I have used this with my children and grandchildren, and it was tested by the Departments of Health in Toronto and Scarborough, as well as Hospital For Sick Children in Toronto when the visiting Public Health nurses found out I refused to use commercial formulas. I did this because of their inferior- quality ingredients, and included my own home-made yogurt. One nurse was actually up in arms about it, and said the hospital had misdiagnosed my son with hypertonia, which he showed no signs of on the formula. Happily, Sick Kids and the Department of Health said it was excellent. Further, their poops never went ‘off’ and smelly as did other babies’ on formula, and my gang were all very happy, healthy and bright.
I share it here for historical interest.
Adele Davis’ Excellent Baby Formula
* OR 2 c. almond milk made with boiled water
1 regular can evaporated cow’s or goat’s milk +
1 can + 2/3 c. boiled water*
3 T. lactose (milk sugar)
1 pinch calcium powder – not carbonate (200 mg.)
1 pinch magnesium (Epsom salts)
1 pinch ascorbic acid (vitamin C)
1/4 t. nutritional or debittered brewer’s yeast (not live baker’s yeast)
1 pinch kelp powder
1 pinch adociphilus powder (or 1 T. fresh unsweetened yogurt)
1/2 t. wheat germ oil
1/4 t. liquid lecithin
Though making this formula is easier than making up a cake batter, It is important to follow these instructions carefully. The formula should be made daily, in a clean blender, and will yield enough for Baby’s day. You can fill baby bottles and refrigerate them, or keep the formula in a clean pitcher and store that in the fridge.
Supplemental ingredients can be purchased in pill form and ground fine in a mortar with pestle (calcium, kelp, Brewer’s yeast). Lecithin can be purchased in liquid form, or in gel capsules, which can be pricked, and their contents squeezed into the blender.
Evaporated milk, if you want a milk-based formula, has 3% butterfat, as does homogenized milk. With less of a percentage than that, there will not be enough fat to facilitate calcium absorption in the gut; and if there is not enough calcium being absorbed, then calcium must be stripped from the bones to assist with the processing of the proteins in the milk, and a calcium deficit is created.
Milk with lower levels of butterfat are, therefore, nutritionally speaking, a waste of money for consumers, while huge profits are made based on people’s misunderstanding of fat’s role in the diet, especially with regard to calcium absorption and protein utilization. This becomes more apparent when one looks at the use of dairy and meat products throughout the world by region; the higher the intake of animal proteins are, the higher the rates of osteoporosis are as well.
The proteins and fats in cow’s milk are huge, appropriate for an animal that could be about a ton as an adult. The size of the protein is the reason milk-based paint has been used for millennia – it dries like hard plastic (casein paints were the predecessors of acrylic and latex paints). The proteins and fats in goat’s milk, however, are very short, like those of humans, which is why babies thrive much better on goat’s milk.
Almonds have fats and proteins that, for plant produce, are very similar to human milk, and is the basis of the formula given out by the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine’s clinic.
Lactose is the natural sugar in milk, and is easily absorbed by healthy babies. If a child is lactose-intolerant (rare), the baby should be able to take fructose or dextrose in the almond-based formula. Contrary to popular culture, carbohydrates are necessary to healthy brain function and development, though the amounts we feed our children are problematic (45 grams of sugar will shut down a small child’s immune system for at least 8 hours, while the body attempts to rid itself of the high level of sugar in the blood).
Calcium carbonate is a cheap form of calcium not well absorbed by most humans, as it is made from ground oyster shells, limestone, or bone meal, all of which have high levels of lead. Calcium citrate or calcium lactate, though more expensive, is readily available, however, and should be used instead.
Magnesium and calcium need each other to be absorbed in the digestive tract. Ingestible (edible) Epsom salts should be available at your pharmacy in small jars, but ensure the label shows this or you’ll wind up with low-quality salts for therapeutic baths not meant to be taken internally. Magnesium feeds the muscles and gives a calming effect to the mood. Too much, though, has a laxative action on the bowel.
