If you’ve been playing along since the very beginning you already know my struggles with breastfeeding. But if you’re just getting here, I’ll catch you up.
It sucked.
I couldn’t do it. It hurt so bad and never got better. I still tried for months. Saw lactation consultants, rented a hospital grade electric breast pump, tried nipple shields, different pillows, fenugreek, warm showers, boob massages…
I got a rash which no one could explain or fix. Wilder swore it was related to the stress. He was probably right since it only went away when I started the boy on formula.
I’ve been seeing a lot of real shit takes from people about this formula shortage. The worst one is to “just breastfeed” like it’s a switch we flip. I’m not surprised at the number of women saying that bullshit, but I am disappointed.
New hobby: going on Twitter and responding to every doctor or medical/public health organization currently warning moms not to make homemade formula with this:
Give families a legitimate recipe. Their grocery stores are out of stock. Their food banks are out of stock. No pediatrician has enough to feed all their patients for weeks. Give parents an option, or they will find one themselves that you don’t like. Their babies are hungry.
Interesting that the WHO PDF on how to make a breast milk substitute, posted since 2006, was taken down in 2020. Here’s a link from the Way Back Machine.
Long story short, you mix water and either goat or full cow milk in a 1:2 ratio and add 1g of sugar for every 10ml of milk used.
As an example, a one month old should have 40ml milk, 20ml water, 20ml of (boiled) water, and 4grams of sugar.
Or you can use powdered full cows milk. A 1 month old you’d mix 5g powder milk with 60ml water and 4g sugar.
Check it out for yourself. Don’t question why this was taken down in 2020 and we’re being told this isn’t okay anymore though.
I downloaded the pdf of that link for you all.
Honestly I think part of this is that the establishment doesn’t want to acknowledge that this is an emergency, that these guidelines meant for disaster zones are what we need right now.
They won’t admit that it’s really that bad, but it is.
Step 1: Three companies come to control nearly all of the baby formula market by driving out or buying up competitors.
Step 2: One of the three, which holds 43% of the market, declines to replace its old and failing drying equipment, leading to rapid bacteria growth that resulted in four babies dying from infection after consuming the formula.
Step 3: The company, Abbott Laboratories, recalls its biggest formula brand. This leads to a massive shortage and panic as parents of infants drive hours looking for stores that have any in stock.
Step 4: Babies are gonna die from this, particularly the ones in poor households.
Capitalism will always lead to shit like this, because capitalism requires continuous growth and at some point you can’t grow any more without becoming a monopoly. The system requires the death of infants.
Legislatures love capitalism. Legislatures also love a monopoly that pays state taxes. Legislatures would love to appear to address this problem, then not.
Bonus: approx 1 in 133 have Celiac disease. It usually isn’t tested for in menstruating people because blood loss AND Celiac both cause iron-deficient anaemia, and it’s easy to blame your stupid period than to do ONE (1) blood test specific for glutamase. Celiac is an auto-immune condition, different from a wheat allergy or intolerance (BOTH common in infants, btw!)
What do you think many formulas are made from?
Yep. Wheat or gluten-filled products.
So what happens when your baby is always sick with random digestive issues, spends hours screaming, is eating but somehow becoming more and more malnourished if the intestines stop taking up nutrients due to intestinal death from wheat exposure?
maybe…… you’ll get reported for child neglect? and have your kids seized?
maybe something that mainly targets low-income people and racial minorities?
would that, perhaps, be a felony in many places? places where felons, perhaps, can’t vote?
Oh hey, look! Babies are being out in the ICu because people tried to make 80 year old formula recipes going around on facebook or dying because of… EXACTLY WHAT THE FUCK I said would happen! Autoimmune and allergic reactions!
Another article talks about women driving to up to 20 stores, daily, just to find formula. Breastfeeding for millions is not an option. Besides biological issues, MANY common medications pass on in breastmilk, so a baby can be poisoned with, say, heart medications or asthma meds. Common stuff.
The eugenics programs have been here. It’s just finally spread to poor white babies.
With the current formula shortage I want to share an excerpt from the bookWhere There Is No Doctor: A Village Heathcare Handbook. (Link is to a free PDF of the whole book). This book is an exceptionally good resource and one I trust. It is designed for exceptionally low resource environments, in this case where commercial formula is unavailable, local food is limited, and the caregiver cannot breast feed.
Is it the best? Probably not. Is it worth trying if the alternative is a hungry baby? Definitely.
The recipe above does leave out some vitamins/minerals (particularly vitamin C, which is destroyed by boiling) which can be easily replaced in the US/higher resource areas by adding an infant vitamin supplement, and since access to all foods is assumed to be an issue in this book and the reader may only have oil OR sugar, you could probably go half/half with the oil and sugar suggested above if you have both at your disposal.
The culture of violence around raising children in the US is astounding. Scrapping Roe v Wade to turn unexpected fetuses into unwanted infants. Baby formula shortages to starve the babies already born. And then school shootings to kill them before they’re even grown. Astounding.
