How Laura Modi Is Rewriting Baby Formula

26:17And that is something that they just throw in the formula. And so you're getting all these weird industrial ingredients and other things in there that aren't serving the baby. I have a general rule as a formula CEO, you know, and it's hard because you're in an industry where you're looking to constantly evolve and improve your product and meet the latest science. And while I feel so deeply committed to never compromising, I also never want to be in a position of also formula shaming. And, you know, it's challenging. There's a lot of formulas out there that have a certain makeup and whether it's availability, affordability, access, there is room to improve.

27:08And holding those two truths at the same time is really important as we continue to evolve the industry. The thing I want to sort of dive into a little bit more is about the microbiome because there's a company, and you actually have this as part of the things you offer, which is a probiotic for babies. Maybe people just, I'll just sort of unpack a little bit of this and have you sort of jump in with me. But we've seen increasing C-section rates, almost one in four births now. Sometimes one in three births. We're seeing lack of babies going through the birth canal and colonizing their microbiome.

27:42We're seeing, I mean, I give lectures all over, and I always ask the question, how many of this audience have never taken antibiotic? and like literally nobody will raise their hand or occasionally like one person will raise their hand. And so everybody's taking an antibiotic, which will kill one of the most, including women who are babies, one of the most important species. In your microbiome. In your microbiome called Bifidobacterium infantis after the infant. The infantis, yeah. And this is something that colonizes the baby's gut and prevents leaky gut, regulates the immune system, prevents autoimmunity, allergies.

28:09And this is something that is fed by the prebiotic sugars. Correct. in breast milk. Correct. Can you talk about the importance of that and how you're working to kind of address this in some way or you cannot talk about? Well, we're doing a lot of studies on it. It's near and dear to my heart, very near and dear to my heart. I think looking at all of the different bifido cultures and the opportunity that formulas have to cultivate what is just been missing, the short of it is formula companies haven't gotten there. There isn't a perfect solution. And while there is probiotics that are found in formula or probiotic drops that you can add, we still haven't been able to accomplish that gap yet.

28:53There is a company called Avivo. Avivo. No, their bifidostrain is exactly what should be given to babies. And it's something I recommend to all pregnant women to take and for their babies' sake. And then when you give a baby a probiotic, unlike adults, they'll colonize the gut. And it'll stay there as opposed to, as an adult, if you take a probiotic, you have to keep taking it in order for it to work. And there's natural prebiotics also found in lactose, which again, another argument for using lactose over corn syrup. And then, you know, what's really interesting about this is that 15 % of the carbohydrates are these sort of prebiotic fibers, sugars.

29:30HMOs. Yeah, they call it human milk, oligosaccharides. And like, I think 15 % of the carbohydrates, calories, are from this completely unusable food for babies. They can't use it. It's for the bugs, not the babies. And that is something I'm learning today. Wow. Yeah. So that's like, wow. Like if, you know, one in seven calories is actually not for the baby. But for the gut. From the carbohydrates, you have to put the gut. Wow. That tells you the importance of this. And so I think it's something we have to figure out how to properly navigate with formula, but there's ways around it. There is, but I think you're highlighting something really beautiful here.

30:08The opportunities to continue to get closer and closer to breast milk are there. And especially when I just think about the U.S. continuing to be seen and should be seen as the gold standard of how to make infant formula, we have an opportunity to advance that innovation. We should have other countries looking at America as the country to emulate. Totally. I mean, I think that's 100 % what we're not doing, except for you. Heads down. So how do you differ from the European formula? Well, look, we match the European nutritional standards, but the biggest advantages were made domestically. The fundamental belief is that you should be able to get the highest quality formula with the best recipe that meets the latest science, but you shouldn't have to ship it in from overseas.

30:57having it sit on a cargo ship and brought in, I mean, that raises all different types of questions around quality and safety. We're spending this time talking about the nutritional aspects of it, but you break down the safety requirements of infant formula, the contaminations that you need to avoid. Baby is one of the most vulnerable audiences out there and producing that formula domestically is where you get the perfect combo. And it's amazing. Your formula is also organic. Correct. It's non-GMO. It's locally sourced. It's like, checks a lot of the boxes, right? As it should. Yes. Have you done any studies looking at the impact of babies using Bobby formula versus conventional formula?

