It is such a sad state of affairs when our culture is so influenced by marketing campaigns, that people will actually buy the formula with the “functional” ingredients. It’s also sad that a company would stoop so low to boost profits. Finally, it’s sad that people buy stock in such companies which just feeds the greed. I’m so happy I could breastfeed all my babies as long as I wanted to and never had to pump and never owned formula or bottles.

I told the pediatrician about the problem and he didn’t believe me, insisting that formula is chemically identical to breast milk (sorry, I don’t lactate HFCS, but it sure is in the formula!) and that the allergic reaction (one that only ever occurred after a consuming a formula supplement) must have been to my milk–not the formula. I changed doctors, but I didn’t dare tell anyone I was making my own formula, because of the stigma against it.

I remain convinced that if I could pronounce and identify every single ingredient in commercial infant formula that my son could have tolerated it.

If you can’t afford to take time off without pay (or with substantially reduced pay), you will probably go back to work when your baby is 6 weeks old. This coincides almost exactly with a major growth spurt. Both of my babies nursed almost non stop for several days at that time. If I had gone back to work right then, and was trying to pump to keep up with my baby’s milk intake, I would almost certainly have failed. It is hard enough to establish a pumping routine that keeps up with the baby’s milk intake without trying to do it in the midst of a growth spurt.

Speaking of pumping…. I have a desk job, and can easily go and pump 3x a day. I had a computer put in the lactation room and can work while I pump. I am a salaried professional, and have never had anyone express any concern about the fact that I pump during the day. But when I used to go to a breastfeeding support group, there were many women with a very different reality. They had jobs that paid hourly wages. California (the state I live in) requires employers to provide a room and two unpaid 15 minute breaks for a nursing woman to pump. In my experience, two 15 minute breaks is probably not sufficient, and that combined with the loss of wages would be a powerful incentive to give up. Add in the not so subtle resentment of coworkers and bosses, and honestly, I think it is a miracle that any women working in those sorts of job manage to keep breastfeeding.

So yes, breast is best. We should fix our policies and our attitudes to make it more likely that women will breastfeed. But I think we also need to recognize that for some women, formula is necessary, and I hate to see a bunch of unsubstantiated claims made by formula makers used to increase the cost of what is already a major expense for some families.

Also, WIC (Different requirements in each state) requires that grocers carry non-organic varieties of all food types accepted to participate. So, a small local & organic food cooperative can no longer participate in offering WIC to its members because it is required to always offer non-organic carrots for sale.