How to Feed Babies

What we feed a baby shapes its health for life: its brain, its immune system, its adult weight, even its intelligence. And, as with almost everything in this book, much of what we are sold as “normal” is really a business that makes us sick. This chapter is based on the work of A Midwestern Doctor.

Breast milk has no substitute

Breastfeed your baby, and for as long as possible. Ideally only breast milk for the first six months, and then continue breastfeeding along with food — one, two, three years or more. Breast milk is not just food: it is a living substance. A baby breastfed for a year gains about 3 IQ points, and more for each extra month.

Breast milk provides fat and cholesterol for the brain and eyes; enzymes to digest that fat; antibodies and proteins that kill microbes (like lactoferrin and lysozyme); factors that teach and balance the immune system; special sugars that feed the good gut bacteria; and even hormones and substances that regulate hunger and mother-baby bonding. None of this is in a can of formula.

The benefits are measured: breastfed babies have half the crib death, half the asthma, fewer ear and lung infections, less childhood cancer (especially leukemia), less autism and less adult diabetes. It also protects the mother: it lowers her risk of breast, ovarian and uterine cancer, and helps with postpartum depression.

What the mother eats passes into the milk

The quality of the milk depends on what the mother eats. In the last fifty years, because of seed oils, the linoleic acid in breast milk has nearly tripled, while vitamins A, D and K2 (from animal fat) have dropped a lot. A breastfeeding mother should eat good animal fat and avoid seed oils, junk food and processed products. Iodine is key: the milk concentrates 20 to 50 times the iodine in the mother’s blood, and without iodine the baby does not develop its thyroid or brain well. Note too: almost everything passes into the milk, from chocolate and gluten to the antibodies and RNA of the vaccines.

The mother’s stress cuts milk production. That is why calm, rest and family support are part of breastfeeding well. Many “I can’t breastfeed” cases are really a lack of support, not a body problem. A lactation consultant or a group like La Leche League can save the nursing.

The formula deception

Infant formula is one of the great businesses disguised as health. It began in the 1920s by paying doctors, and reached its worst with Nestlé, which in poor countries gave away samples, sent saleswomen dressed as nurses, and convinced mothers they did not have enough milk; many babies died from formula watered down with dirty water. Today the industry sells about 55 billion dollars a year by scaring parents that crying or poor sleep are “fixed” with their product.

Even the weight charts are a trap: for years they used the weight of formula-fed babies (who gain too much) as if it were normal, and so the leaner, healthier breastfed baby is declared “underweight” and the mother is pushed toward formula.

And the ingredients are bad: most formulas contain corn syrup (sugar) that fattens, and loads of seed oil. Because of a 1980 law that has never been updated, formula is required to contain linoleic acid, and it ends up having far more than it should — exactly what interferes with brain development (it blocks DHA). It also usually contains aluminum and even heavy metals like lead and arsenic, and it lacks the cholesterol and DHA the brain needs. Soy formula is one of the worst, because of its plant estrogens and its effect on the thyroid.

If you cannot breastfeed

If you truly cannot breastfeed, the best option is not supermarket formula, but raw (unpasteurized) milk from grass-fed cows, or a homemade formula based on that milk or on meat, as was done in the past. Raw milk keeps its enzymes and does not cause the allergies pasteurized milk does; children raised on raw milk have fewer allergies, rashes, asthma and respiratory problems. Goat’s milk digests easily, but it constipates and lacks folic acid and vitamin B12, so it must be supplemented. Never use plant-based “milks”: they do not have the animal fat or nutrients the baby needs.

The first days and other advice

As soon as the baby is born, place it skin to skin with the mother and let it nurse in the first half hour: that first colostrum is a treasure and, besides, it helps the mother expel the placenta and not bleed. Avoid pacifiers and bottles the first days, so the baby learns to latch well. Choose a “baby-friendly” hospital, and avoid, as much as possible, heavily intervened births, which make nursing harder.

Never heat the milk (breast milk or formula) in the microwave: it destroys the good in it. If the baby cries a lot (“colic”), it is usually from something the mother eats or from a lack of good bacteria: a probiotic for babies (especially Lactobacillus reuteri) helps a lot. But be careful: a sharp, piercing cry that starts right after a vaccine is not colic, it is an alarm sign (see the chapter on vaccines).

To learn more (sources in English)

This chapter is based on the article (in English) by A Midwestern Doctor, which cites many scientific studies.

Why is what we feed infants so unhealthy?: https://www.midwesterndoctor.com/p/why-is-what-we-feed-infants-so-unhealthy