31:42Not yet. Too early. But, you know, we're only in our fifth year and the goal is to just - You're a baby company. We're a baby company. We're not yet in our toddler phase. So there's a lot to be done there. But I mean, look, you mentioned this at the very beginning. It's also so much more than the baby. It's also mom. The mother is the sole provider for a child. And as a company, we're focused on not just what's in the tin, but like also what's outside the tin. How do you change the conversation that surrounds feeding? How do you support mom going through this? and the parent who's trying to decide what the right feeding choices are, there's been so much shame and stigma tied to how you feed your child so much that we have to develop a new relationship with it.

32:32So I take evolving our conversation and evolving the relationship that you have with how you feed your baby just as important as the nutritional. Well, let's talk about that because, you know, you often talk about this false binary choice between breast milk and formula. But it's the case that most of the time women do both. Correct. So can you talk about that and the numbers behind it? Yeah. Everyone loves a binary story. It's so simple. It fits nice into a pamphlet, the breastfeeding pamphlet and the formula pamphlet. And the reality is that that's not the case. That's not how most people are actually feeding.

33:11And they're combo feeding. And this isn't just coming from me, as a formula CEO, I think in a recent study, the most recent study from the CDC said that 86 % of parents, 86 % of babies born in 2022 were breastfed longer than ever before since they've been doing their study. That's an amazing accomplishment. That's huge. But here's what also followed it. They said, while breastfeeding is natural, it's not easy. And part of accomplishing the longevity of those that were breastfeeding was due to combo feeding, the introduction of formula. I'm blanking on when it actually came out, I think a year or two ago.

33:55But what that study is essentially saying is most parents are doing both. And actually, if they do introduce formula and they can take some of that burden or weight away from feeling like, oh, I've just given my child some formula, so I should move exclusively to this, they might actually breastfeed longer. So it's not a binary choice. It's not a binary choice. And if you're choosing formula for your baby, you want to choose the best possible formula. Correct. We shouldn't look at it, you know, just because you can't access exclusively what is considered the best, the alternative should also be the best.

34:29It's interesting. I thought about this and I don't really even barely want to bring it up because I don't want people to kind of think that breastfeeding is bad because I don't think it's bad. But the reality is that most humans are toxic waste dumps, and it always concerns me. I'm on the board of the Environmental Working Group, and there was a study done which they looked at umbilical cord blood from babies before they'd taken their first breath, even before they breastfed. Wow. There were 287 known toxins in the biblical court. Wow. Flame retardants, pesticides, glyphosate, DDT, dioxin, things that have been banned for decades, heavy metals, phthalates.

35:12I mean, the list goes on and on. I always sort of joke, somebody should come up with a breast milk filter. Wow. I don't think it's possible, but it would kind of be cool, like a water filter, so you don't have to get all that. But the beautiful thing about what you're sourcing is it doesn't have any of that. No. Well, breast milk is so personal and it's so dynamic. It's so dynamic. It's dynamic in a way that nothing will ever compare. Nothing. It changes from different stages of breastfeeding. It is one of the most beautiful sources in the world. It really is. Again, I think a big part of me starting an infant formula company was because I so desperately wanted this liquid gold that I wasn't able to give my children exclusively.

35:56But what you're also highlighting is it's so personal and dynamic that it varies dramatically for every single mother, for every single parent. And we don't talk about that enough. Yeah. There's so many other environmental factors that play into the quality of how a child is fed or the choices that you actually have available to yourself. It's often seen, we're just talking about the binary piece of it, that people are choosing one path or another. What we're ignoring is most people don't have a choice. I always found it very hard, the conflict, when I was deciding how I was going to breastfeed or formula feed my next kid and realized, oh, but I don't have the paid leave to be able to do so.

36:42So here I am, you know, with the same governmental body who says you should be exclusively breastfeeding your child for six months is also not giving you the paid leave to be able to do so. I think Canada gave you a year. I think they gave you a year. I mean, Europe, it's pretty high up there. So, you know, there's a conflict in message that we're putting out there, which is really hard on a new mother. They're already going through their own hormonal changes. They're at a place where their identity is being questioned. They don't know who they are, what their responsibilities are. And here we are giving them a conflicting message to exclusively breastfeed your child for the next 35 hours and also get back to work.

37:21That's a hard thing. So breastfeed for a year, but get back to work in 12 weeks. As quick as possible. So, Laura, I want to sort of change directions a little bit. You know, you're involved not just in having created another pathway for women to think about formula and mothers to feed their babies healthier options. But you're also looking at what's happening kind of at a policy level. and I know you got a lot of flack for this, but you met with Bobby Kennedy, RFK Jr. I did. And other formula groups who are part of this effort called Operation Stork Speed. Can you speak to what that is, why it's important, and what's going on around this in terms of the regulatory and legislative aspects of protecting our children and improving their health?

