Page 33 - Special Issue: Healthy Baby

FEEDING TWINS

Five years after my son was born I gave birth to boy-girl twins, via Cesarean section. Even though my twins were seven
weeks premature, they each weighed over five pounds and were sent home from the hospital after one week. The hospital
gave them soy formula a few minutes after they were born, which they quite understandably threw up. This caused the
staff to believe the twins needed to be attached to feeding tubes immediately.
I was very upset that they had been given soy and arranged to have them given a milk-based hypoallergenic formula
instead, which I purchased outside the hospital and delivered to the NICU. This hospital was very unfavorable to breast-
feeding. (Perhaps they believed it was impossible with twins.) When the babies came home after one week, it became
evident to me that I would not be able to breastfeed them exclusively. However, I took measures to increase my supply
and was eventually able to provide about half of their needs with breast milk, and the rest with hypoallergenic formula.
When the babies were six months old, I took them off commercial formula and switched to the raw milk formula
provided in Nourishing Traditions. They are now three years, nine months old and still drinking a modified version of the
formula, along with plain raw milk and a variety of whole foods. My boy twin self-weaned from the breast at 10 and a half
months, but my girl twin still nurses a couple of times a day.
The twins took to the raw milk formula immediately and had no digestive distress. They seem to have no allergies of
any kind. My girl twin is the healthiest of the three and very rarely gets a cold. My boy twin is not quite as healthy. In his
early months, he breastfed quite a bit less than his sister did, and received more commercial formula. However, he is very
strong and well built, with exceptionally beautiful white teeth.
There are severe problems with all other formulas, in my view. Standard dairy-based formulas are too difficult for
children to digest and can cause allergies to develop. Soy formula is terrible in every way. Apart from concerns over long-
term damage, this formula smells and tastes awful and causes otherwise healthy children to smell terrible as well. It causes
intestinal distress and is generally very bad news. I found that the hypoallergenic milk-based formulas were the least harmful
of the commercial formulas, but there are serious problems with them as well. They are horrendously expensive and not
available in many hospitals and pharmacies. Furthermore, they are also full of MSG-like neurotoxins.
I put off giving my twins home-made formula for six months, because of all the dire warnings I had seen against giving
unprocessed cow’s milk to infants. The medical establishment now warns against giving milk before one year, but I can no
longer accept that idea. My mother was switched from breast milk to raw cow’s milk at three months and did not suffer
any ill effects.
Above all, I believe that fresh raw cow’s milk is the best substitute for mother’s milk, because it is also a living food,
full of enzymes and antibodies to disease. It is probably superior even to frozen mother’s milk from a breast milk bank,
which these days is delivered after being pasteurized.
I wish I had been confident enough to give my twins the Fallon formula from the first day they were home. I also wish
I had been able to breastfeed them exclusively, as I eventually did with my older son, but it simply wasn’t possible for me.
However, I feel good knowing I did the best I could. My children are growing very well.
Another good thing about the homemade formula is that it caused me to overcome my fear of raw milk. I started to
drink it myself, and it helped me to recover from a difficult pregnancy and delivery. Thank you for providing this wonderful
information to mothers and their babies.
Name Withheld, Los Angeles, California

NO MORE INFECTIONS

My son Joey was born December 15, 2002. I had planned to breastfeed exclusively and felt brokenhearted when I
couldn’t produce enough milk to feed him. I didn’t know there were any alternatives so I had to give him commercial
formula. He suffered from constipation and when he was three months old he came down with bronchitis and an ear
infection. The doctor put him on antibiotics and we had to give him respiratory therapy twice a day for several weeks.
About this time my nutritionist suggested the homemade baby formula. I started making the formula immediately. The
difference in Joey’s health has been like night and day! He has never had another ear infection or any more respiratory
problems. No digestive problems either. He is happy, smart and physically active. He runs, jumps, climbs and turns a great
somersault. May God bless you for the work that you do!
Barbara Finn Figluilo, Frankfort, Illinois

Wise Traditions 31