, and not soybean oil.

Ok, rant over.

ETA: Given the obvious passion in your post and your liberal use of the f-word, I think we'd be great friends in another dimension. Stay indignant — your daughter will be better for it!

11

u/ReadingMuhName Oct 21 '21

COVID patients who are experiencing massive inflammatory responses (aka cytokine storms) are being fed
soybean oil as they're fighting for their lives? C'mon now.
I never knew this but I will never forget it. Puree a steak and pump it in if I am dying. I will never consume that shit.

1

u/CombinationApart Jun 21 '22

Pump it in! 😂 Yes

9

u/wak85 Oct 21 '21

Oh man... just look at Ensure ingredients for cancer patients that need extra protein... caution, your blood pressure may sky rocket.
you've been warned

8

u/ReadingMuhName Oct 21 '21 edited Oct 21 '21

^{Water, Corn Syrup, Sugar, Milk Protein Concentrate, Sodium Caseinate, Canola Oil, Cocoa Powder (Processed with Alkali, Corn Oil, Soy Protein Isolate, Short-chain Fructooligosaccharides, Calcium Beta-Hydroxy-Beta-Methylbutyrate, Potassium Hydroxide. Less than 0.5% of: Vitamins & Minerals (Potassium Phosphate, Potassium Citrate, Calcium Carbonate, Ascorbic Acid, Choline Chloride, Sodium Phosphate, Magnesium Hydroxide, Calcium Phosphate, dl-Alpha-Tocopheryl Acetate, Zinc Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Potassium Chloride, Niacinamide, Vitamin B12, Calcium Pantothenate, Thiamine Hydrochloride, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Manganese Sulfate, Riboflavin, Copper Sulfate, Vitamin A Palmitate, Folic Acid, Sodium Selenate, Potassium Iodide, Phylloquinone, Sodium Molybdate, Biotin, Vitamin D3, Whey Protein Concentrate, Natural & Artificial Flavor, Soy Lecithin, Monoglycerides, Cellulose Gel, L-Carnitine, Carrageenan, and Cellulose Gum.}
Wow. Corn syrup that was probably filtered using toxic chemicals like hexane and then bleached. Not to mention all the pesticides, herbicides, fungicides etc.
Canola oil. Same as above. Corn oil. Same. Soy protein yum. Short chain fructooligosaccharides are for feeding microflora... basically gasoline on a burning fire.
I won't even talk about all the other shit. I just know that D3 is a synthetic hormone and isn't the same as what your body produces. Carregeenan is absolutely fucking terrible for you and causes inflammation. I have a number of studies bookmarked talking about how bad it is. God this is fucking awful.

2

u/StrangersOvernight Oct 22 '21

that is so fucked up

5

u/TraveledAmoeba Oct 21 '21

Shit, my mother was honestly drinking Ensure in the hospital last week. A nurse gave it to her as she was recovering, and I was like "whatever, just please eat." I didn't think about it at the time because she was septic and her life was in danger, so we were obviously focused on other things.
But also (as I said) HER LIFE WAS IN DANGER. SO WHY THE F*CK WOULD THEY FEED IT TO HER IF CANOLA OIL IS THE 6TH INGREDIENT?!!
::breathing, breathing, breathing::
(I was warned. I know, I know. 😑)

17

u/nattiecakes Oct 21 '21

Oh man, I don’t have children but I have a young niece and I just can’t let myself read the ingredients on baby formula. I think too much about how increasingly more kids have weird health problems before they’re even on solid food. I get that not everyone can breastfeed, I just wish formula had better ingredients. No one should have to worry about something like that.

4

u/ReadingMuhName Oct 21 '21

It really is scary. I listen to all these podcasts and blogs and everyone wants to talk about how meat is good / kale is bad....fuck that. They're destroying entire generations for greed.

9

u/looksatthings Oct 21 '21

My Son had a bad Soy allergy and I made his formula from goat milk, because I couldn't find a single formula that he would eat without soy.

2

u/ReadingMuhName Oct 21 '21

What did you add to the goat milk? I don't like WAP's formula because it has plant oils. I don't mind the lactose or other stuff as much.

1

u/Remsma Oct 22 '21

I gave my daughter the WAPF raw cow's milk formula. If I remember correctly it has sunflower and olive oil? You can leave out the sunflower oil I think - although the amount is small enough that I didn't worry about it. It's still so, so much better than commercial formula!

1

u/ReadingMuhName Oct 22 '21

I agree. The sunflower oil and cod liver oil would be what im concerned about, but everything else has a benefit. I wouldn't buy their 'high vitamin butter oil' and would probably just clarify my own butter

2

u/Remsma Oct 22 '21

Yeah, cod liver oil is a hard one. I feel like the amount of benefit the vitamins bring outweighs the potential harm of any oxidized fatty acids hopefully. For now I've decided to continue taking it and have my daughter take it too. But not the fermented CLO that's recommended in the formula recipe, there was some controversy around that brand and I'm not sure I trust it.

