goat's milk formula- illegal?

[thisisyesterday]

I have just been reading through Mike Brady's Q&A and noticed his claims that this is illegal.

is it? really? I know you are not advised to use it (and why), but I had no idea it was actually illegal.

I mean, he seems like he really ought to know! but somehow I am having trouble believing it!

I have e-mailed him to ask about it, but interested if anyone know the answer right now

I've seen it in the supermarkets

i thought i had seen it in waitrose, but a look online only reveals goat's milk follow-on, which would presumably not be covered by any ban on sale of infant milk anyway?

Yes that's right. Goats milk first formula is currently not allowed to be sold in the UK. Follow-on is fine to sell though.

Actually I stand corrected, according to this link it's not allowed to be sold in the whole of Europe.
www.eatwell.gov.uk/healthissues/foodintolerance/foodintolerancetypes/milkallergy/

This article from the Telegraph has some details as well:
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1492334/Goats-milk-formula-not-suitable-for-infants-Government-warns.html

It's a shame if it is, and it must be a fairly recent thing. My 7 year old dd was very intolerent to cows milk formula, and thrived on goats milk formula.

Not sure why Cherie Blair using it makes it ok, but hey ho.

celery were you offered a prescription formula? I've been offered one for my DS who is dairy intolerant, but, at the moment only by proxy so he doesn't need an alternative as long as I avoid it. But I'd be interested if you tried a prescription formula and it didn't suit, whereas goat's milk did.

Okay, I've just read the article. The claim that it's closer to breast milk than cows milk, is of course ridiculous. But in my opinion, anecdotal evidence is often worth listening to, and in my experience, my daughter's eczema flaired up terribly when drinking cows milk, and was non existant when drinking goat's milk. I'm actually quite cross that it's now illegal, and if we ever had the same problem, we wouldn't have the option.

Organiccarrotcake, no we never tried a prescription formula. At the time goats milk formula was widely available. I bought it in Waitrose. I tried it, and it worked, so we never felt the need to pursue any alternatives. DD began drinking normal goats milk from nine months.

Oh ok. What signs of intolerance were you seeing? For us it was reflux, and unsettledness. But I had a heads up as I know DS1 (6) is dairy intolerant and he does better on goat's than cow's, so I tried dropping dairy and it was fine. Good in a way as I had bad thrush early on and knowing that regular formula would not be tolerated by him kept me going through it :).

celery, children with cow's milk protein intolerances/allergies are quite likely to react to goat's milk too

obviously you were lucky in that it worked for yo, but on the whole it doesn't help enough children for it to be a valid alternative.

there's no need to be cross... you would be able to get a proper, nutritionally balanced, hypoallergenic formula for FREE from your GP if you needed one again.

sorry, meant to say tyhanks for the links too! am just reading now

so... does "not approved for use" actually mean illegal then?
I took it to mean that it isn't advised to use them, and that GP's are not allowed to prescribe them. it doesn't actually say it's against the law.

although, a friend tells me that it's illegal to sell anything that isn't a "recognised formula" but i don't really know what that means??

i think i am more confused than before now¬!

interestingly Amazon, among other places, sell it online.... is this legal??

"celery, children with cow's milk protein intolerances/allergies are quite likely to react to goat's milk too"

but you could say the same with soya formula, those with cows milk protein intolerance are likely to react this soya protein, and i would imagine going through life with a soya allergy would be much more difficult than a goats milk one. and for some reason soya milk is sold in supermarkets as being suitable for newborns.

"Scientific evidence put to the EU regulators suggests that goat milk is unsuitable because the level of proteins are too concentrated for very young babies, and some sources of goats' milk are not pasturised."

On soya formula, the status is "approved for use but not recommended". All current guidelines are very clear that you should only use it on a doctor's advice. Apparently the only reason why it is still available is that it's the only option available to vegan parents - the Chief Medical Officer says that "there is no unique clinical condition that particularly requires the use of soya-based infant formulas".

I think that is more about the raising of the standards for infant nutrition... I know plenty of babies (now adults) who were raised in a watered down version of evaporated milk. They are fine, could they have been better, perhaps. Will we know for sure? no.

