Homemade Baby Formula Recipe
Looking for a homemade baby formula recipe? This is something mothers need if they find that they cannot breastfeed for some reason, cannot find another source of quality breast milk, and don’t want to use commercial formula.
In this post, I share a simple healthy homemade baby formula recipe that I used with my own daughter.
There are a lot of reasons why you do not want to use store-bought formula for your baby, which I will cover in this post.
Suffice it to say, commercial formula is not healthy!
I saw someone on Twitter calling commercial formula "Liquid Doritos" and I say, yes, that's exactly what it is.
@cheeseslave #stitch with @carissathedoula Stop feeding your babies Liquid Doritos — if you have trouble breastfeeding, search for a lactation consultant. If that doesn’t work after a few sessions, make your own baby formula! Link in profile. #babyformula #formula #breastmilk #breastfeeding #infantformula #news ♬ original sound - Ann Marie Michaels
If you can't breastfeed, I would use this homemade baby formula recipe to make your own baby formula.
What's Wrong With Commercial Baby Formula?
Okay, let's get into the reasons it's garbage...
First and foremost in my mind is the aluminum.
In a recent study, Dr. Christopher Exley and his colleagues analyzed dozens of different brands of baby formula and found that they all had high levels of aluminum, which causes cancer and Alzheimer's disease. (Source)
What's In Commercial Baby Formula?
If you read the baby formula labels, there are a lot of other questionable ingredients. Let's go over some of them...
Here are a few common store-bought baby formula ingredients that you will want to avoid:
- Corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, brown rice syrup, and other added sugars. There is no need to add sugar.
- Added DHA and ARA, usually processed using hexane solvents, a neurotoxin. In our homemade baby formula recipe below, baby gets DHA and ARA, which are naturally occurring in breast milk and critical for your baby's brain development, from natural fats, including cod liver oil.
- Palm oil, which may inhibit calcium absorption in infants. This is why we use cream, coconut oil, olive oil and sunflower oil as fats for the baby formula.
- Carrageenan is a thickener derived from seaweed that may cause intestinal inflammation as observed in some animal studies.
- Heavy metals (the aforementioned aluminum, as well as fluoride) and pesticides, which are not listed on the label, should also be avoided. There will also be fluoride and other toxins in the tap water you use to make the formula unless you are specifically using filtered water.
- Hormones and antibiotics, which is present in dairy-based baby formula as a result of animal agriculture practices. This is why we use only organic milk and organic cream in our recipe.
- Artificial, synthetic flavors, or colorings.
- Soy. There should be NO soy in baby formula. Please read The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America's Favorite Health Food by Kaayla Daniel.
Let's Look At the Labels of Popular Baby Formula Brands
Here are a few labels from baby formula brands that should scare you:
This first one below is an organic, supposedly healthy brand of baby formula. The number one ingredient is basically sugar: brown rice syrup. The number two ingredient is nonfat milk. And the third ingredient is canola oil, which is not good for you. Throw this one in the trash.
Next we have what looks like a Target-brand baby formula. So this is not organic and that means it's full of pesticides and the cheapest ingredients possible.
Do you really want to give this to your baby?
Also notice, the first ingredient is nonfat milk. Babies need full fat milk to grow healthy and strong. This one also contains soy, which is a NO GO.
Next we have a non-dairy brand of baby formula made by Enfamil, which is frankly horrifying. Almost 50% corn syrup solids.
Also not good vegetable oils (palm and soy) and modified corn starch. This is just the worst.
Do your baby a favor and throw these cans of formula in the trash. This formula shortage is a blessing.
Start using this homemade baby formula recipe to make your own formula today. Your baby will thank you one day when he or she grows up healthy, happy and strong.
Why I Made Homemade Baby Formula
Some people ask, why would you want to make homemade baby formula? Everyone knows breast milk is the best thing for babies.
My Struggle with Breastfeeding
But some of us have not been blessed with an easy time breastfeeding. I loved breastfeeding and had no problems… until I started having issues with my breast milk supply when my baby Kate was only 4 months old.
I tried everything to increase my breast milk supply (fenugreek, round-the-clock pumping, taking her to bed with me for 3 days, etc.).
But to my great despair, I had to start supplementing with formula. I felt like a complete failure as a mother.
