Dr. Greene's Organic Prescription for babies

Picture your treasured, pristine newborn, just beginning the voyage of life—a baby who hasn’t yet picked up some of the habits or tastes you might wish you never acquired. Next consider that what you feed your baby now will help establish her habits of eating, her taste preferences and food favorites.

If I were going to pick only one time of life to eat organic, it would be from conception through age three. Our bodies and our brains grow faster during this period than at any later time. Babies eat more than adults, pound for pound, and are more vulnerable to environmental toxins.

Here are seven very important choices to keep in mind for the health of your baby and of the planet:

1. Organic milk.

The best choice by far, when practical, is for breast milk to be the exclusive milk for at least the first year. But if you are using milk-based formula for your baby, either partially or entirely (or if milk is an ingredient in other foods), consider organic.

Babies shouldn’t be given cow’s milk directly during the first year of life. Nevertheless, most American babies consume a lot of milk during their first year, in the form of infant formula. At some points, formula-fed babies take thirty-two ounces a day—more milk than older kids or adults. And later in the first year they might get milk in foods that contain yogurt or cheese.

There’s more to a bottle of conventional formula than meets the eye. You see the formula, but hidden from view is the cow where the milk came from, the dairy where the cow was raised, and all the land devoted to growing food for that cow. When you choose a bottle of conventional milk-based formula, you are buying into a whole chemical system of agriculture.

Each bottle of organic formula, however, represents a whole organic ecosystem. Rich, living soil, responsibly nurtured, produces healthy organic pasture and nutritious organic feed, which leads to healthy organic cows. (Organic cows must, by regulation, be allowed to graze on pasture during the growing season.) If you give milk-based formula, choose organic every time.

An astonishing two hundred million acres of farmland in the United States are devoted to growing feed for our livestock.¹² By choosing organic formula, your small choice affects a big segment of our agricultural system.

2. Organic soy.

Almost all babies in the United States are fed soy in the first year, usually without their parents knowing it. Infant formula is based on three core parts: protein, carbohydrates, and fats. Most parents are surprised to learn that the fat in formulas in general, whatever the type, almost always features soybean oil. For a variety of reasons, I prefer avoiding soy formula for most babies, especially in the first six months. But even if you don’t use soy formula, there may still be soy in your baby’s diet.

Soy turns up as an ingredient in a surprising array of products. ....read more