Goat Milk Baby Formula

by florence swegman
(ohio)

Question: I have a family that wants to boost their child's calories. She is tube fed goat's milk with coconut milk and is not able to tolerate regular formulas. The child is not accepting anything by mouth. She also has difficulty with all milk products.

Answer: Using goat’s milk as formula seems to be gaining more popularity lately, especially as insurance companies deny coverage for hypoallergenic formulas. Without knowing your patient’s specific information is it difficult for me to make recommendations, however goat’s milk by itself is not a complete formula and should not be used as the sole source of nutrition. Although once your patient reaches 1 year old goat’s milk can be a good alternative to cow’s milk, if she is exclusively tube fed it is important she gets other sources of nutrients as well as goat’s milk. If she has not tolerated a cows milk based formula I would recommend a hypoallergenic formula such as Elecare or Neocate before jumping to goat’s milk. If she has already tried these and they have been unsuccessful I would recommend looking into a blenderized diet which incorporates blended food such as fruit, vegetables and grains through the tube.

If your patient really seems to need goat’s milk formula please consider the recipe on Dr. Sears’ website, http://www.askdrsears.com/topics/feeding-infants-toddlers/goat-milk. This recipe recommends using rice syrup to provide additional carbohydrates.

If she is already tolerating the coconut oil with the goat's milk adding rice syrup will increase her calories and make her diet more balanced. She also needs a multivitamin with minerals to make up for the nutrients found lacking in goat’s milk formula.

Before making any changes please, please, please speak to her doctor! I cannot confidently make specific recommendations without knowing her background or diagnosis, so I would not take this advice without speaking to her physician first.