38:00I know you have a range of people who come on the show. a lot in the world of food. But I think the one thing to differentiate from food to infant formula is infant formula is heavily regulated. And in fact, it is regulated by FDA and hence HHS. So they're, you know, going back to the meeting and sitting with, you know, the slew of other CEOs in the infant formula industry. And this wasn't a question of should we or should we not be there. This is the agency who regulates our very existence to be in the market. And secondary to that, if there's going to be a conversation around the future of the product that milk, sweat, and tears pour into this company, then you better believe I'm going to be at that table talking about how that future should look.

38:53So, you know, I think part of the distinction is there's sort of this belief of willingness and partnership when in actuality, this is really a, this is a regulated industry and you have to work with your regulators you have to be the table 100 so take us inside that room what were the conversations and what are the other ceos of the big formula companies like abbott and me saying and how are you kind of trying to change the conversation to move things in a healthier direction for infants there's nothing more bipartisan non-partisan than what it means to be able to feed your babies and unfortunately the topic tends to get polarized and it shouldn't so like removing that from the table for a second everyone is aligned that there should be improvements.

39:34A few call-outs were around the nutritional standards. We talked about DHA. DHA should be in the formula. Iron levels should be more optimal. We should have limitations on the use of alternative sugars. All of the things that you should expect to see on the upgrade of infant formula. The second thing we talked about was... You mean we shouldn't have the equivalent of a can of Coke a day that the baby's consuming? Yeah, that was a huge part of what we should remove. The other thing was about resiliency. So again, back in 2022, the American president got on the news and talked about how shelves were empty and we weren't able to feed babies.

40:11So we could evolve formula all day long, but we also need to make sure it's available and affordable to the masses. There was a lot of conversations around domestic manufacturing. Why is it that two players dominate the industry? Why is it that we don't have more manufacturing facilities to be able to turn to and rely on. I really loved, I think, that the one tension that this industry has, which is we should never be trading off availability and safety. And part of safety is making sure that it's available and the baby can be fed. So we have to look at the resiliency of the market just as much as the nutritional updating.

40:50And the solution must be a decentralized food system that has multiple channels for production and for processing and not just these couple of factories that make infant formula. The same thing happened with meat. They're like, there's five meat companies in the world and if one of those goes down, it was a crisis. What are we going to do? Yeah, and that happened during COVID. So again, we need to rethink our whole food system. The entire, we need to go back to what FDR did during, after the Great Depression, the New Deal era. Yeah. Well, it's more than just saying, here's what we need to do. Now, the question is, what is the private sector doing with the public sector to reform from the ground up?

41:34It's a form of relief and recovery and reform. The entire system needs to be rethought through. And I think just about manufacturing. And again, one of the most important parts of making infant formula is the safety of producing it. I mean, the factory has to be clean and safe and good and you can't have contaminants and bad crap. We invite you to come to our facility in Ohio. We will put you in your bunny suit and we will walk you around. And it is truly one of the most beautiful things to see because the safety that goes into producing that milk, any form of contamination or bacteria that shows up has a more negative consequence than the potential maybe trade of certain ingredients.

42:16So the safety is very, very important. We call ourselves somewhat test obsessed. testing, you know, 2 ,000, we have 2 ,000 quality checks for every batch. And we're not investing enough in the U.S. to do that. And, you know, here we are importing our way out of a crisis. You fast forward to maybe the potential harm of that. What are we doing to protect the safety of formula coming in from overseas? Yeah. 5 ,000 miles away. That's crazy. We're an agricultural nation. We should be able to produce our baby's milk here at home. We prioritize computer chips and cars and steel. And here we are turning to another nation and saying, hey, we can't make good infant formula.

43:05Can you help us? That's wild. That's wild. I hope to look back in 10 years where, again, another nation is looking at America as the gold standard and wanting to import our formula. And we have to invest in that. There's a lot of things happening around that, the Made in America Infant Formula Act, protect the infant formula from contamination act to try to create safety issues. So you're involved in these kind of policy efforts? Yeah, we co-created the Made in America Infant Formula Act. And what it essentially is, is you probably know the CHIPS Act, billions of dollars put aside to be able to invest in domestic chip manufacturing here in the U.S.

43:47This is a mimic of that, but it's a smaller amount to say we need new infant formula manufacturers in the U.S. And it's not enough to just say, oh, we want to have them. There needs to be incentives. There needs to be tax breaks, production tax breaks. And then we need to be able to qualify the sort of companies that are also able to do this in a way that breaks up the concentration. It is policy work, and that policy work takes both private and public sector working hand in hand together to make it happen. And I hope that if these do get passed, we should see more bobbies in the world. Yeah, yeah.

