I don't know if my personal experience with homemade formulas would be of any help to you, or not, but here it is.  As an adoptive mother, I nursed on demand with the Lact-Aid, so they got what breast milk they could along with some kind of formula.  With six kids, and different allergies and health conditions, I used a wide variety of commercial formulas, but there wasn't always one that we could use.  With my fifth child, Joseph, who didn't tolerate cow's milk formulas, I started using homemade goat milk formula.  He was doing OK on soy formula when I got him, but I am allergic to soy and using it in the Lact-Aid burns my skin.  He refused to suck when I tried to use Nutramigen.  I felt like my choice was between bottle feeding soy formula and nursing with the Lact-Aid, having him get 12-16 ounces a day of breast milk, and supplementing with a home-made formula.  I had used whole goat's milk with my fourth child (who was older when I got her) with good results.  I had a friend who milked goats and had a little more than her family needed, so I decided to make a formula from raw goat milk.  I did as much research as I could. 

One of the most important things, in using homemade formulas, is to be sure and keep the ash content low enough that it won't overload the baby's kidneys.  The younger the baby is, the more water is required, in relation to the minerals.  I was raised on homemade formula containing evaporated milk, water and corn syrup, as were much of the population 55 and over.  I used the old formula recipes as a guide for the amount of water to add to the milk.  I don't remember the amounts i used (Joseph is now 17), but the ingredients were whole goat milk, water, powdered lactose, probiotics and folic acid.  The Meyenberg goat milk company has a recipe for a formula, based on evaporated goat's milk.  That can be used as a guide for the amount of water to milk.  I actually think it is better to use their fresh, Pasteurized goat milk, but the amounts can be varied from their recipe for evaporated milk, by figuring the amount of water needed to reconstitute the evaporated milk and subtracting that from the amount of water called for in the recipe.  

I can't tell from your post if this mother is still nursing at all.  If she is, I would suggest nursing with a supplementer, so the baby gets as much breast milk as possible.  I felt like, since my kids were getting somewhere close to half of their diet in breast milk, there was a little more margin for error with the formula than if they had been getting only formula.  Our pediatrician agreed that it was better to have him get as much breast milk as possible, but he was a bit concerned about iron, so I agreed to a periodic hematocrit, which was always fine.  I also started giving Joseph some molasses at about 8 months.    

For probiotics, I really like Primadophilus for Children.  It dissolves completely, which I had to have, for use in the Lact-Aid.  I used to pay something like $20 for a jar that lasted about two months, but the cost has actually come down in recent years, probably due to much wider acceptance of the importance of probiotics (not just for health-food freaks any more).   I recommend adding it to any kind of formula.  There is now a formula on the market that includes probiotics, which I am hoping will be a trend that the big name companies will follow.  I still think Primadophilus is better, though, because it is kept refridgerated, so you know the cultures are viable.

Finally, I think it is extremely important for any mother who chooses to use something besides commercial formula to understand that she is accepting 100% of the responsibility for the outcome.  I don't actually recommend goat formula or any other home-made formula, I just acknowledge that there are cases where they may be a consideration and say this is what I did.  I hope this mother is able to find something that works well for her and her baby.


Darillyn


 		 	   		  
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