Is formula or milk essential for my 9 month old?

[berry987]

This is sort of related to another post, but I didn't want to piggy back so I'm starting my own thread. My daughter is almost 9 months old and formula fed (with some donated milk early on) because I am 100% unable to breastfed (won't go into details but she is my 4th child and after trying everything under the sun with all of my children, I know this to be true). My older children drink raw milk, but we are new to it and I have not had the nerve to make raw milk formula for her. I would love to embrace it, but am still kind of uneasy about giving it to my older kids so jumping on raw milk formula hasnt happened.

So, my question - I would LOVE to get her off the processed, horrible commercial formula. She takes CLO, eats egg yolks, fermented veggies, tons of other veggies and fruits, organic kefir and yogurt (not homemade or raw though) and bone broth. Can I just stop giving her formula and give her more bone broth or something? Is her nutrition high quality enough that I can just eliminate milk or formula for now?

I don't have a doctor to ask because our pediatrician is pretty mainstream and I cant find an answer on the Internet. Everything is either the mainstream rec of formula until 12 months or WAPF raw milk formula.

Thanks for your thoughts and opinions!

[Dove84]

I wouldn't take her off milk/formula yet.  My DD at tons of the same solids as yours and while her nutrient levels were good, it was not enough calories for her (I BF but b/c of tongue tie she wasn't getting much milk anymore) and she was losing weight, not developing etc.

Now we give her raw milk- not the full formula, but I add gelatin, cream, whey, probiotics.  She LOVES it.  I tried giving her formula one day when we ran out of milk and she screamed and refused it.  She is gaining and doing great, the dr said to continue whatever we are doing (I didn't tell it it was raw, she'd probably freak).

[JamieCatheryn]

You could scald the raw milk for her at home the day you make and use the homemade formula it if you were uncomfortable with it. Babies that young need breastmilk or a nutritionally close equivalent. Under 9mo I would give goat milk over cow if making homemade but by now cow's could work I suppose. After a year old a balanced diet could do it.

[1love4ever]

berry, just so you know, if the kefir is store bought, it is not made from real grains but instead from a powdered starter,  not near the benefits of the real kefir.  Can you get your hands on some grains?  I agree with the above post saying you could heat the milk a bit if you dont like the raw milk for her, then make the WAPF formula.   The problem that i see is that babies have a hard time getting nutrients from/digesting regular food, especially before 1yr old, so she's not getting everything from that food that she could be if she were older.  It sounds like she has a great diet tho.  is her cod liver oil the fermented stuff?  Thats what I would recommend.  Can you get more donated breastmilk? 

In another thread here on MDC someone was saying how good this formula was http://www.expatessentials.com/acatalog/British_Food__Nanny_Care_10.html but I dont know anything about it.  You could give her organic formula if nothing else, at least it would be a tiny bit better :)   You could also add a little bit of organic coconut oil to her diet.

[Smithie]

I am a big fan of goat milk, if the baby will take it. Scalded raw cow milk in the WAPF formula is also fine, but a lot more work for what I regard as a minimal benefit to a baby who is eating lots of other nutritionally-dense solids.