Goat's Milk! It Does a body REALLY good!

We first began our journey with goats and goat milk in the spring of 2008. I was quite sick for the first six weeks of his life and was unable to nurse him myself after the first 2 weeks. I was devastated, as I felt that formula was not the right choice for my family. However, I was left with little option. After numerous formulas failing and making my son very sick, I received a call from my grandmother on April day. She told me to come up with the truck and a large dog cage, she had something for me. When I arrived, there she presented me with an Oberhasli doe. She took me to the barn and taught me how to milk. She gave me her old pasteurizer and said to milk this goat, pasteurize it, and give it to my baby. Throw away the canned formula; and so I did. That goat changed my son's life and my family's life. My son was now a happy baby, thriving and not getting sick. My husband and I were introduced to the wonderful world of goats and goat milk, and all the wonderful things that can be done with it. We began making cheese and soap; the passion of the goat was in us. We had purchased another doe during the summer, so the milk was ample and wonderful. 

From there, we decided that goats needed to be in our family plans, but not simply having a milk goat, but breeding quality animals that we could be proud of. We then sold the two does we had in the spring of 2010 and purchased a French Alpine doe kid, a Nubian doe kid, and a Nigerian Dwarf buck kid. We were going to raise minis!

Our first kidding season was in the late spring of 2012. We were blessed with twin buck mini Nubians, and twin doe/buck mini Alpines. The milk was ample in our house again. The children were thriving, we were thriving, our family was thriving. Milking became a family affair and my then 4 year old son and 3 year old daughter were having a great time bottle feeding the kids, learning to milk our very patient first fresheners. 

We have since decided to focus strictly on mini Alpines. Our journey with dairy goats has been ever evolving, as we live and experiment with what our vision for our goats should be. I feel that we are in the right place! 

Now, we call upon the power of goats milk to nurture our our third child. I have seen wonderful things when it comes to babies and goats milk. My son, who is now 6, is one of the smartest in his class and was raised on goats milk from the time he was 5 months old. My baby girl, now, is almost 5 months old and has been on goats milk for a few weeks to supplement my own milk. We have changed things a little bit in these 6 years, and are now following this infant goats milk formula recipe. This recipe fills in the gaps and our daughter gobbles it up! I am not a doctor, and many would say to get the store bought can if you cannot provide it yourself. However, through research, instinct, and prayer, I have found that this works when I, as a mother, fall short.

For more information on the wonders of goats milk and why it is superior to cows milk, there is a great article entitled the benefits of goat milk vs cow milk. The website www.mtcapra.com has some wonderful information and even some goat milk products! The infant formula recipe is also from that website.