I would like to start this post with some very personal information. I did not breastfeed my daughters for longer than a month. Nursing didn’t come easy for me, I struggled, and the choice to bottle feed was gruelling because I beat myself up and felt like a failure of a woman. So many people have harsh judgements on either side when it comes to nursing and bottle feeding your child. I do agree that breast milk is best if you eat clean because whatever you eat goes to your baby. If your baby is sensitive you may have to eliminate all dairy and other foods to prevent distress. That being said, I don’t believe that any of us are in a position to judge the decision made by another mother, because we only know our situation. The reality of feeding my children differed drastically from what I had envisioned before they were born. That was one of the hardest times as a new mom and thankfully we all made out more than fine.
When I finished beating myself up and decided to bottle feed Taylor we went to the grocery store and picked out a cow’s milk based formula. I try to block it out but I think it only took a week or two and Taylor screamed, and then screamed some more. My doctor said she had colic, they didn’t know why it happened, and that she would outgrow it. My sanity literally flew out the window for a couple of months and thus began our rodeo with infant formula. The next one we tried was a Lactose free one~This was a silly move because dairy contains many proteins with the three main being lactose, whey & casein. Why did I think eliminating lactose would do the trick? Lactose free formulas still contain casein and whey so lactose free formula doesn’t make much sense to me. That only dawned on me when the screaming carried on, and on.
When the lactose free formula didn’t work, we gravitated to soy. WOW. The screaming actually got worse. I get it, because now I know she is very allergic to soy. I also know that most soy is genetically modified and have heard feeding soy formula to an infant for a day gives them the equivalent of 5 birth control pills worth of estrogen. Yikes.
After we had exhausted all mainstream formulas we finally found the one that worked. Alimentum. I should have been up on an Alimentum billboard kissing the stuff because it saved my sanity and Taylor’s wellbeing. I should warn you that it still contains a small amount of casein but in my opinion this infant formula is by far the most comforting to a sensitive baby’s body. The small amount of casein is heavily broken down and far more easy to digest. To boot it’s corn free but I won’t even get started on that one today.
If you make the choice to bottle feed please try Alimentum first. It doesn’t smell, taste or look the best but it will most likely spare your child distress. Not only do they not know the difference in taste at a young age, but to a tiny little body, easy to digest is far more comforting. Taylor is almost 10 years old and I have never heard her say “Mom why didn’t you give me the sweeter tasting stuff?”
You can check out more on Alimentum here: http://similac.ca/en/products/alimentum/