Everything I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Feeding a Baby with Formula

Every mother wishes the best for her child. They want to make sure their baby is fed the right stuff, and that they are getting what they need to grow and develop. The question of whether to breastfeed or to feed formula is an important one. But where to start if you choose formula? The truth is there is quite a lot of variety when it comes to picking your baby’s formula and not every choice is created equal.

Some choices come with the caveat that you could be exposing your baby to harmful chemicals like BPA or Carrageenan. After all, the formula might be the only thing your baby consumes for the first six months of its life. The choice is crucial.

What’s Out There

To start with there is Enfamil, Nestle Good Start, 365 Organic, Baby’s Only Organic, Bright Beginnings, Earth’s Best, Parent’s Choice Organic, Similac Organic, and Vermont Organics. As you can see, there’s quite a lot to choose from.

What To Look For

Things you should look for when choosing your formula brand is whether or not it contains processed refined sugars such as corn syrup solids, maltodextrin, brown rice syrup, and genetically modified soy. Make sure it doesn’t contain palm oil, DHA and ARA extracted with hexane, carrageenan, and synthetic preservatives. Nearly all of the brands listed above contain these.

The problem with brown rice syrup is that it is linked to high levels of arsenic, and palm oil is known to form ‘soaps’ in the babies intestines when the palmitic acid reacts with calcium. Carrageenan should be avoided as it is derived from seaweed and is used to stabilize the formula, but unfortunately, it causes inflammation in your baby’s stomach and could cause colon tumors. Luckily, Europeans have outlawed the use of Carrageenan in baby formulas making European brands the better choice.

Essential Fatty Acids

DHA and ARA are essential fatty acids, but unfortunately, they are often extracted using a neurotoxic chemical, Hexane. When they aren’t extracted in this fashion, they come from certain kinds of algae and fungus about which little is known and they do not occur naturally in a human diet. Additionally, studies have shown no benefits when DHA and ARA are added to baby formula.

Synthetic Ingredients

Also, oddly enough there are a fair amount of synthetic ingredients to look out for when choosing your organic baby formula. Lutein is a synthetic nutrient extracted from marigolds using Hexane. Lycopene is produced with toluene and is a neurotoxic benzene derivative. There are many more to look out for. Fortunately, all of which are not legal in organic formulas produced in Europe.

European Brands

It’s hard to find a formula that satisfies all the requirements you put on it for your baby, but there are options. For instance, the formulas from the European markets use milk from grass-fed cows, and they contain higher quality sugars, and they don’t contain carrageenan or corn syrup. The brands are HiPP, Holle, and Lebenswert.

Both HiPP and Holle contain palm oil which normally would be cause for worry, but they both also have oils from coconut and sunflower, so this shouldn’t be concerning.

Carbohydrates

The thing about trying to mimic the qualities of breastmilk is that it is way sweeter that cow’s milk, and as result companies add carbohydrates to make up the difference. Although more expensive, formulas using lactose as a sweetener are the best option, and HiPP readily does this. Holle uses maltodextrin, a plant based sweetener but uses way less than American formulas. Lebenswert is less known, but they also use lactose as a sweetener.

Lebenswert

And if your curious the Lebenswert recipe is Organic skimmed milk, organic whey powder, organic vegetable oils, lactose, potassium chloride, calcium, vitamin C, sodium chloride, ferrous gluconate, vitamin E, zinc sulfate, niacin, calcium pantothenate, copper sulphate , Vitamin B1, Vitamin B6 , Vitamin A, manganese sulfate, folic acid, potassium iodate, vitamin K1 , sodium selenate, and vitamin D.

In short, the European brands, Holle, HiPP and Lebenswert all do not use corn syrup, brown rice syrup, or carrageenan and synthetic nutrients. They use high-quality lactose as the sweetener as well as using milk from grass-fed cows. Genetically modified soy is also outlawed for European brands so no need to worry about that when it comes to Holle, HiPP or Lebenswert.

Make sure your baby’s formula uses lactose as a sweetener, doesn’t contain carrageenan or synthetics, and is void of modified soy and you should have a baby who is happy and healthy and ready to grow.

Sources:

Food Babe. How To Find the Safest Organic infant Formula. http://foodbabe.com/2013/05/28/how-to-find-the-safest-organic-infant-formula/ Published: May 28, 2013. Accessed: November 9, 2016.

Dr. Frank Lipman. Healthy Baby Formula Update. http://www.drfranklipman.com/healthy-baby-formula-update/ Accessed: November 9, 2016.

Gimme the Good Stuff. HiPP Versus Holle: Which European Infant Formula is Healthier? https://gimmethegoodstuff.org/hipp-versus-holle-which-european-infant-formula-is-healthier/ published: December 30, 2014. Accessed:November 9, 2016.

Gimme the Good Stuff. Safe Infant Formula Guide. https://gimmethegoodstuff.org/safe-product-guides/safe-infant-formula-guide/ Published: March, 2015. Accessed: November 9, 2016.

Gimme the Good Stuff. Review of Holle Lebenswert Infant Formula. https://gimmethegoodstuff.org/holle-lebenswert-infant-formula/ Published: July 23, 2015. Accessed: November 9, 2016.

Youtube. Baby Formula. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imtP8pNJUqk Published: July 7, 2015. Accessed: November 9, 2016.