The mother who weaned her 4 month old for chemotherapy is running out of
donor milk at 5 months and debating her formula choices.  She was
inclined toward soy because she believed dairy products were linked to
increased breast cancer and understandably wants to protect her daughter.
I told her I knew of no such connection with infants, and encouraged her
to choose a cow milk formula since there's no family allergy history.

I listed as soy formula minuses: the lack of lactose, the phytoestrogens,
the fact that soy is not milk and infants are not by nature vegetarians, the
AAP  recommendation for cow over soy when possible, and the shorter track
record of soy.  (We also discussed the fact that her decision is less
important now than it would have been several months ago.)

She's also curious about homemade formulas, which I discouraged, saying
that at least the industry was trying to imitate human milk, within its
commercial and informational constraints, and that such things as taurine
just aren't available in the average kitchen.

To my mind, the hierarchy is:
breastfeeding, expressed mother's milk, expressed donor milk, cow milk
formula, soy formula, homemade cow milk formulas, homemade soy formulas. Any
additional thoughts, public or private?  I told her I'd ask :-)

Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC, LLLL  Ithaca, NY  [log in to unmask]