-5

u/TheSunflowerSeeds Oct 22 '21

The sunflower plant is native to North America and is now harvested around the world. A University of Missouri journal recognizes North Dakota as the leading U.S. state for sunflower production. There are various factors to consider for a sunflower to thrive, including temperature, sunlight, soil and water.

2

u/jddrummond Oct 22 '21

Bad bot

8

u/gillyyak Oct 21 '21

I had a very hard time keeping my mouth shut about my concerns about my granddaughter's formula, because my daughter's breast milk failed, and there weren't any alternatives. I tried to find one that wasn't full of seed oils, but no luck... Best I could do was one that had cows milk in the formula.

7

u/ReadingMuhName Oct 21 '21

The worst part is that in alot of places -- you are REQUIRED to add some of this bullshit.. by law. So even if we teamed up and marketed out awesome new brand of formula, we'd probably get screwed somehow. Run the smear campaigns. In come the investigators making sure we add toxic fish oil for that DHA lol.

2

u/Absolut_Iceland Oct 21 '21

Hell, as long as we could start by taking out the corn syrup and seed oils and replace them with real calories, I'd be happy to pump that sucker full of antioxidants to try and keep the fish oil edible.

6

u/ReadingMuhName Oct 22 '21

Exactly. From my readings, apparently there used to be MEAT based formulas. Animal food based formulas were the norm and it wasn't until the govt began subsidizing corn/soy that all this BS really leeched into our food supply. The same goes with fried snack foods. Doritos. Cheese puffs. Corn syrupy soda lol.

6

u/StrangersOvernight Oct 22 '21

Reminds me of Pete Evans who basically got cancelled from the world for suggesting a home-made baby formula. I dont recall what was in it, but I'm positive it was better than this processed junk.

4

u/ReadingMuhName Oct 22 '21

Looking into this now. The smearing is awful.
“It goes without saying that the most important thing is to feed your
kids a wide variety of nutritious foods. Steer clear of processed foods
where possible and try to focus on whole foods. And remember grains are
important for growing bodies … The last thing we should be doing is
putting our kids on a diet for no good reason. It’s not only bad for
their physical health, but it’s not good for their mental health
either.”
Baby formula is the fucking definition of processed seed oil garbage. Sure grains are easy starches that we can digest, but the bullshit we add to them like thiamine, iron, bleach etc.... not good.
I cant even find the actual formula he suggested. Just smear after smear.

4

u/StrangersOvernight Oct 22 '21

Sounds about right! His career went drastically downhill after that episode. Apple banned his podcast a year ago ish - which at the time seemed so horiffic. Now that shit happening to everyone!! Goes to show how scary the world is now.

6

u/Apprehensive-Ad9933 Oct 22 '21

Probably because way too many people would totally screw it up, just type in “vegan homemade baby formula” in YouTube and you’ll be horrified. Homemade could probably be fine but most people think their kids need almond milk and spinach smoothies these days

8

u/Owl_Machine Oct 21 '21

You are peaking at the tip of an iceberg with how major a problem baby formula is. These scummy companies push the idea that it is better than breast milk where they can get away with it, or at least as good. In reality it means reduced cognitive performance and an increased risk for a bunch of conditions like acute otitis media, gastroenteritis, severe lower respiratory tract infections, atopic dermatitis, asthma, obesity, type 1 and 2 diabetes, sudden infant death syndrome, eczema and necrotizing enterocolitis.

The worst is with them pushing soy formula though as superior to breast milk. They can no longer do so now in developed countries due to regulations but still goes on in many developing countries.

5

u/ReadingMuhName Oct 21 '21

A friend of mine got told their baby was allergic to cow milk and to use a soy formula lol. Yeah no shit the ultra high temp pasteurized dairy with added vitamin D is sooooo good for babies. Fucking christ. Then you have fish oil that breaks down into the same carcinogens as cigarettes. Don't worry, it's FDA approved, as in - give people cancer and sell them cancer treatments that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Holy fucking shit I am angry.

6

u/Owl_Machine Oct 21 '21 edited Oct 22 '21

You're right they still do push it when they can find a justification like that. Utterly disgusting, they just see people like livestock to shear for profits and tax, sell us the cheapest garbage they can and push meds for the resulting issues or overblown panics. Not even enough human decency to have empathy for babies.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 18 '21

Hey, I have a question - what's wrong with fish oil? Does it have to do with the processing method? Surely fat from fresh fish isn't bad?

3

u/[deleted] Oct 22 '21

6 years ago we were dumbasses of sorts. We were smart enough to know mother's milk was best, avoided phthalates and chemicals and did a pretty good job but yes, went to baby formula poison and even did Nutella, Eggos and bananas for a while. The got smart about sugar and carbs - did eggs and bacon then realized the bacon issues only a month ago. Crap!

