photo credit: brettneilson
Homemade Baby Formula is a Safer, More Nutritious Alternative
This week, I started work on a press relations project for the Weston A. Price Foundation (WAPF), regarding the dangers of soy infant formula. On December 18th a panel stacked with experts from universities funded by the soy industry, who listened to the testimony of soy industry representatives, and relying heavily on soy industry funded research, concluded that soy infant formulas only pose only a minimal health risk. See our press release, Soy Infant Formula Panel Caves to Industry Pressure for more details.
Disregarding testimony by Sally Fallon Morell, President of WAPF and over 700 studies showing adverse effects and numerous FDA violations both submitted by Gail Elbek, the panel voted the pleasure of the soy moguls. In doing so they choose to ignore the allergies, autism, thyroid problems, learning disorders and even infertility problems (later in life) caused by soy infant feeding.
Since I joined the Foundation and became their publicist, my awareness of the health concerns surrounding soy has gone from nil to Code Orange. Unwarranted health claims combined with soy’s questionable nutritional value have my dietary threat alert on high!
I have known from the beginning that one of the goals of the Foundation is to end the feeding of soy formula to babies. I know that many families have found the homemade raw milk formula and liver formula’s which WAPF recommends, to be helpful when a mother can’t breast feed. In fact, a story in the Washington Post, The Raw Deal, helped me find my own source of raw dairy. The story told the amazing story of a baby that was failing to thrive, and was literally dying, whose life was saved by switching to an infant formula made from raw milk. I now have a cowshare at the farm where that family gets its milk.
Prison Soy Feeding “Experiment” Indicates The Damage Soy Infant Feeding Can Do
Currently, in American prisons a defacto human experiment is going on. Prisoners, like soy fed infants, are getting high doses of soy, daily. While working on the WAPF prison soy lawsuit, it is becoming more and more clear the reasons why soy is a toxic alternative. Many family members of prison inmates have contacted me to tell me their loved ones health is suffering on the high soy diet. So are members of the general public-as I learn of story after story about the ravages wrought by soy, I am learning firsthand why we need to sound the alarm bell to the American public.
Sally Fallon Morell says that early soy formulas were different than today’s, “back then, an alcohol wash was used to remove the isoflavones from the soy formula”. Nowadays, Sally added, “it is considered “too expensive” to do so.” The WAPF estimates these plant estrogens in modern soy formulas are like giving birth control pills to babies. Yikes.
Yet, according to Sally, a research scientist, who sat on this panel of experts and is conducting soy-fed infant research, denies that soy has any estrogenic effects in humans! Now, how is it that soy is being touted by marketing campaigns to doctors as a “hormone balancing agent” and even a “hormone replacement panacea” and a Ph.D. doing research on this hasn’t heard the “news”?
A Grandmother Sounds the Alarm
On Kevin Brown’s Liberation Wellness blog comes this harrowing tale from a grandmother:
My name is Ilsa Vega from South Jersey who has been blessed with two beautiful granddaughters. I would like to share with you my youngest granddaughter, who is two months old, amazing story.
My granddaughter, who was born in June of 2009, had the opportunity of being breast feed for only a few weeks due to her mother having complications.
My beautiful granddaughter was immediately introduced to the conventional formula (Lipil). I immediately started to see a transformation in a negative way. The baby started to have an awful greenish diarrhea with mucus. She became dehydrated and her skin became yellowish gray in color. She was also vomiting with full force projecting across the bed. The baby’s cry touched my soul. I never saw anything like this. I recall having my son who is now 31 years old, having similar symptoms, I trusted in his doctor and thinking my baby was safe, but now I see that I was wrong.
Click here to read the rest of Ilsa’s soy infant formula story.
What You Can Do to Help
Sally Fallon Morell is disappointed at the panel’s willingness to risk the health of America’s babies to prop up the flagging sales of the soy industry. She is asking parents to share with the government, their personal testimonies on the negative health outcomes they have experienced with soy infant formula.
Please write to:
Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services
email: kathleen.sebelius at hhs.gov.
Kristina Thayer, Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction
email: thayer at niehs.nih.gov.
Sally also requests that you post your testimony on this website: http://www.fda.gov/MedWatch/report.htm
Gail as a concerned citizen is interested in amassing personal testimonies of soy infant damage. Please send your story to her at soyinfantdamage at yahoo.com.
