Thanks!

Thank you JAS!! My thoughts exactly! Though a few situations may call for it, like inadequate glandular tissue (an extremely rare condition), or when the mother cannot avoid consuming some sort of pharmaceutical that may transfer to the milk, (or my unique, temporary situation which I’ll explain in a moment) I believe any child’s inability to thrive on breastmilk is a red flag to the mother to inspect what she is taking in (food, medications including herbs, body products, alcohol, tobacco, coffee, extreme stress, toxic environmental influence) before replacing any feedings with another animal’s milk. If a pediatrician tells you, “you ought to supplement with formula”, please consult a lactation consultant about your “latch”. A bad latch can cause pain, gastric issues, or poor supply. Many pediatricians are given kickbacks from formula companies to suggest this – also avoid their free samples. Breastmilk is produced on a supply and demand basis, so if you replace a feeding a day with anything – that’s that much less your body will think you need to produce in a day; thus a low milk supply can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If supply is truly low use fenugreek or other aromatic seed teas to increase production. Or, nurse more frequently!
I am speaking from experience. My first was born very early and could not get a “let down” for the first couple weeks. I had to pump all of my milk and feed it to her. As she began to catch on, my milk supply had begun to wane suddenly and drastically. My body wasn’t fooled by the pump! Luckily she began to nurse freely and I began to build my supply up, but in the meantime I supplemented with milk donated from other nursing mothers and raw goat milk combined with comfrey infusion.
I certainly was thankful I was able to get my hands on raw milk, and still am whenever I can!