Feeding my baby raw, organic milk

[rd200]

Hi,
im not sure if this is in the right section, but im having a hard time trying to figure out on whether or not i should feed my baby unpasteurized milk. We get it from a local farm that has a herd of jerseys. they sell ALOT of milk, and have never had any problems. They are an organic farm. Right now, my DH and I and my 10yr old son drink the raw milk. My other son is 11 months old and he needs to switch to whole milk soon. I am on the fence. i think raw milk is CONSIDERABLY better than milk from the store, but i dont want to compromise his health either. I know there IS a concern about drinking raw milk, but does the concern outweigh the positives. i also make all of our Yogurt, and Kefir from raw milk, and if i decide to not have him drink raw milk, i cant feed him the other stuff either. I think it would be fine, but my family is NOT supportive of raw milk drinking and im kinda afraid if something happens where he gets sick, ill get the..... I told you so.... Which I guess i really dont care about, but until i get my own cow, i cant know forsure that the milk is safe. Usually im not this concerned about things, but i dont want my baby to get sick. He was adopted and is on state health insurance and WIC. Which they ask alot of questions about what he eats, etc, has alot of doctor appts. and i think that feeding raw milk is strictly frowned upon by government agencies such as this. Which is why im concerned about it. I dont want to lie, but i think that the raw products i feed him are very good for him and benefical. Thoughts???? -rach

 

[marlowmanor]

Don't know the answer to your question. Hopefuly someone else can chime in.

If he is on WIC though he will start getting whole milk on his vouchers when he turns 1.

 

[rd200]

Don't know the answer to your question. Hopefuly someone else can chime in.

If he is on WIC though he will start getting whole milk on his vouchers when he turns 1.

Oh yeah, thats right, he will start getting them. I had forgoten about that. Im not 100% he will still be on WIC. He was on it because of the adoption, he is considered a foster child for the first 6 months, so foster children automatically receive it regardless of the parents income, which is why he's on it. But now that he is officially adopted, i think that it might not continue. I will find out at his appt next week. well, that at least makes it a little easier then. I will probably still feed him yogurt and kefir tho. He has some of my smoothie the other day and he liked it so much he ate the whole pint jar of it!!! I didnt get any!!

 

[marlowmanor]

Don't know the answer to your question. Hopefuly someone else can chime in.

If he is on WIC though he will start getting whole milk on his vouchers when he turns 1.

Oh yeah, thats right, he will start getting them. I had forgoten about that. Im not 100% he will still be on WIC. He was on it because of the adoption, he is considered a foster child for the first 6 months, so foster children automatically receive it regardless of the parents income, which is why he's on it. But now that he is officially adopted, i think that it might not continue. I will find out at his appt next week. well, that at least makes it a little easier then. I will probably still feed him yogurt and kefir tho. He has some of my smoothie the other day and he liked it so much he ate the whole pint jar of it!!! I didnt get any!!

LOL! He sounds like my youngest son (he'll be 1 the 29th of this month). He will try to eat anything. If his brothers leave something out where he can get to it he goes after it!

 

[goodhors]

I would not feed my baby raw milk. This is MY balancing both side's arguments about
the benefits and minus features.

To me, there have been too many down sides, illness passed on, to go with raw milk.
Historical fact proves that Gov't. forced pasturizing of ALL milk, herd testing has reduced almost
to extinction, TB, other diseases. Yep, kills healthy things as well, but OVERALL, the population
has not had the problems encountered before pasturizing was in the lawbooks.

My Grandmother did the cow milking at home, ALWAYS pasturized the milk before using it.

My other viewpoint goes that you don't know how careful the farmer, milkers, handling is done
before you get the milk. I have been to dairy farms that you could literally eat off the milk room floor with
no concern for picking up dirt or disease. Those folks went beyond the minimum to keep things
clean. They NEVER got points marked when inspected.

Other places? I don't think I would feed the CATS milk from there! Some of those were "organic",
would go off on a rant about Gov't. interference if anyone said a word! Milk storage tank wasn't
even on hard surface! No way to clean or sanitize the place. Milk room was a "hub" of the barn,
so EVERYONE traipsed thru from the mucky calf pens, milking area, outside barnyard. Disgusting!
But that farmer was selling Organic and non-pasturized milk to his "cow share-holders". They also
traipsed into the milk room to drain milk from the main tank into their bottles. Fixtures on the
tank were NASTY, floor was a mess, just a very unhealthy setting.

With your husband and older child already drinking unpasturized milk, consider that they ARE older
than the baby, so will have developed more natural immunities. Babies haven't been exposed yet
to develop these immunities. And sometimes babies are just TOO YOUNG to manage things because
of age. Honey comes to mind, and STRONG warnings to NOT FEED honey to babies. Babies under
two (last I heard) having problems digesting honey, body was not capable yet. Plus you would
have baby exposed to possible diseases in the raw or even processed honey.

If your baby already has health issues, this is a poor age to take chances with his/her health. I am
sure there are a lot of folks who have gone with non-pasturized milk for all family members, had
no problems. But then you read about the cases who had reactions, problems with milk-borne
illness in the newspaper. Some were very sick here in our state recently, traced back to "cow shares"
of non-pasturized milk they drank.

Each side of the argument has LOTS of FACTS for or against. You can drown in the facts!! But without
total control of the milk from cow to table, I would not consider doing non-pasturized milk. And any cow
of mine would be TB tested on a regular basis if we milked her. Deer are carrying TB now, lots of deer around here.

I would go a bit less Organic, sacrifice the non-pasturized milk benefits for my child's health. Child
would get pasturized milk, milk products, when off formula. Then you build childs digestive system
with good food, expand what they can eat as they get older. Not sure what health issues you are dealing
with already, but it doesn't hurt to be very careful when they are so small. Some folks have had the
"natural, Organic, etc." diet stuff backfire. Was actually less healthy or beneficial than eating a more
normal diet, because they went overboard in their extreme measures.

Good luck with your baby, hope the health stuff clears as it gets older. CONGRATS on adopting!!

 

[Royd Wood]

I'm a big fan of raw milk and was brought up on it back in the UK. I would be hung, drawn and quartered here in Ontario if found to be selling raw milk to the public. Theres a big case going on at the minute where the Ontario Court of Justice has found Durham dairy farmer Michael Schmidt guilty on 15 of 19 charges of selling and distributing raw milk. I wish him good luck with the case
Our Galloway cattle are not really known for producing milk esp with a huge calf suckling

 

[rd200]

Good points on both sides. I didnt even know about the honey thing. I put honey in my smoothies all the time. OPPS!!! Ill have to remember that.

He doesnt have any health problems. He had a brachial plexus injury when he was born, but his shoulder/arm is perfect now because of OT and PT help. Other than that, he's healthy.

Yeah, im not sure what to do now.

 

[Royd Wood]

Botulism poisoning from honey is very very very rare - consider yummy maple syrup and make sure its not blended with corn syrup (yuc)

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Really you're the only one who can make the decision for your child. You will hear arguments on both sides of the story. Many will say no, and many will say yes. Things to consider are do you truly know how the milk is handled by the farmer? It's much easier to monitor and control cleanliness if you were milking your own animal. And keep in mind those who are most susceptible to issues are infants, elderly, and those with immune system issues.

 

[Leah Som]

Hi there!
First, congrats on the new baby, always a blessing!! My 13 month has been on raw milk for about 2 months now and is doing fine (so is the rest of my family a 5 and 4 year old, hubby and me, due in a few short weeks!!). The baby actually will not drink store bought milk, only the raw.
and as a side note, you can give a baby over the age of 1 honey.