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It’s crazy that in the face of health authorities saying don’t do this, it’s dangerous, your reaction is “prove it”, rather than doing some research on your own

It’s crazy that in the face of health authorities saying don’t do this, it’s dangerous, your reaction is “prove it”, rather than doing some research on your own to counter your skepticism. The lack of trust in public institutions is deeply saddening. The problem with baby formula is that it needs to contain precise balances of nutrition in specific forms that can be absorbed by the body in specific ways. Much in the way that a calorie is not a calorie is not a calorie, a nutrient is not a nutrient is not a nutrient. Water down your baby formula? Now it’s different. Babies are sensitive. This could be dangerous. This took such little effort to research on my own. The bar is so low. Breast milk is unique. In the past kids had wet nurses as a backup. And when they didn’t, infant mortality was very high. If you just tel people you can go make this shit at home, a lot of babies will likely die.

hn_throwaway_99 4y ago
> It’s crazy that in the face of health authorities saying don’t do this, it’s dangerous, your reaction is “prove it”, rather than doing some research on your own to counter your skepticism. The lack of trust in public institutions is deeply saddening. I 100% disagree. I'm not an idiot. I can read a recipe, even a complicated recipe. And I'm not even saying they're wrong. I'm just asking for some simple example of why, for someone capable of following the instructions exactly, this would be too difficult to do at home. Not the right equipment? Fine. Ingredients that are not readily available? Fine. But to go with some hand wavy bullshit, basically saying "Sorry stupid peon, this is just too complicated for you", is just dumb. On a site called "Hacker News" I think it's incredibly sad that a request for a more detailed explanation is met with "I think that's crazy".
- SkyPuncher 4y ago
  > I 100% disagree. I'm not an idiot. I can read a recipe, even a complicated recipe This thread has shown me how many people think baby formula is just some complex recipe that requires pureeing the correct vegetables in the correct ratios. Making infant formula is more akin to making medicine/drug than table food. We have home drugs (meth, heroin, cocaine, etc). Yes, they can be made safely, but they often not.
- oneoff786 4y ago
  Well for one, do some fucking research, as I suggested in the very passage you quoted, before you make bold assertions about what’s reasonable. The answers to your questions are easily found. You do not have the ingredients. It’s not just foods. You cannot make safe baby formula from foods. You don’t have the equipment to produce it. It requires specific mixing and heating and what not to arrive at specific consistencies and sterility so that it is absorbable by the body correctly. You don’t have the measurement equipment to get the ratios correct to the margins needed. You don’t have the quality controls to check that they are ok for things like acidity. You don’t have the expertise to evaluate outcomes. You apparently don’t have the inclination to research it on your own either so it’s triply dangerous. In the 20s people started using milk based formula. Babies got scurvy and rickets. They threw in orange juice. They got bacterial infections. If you want to roll the dice with your baby’s health because you think you’re smarter than the government go ahead. Here’s Wikipedia, the simplest lowest bar of research you were unwilling to do but complain about either way. It has the basic progression. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infant_formula https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infant_formula Flour and milk mostly. Go nuts.

hn_throwaway_99 4y ago

> It’s crazy that in the face of health authorities saying don’t do this, it’s dangerous, your reaction is “prove it”, rather than doing some research on your own to counter your skepticism. The lack of trust in public institutions is deeply saddening. I 100% disagree. I'm not an idiot. I can read a recipe, even a complicated recipe. And I'm not even saying they're wrong. I'm just asking for some simple example of why, for someone capable of following the instructions exactly, this would be too difficult to do at home. Not the right equipment? Fine. Ingredients that are not readily available? Fine. But to go with some hand wavy bullshit, basically saying "Sorry stupid peon, this is just too complicated for you", is just dumb. On a site called "Hacker News" I think it's incredibly sad that a request for a more detailed explanation is met with "I think that's crazy".

SkyPuncher 4y ago
> I 100% disagree. I'm not an idiot. I can read a recipe, even a complicated recipe This thread has shown me how many people think baby formula is just some complex recipe that requires pureeing the correct vegetables in the correct ratios. Making infant formula is more akin to making medicine/drug than table food. We have home drugs (meth, heroin, cocaine, etc). Yes, they can be made safely, but they often not.
oneoff786 4y ago
Well for one, do some fucking research, as I suggested in the very passage you quoted, before you make bold assertions about what’s reasonable. The answers to your questions are easily found. You do not have the ingredients. It’s not just foods. You cannot make safe baby formula from foods. You don’t have the equipment to produce it. It requires specific mixing and heating and what not to arrive at specific consistencies and sterility so that it is absorbable by the body correctly. You don’t have the measurement equipment to get the ratios correct to the margins needed. You don’t have the quality controls to check that they are ok for things like acidity. You don’t have the expertise to evaluate outcomes. You apparently don’t have the inclination to research it on your own either so it’s triply dangerous. In the 20s people started using milk based formula. Babies got scurvy and rickets. They threw in orange juice. They got bacterial infections. If you want to roll the dice with your baby’s health because you think you’re smarter than the government go ahead. Here’s Wikipedia, the simplest lowest bar of research you were unwilling to do but complain about either way. It has the basic progression. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infant_formula https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infant_formula Flour and milk mostly. Go nuts.