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From the Desk of Jordan Rubin: Our Daughter Alexis Is Flying High
A few weeks ago, the Rubin family flew from the West Palm Beach airport for Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, where I was scheduled to speak at Victory Christian church. What made this weekend notable was the fact that this was the first family road trip since we adopted our daughter, Alexis, last summer.
I realize some background is needed. Our eldest child, Joshua, was born in May 2004, and I’ve talked a great deal about his birth and how Nicki and I are raising him in subsequent books, including The Great Physician’s Rx for Children’s Health, which released on the same day as Perfect Weight America—January 2, 2008. Alexis has been an angel since we adopted her. I think part of the reason is the formula that we’re feeding her, as I’ll explain in a minute.
At any rate, Saturday was Lexi’s first airplane trip, and knowing how much we travel, this will probably be the first of many plane trips for her. For those who cringe when they see a six-month-old coming on the plane in the arms of a mother or father, let me assure you that she was a real trouper during the entire two-leg trip. She didn’t cry one time. She did great.
The biggest issue facing us was keeping Lexi fed during the half-day trip. Ever since she came home with us from the hospital, she has been fed the same homemade infant formula that I formulated for Joshua after Nicki began having problems with engorgement, blocked ducts, and mastitis when he was two or three months old. Nicki dutifully breastfed our son after this birth, but it wasn’t long before her body couldn’t produce enough milk for our hungry boy.
We knew the last thing we wanted to feed Joshua was pasteurized cow’s milk or commercial formula because homogenization of the milk alters the fats and makes them more likely to damage arteries and potentially harm the body. For these reasons, I don’t recommend children drinking any commercially pasteurized, homogenized milk, even if it is organic, and that includes commercial infant and baby formula, if possible.
Necessity being the mother of invention—since Nicki and I were determined to find an alternative to commercial formula—I devised an infant formula, based on suggestions from Sally Fallon’s book Nourishing Traditions, that would closely match the high-quality nutrients found in breast milk, but knowing all along that that nothing can replace God’s perfect design for breastfeeding.
The major ingredient, I decided, would be raw goat’s milk because it’s an easily digestible protein that does not contain the same complex proteins found in cow’s milk. Goat’s milk has higher amounts of medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs) than other milk and 7 percent less lactose than cow’s milk. Furthermore, raw or cultured goat’s milk fully digests in a baby’s stomach in 20 minutes, while pasteurized cow’s milk takes eight hours because of the difference in the goat milk’s structure: its fats and protein molecules are tiny in size, which is the key to rapid absorption in the digestive tract.
When I started making Joshua’s infant formula, I had Organic Pastures Dairy in Fresno, California, ship me frozen raw cow’s milk colostrum via UPS Next Day Air. (Raw milk cannot be legally purchased in Florida, but it can be shipped from California, as long as it’s frozen.)
At any rate, I devised the following formula for infants and for toddlers. The infant formula can be used up to eighteen months of age; the toddler formula up to three years of age. I’ve shared these formulas with many friends who’ve used them with great success. Before using any infant or toddler formula with your child, however, please consult with your pediatrician or family practitioner. No parents should use this information without first seeking advice from their pediatrician or primary care physician before starting a nutritional program with their children.
Here are the formulas:
Ingredients for Infant Formula (makes 38 ounces)
- 24 oz. spring water
- 12 oz. goat’s milk (raw or pasteurized)
- ½ teaspoon children’s probiotic powder
- ½ teaspoon acerola cherry powder (17 percent vitamin C)
- 2 teaspoons whey protein concentrate
- 2 teaspoons nutritional yeast
- 3 capsules buffalo liver or 3 capsules of colostrum
- 8 tablespoons mineral whey powder
- 1 teaspoon cod liver oil
- 1 teaspoon of butter oil
- 1 teaspoon sunflower oil
- 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
- 2 teaspoons extra virgin coconut oil
Ingredients for Toddler Formula (makes 50 ounces)
- 32 oz. coconut water (from fresh young or Thai coconuts available at your local health food store)
- 16 oz. raw or pasteurized goat’s milk, raw or pasteurized non-homogenized grass-fed cow’s milk or raw cow’s milk colostrum
- ½ teaspoon children’s probiotic powder
- 1 teaspoon cod liver oil
- 1 teaspoon of butter oil or 1 teaspoon organic ghee (clarified butter)
- 1 teaspoon sunflower oil
- 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
- 2 teaspoons extra virgin coconut oil
For our family trip to Oklahoma City, I prepared enough formula to last us for two or three days since we planned to fly back on Monday. Most of our formula was packed away in transport bottles called Klean Kanteens. (Check out http://www.kleankanteen.com/ for more information.)
These stainless steel bottles are made from safe, non-leaching polypropylene and are a safe alternative to plastic and lined metal containers. They are durable, lightweight, reusable, and 100 percent recyclable, but what I like about the Klean Kanteens is how they are non-leaching and toxin-free with no inner lining. They are also dishwasher friendly, so your germs don’t really get spread around very much. They are good for the environment.
When Joshua was younger and we had a plane trip, we used to take his infant formula in glass bottles, but those could expand or break. (I’m talking about trips before August 2006, when the TSA changed the rules and stopped allowing you to bring liquids on board.) Now that TSA is once again allowing parents and guardians to bring infant formula on the plane, we’ve found that the Klean Kanteen bottles work great and are superb drinking utensils.
I’ll tell you another reason why it’s better to put Lexi’s formula in Klean Kanteen bottles. Sometimes when I tried to transport Joshua’s formula in a clear jar through the security line, I would get hassled because the formula looks more like a Frappuccino or a latte than commercial formula, which is a light beige. My infant formula is darker because of the dried goat’s whey in it.
Some TSA security types haven’t been too interested in my explanation regarding why our infant formula is darker than normal, so I just bring enough formula to get us through the flight and hope for the best. For our trip to Oklahoma City, I packed a cooler bag with formula to bring on board, as well as another cooler bag that I checked as luggage.
Everything was uneventful during the long trip, so I’m pleased to report that Alexis officially got her “wings” for being such a good traveler.
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