Kristin Cavallari’s ’Homemade Formula’ Is The Latest Reason To Ignore Celeb Advice
Kristin Cavallari feeds her baby homemade formula, and even made her recipe available to the public
Another day, another celebrity mom giving other parents questionable advice. This time it was former reality TV star and vocal anti-vaxxer Kristin Cavallari, who shared her homemade formula recipe in People magazine, despite the fact that making your own formula at the recommendation of a whack-a-doodle celebrity is a terrible idea.
Cavallari, who’s got three kids with Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler, is currently promoting her book, Balancing In Heels. She was recently interviewed for People’s “Great Ideas” section, and revealed that she feeds her four-month-old, Saylor, a homemade goat’s milk concoction whenever she runs out of breastmilk. People even went so far as to print her exact recipe, which we’re not sharing here, because yikes.
Cavallari’s “formula” contains maple syrup and cod-liver oil, which she says is preferable to “heavily processed store-bought formula that contains ‘glucose syrup solids.'” It also contains goat’s milk powder because she claims all of her kids have a “sensitivity to cow’s milk.” She said she developed the recipe with her husband and her doctor because “the food I give my children is one of the things I care most about.”
People cautioned that other parents shouldn’t try to replicate Cavallari’s recipe, and even quoted a pediatric gastroenterologist, Dr. Mark Corkins, who said:
“Commercial formulas are some of the most highly regulated foods with strict nutritional standards that the companies have to meet for the FDA. Why would you want to use an alternative formula when there are well tested and tried formulas widely available?”
Still, their article inevitably had to be yanked down because, even if you provide adequate warnings against copying Cavallari’s recipe, sharing it with millions of people is just asking for trouble.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, homemade infant formulas carry serious risks for nutritional deficiencies. A 2010 study published in the journal Pediatrics also found that goat’s milk itself carries serious risks:
“Many infants are exclusively fed unmodified goat’s milk as a result of cultural beliefs as well as exposure to false online information. Anecdotal reports have described a host of morbidities associated with that practice, including severe electrolyte abnormalities, metabolic acidosis, megaloblastic anemia, allergic reactions including life-threatening anaphylactic shock, hemolytic uremic syndrome, and infections.”
Cavallari is certainly not the first celebrity to spew pseudo-science to the masses. She’s actually following in the footsteps of many, including Alicia Silverstone, who famously told People magazine two years ago that she doesn’t vaccinate her son because he eats a clean diet, including a bowl of “immune-boosting Miso soup” each morning, and that’s enough to keep him healthy. What are these celebrity moms smoking?
Obviously Cavallari can feed her kids whatever she wants, but to downplay the safety of store-bought infant formula and act like her homemade goat juice is no more dangerous than a casserole recipe on Pinterest is just plain irresponsible. Just because someone has a huge platform doesn’t mean they know what the hell they’re talking about, and their nonsense certainly shouldn’t be reprinted in a section of a popular magazine dedicated to “Great Ideas.”
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