A slow digesting blend of casein and whey, perfect for after workouts and before going to bed. This complete protein is an opportunity to experience the satiating and protective effects of grass-fed goat milk casein and whey. This is a superfood ready to help you begin your wellness restoration.
Goat Milk Colostrum is nature’s original superfood. It builds and supports an active, healthy immune system. Whether from people or goats, it contains naturally occurring immunoglobulins, lactoferrin, and over 20 different antibodies for immune health and gastro-intestinal support. We collect this real colostrum from happy, healthy, goats in the Pacific Northwest.
Our Goat Milk Powder comes directly from small, family-owned Dutch goat milk farms in the Netherlands. Goat Milk is the most widely consumed milk in the world! It is delicious, easy to digest, and packed with health boosting nutrients. It’s no wonder it’s been called one of nature’s greatest foods!
Our hand-made goat milk cream soaps are made using the heavy cream from our own grass-fed goats. Heavy cream contains the concentrated protein, fat, and minerals that makes goat milk soap so famously beneficial. Whereas raw goat milk is only 8% solids the heavy cream we produce is over 50% solids which means more concentrated goat milk goodness in every bar.
Just so you know…
Breast milk is the gold standard for infant nutrition.
But you already knew that.
What you might not know is that Mt. Capra does not manufacture a goat milk infant formula. We have created a formula recipe that mimics breast milk and follows the guidelines created by the 1980 Infant Formula Act. The products we produce, sell, and recommend are simple wholesome ingredients, not finished infant formula. Nothing written here or anywhere on this site should be seen as medical advice. Talk with your doctor before making any changes to your infants diet.
If this all sounds good to you, then by all means continue reading.
If not, the “back” or “home” buttons are probably your friends right now. 🙂
For over 8 years, Mt. Capra has been helping moms and dads, aunts and uncles, grandparents and other caregivers supply their little ones with the best baby formula available when breast milk is unavailable.
This baby formula doesn’t come in a ready-to-mix can or in a ready-to-drink bottle. What it lacks in convenience, it more than makes up for in overall quality, consistency, and nutritional safety. I’ve studied infant formulas over many years. I have become more and more convinced that there simply isn’t a way to create a formula in a “ready-to-mix/drink” final form. This because it is not as nutritionally bioavailable, palatable, or resembles breast milk as closely as a carefully researched, properly prepared homemade goat milk formula recipe.
Just a few short decades ago, buying commercial baby formula was unheard of since it was assumed to be an unnecessary expense. Most mothers either breastfed or employed a wet nurse. For those unable to do either, the easiest course of action was to prepare a formula at home from easily accessible ingredients. “Formula” was simply a recipe you followed (a formula of ingredients) when breastfeeding was unavailable. Some of the “formulas” utilized good ingredients. Others relied upon less-than-stellar ingredients, but all were made at home using simple preparation techniques.
It wasn’t until the 1950’s that the current in vogue popular opinion was that “the science is settled, formula is best”. At this time, commercially manufactured formulas began heavily marketing their products to moms. Focusing on being both a convenience and offering a nutritional advantage to breast feeding.
In the 1970s, commercially prepared infant formula was one of the fastest growing segments of the food industry. Any company looking to market to an eager public, ever-bent on “efficiency,” was guaranteed a strongly performing, profit-rich, product line.
However, the industry was so new and the product was being made for a particularly vulnerable population. This led to rampant nutritional deficiencies during the early years. Also, there was very little consistency between commercially available formulas. Many of which simply followed the fickle nutrition advice popular at the time. For example, Syntex Laboratories, eliminated salt completely from their formula which resulted in chloride deficiencies in thousands of infants. This resulted in public outcry in response to their refrain of sodium.
In response to public outcry, Congress passed the 1980 Infant Formula Act. The Act listed, in specific detail, both minimums levels and maximum levels allowed for every 100 Calories (5 oz) of ready-to-drink/mix infant formula. While the act was far from perfect, it did give a nutritional baseline for infant formula manufacturers. Which at least ensured some level of consistency when developing what they their formulas.
I developed the homemade goat milk formula (HGMF) over 8 years ago for my daughter, Liesl. I followed the nutrient guidelines that all infant formula manufacturers must follow. The nutritional requirements set out in the 1980 Infant formula Act can be found at 21CFR107.100.. I originally sought to create an infant formula recipe because, at the time, a host of homemade formulas were insufficient. If properly prepared, would leave nutritional gaps, possible exposure to potentially dangerous pathogens, and basic palatability and preparation issues that would make prolonged usage unlikely.