Ascorbic acid powder (Vitamin C) is available at some grocery stores, to sprinkle on cut fruit so it won’t turn brown, and pharmacies. Do not use citric acid, which some people mistake for Vitamin C.
Nutritional yeast is also called good-tasting yeast or nutritional yeast flakes and is available at health-food stores. It is sprinkled on or mixed in with food, and offers a high level of B vitamins, as does debittered Brewer’s yeast. This is not to be confused with the live baker’s yeast used for breads, which can be lethal if ingested while active.
Never eat live baker’s yeast!
Kelp is a large seaweed loaded with natural iodine and other trace minerals that nourish the glandular system, especially the thyroid.
Yogurt should be fresh and live, loaded with friendly fauna that keeps the intestinal tract healthy and clean, and yeast production low.
Wheat germ oil improves the quality of fat the baby needs, as well as supplying more B vitamins.
Lecithin feeds the nervous system, acting like insulation to the nerve sheath, and improves the mood.
This formula was tested by Toronto Department of Public Health in 1978, Hospital For Sick Children in 1998, and the Scarborough Department of Public Health in 1998 and found to be ‘not harmful’.
About other formulas…
For many years, baby formulas consisted of evaporated milk, water, and corn syrup. Adele Davis brought nutrition to the public eye in the 1960’s, explaining how the food industry and the way Americans were eating was dangerous to our health. She created this formula when there was little but soy formulas for allergic babies, to take its place, approximating breast milk as closely as possible.
However, formulas became a cash cow for the dairy industry, which had more milk than it could get rid of, and formulas for healthy babies began to appear on the market. Studies done in the early 70’s showed that commercial formulas, if the only food an infant received for six months, would leave the child so nutritionally starved that it would lose 20 points off its IQ potential. Offering no live enzymes, the babies would have almost no resilience to disease. This begins the vicious cycle of poor resistance, infections, antibiotics, slow recovery from the use of the antibiotics, food sensitivities and allergies, and in many cases, asthma (which is now usually found in children given antibiotics as infants).
Much has been learned about the requirements for a healthy immune systems since then, but dead chemical formulas have been pushed onto the public more and more, to the point that the medical industry believes that home-made formulas must be dangerous. Physicians do not study nutrition any more than car mechanics study metallurgy, and politically, are not in the business of disease prevention, but of curing disease that has already occurred. While dieticians are taught that chemicals are all that are required for the body’s maintenance (why dieticians are hired by the sugar industry to ‘teach’ that children must have at least 1/4 cup of sugar a day!), nutritional theory teches that living food (such as mother’s milk and yogurt) and fresh foods packed with enzymes, are necessary to create and maintain good health.
A Note On Colic
Babies with colic tend to have low potassium levels (many babies stop having colic when bananas, which are high in potassium, are introduced into the diet). The book this formula was originally published in (Let’s Have Healthy Children), was banned for several years until revised and published without this formula, all because of one woman with a colicky baby. She read the book, which had some notes about potassium deficiency and colic, and figured that if a few grains of potassium would ease the colic, she would just fast-track the process and put a teaspoon of potassium into her baby’s formula, which of course, poisoned the baby.
If your baby has colic, there are other ways to deal with it. If you are breast-feeding, drink fennel tea. If not, make the tea (1 tsp. fennel in 1 c. boiling water for 4 minutes), cool and strain it, and give it to the baby whenever it will take a few sips. It is naturally sweet so need not be sweetened.
Never put honey in a baby’s food or drink!
There is some concern that honey can carry anaerobic bacteria which can harm a baby, so parent are warned not to feed their babies honey until the child is at least 18 months of age.
Gripe Water is a dill or fennel-based preparation available at the pharmacy, which also works well for colic. I have also seen it work incredibly well (and immediately) in crabby toddlers.
Externally, you can gently massage the baby’s tummy with a teaspoon of extra-virgin olive oil mixed with 2 drops of fennel essential oil, available at health-food stores.
Sylvia Genders
Nelsie’s Cupboard
Copyright 1998
Shucky's Kitchen 