I guess every mother did what was, to their knowledge, the best thing for the child.

Now, I still have nightmares about coca cola given in bottles, but fortunately, that is becoming history along as smoking non stop in the bedroom with the baby sleeping next to the bed...

For what is worth, my milk intolerant baby couldn't manage Nanny, would be coughly and sickly in prescribed Pepti but fine (apparently) in Aptamil. We didn't realise how bad his intolerance was until we removed dairy altogether... it was as if we had been given a different, but definitively more healthy/happy/active, child.

"Apparently the only reason why it is still available is that it's the only option available to vegan parents"

Firstly presumably breastfeeding would be acceptible for vegans?

According to wikipedia only 0.4% of population are vegan.

I don't know any and some would be happy with normal formula eg most of the vegetarians I know are feeding their babies meat or fish.

Bearing in mind most vegans would want to breastfeed, I can't see that there is sufficient demand from vegans for soya formula.

MumNWLondon - that's the judgement of the govt's scientific advisors, not my view. Obviously we are talking vegan parents who are not breastfeeding for any reason. Here are the references:

See p.2 of this communique to doctors

and here is the original scientific advice

From the latter: "SACN also considered there to be no substantive medical need for, nor health benefit arising from, the use of soy-based infant formulae. However, it was noted that soy-based infant formulae were the only vegan infant formula option available if babies were not exclusively breast-fed. In light of the concerns expressed, the Working Group recommends that the Department of Health review current advice on the use of soybased infant formulae."

Not illegal, just not licensed.

DD was on it from 6 months. Lovely stuff, smelled really nice and easy to digest. If it were illegal you wouldn't be able to buy it.

mumnwlondon i believe that the number of children who react to goat's milk is significantly higher than those who react to soya as well as dairy, as the proteins in goat's milk are very similar to cow's milk proteins

this is one of the reasons why it is not recommended for use in this situation

many babies are ok with soya, although you are right that lots do react to that too, and there are formulas suitable for them, also available on prescription

what a bizarre claim about vegans!

firstly, i would not take anything from wikipedia as the whole truth!
but what about the vegan parents who can't breastfeed? or those that don't want to???

that's a bit like saying there is no need for formula full stop... because people could just breastfeed

What is the bizarre claim about vegans?

In terms of the % of the population - other sources indicate similar %s.

Before I posted I looked at a couple of vegan chat board, and yes breastmilk is vegan, moreover it appeared that vegans were more likely than average to be really pro-breastfeeding.

Also some people on the boards had the view that if you couldn't breastfeed for whatever reason giving dairy infant formula wasn't such a problem, infact, according to these boards, in the USA anyway (where the soy formula % share of the market is much bigger than in the UK) none of soy formula isn't vegan as some of the vitamins are of animal origin. They recommended getting a friend from the UK to buy formula and post it!!!!!

I know someone (in the USA) who uses soya formula - she is a very devout jew, and although most formulas are kosher approved, they are dairy, and ultra orthodox jews insist of milk being supervised by a rabbi from the time of milking. In the UK, kosher shops have israeli dairy formula for sale for the ultra othodox market. but in the USA shops can't sell formula from overseas and the soya formula is dairy free.

the claim that they wouldn't need formula because breastmilk is suitable!!!

surely you are not naive enough to think that a) breastfeeding works out for anyone who wants to do it or b) that everyone wants to do it to start with???

and just because some vegetarians/vegans don't mind giving their children animal products it doesn't mean that all of them are ok with it

The point that I was making was that there are actually very few vegans in the UK. Estimates vary but its likely to be less than 1% of the population.

• and some of them (probably a large percentage) would be able to breastfeed

• it would seem likely that vegans would be more likely than average to breastfeed.

• Of those that can't BF some would be happy to give dairy formula.

Yet the market share for soya formula seems to be around 15% and 25% in the USA.

The number of non breastfeeding vegans who wouldn't give diary formula is unlikely to be enough to make soya formula commercially viable.

Additionally only one of the soya formulas on the market is actually even vegan (heinz farleys soya) yet there are others for sale which are not vegan - what is the justification for these?

www.vegetarian.org.uk/factsheets/soyainfant.html