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Update: Week of March 15

This Week’s Hot Topic
Did everyone find their inner Irish this week? Of course my girls were dressed in green on Wednesday. Eva took it one step further and expelled a giant green poo that went out the diaper and up her back. I really admire her spirit. I was able to salvage the green onesie with a tuck and roll maneuver. Fortunately for her and me, little baby poo isn’t nearly as offensive as what comes out once a baby starts solids (my niece loves black beans. Ha ha on her parents!!) so I didn’t mind too much. But poop is absolutely a reflection of a baby’s diet and will be differ if a baby is formula fed or breastfed. Even what type of formula can make a difference, with many companies advertising that their milk is more like breast milk than others. Although what it really comes down to is that most of them are pretty much the same.

Some of you out there know that I’m such a big fan of breast milk for infants that I went so far as to do something called induced lactation. I’ll spare you the ugly (ugly!) details but I was successful in tricking my body into making milk even though I wasn’t pregnant with either baby. It wasn’t easy and I wasn’t able to make much milk but each baby got a couple weeks worth of antibodies and good stuff and for that I’m very proud. However, there came a point, very early on, when I had to accept that the majority of my children’s diet would be formula. And that’s okay. Plenty of perfectly successful, happy individuals were fed formula as infants and the stuff ain’t poison.

Of course the obvious next question is which formula do you choose? There are a million options out there, each one making a different claim. (Smarter! Less gassy! More like breast milk! Less colic! Better eyesight!) Here’s the honest truth: with few exceptions, infant formulas must adhere to strict government guidelines and their basic content is pretty much identical. Some have added this or that or break proteins down to make them “gentler.” The folks I’ve talked to who are “in the know” think that most of this is more marketing and less reality. The fact is that most infants should be on a cow’s milk-based formula, containing iron. The rest is up to you. Whether there is a role for soy formula is controversial. If an infant is truly allergic to cow’s milk, he’s probably going to be sensitive to the soy formula as well. Plus now there is concern that the plant-based estrogens in soy formula might be an issue for a developing infant. (This is a relatively new thought emanating from the federal National Toxicology Program expert committee. Just a thought, so don’t panic! They just want to get some research going to look at the question.) As for iron, unless your child has an extremely rare genetic liver condition, he needs iron in his formula. Low-iron formula has absolutely no role in the diet of an otherwise healthy infant and will not make him more or less constipated but will make him anemic and could affect his long-term health.

My decision was to defer to my pediatrician. Because of a family history of food allergies, we decided to put the babies on a partially broken down whey-only formula. Will this do any good? Probably not. The problem is that we don’t know enough about infant diets and allergy development. But it did mean that I could point to the can and tell my mom that my kids are already on “gas-free” formula so I can’t explain why they smell like a methane tank and emit loud noises with startling frequency. So what’s this all mean? Babies swallow air and get gas. They cry. They turn red when they poop. None of this likely has anything to do with the formula you choose. On the other hand, not every baby is the same and if you think your chosen brand isn’t agreeing with your little one, talk to your pediatrician about changing to a different type. Who knows, maybe it will make a difference. Of course, it might just be coincidence too. (Keep in mind that some babies really do need a specialized hypoallergenic formula and that is okay but should only be used on the advice of your doctor!) Either way, by the time you’ve worked your way through every type out there, your kid will be off the bottle and tossing back a hamburger and you won’t have to worry anymore.

Dr. Lara Zibners, Mar 18, 2010

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