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On the eve of Niko’s first birthday I am entering the great milk debate. Do I keep him on formula? If we go to whole milk should I give him organic, raw or regular?
Enfamil has a strong marketing campaign going for their new Next Step formula that is for 9-24 month babies. They contend that it’s way better than regular milk because cow’s milk doesn’t have all the DHA that formula has.
Is this truth or just good marketing?
I’m sure it’s true to a point, but I really don’t want to keep paying for formula for another year. It was expensive enough buying formula for the past two months after my milk dried up.
So… we will be going to cow’s milk. The big question is – which kind?
Our child care provider is a big supporter of raw, organic milk. Raw milk is milk straight from the cow – milk that has not pasteurized, homogenized or treated with irradiation. Raw milk has not been altered with additives or chemicals. It’s as organic as milk gets, made from grass, not grain fed cows.
Raw milk supporters state that main-stream consumer processes destroy or damage nutrients found in raw milk. Proponents assert that "friendly" bacteria, such as Lactobacillus acidophilus, aid digestion and boost immunity.
On the flip side, "Drinking raw milk or eating raw milk products is like playing Russian roulette with your health. We see a number of cases of food-borne illness every year related to the consumption of raw milk," said John Sheehan, director of the Food and Drug Administration's Division of Dairy and Egg Safety.
I grew up on Oberweis milk in Chicago. It was delivered to our house in glass jars (wow… showing my age here.) The closest thing here in Kansas City is Shatto. It’s made from free-range cows that are not given any growth hormones.
The milk is pasteurized, but it’s local and fresh. Definitely better than regular store-brand milk that has been made from cows hooked up to machines and pumped full of chemicals.
So which way to you go? Are there any raw milk drinkers out there? Any Shatto-lovers? Any one who believes in formula until they are 24-months?
We alternate between Shatto and Simply Organic (? not sure which brand - it is the best-choice organic brand sold at Price Chopper) milk. If you are concerned about the additives / hormones - any of the organic brands will do - it's a matter of taste and convienence. I don't have any thing to base this on, but I would not give raw milk to a child that young.We too drink the Shatto, it is much better tasting than the 365 or Horizon Organic milk I was buying. First, your child needs the fat, so wholemilk is perfect. However by the age of 2, they say to cut back to skim. I also buy the Horizon Milk individual containers. They sit on the shelf so great for car trips etc. My son likes the strawberry. The health experts say if you can only buy one organic item that Milk is the it. So, something to consider. You can buy the Horizon Milk at Sams Club.I think you're playing with fire with raw milk, but that is just my two cents. When I was preggo I drank organic, usually from Costco. Shatto is awesome, but so $$$. DS has only ever had regular AE whole milk because (I know this is awful) he is a boy. Assuming her allergy goes away,DD will have organic, because the hormones in milk freak me out, and, if I got to have milk right now, I would be drinking organic for the same reason. Somewhere on the RealSimple website is a list of the top ten foods experts say are worth the money for organic, and milk is right up there.My son drinks Iwig Dairy (out of Tecumseh, KS) milk. I get it at the Community Mercantile, but it is also super pricey. When I don't get the Iwig milk, we drink the store brand Organic from my Dillons.Just FYI- There are several regular non-organic brands that don't contain the growth hormone either. One example is "Heartland" brand. They don't really advertise it but it is shown on the label as and it costs the same as any other milk.My daughter loves Shatto milk, and it's the only kind I buy. I'd recommend asking your son's pediatrician about raw milk. I'm all for pure, healthy foods. But one of the main reasons they started processing milk is because so many young children used to die in the summer of their second year after switching from breast feeding to raw milk.As a child of a dairy farmer, I grew up on raw milk. I'm fairly normal (at least my conservative friends think so). :-) That said, I think I would be cautious if I chose to go that route. There were pretty strict guidelines about keeping the milk a certain temperature and keeping it agitated; unless I knew the farmer pretty well, I think I'd go the Shatto route.I remember when I was little we had dairy cows, yuck! I thought it was disgusting! My mom and dad drank it but I really think that is why I don't like white milk anymore because they tried to make me drink it. But we didn't have the dairy cows until I was 7 or 8 so I already knew what "real" milk was and boy was there a difference! Now I can't really tell the difference between the Shatto milk and the regular milk at the store. The Shatto is just neat because it comes in the glass jars to us. But we only use it as a special treat every once in a while. We buy the regular store brand for white milk, but for chocolate we always buy Roberts. Once my kids got a taste of "real" milk they never wanted formula again. You can still get all of the DHA things from some of the cereals that they have for babies and toddlers.My grandparents owned a creamery. Ahh--the stories my dad can tell about that time in his life. Those same stories are why I would say LORD NO!!! GET SOMETHING PASTEURIZED!! People pasteurize for a reason--it kills ookies. Ookies deserve to die. I'd stick