Feeding baby...

beepsandclicksbeepsandclicks Raw Newbie

I’d like some advice regarding feeding my son. When I had my son a year ago, I (very) unfortunately did not make enough milk (yes, I tried everything I knew: 4 different lactation consultants, pumping, acupuncture, herbs, drinking Guinness, even allopathic drugs)...long story short, nothing worked and my milk completely dried up within his second month. This was (is) devestating to me, knowing all the benefits breastfeeding can bring. I had a hard choice to make and decided to cow’s milk formula (was afraid of the phytoestrogens of soy and we did not have a milk bank around and anyway I would be afraid of what the donor mom might be eating…namely meat and the hormones in it).

So, he is a bit over a year old now and I have taken him off the formula. I was looking so forward to this because I didn’t like the idea of him drinking dairy, especially when it is re-formulated with many ingredients I cannot pronounce. I don’t mind him being on the bottle still at all, but what should I put in the bottle? I’ve searched around the net and some vegan sites say you should bite the bullet and feed cow’s milk, some say soy is actually okay, and I’ve read a lot about rice and nut milks not being as good in terms of calcium/fat. I tried goat’s milk on him and he hated it. Of course, his pediatrician says soy will be just fine and the real thing to fear, he says, are all the plastics we are using (of course, we use glass bottles, so not too much of an issue).

My initial thought was to just feed him water to drink and green smoothies. It hasn’t really worked out that way…Our baby seems a bit stuck on the idea of having his “white” beverage still. I have tried watered-down fresh juices and just plain water in the bottle (he’ll drink these from his cup but not the bottle)—because sometimes only his bottle will do—but he just throws it aside.

I’m sure there are very few, if any, folks on this forum who didn’t get to breastfeed…but if there are any of you out there, I sure would like to hear from you! I STILL feel like a major failure in the mommy department, and I worry about what he’s missing because I’m not breastfeeding…but I have to make the best of the hand we’ve been dealt.

I was not raw when I was pregnant. I bet you if I were to get pregnant again, the milk would come in normally now that my diet is healthy…

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