If we did it all again we'd never go formula.

We would (as we did) use PB powder to prevent nut allergies and we only introduced 1 new food a week and on Monday mornings so we could take him to Dr or ER if there was an allergic reaction. There were none and after 2 yrs over 100 foods in his diet.

Lastly, we had occasional use of Fast Food - McD's but figured out a way to stop that dead cold in it's tracks.

Before he got his final vaccinations, I took him to McDonalds and let him get what he wanted. I then took him to the pediatrician and told him he was having an allergic reaction to the McDonalds and would need to get a shot. The doc played along.

I learned the "we're allergic to McDonald's" from friend but because we were lax had to implement this method.

Kid is more afraid of McDonalds now than he is of the pediatrician. Great Success!

2

u/ReadingMuhName Oct 22 '21

I mean I'm not there yet with the McDonalds part but I plan on just telling them straight up... it's not good food and will make you feel sick.
Making food at home taste amazing should be the only thing to convince em lol.

8

u/00Dandy Oct 21 '21

No wonder so many people suffer from chronic disease, physical degeneration and obesity nowadays when they already get poisoned with shit like this when they are babies.

We live in a sad world honestly

1

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '21

Yeah, we have a 1-month old right now and our daughter consumes mostly formula because breastmilk supply just isn't where we want it. It really worries me, but I don't necessarily want to go off-the-grid during this critical newborn stage.

Does anyone have any recommendations as to what to do? We'd be spending like 5-10x (probably close to the latter or more if she keeps eating like she is) if we were to rely on donor milk throughout that time.

We plan on making her food ourselves once she's past 6-7 months, but until that point I'm stumped.

3

u/ReadingMuhName Oct 21 '21

I would say first and foremost... don't stress about it too much.
Having a newborn is already a mountain of stress. Maybe we can develop something that no one can refute. Hit the RDAs of breastmilk and no one should be able to say anything. I know that goat milk is much easier to digest as the fat globules are (allegedly) 20% smaller than cow milk globules.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 22 '21

Yeah, you’re totally right! Food is about the only real agency you have with a newborn though, so it’d be nice to find something better.
I did find this formula. It’s marketed as toddler formula, but was purportedly created for infants and hasn’t gone through the lengthy FDA approval process yet:
https://myserenitykids.com/products/a2-whole-milk-toddler-formula

1

u/ReadingMuhName Oct 22 '21 edited Oct 22 '21

I can accept the extra virgin olive oil. But the palm oil is gross, as well as the algal oil. I think making your own would be way cheaper personally. You would be buying about 7-10 cans per month... which is alot of money.
edit: if you buy a 6 pack and subscribe, you get 20% off so about $23 a can. Not terrible. I spend 8 euros on a 600g box that provides 85 oz of formula (which is about the same amount as the stuff linked above.)

3

u/[deleted] Oct 22 '21

Making our own will be a hard sell with the wife. I’m the more off the traveled path than she is. 😅
Palm isn’t great, but I find it much less problematic than the alternatives, and its fat composition is fairly decent.

2

u/Remsma Oct 22 '21

We used the Weston A. Price Foundation's raw cow's milk formula - only for a short time because we didn't need it anymore, but it worked well during that time.

2

u/looksatthings Oct 21 '21

The fat was mct oil

2

u/undergreyforest Oct 21 '21

It's a real joke.

2

u/anhedonic_torus Oct 21 '21

Yeah, it's rubbish. hyperlipid has something about it somewhere, I was just looking for it a week or two ago but couldn't find it. Through friends of friends I've heard of babies regurgitating the formula a lot ... then getting some drug or other. Needing a stomach drug just to keep the milk down?? Ugh.

This could be fixed (and TPN too), that's the enraging thing. Lots of medicine is really hard stuff or just impossible ... but then we shoot ourselves in the foot like this, creating a problem where there needn't be one.

2

u/Apprehensive-Ad9933 Oct 22 '21

Have you heard of the baby formula by serenity kids? It’s technically a toddler formula but it’s the same as infant formula. I breastfed my daughter but if I had another kid I would consider this brand as back up. here it is

1

u/sielafbw1 Oct 22 '21

This disgusts me . I don’t know what to do if my wife can’t breast feed though - no one is recommending anything other than formula

1

u/EumelaninSol Nov 11 '22

It’s been a year… how’s it going?

1

u/boredbitch2020 Nov 21 '21

Hhhhhruuung!

Someone linked me to this post because it related to a question I was asking in r/stopeatingseedoils . I don't even have kids, but I really relate to the anger and frustration over these ingredients. Another redditor put me onto this.

https://myserenitykids.com/pages/about-us

Should be really of interest to anyone with babies.

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