I am the most passionate of lactation consultants - so please no flames!

However, we need to remember the history of why formulas came into use - and
how they evolved.  I am NOT talking about the marketing and the misuse of a
product when it is not necessary.

1. Mothers were dying in childbirth (this was prior to antibiotics)
2. Babies were dying in "foundling" homes
3. Milk was unpasteurized, and came "straight" from the (often uncleaned)
cow's udder to the baby - babies continued to die
4. When they began boiling the milk - fewer deaths
5. When they began adding more sugars - better growth than with milk that
did not have the sugars
6. When they began diluting the milk - fewer gastrointestinal problems

My husband is often pointing out that the human species survived because we
COULD digest such a variety of foods - our survival, he laughingly observes,
is partly because we're able to eat almost anything - and we stink so much
because of it that almost nothing was willing to eat US!

As a child of the 40's (just had my birthday on September 11), I was
breastfed for a very short time (my mom thought maybe 3 months) then given a
combination of evaporated milk that was watered down and cooked with karo
syrup.  (Dad was in charge of the making, mom of the delivery in bottles -
which I often threw up immediately).

Despite that, most people in my generation SURVIVED - no it was not ideal,
but survival then brought about a changing of the "formula" and eventual
development of what is consumed today.

It is ever-changing - the formula my kids would have been given (had I ever
had to, which thank God and La Leche League I did not), in the 70s would be
different from that of today.

Why did I comment on this?  Because we need to be aware there is a
difference between necessity and choice, and between adequate and optimal.
Babies throughout the world even today survive on all sorts of combinations
that we would be appalled
to allow in our homes.  However, some babies also die and become very ill
because of these feeds.

My concern with organic formulas is the history we have had of formula that
have been altered and later - after babies were hospitalized or dying - we
learn they were missing B6 or some other necessary nutrient.  The commercial
formula ALSO have errors, but they ARE monitored closely.

When a mom is just supplementing with an organic formula I would probably be
less concerned - but if she is providing only half or less of her baby's
needs in human milk (hers, milk bank, wet nurse?), then I would be VERY
worried if she chose to use an "organic" formula.

.just my very opinion.

Jeanette Panchula, BSW, RN, PHN, IBCLC
Vacaville, California




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