I found out later that it was because my doctor prescribed birth control pills – that is what dried up my milk. Ugh!
Needless to say, I threw them in the trash when I figured that out.
The Dangers of Soy in Baby Formula
When my Great Uncle Roy (who was at that time in his 80s) read on my blog that I was having breast milk supply issues and had to start formula feeding, he emailed me a link to the Weston A. Price Foundation to warn me about the dangers of soy formula. (Note: The Weston A. Price Foundation is an organization I no longer recommend due to their insistence on promoting fermented cod liver oil. You can read about that here: My Take on the Fermented Cod Liver Oil Scandal.)
If you haven't read Dr. Kaayla Daniel's book, The Whole Soy Story, you need to get a copy immediately. It's a brilliant book and it contains all the evidence that soy is a scam. If you don't have time to read the book right away, at the very least read the review of the book to get a sense for what she's talking about.
The more I read about soy, the more I realized that literally every formula on the market these days has soy in it (usually soybean oil and/or soy lecithin).
Then I started looking at other formula labels. Even if they didn't have soy, they had all kinds of other garbage in them that I knew my baby should not be consuming.
I came to the conclusion that there is no good commercial baby formula available.
I became determined to find a healthier alternative for my baby – and I started searching for a healthy baby formula recipe.
Mary Enig, The Trans Fat Whistleblower
Enter Sally Fallon and Mary Enig’s recipe for homemade baby formula.
If you're not familiar with Mary Enig, you should be. She was a hero. She was a nutritionist and researcher who took on Big Ag and called them out on their lies on trans fats.
They originally said trans fats were good for you. I remember back in the 1970s when they were pushing margarine on us. Well, they later had to admit that trans fats were bad and that they had lied.
You can watch Mary talk about how they lied in this video:
Why Mary Enig's Homemade Baby Formula Recipe?
Mary's recipe was designed to mimic breastmilk as closely as possible nutritionally.
You'll notice that it uses raw milk and that is on purpose. Breast milk is raw, too.
Why Raw Milk?
The ideal milk for baby, if he or she cannot be breastfed, is clean, whole raw milk from old-fashioned cows, certified free of disease, that feed on green pasture. For sources of good quality raw milk go to the Real Milk website.
If you think about it, breast milk is raw, so baby's formula should also be raw.
I don't know why I have never written a blog post on the many health benefits of raw milk but I really need to do that. There are so many benefits, it's hard to list them here.
One of the most important health benefits of raw milk is the good bacteria (pro-biotic, pro, meaning good and biotic meaning bacteria) that will populate the baby's intestinal tract, which is critical for immunity.
For example, the good bacteria in raw milk secrete the enzyme lactase that help you digest lactose. So when we drink pasteurized milk, we lose the ability to digest dairy foods.
If you ever wondered why so many kids have allergies these days, it's because (a) they're not eating raw and fermented foods with probiotics and enzymes and (b) they're getting shot up with suspicious injections that mess up their gut flora.
If you have concerns about the dangers of raw milk, like I did, I suggest you educate yourself. After I read The Untold Story of Milk by Dr. Ron Schmid, I was convinced that raw milk is perfectly safe. I mean think about it, we've been drinking raw milk for thousands of years. Not only is this book a fascinating read about American history, it's the best (possibly the only) story of the history of raw milk.
If you can't get raw milk, get whole organic milk, ideally low-temperature pasteurized or at least not ultra-pasteurized if you can avoid it.
My Experience With The Homemade Formula Recipe
I’m so grateful we found the homemade baby formula recipe. My daughter thrived on it.
She got a bad case of cradle cap on commercial baby formula. When we switched to homemade baby formula, her cradle cap disappeared and it never came back.
I was able to continue to breastfeed my daughter until she was 9 months old, and I supplemented with this formula, since I couldn't produce enough milk for her. I made this formula for her until she was over a year old (I forget how long it was; I'd have to look.)
Notes on the Homemade Baby Formula Recipe
Here are a few of my notes on this wonderful recipe.
"But The Recipe Seems Hard To Make"
People may think this recipe may seem difficult to make but I assure you, it's very easy once you get all the ingredients you need.
You can find everything at the health food store and/or online (such as Amazon).
Modifications To The Recipe
The recipe is slightly modified (just the method, not the ingredients) from the recipe by Sally Fallon and Mary Enig published in the book, Nourishing Traditions.