This post is part of the Natural Cures Blog Carnival on Hartkeisonline.com. If you have a story related to infant nutrition, please tell us or submit a link to your blog story in the comments, below.
Paid Endorsement Disclosure: In order for me to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of renumeration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog.
Soy formula should never be fed to babies. Great Britain and New Zealand have banned the feeding of Soy formula to babies, except when there is no alternative due to health problems. The Israeli Government has stated that infants should not be fed Soy formula.
Other governments have also taken action against soy formula.
Unfortunately, it seems that the profits of the soy formula companies are more important to our government then the health of American babies.
What a crying shame that so many other countries have recognized how terrible this is for our children and yet there is a wall here that prevents us from doing the same. All I can say is that we should spread the word ourselves the best we can. Every child spared from that soy disaster is an enormous step in the right direction.
.-= Elizabeth Walling´s last blog ..Weight Loss Wednesday: How Much Fat is Enough? 7 Reasons to Eat More =-.
Soy is not the answer! Soy is an established estrogenic endocrine disruptor proven to cause extensive irreversible adverse health effects. The FDA does not have evidence of soy phyto-estrogen safety especially not during most fragile developmental exposures. In fact the FDA does not regulate infant formula approval…..for instance, although toxic, if horse droppings can qualify as a protein source, the only FDA requirement for infant formulas is to add essential minerals in order to qualify as a marketable infant formula industry. Soy, as is included in the FDA “Poisonous Plant Database,” is also overwhelmingly published study concluded as causing extensive physiological, (including reproductive), and neurological (including autism) severely damaging health effects.
My wife and I are expecting our first any time now. As a “just in case,” I wanted to have two or three cans of lactose intolerance formula. I studied all of the formulas currently available. It’s pathetic.
There is one company, located in Iowa, which makes non-soy, lactose-intolerant formula using de-lactosed (organic) cow’s milk. They also certify all of their products to be GMO and BPA free (including the can). They’ve also got a non-milk version made from brown rice rather than soy.
Nature’s One is the company. It’s about $15/can or $180/case of 12.
We’re hoping that breast milk will do the job here, but I’m glad I’ve done the research and have it prepared anyway. Just thought I’d share.
.-= Aaron´s last blog ..Green Oil Announces Fully Synthetic 15W40 Diesel Engine Oil =-.
Aaron-check out the homemade recipes on the WAPF website. Making formula with your loving hands will be the best option. Cows milk (unprocessed) is an immune system, it is basically white blood cells and water. This is why rice based formulas just can’t compete-they are not a complete immune system!
My sister and I weren’t breastfed. She was dairy allergic and fed soy formula. She has had a terrible health history, with her reproductive system damaged to the point she couldn’t have children and allergies that required weekly injections to keep her out of the hospital. There is no telling, of course, the impact soy had on her. Might she have been healthy with a houseful of children if she hadn’t been fed soy? I was fed cow’s milk formula and had other health challenges but no reproductive problems.
.-= Local Nourishment´s last blog ..Red Dirt On My Sneakers =-.
Kimberly,
It’s too late for my youngest (mommy guilt!) who was given soy formula and then soy milk for years afterward due to galactosemia. But for those who absolutely cannot have dairy of any kind what do you recommend? Can things be added to rice or almond milk to make a complete formula? In the case of galactosemia they cannot even have breast milk. What is the best option for those special cases?
BTW, when dd quit the soy she also quit looking malnourished (big belly, skinny little arms and legs) and the bags went away from under her eyes! She quit being exhausted by 10am and dragging through the day. I still have the guilt of those years of soy but am sooo thankful dc are soy-free now for the most part except for what slips by in ingredients sometimes.
Thanks for your work!
Beth
.-= Beth´s last blog ..High School History Part 2 =-.
“My wife and I are expecting our first any time now. As a “just in case,” I wanted to have two or three cans of lactose intolerance formula.”
This is one of the first steps to sabotaging the breastfeeding relationship. Careful!
This is outrageous. I see precocious adolescence in girls as young as 7 years old. I hope the word gets out so parents will stop feeding soy to their children.
.-= Cathy Payne´s last blog ..ONL057 OMG, We Bought the Farm! =-.