with something pasteurized.Bo does just fine on Price Chopper whole milk. Shatto is too expensive for our budget. I didn't do the Enfamil Step 2 stuff... I think it's a rip off.I kept my DS3 on the Next Step formula until he was about 18 months. He had GERD and was on a lactose free formula so I wasn't in a rush to get him on whole milk. We have never had a problem with giving him just plain old whole milk from the store. I do buy Shatto on occasion but that is for a treat. I always have the Horizon shelf milk on hand for trips. They both taste great but I don't think they are any better than regular milk. My son is extremely healthy and strangers as well as his pediatrician comment on how healthy he looks and is. Right now he is on 2% milk but the pediatrician may have me put him on skim like the rest of us when he turns 4. For now I just buy two different milks.I wouldn't give my child raw milk anymore than I would give them raw eggs or meat. I personally believe that cow's milk is made for baby cows, not humans. I have issues with milk.Ah, you know I have to leave a comment on this topic. I am a strong advocate of raw milk. If you are purchasing from a reputable dairy farmer, they must meet strict USDA guidelines in order to sell farm to consumer. The source of most commercial milk is the modern Holstein, bred to produce huge quantities of milk--three times as much as the old-fashioned cow. She needs special feed and antibiotics to keep her well. Her milk contains high levels of growth hormone from her pituitary gland, even when she is spared the indignities of genetically engineered Bovine Growth Hormone to push her to the udder limits of milk production. Commercial feeds consist of soy meal, cottonseed meal or other commercial feeds, or bakery waste, chicken manure or citrus peel cake, laced with pesticides. Vital nutrients like vitamins A and D, and Price's "Activator X" (a fat-soluble catalyst that promotes optimum mineral assimilation, now believed to be vitamin K2) are greatest in milk from cows eating green grass, especially rapidly growing green grass in the spring and fall. Vitamins A and D are greatly diminished, and Activator X disappears, when milk cows are fed commercial feed. Most milk (even most milk labeled "organic") comes from dairy cows that are kept in confinement their entire lives and never see green grass! Shatto Farm do allow their cows to free range and feed on grass. If I did not have access to a raw milk source, this would be the milk of choice for my grandchildren. Pasteurization destroys enzymes, diminishes vitamin content, denatures fragile milk proteins, destroys vitamins C, B12 and B6, kills beneficial bacteria, promotes pathogens and is associated with allergies, increased tooth decay, colic in infants, growth problems in children, osteoporosis, arthritis, heart disease and cancer. Calves fed pasteurized milk do poorly and many die before maturity. Raw milk sours naturally but pasteurized milk turns putrid; processors must remove slime and pus from pasteurized milk by a process of centrifugal clarification. Inspection of dairy herds for disease is not required for pasteurized milk. Pasteurization was instituted in the 1920s to combat TB, infant diarrhea, undulant fever and other diseases caused by poor animal nutrition and dirty production methods. But times have changed and modern stainless steel tanks, milking machines, refrigerated trucks and inspection methods make pasteurization absolutely unnecessary for public protection. And pasteurization does not always kill the bacteria for Johne’s disease suspected of causing Crohn's disease in humans with which most confinement cows are infected. Much commercial milk is now ultra-pasteurized to get rid of heat-resistant bacteria and give it a longer shelf life. Ultra-pasteurization is a violent process that takes milk from a chilled temperature to above the boiling point in less than two seconds. Homogenization is a process that breaks down butterfat globules so they do not rise to the top. Homogenized milk has been linked to heart disease. Average butterfat content from old-fashioned cows at the turn of the century was over 4% (or more than 50% of calories). Today butterfat comprises less than 3% (or less than 35% of calories). Worse, consumers have been duped into believing that low-fat and skim milk products are good for them. Only by marketing low-fat and skim milk as a health food can the modern dairy industry get rid of its excess poor-quality, low-fat milk from modern high-production herds. Butterfat contains vitamins A and D needed for assimilation of calcium and protein in the water fraction of the milk. Without them protein and calcium are more difficult to utilize and possibly toxic. Butterfat is rich in short- and medium chain fatty acids which protect against disease and stimulate the immune system. It contains glyco-spingolipids which prevent intestinal distress and conjugated linoleic acid which has strong anticancer properties. Powdered skim milk, a source of dangerous oxidized cholesterol and neurotoxic amino acids, is added to 1% and 2% milk. Low-fat yogurts and sour creams contain mucopolysaccharide slime to give them body. Pale butter from hay-fed cows contains colorings to make it look like vitamin-rich butter from grass-fed cows. Bioengineered enzymes are used in large-scale cheese production. Many mass produced cheeses contain additives and colorings and imitation cheese products contain vegetable oils. Pasteurization laws favor large, industrialized dairy operations and squeeze out small farmers. When farmers have the right to sell unprocessed milk to consumers, they can make a decent living, even with small herds.
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