Please note: I like the book, Nourishing Traditions but I no longer recommend Sally Fallon's dietary advice, nor do I belong to the Weston A. Price Foundation, due to Sally's position on fermented cod liver oil, which I am strongly opposed to and I feel may be dangerous to human health. I think Mary Enig would have agreed.
I wrote a whole series of posts about the Fermented Cod Liver Oil Scancal of 2015, but they have been taken down temporarily. My YouTube channel was deleted due to censorship and I don't have time to reupload them somewhere else. Check back later.
Homemade Baby Formula Recipe
Makes 36 ounces
Equipment Needed
Blender (you can use a whisk and a bowl but I think it’s much easier in a blender)
Glass bottles or BPA-free plastic baby bottles; do NOT use plastic bottles with BPA — it’s toxic!
Ingredients
LIQUID
Whole (not skim or low-fat) organic milk, preferably raw, from pasture-fed cows (2 cups)
Filtered water – if you don’t have a filter, use bottled distilled water, reverse osmosis water, or spring water (1 7/8 cups)
Homemade liquid whey — Note: Do NOT use whey from making cheese — it will cause the formula to curdle. Use only homemade whey made from yoghurt, kefir or separated raw milk. It's very easy – see my recipe (1/4 cup)
Good quality organic cream, ideally raw (2 TBS or more)
Coconut oil (2 tsp)
High-vitamin cod liver oil, such as Nordic Naturals brand or Rosita – store it in the fridge; it goes rancid when exposed to heat and light (1/2 tsp)
Expeller-expressed sunflower oil – store in the fridge; it goes rancid when exposed to heat and light (1 tsp)
Extra virgin olive oil – store in a dark cupboard (1 tsp)
DRY
Lactose powder (4 TBS)
Frontier brand nutritional yeast flakes (2 tsp)
Gelatin, grass fed – I like used to recommend Vital Proteins but they were bought out buy Nestle. This brand is one that I trust. (2 tsp)
Bifidobacterium infantis probiotic (store in the fridge) (1/4 tsp)
Acerola powder (1/4 tsp)
It is very important to use the exact amounts that are called for (I have not changed any of the amounts). This recipe was formulated by a nutritionist (Mary Enig) and is designed to be as close as possible to human breast milk.
The only thing I changed in the recipe is how I make it.
In the original recipe, they say to add the gelatin powder to the filtered water and warm it slightly until the gelatin dissolves.
Many people also like to add the coconut oil to the water so it liquifies. I used to do all of that but after making formula day in day out for over a year now, I find it’s easier just to throw everything in the blender and then scoop out the frothy stuff at the top.
You can try it both ways and see what works better for you.
Instructions
1. Add the 2 cups of milk to the blender.
2. Add the 1/4 cup of whey and the 1 7/8 cups of filtered water.
3. Add all the dry ingredients. (I add the dry ingredients first because then I don’t get my measuring spoons wet.)
4. Add the rest of the liquid ingredients.
5. Set out some clean glass bottles. How many you will need depends on how much your baby drinks at each feeding. I use 6 bottles and fill them all about 6 ounces each.
6. Using a teaspoon, scoop the clumpy snow-like top layer of formula and distribute evenly into the glass bottles. if you don’t scoop it off the top, it will not pour and will get stuck at the bottom of the blender.
7. Distribute the formula into the bottles. When you get near the bottom, you’ll notice that the gelatin is kind of sticking around down there (this is why they recommend warming it in water). If you just swirl the formula around in the blender, making sure the gelatin mixes in, you can easily distribute it among the bottles.
8. Put clean nipples and lids on the bottles and stick them in the fridge.
9. To serve, take the bottle out of the fridge and set in a Pyrex measuring cup or coffee cup halfway full of boiling hot water. When warm, shake bottle well and feed baby. Never, never heat formula in a microwave oven!
I bought this Zojirusshi hot water dispenser. It was a wonderful investment for warming formula and baby purees. I think you can also use a baby bottle warmer.
I do not recommend setting a cold bottle just out of the fridge in a saucepan of simmering water. I broke a few bottles doing that — which is why I bought the Zojirushi. If you are going to use a saucepan on the stove, use a room-temperature bottle only.