Even though this formula is quite easy to make, I have had many parents literally beg me to make a “ready-to-mix” final formula. This is usually because the homemade recipe takes a bit more time to prepare. There are also more ingredients to keep track of and stocked in your home pantry. However, I don’t plan on ever making a “ready-to-mix” formula powder. Here are 7 reasons why the best baby formula will always be made at home and never found in a can.
In order to get fats in a shelf stable, dry powder form, they must be mixed with a carrier of some kind. You cannot take a fat source like olive oil and dry it without some kind of carrier. To facilitate the drying of oil, a carrier (generally maltodextrin) is added to the oil, to ensure that it reaches a consistency that is allowed for ready-to-mix infant formula powder. These carriers are probably not “the end of the world,” nutritionally but they are essentially “throw away” ingredients that are a “necessary evil” for ready-to-mix formula powder.
There is even some evidence to suggest that maltodextrin is quite destructive to the lining of the stomach and disrupts microbiological health of an infants newly developing digestive tract. Also, the drying of oils using traditional industrial drying techniques will always oxidize the oils and add a certain level of rancidity to the oil on day one. By purchasing fresh oil in a sunlight-protected container, you can ensure that the oil is neither rancid, oxidized, nor contains anything other than the oil itself.
Let’s continue on fats, but in a slightly different vein. In your quest to make the best baby formula, making your own formula at home allows you to highly optimize the fatty acid profile. First, a quick explanation of fatty acid profiles. Fats are broken down into three main groups: Saturated Fatty Acids (SFA), Monounsaturated Fatty Acids (MUFA) and Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids (PUFA). Generally speaking, the healthiest fats are MUFA’s and SFA from grass-fed/wild caught animals. Conversely, the fats to avoid are the far more inflamatory PUFA’s found in vegetable oils.
Western diets contain an enormous amount of the less desirable PUFA’s. This comes from corn, vegetable, and other cheap industrialized food oils. As a result, we commonly suffer from many inflammatory conditions. MUFA’s and SFA’s are less inflammatory but often more expensive, and therefore, used far less.
The tricky part is that certain PUFA’s are essential fatty acids. This mean that they contain substances that our body cannot produce on its own. A small amount of PUFA’s are essential. One of the requirements in the 1980 Infant Formula Act was a minimum amount of linoleic acid, a PUFA. This is because linoleic acid is an essential fatty acid and an infant cannot produce this naturally from other fat sources.
Still with me? I promise I’m going somewhere with this.
Because linoleic is an essential fatty acid, because it is cheap, and because there is a minimum amount required by law in infant formula (.3g per 5 fl oz), the obvious choice for infant formula manufacturers was to use cheap PUFA oils.
Cheap PUFA oils perfectly checked both the regulation box and the profitability box. Now I am not opposed to any free enterprise organization maximizing their profits. It’s what good companies do. But if there was a way for me to optimize my health or the health of my child by “opting out” of the official system, I would jump at the chance.
With the Homemade Goat Milk Formula Recipe, there is an emphasis on both MUFA’s from Extra Virgin Olive oil and an emphasis on SFA from grass-fed Goat Milk Ghee. Both contain the nutritional powerhouse conjugated linoleic acid. However, the essential fatty acid is not left out because we include a small amount of Grapeseed Oil. This contains a high concentration of Linoleic Acid without overemphasizing the overall PUFA content.
Optimized Fatty Acid Content = Emphasized MUFA and SFA and minimized (but enough) PUFA’s.
Goat Milk Ghee/Full Cream Milk Powder
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Expeller-pressed Grapeseed Oil
The real beauty lies in the fact that we can include a relatively tiny amount (1/8 tsp) of high PUFA oil (Grapeseed). This is enough to ensure the recipe meets the linoleic acid requirement. However, this is without flooding the formula with inflammatory oils.
Our goat milk formula recipe has a fatty acid profile. It is 65% SFA from grass-fed goat milk ghee, 24% MUFA from Extra Virgin Olive Oil, and only 9% PUFA from Expeller-pressed Grapeseed oil. Compare that with commercial, ready-to-mix formulas high in oxidized PUFA’s and you’ll have to agree. This is a major benefit of making your formula at home.
As I said earlier, I don’t blame formula companies for trying to maximize profits. It’s what successful companies do. However, because carriers are unneeded in our homemade formula. Every bottle I make is guaranteed to be free of carriers or fillers such as maltodextrin and corn syrup. This means every dollar I spend on making formula at home is going directly to the health of baby. Not simply padding the bottom line.
