I would highly recommend Herb Lore and www.herblore.com to anyone looking for a knowledgeable resource and supply place for herbal products. I have very little knowledge when it comes to herbs, but as a midwife, I much prefer this natural alternative. All of my questions and concerns were listened to - they were very patient and very helpful. I now keep on hand their Labor Tincture, Placenta Release Tincture, and the Hem Stopper Tincture. At the very first birth I took these to, we waited for the placenta for quite some time. I finally gave one dose of the Placenta Tincture and not ten minutes later, the placenta came - with no problems and no extra bleeding. I have a lot of clients who refuse any kind of allopathic treatment, and I'm thrilled to have these herbal products on hand and Herb Lore as a knowledgeable resource for those cases when I really need the extra help! Sharon - Colorado midwife
Info and Resources for the Formula Shortage
I have a colleague who's a recently retired IBCLC (International Board of Certified Lactation Consultants). When she was practicing, each time she would test for her certification, she would always get the highest scores in the country. She's extremely knowledgeable and very experienced. I am blessed to know and work with many extremely experienced and knowledgeable lactation consultants.
She wrote a piece yesterday about the formula shortage and what moms can do. She's given me permission to share it with you. Here's what she wrote: (Please note that I have also reached out to some of my other equally qualified and experienced IBCLC's for their input, information and advice that they may have. I will add these below when I hear back from them, in different colors to make new information easy to see. Please check back for any new information. Anyway, here's the first one for you:
- water down commercial infant formula
- feed developmentally inappropriate foods
- depend on random people to give you formula. When or if it happens, great, but don’t *depend* on a steady flow from random sources.
- feed less often, or feed contaminated bottles when commercial infant formula is scarce
End quote.
As mentioned previously, we strongly encourage you to speak to your pediatrician, nutritionist or lactation consultant for homemade formulas that are specifically tailored for your particular baby and his/her nutritional needs.
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We've also had many people write in asking about goat's milk - saying that they've heard that it's the closest to human milk than the rest. Here's what she said about that:
Fresh goat’s milk has a lower curd tension than fresh cow’s milk, which is the origin of that saying (that goat's milk is better than cow's milk for infant feeding). That is why canned cow’s milk is stipulated, because canning lowers curd tension.
Curd tension of animal milk causes micro bleeds in infants—the younger the infant, the more impact. Goat and cow milks are both nutritious, with one important exception - goat’s milk is missing folic acid for central nervous system development. If goat’s milk were fortified with folacin to the level of human milk, I think it would be a good choice. Without that, no, it’s not worth the price paid in missed opportunities for brain development.
Goat milk requires the correct amount of folacin for an infant to be added in order to lower the risk of goat milk feeds. This is not a minor issue. It’s important to respect the folacin (folic acid) content, even for short term supplementation.
Although I enjoy raw goat milk from carefully selected local providers, I would pasteurize any animal milk given to an infant. My tolerance for risk is automatically higher than any infant’s.
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FROM ANOTHER TRUSTED IBCLC
This is such a complex topic to navigate but a vital one. I will say, another point to add, is there is a very true risk of goats milk in that without proper dilution, the protein load can cause kidney injury. Unmodified/undiluted goats milk can cause (and has caused) kidney failure in some newborns.
Also, many homemade options are best with additions of multivitamins, proper fats, etc. This is why a tailored recipe, based on the individual is important.
We do not intend to inspire fear here, but we do want to share information that would be helpful to people to keep their babies healthy, safe and fed.
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The second part of this is what we can help you with
1). We work with moms who are wishing to re-lactate all the time. It can be done.
HERE is information on the various herbs and herbal products that can help increase breastmilk production (including re-lactating). This is found in our Articles & Information section of our website.
The ones that I would recommend would be Goat's Rue, Shatavari, or Fenugreek.
Fenugreek is the most well-known of the herbs used to increase milk supply, but it must be used with consistency - and for some people, can cause gas in either mom or baby. Please read THIS INFORMATION to know how to use it correctly for best results. Using it incorrectly can possibly negatively impact your milk supply.
Nursing Tincture Moringa Blend and Goat's Rue are recommended for moms with newborns.
The link given above will tell you about each herb or product and how it works. (HERE'S the link again.) You may decide to choose something else which better suits your situation, which is fine! Use what works for you!
If you're an All-Access Member, there is an even more comprehensive article in the Premium Articles area that speaks to increasing and establishing your breastmilk supply.
Nipple stimulation is critical factor of increasing milk production - by either putting your baby to the breast or by pumping. Using the herbs along with this is a powerful and effective combination.
2). We're putting all of our herbs to increase breastmilk supply on sale. The coupon code is FEEDMYBABY2022 and is a 20% discount. Go to THIS LINK to see what all is on sale. You'll see the May sale items there as well, but the sale descriptions at the top of the page will tell you which product is included under which coupon code. We'll keep this sale active until the formula crisis has been resolved.
And again, if you're not lactating, please feel free to forward this on to anyone you think could use the help and information. We have to do everything that we can so that babies don't go hungry!
If you are lactating, you can pump any extra that you may have to donate to a milk bank to help other moms with hungry babies.
Moms are strong - we help each other and stick together! I'm almost 60 at this point and through menopause, so lactating is not going to happen for me, BUT what I can do is to help get others the items they need to have abundant milk supplies for their babies and perhaps even someone else's baby. There is no greater gift during this formula shortage than helping to support parents to keep babies fed.
With love and deep respect,
Pam Caldwell
Certified Herbalist
Fertility, Pregnancy, Birth, Postpartum & Lactation Specialist