IT may sound wholesome but a new ‘all natural’ trend of feeding a baby homemade infant formula instead of commercial formula has health officials concerned.

Dozens of recipes have appeared online recommending ingredients such as raw milk and bone broths as preferable substitutes for infant formula.

Charlotte Carr, wife of 2008 Australian Idol winner Wes, runs the Bubba Yum Yum blog, where she says she could never give her baby commercial infant formula.

“How on earth could I go from breast milk to a powdered formula that included corn syrup in its lists of ingredients?” she wrote.

She revealed how she abandoned raw goat’s milk in favour of a homemade baby formula made from bone broth on the advice of her naturopath.

Her recipe for “baby building broth” that she calls “home made formula” on her website, includes chicken feet, chicken necks, apple cider vinegar and filtered water. Vegetables and garlic are additional ingredients for babies over six months.

media_camera Instagram image from @bubbayumyum, Charlotte Carr's Instagram site, showing some of the food created including the baby broth made from chicken bones.

media_camera Singer Wes Carr with his wife Charlotte and son Willow. Picture: Instagram

Consultant paediatrician Dr Patricia McVeagh said she had serious concerns about the trend of homemade formulas.

“Human infants are born immature compared with other mammals, and human milk is particularly adapted so their immature kidneys are not overloaded,” Dr McVeagh said. “Commercial infant formulas have put extensive research into mimicking that aspect of human milk.

“I would have major concerns about it meeting the micronutrient needs of an infant while not overloading their intestinal and renal systems.”

The Breast Feeding Association also said infant formula was the next best thing to breast milk as outlined by the WHO.

Repeated studies from as far back as 1934 comparing the nutritional content of bone broths to milk and human milk show calcium levels are “extremely low”.

The baby broth trend comes alongside the release next month of a Paleo cookbook for babies.

Written by Carr and naturopath Helen Padarin and co-authored by celebrity chef Pete Evans, the book is called Bubba Yum Yum, The Paleo Way for New Mums, Babies And Toddlers.

media_camera The cover of the new book.

The Dieticians Association of Australia said it had concerns about the paleo diet for children which limits grains and legumes and restricts fruit. There were few studies examining the paleo diet in adults and none examining the effects in children, infants or toddlers, the DAA said.

“This is compared to the large body of evidence-based research used to develop and support the Australian Dietary Guidelines and the Infant Feeding Guidelines, which have been written by experts with extensive training in medical nutrition therapy.”

On Pete Evan’s Facebook page last Friday he posted: “I have a vision for the future and it involves everyone drinking bone broths daily instead of coffee!”

One post in reply from a mother said she had substituted breast milk for bone broth. It is not clear whether Mr Evans is aware of the mother’s post.

Evans, Carr and Padarin all declined an interview with The Sunday Telegraph.