FUNPRAM

For a mama who simply cannot produce her own breast milk, the next best option is to find donor milk. There are different ways to go about this. Personally, I would choose to find a donor that I know in real life first. Once my baby is born, I am planning on exclusively nursing my own infant as well as pumping to donate milk to a friend of mine who has an adopted son with a dairy allergy. This set-up is considered to be informal milk-sharing. There are also websites such as Eats on Feets and Human Milk for Human Babies dedicated to helping mamas find informal donors. Some states have milk banks where mamas can get donated breast milk. The downside, in my opinion, to this milk is that it has been pasteurized.

After donated mama milk, the next best option according to the WHO is a breast milk substitute. If this is your only option, my suggestion would be to make your own baby formula. One of the contributors at our real food site, Modern Alternative Kitchen, wrote a great post on making homemade baby formula complete with a video tutorial a couple of weeks ago. You can read the full post here or click below to watch the video.

What About Commercial Formula?

One thing I cannot do is endorse any commercial baby formula. There are myriad reasons for this, but chief among them is that almost all commercial baby formulas have soy as a main ingredient. The following problems can result from the consumption of soy, no matter your age, but are exacerbated in the small body of an infant:

It is also estimated that a baby who is exclusively fed soy based formula ingests the equivalent of five hormonal birth control pills a day. If hormonal birth control is not a wise choice for you, why would it be a wise choice for your baby? You can read more about the dangers of soy here and the dangers of commercial formula in general here. Sources from (http://modernalternativepregnancy.com/2013/05/14/what-to-do-when-breastfeeding-isnt-an-option/#.VeWg-fmqqkp)