Optimizing the nutritional protein level is the number one reason formula exists in the first place. Infants do need less protein initially than the levels found in goat milk. However, as the child grows, their protein needs also grow. One of the beautiful things about the way the human body was designed is this. That the nutritional profile of breast milk adapts in-sync with the growing baby. At first breast milk is very low in protein and much higher in fat and carbohydrates. Just like this is comparable to the nutritional needs of baby.
As baby matures, so does the breast milk with the protein levels increasing in-step with the development of the kidneys. When you make your own formula at home, you can increase the protein levels (if you or your pediatrician wish) and/or reduce the carbohydrate/fat levels to emphasize growth, weight gain, or overall satiety. This is virtually impossible to do with ready-to-mix formulas as protein is a limiting factor.
It is no secret that making the best baby formula at home. However, it is a less convenient method than simply popping two scoops of ready-to-mix powder into a bottle. It is still extremely flexible when it comes to securing ingredients. There are substitutions that can be made for both fats and carbohydrates. Which means that it can adapt to the availability of ingredients for each individual.
There is a greater likelihood that ingredients needed for baby can be procured even if they differ slightly from the official recipe ingredients. Take for example a baby appears sensitive to a single ingredient in the formula. Often that ingredient can be substituted for another and success can be found with the formula. This is in stark contrast to the the carousel many parents find themselves on. Trying one formula after the next, all the while never sure why this formula worked better than that one. Or simply why some formulas don’t work at all.
Have you ever tasted commercial formula? While I can’t claim to be a connoisseur, I have tasted many and “yuck” is usually the word I use to describe them. Generally I sense a gross, metallic, bitter flavor. Now while it is true that “appetite is the greatest spice”. In other words, baby will drink just about anything if he/she is hungry enough. Do we really want our kiddos choking down their food at every feeding? Making your own formula at home means you are using real food and real ingredients that actually taste really good and baby won’t have to be starving to enjoy her/his bottle.
Infant formula is the most heavily regulated food product in America. This is for good reason too, as people want to ensure that their precious children are safe and adequately nourished. However, the majority of regulation on infant formula has little to do with nutrient quality and much to do with process verification. Such regulation includes final product pathogen testing, recall ability, label review/scrutiny, lot tracking, and other paperwork/process/testing regulations. Surprisingly there are very few rules on the quality of ingredients allowed. This is why many formulas contain such garbage like corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, maltodextrin, soy protein, etc. As long as a manufacturer can demonstrate that the ingredients have been handled and processed in a way that kept them safe from contaminants, the products/ingredients can be easily recalled if problems arise, and the formula promises precise levels of key nutrients are present, etc. then regulations have been met.
That’s all.
There isn’t anything else required regarding the quality of the actual ingredients i.e. Grass-fed, organic, non-GMO, etc. Making your own formula means you can not only ensure quality processing (washing hands, sanitizing bottles, refrigerating formula, etc.). But it can also ensure the best quality ingredients from sources you trust.
We all know that “breast is best.” That science really is settled; nothing can compete with the nutrient quality of breast milk.
For a multitude of reasons, breast feeding isn’t always available as the exclusive nutrient source for baby. For these situations, making the best baby formula at home doesn’t have to be scary. It actually isn’t dangerous if you follow a scientifically sound formula recipe. The quality of ingredients and processing steps can be held to a standard that no corporate manufacturer could ever nor would ever maintain. Making homemade baby formula is simply using real food to feed and nourish your baby.
Join the Homemade Goat Milk Formula (HGMF) revolution! Sign up for our newsletter below and we will send you our homemade goat milk formula recipe card and keep you up to date. ⬇️
If you are overwhelmed at the thought of sourcing and purchasing each ingredient of the formula recipe separately, I’ve put together a goat milk formula recipe kit that has everything you need to get started minus the bottle and baby. Check it out!
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3 thoughts on “Best Baby Formula – Top 7 Reasons for Making Your Own”
Thank you for caring about our families, especially our babies! I have been the small percentage of women who aren’t able to fully nurse (some of my milk glands never fully developed ) so having this recipe and products as our supplement is priceless, I will nurse as long as my sweet baby will nurse. May our Heavenly Father bless you abundantly.
You are welcome! We are so thankful that God has blessed us to be able to provide nutritious products to all members of the family. 🙂 May God bless you and your family as well!
Hello, I am interested in purchasing the goat milk formula kit for my 7 weeks old, I do breastfeeding but my supply is low, so I know for sure goats milk is the best alternative but I am wondering if you have an idea of how long does the supply to make the infants formula last? Thank you