ChezPerky

For those of you who have never had the pleasure of fortifying breastmilk for a baby, it’s disgusting stuff. But it’s pretty simple. You use a recipe to add formula to breast milk so that the final product equals whatever calories per ounce your goal is. When we were trying to get 22 calories per ounce, we added a half teaspoon to 3 ounces of breast milk. You could barely tell the formula was in it. Now we put a full scoop of formula in a bottle and add breast milk until the total volume equals 5 oz (so we add approximately 4ish ounces of milk). It’s disgusting stuff and smells to high heaven and pours out really thickly. Yick. No wonder poor Ellie doesn’t love the stuff.

But anyway, tonight I had the displeasure of going and purchasing a can of formula for the first time. Do you know how much this shit* costs??? One 16 ounce can costs $27!!! Fortunately, CVS had it on sale for $22 with your ExtraCare card, and I had a $5 coupon a friend had given me. But seriously, even $17 per can! Imagine if I was really feeding formula to my babies as their primary foodstuff! I used to say that I HAVE to breastfeed my babies because we can’t afford formula for all three babies, but I had no idea that I WASN’T JOKING. I don’t think I could afford formula for ONE baby if I were feeding formula full time! (Hell, I’m not sure I can afford it just as the fortifier, sheesh!)

Okay, so I have no idea how much money I’ve saved our family by breastfeeding triplets for this long so far, but I do know I deserve a medal. Or perhaps a new laptop. Which, um, I need because mine died a grizzly death. Now, if only I could breastfeed them all through college to save on tuition too… we’d be all set. Except, um, I don’t think it works that way.

*Okay what is UP with me and the profanity lately?? I have GOT to cut this out!

Update Answer to Anonymous:
No you can’t fortify breast milk with breast milk. Simmering breast milk down to concentrate it wouldn’t really work and would damage the breast milk. The proteins and antibodies in the breast milk would be damaged by the cooking process. Plus, you’d have no way of knowing what the calorie concentration was. The main reason for me to keep giving my babies breast milk (aside from formula costing a FREAKING FORTUNE as I just discovered tonight) is to give them the benefit of the antibodies and other good stuff they get from me. Cooking the milk destroys that goodness. I can get the concentrated calorie benefit by simply adding formula. Processing is not the root of all evil, in my opinion. (and I certainly don’t have such an excess of pumped milk that I can afford to concentrate my EBM by simmering… it would be a guarantee that my babies would end up on formula supplements, because I could never pump enough to make up for that difference)

P.S. You didn’t upset me with the way your question was phrased. It’s just that it’s an unrealistic solution. There’s no way to really calculate the number of calories you’d end up with in your breast milk concentrate, and when you’re dealing with a baby who’s struggling to get enough calories , it’s important to really work hard to get those calories into her. Spending the money on one can of formula to use as fortifier for her isn’t a big deal. It would be a HUGE deal if I were using the can of formula as intended by the manufacturer… particularly with three babies. I’d be spending a FORTUNE on formula! As it is, this can that I bought last night should last for several weeks, thankfully. I have no idea how long a can of formula would last if I were making it straight for three babies full time. I don’t think I want to know!

Updated Again: Anonymous says:
and what about WIC? Maybe you make too much money to qualify…but worth a try… especially since you have triplets to feed!

If we still had only one income we make too much money to qualify, now we have two incomes. (I’m quite grateful to not qualify, mind you) On top of that, since I’m not using formula for anything other than fortifier, I only need one can every couple weeks, so the WIC benefit would be wasted on us. We can certainly afford one can every once in a while. It’s just the idea of having to pay for this all the time that makes me very grateful that I breastfeed.

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For those of you who have never had the pleasure of fortifying breastmilk for a baby, it's disgusting stuff. But it's pretty simple. You use a recipe to add formula to breast milk so that the final product equals whatever calories per ounce your goal is. When we were trying to get 22 calories per ounce, we added a half teaspoon to 3 ounces of breast milk. You could barely tell the formula was in it. Now we put a full scoop of formula in a bottle and add breast milk until the total volume equals 5 oz (so we add approximately 4ish ounces of milk). It's disgusting stuff and smells to high heaven and pours out really thickly. Yick. No wonder poor Ellie doesn't love the stuff.

But anyway, tonight I had the displeasure of going and purchasing a can of formula for the first time. Do you know how much this shit* costs??? One 16 ounce can costs $27!!! Fortunately, CVS had it on sale for $22 with your ExtraCare card, and I had a $5 coupon a friend had given me. But seriously, even $17 per can! Imagine if I was really feeding formula to my babies as their primary foodstuff! I used to say that I HAVE to breastfeed my babies because we can't afford formula for all three babies, but I had no idea that I WASN'T JOKING. I don't think I could afford formula for ONE baby if I were feeding formula full time! (Hell, I'm not sure I can afford it just as the fortifier, sheesh!)

Okay, so I have no idea how much money I've saved our family by breastfeeding triplets for this long so far, but I do know I deserve a medal. Or perhaps a new laptop. Which, um, I need because mine died a grizzly death. Now, if only I could breastfeed them all through college to save on tuition too… we'd be all set. Except, um, I don't think it works that way.

*Okay what is UP with me and the profanity lately?? I have GOT to cut this out!

Update Answer to Anonymous:
No you can't fortify breast milk with breast milk. Simmering breast milk down to concentrate it wouldn't really work and would damage the breast milk. The proteins and antibodies in the breast milk would be damaged by the cooking process. Plus, you'd have no way of knowing what the calorie concentration was. The main reason for me to keep giving my babies breast milk (aside from formula costing a FREAKING FORTUNE as I just discovered tonight) is to give them the benefit of the antibodies and other good stuff they get from me. Cooking the milk destroys that goodness. I can get the concentrated calorie benefit by simply adding formula. Processing is not the root of all evil, in my opinion. (and I certainly don't have such an excess of pumped milk that I can afford to concentrate my EBM by simmering… it would be a guarantee that my babies would end up on formula supplements, because I could never pump enough to make up for that difference)

P.S. You didn't upset me with the way your question was phrased. It's just that it's an unrealistic solution. There's no way to really calculate the number of calories you'd end up with in your breast milk concentrate, and when you're dealing with a baby who's struggling to get enough calories , it's important to really work hard to get those calories into her. Spending the money on one can of formula to use as fortifier for her isn't a big deal. It would be a HUGE deal if I were using the can of formula as intended by the manufacturer… particularly with three babies. I'd be spending a FORTUNE on formula! As it is, this can that I bought last night should last for several weeks, thankfully. I have no idea how long a can of formula would last if I were making it straight for three babies full time. I don't think I want to know!

Updated Again: Anonymous says:
and what about WIC? Maybe you make too much money to qualify…but worth a try… especially since you have triplets to feed!

If we still had only one income we make too much money to qualify, now we have two incomes. (I'm quite grateful to not qualify, mind you) On top of that, since I'm not using formula for anything other than fortifier, I only need one can every couple weeks, so the WIC benefit would be wasted on us. We can certainly afford one can every once in a while. It's just the idea of having to pay for this all the time that makes me very grateful that I breastfeed.

Read Full Post »