44:21You know, more companies like mine and not just someone walking down the formula aisle and going, what is the formula I'm going to choose where there's only five on shelf? There should be way more. You also talk a lot about transparency. Yes. And transparency is trust in, you know, labeling. And one of the problems with our food supply is it's not properly labeled. So people don't know what they're getting. Like, you know, if you see a pack of cigarettes in Europe, the entire front of the pack says, this will kill you. Don't smoke it. Like you can't even find the brand basically on it. And, you know, that changed behavior.

44:53And so the problems in America is that we don't have good food labeling by design because the food industry doesn't want us to know what's in it. And so can you talk about sort of labeling and testing and disclosures on infant formula, including things about DHA, contaminants, you know, you shouldn't have to call the manufacturer to figure stuff out. No, that's wild. You know, and then unfortunately, because there's no rules around it, what ends up happening is you see these marketing claims saying fortified with, but you don't know how much, you don't know the impact on it. And sometimes the use of marketing claims like fortification can actually go in the opposite direction where now there's too much.

45:34and what we're beginning to see with something like iron that happens to be the case which is actually we find that u.s formulas are using too much iron yeah you get iron overload it's not good iron overload which has negative consequences for you know the adolescent age so the short of it is you shouldn't have to call the manufacturer to question what the levels are or what the specific ingredient is dha is another great example of this you could put in two milligrams per 100 kcal and say that you have DHA. Yeah. Window dressing. Window dressing. But over in the EU, you need to have a minimum of 20 milligrams per 100k cal.

46:1210 times much. Exactly. So the short of it is, we need, and I think consumers, consumers are smart. Parents are wicked smart. They're doing mini PhDs when they become a parent because they want to understand every ounce of what they are giving or feeding their baby, putting on their child. and they will see it. So I think the companies that are forthcoming to that will be the companies that win. So there's still room to improve it, scientifically, right? A hundred percent. And this is where you need regulations. You need regulations to come in to also say what is required for people to share. Because it is, have you ever walked down a formula aisle?

46:53Oh God, it is, there needs to be a little bit more joy in it, but it's all consuming. You know, from the claims to the labels to what am I giving my child to see ingredients you've never heard of before. We need to do a better job allowing a parent to make a decision, allowing a consumer to make a decision without feeling like they need to go back and do a deep Google search on this to make sure it's okay. How do we get there? We got to change some policies. We got to enforce some rules. And I also think it's just competition, honestly. I think more and more companies that come in the market that are doing better, like Bobby, will also force the rest to catch up.

47:35Are you the only organic GMO-free formula? There's a few other smaller ones, but it's less than 5%. Less than 5 % of income formula is USDA organic. Also, that's another huge difference, Mark. The difference between saying something is organic versus USDA organic or made with organic ingredients, you know this better than anyone. radically different. Yeah. It's very confusing. There's a lot of smoke and mirrors. So tell us what we should be looking for. You should be looking for USDA organic. Look for the seal. There's a reason the seal exists. Because that's determined by very specific criteria and guidelines and inspections.

48:12And also it's one of the highest in the world, which is also a false perception that has crept up over the years, which is organic means something different globally. But USDA organic here in the U.S. is one of the highest standards of organic. and hence why the availability of some of those ingredients can be quite hard and the cost of them is also higher. So can you scale up with having that? Working on it. Working on it. Behind the scenes, the supply chain aspect of making high-quality formula is a multiple, multiple person's job. I'm interrupting this conversation because it's an important one.

48:48I know there's someone in your life who would connect with Laura's story, Maybe a new parent, a caregiver, or someone navigating their own feeding journey. If this conversation resonates with you, please share it with them. Now, these are conversations that can make someone feel a little less alone.

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50:58So, Laura, just kind of help us understand the problems with our current government programs, which is Women, Infants, and Children, and also SNAP or food stamps. So WIC is Women, Infants, and Children, and there's some concerns about how these processes are done at a state and federal level that limit mothers' choices, particularly women who are part of these programs that often mean they're under-resourced. Oh, I remember starting Bobby and going deep into my own research and discovering this, which is 50 % of babies born in the country rely on WIC. 50 % of the babies born rely on a certain formula to be fed.

51:42And how the program works, and let me just also first underscore, I think WIC is an incredible offering. Snap is an incredible offering. The program has helped so many families in this country. And the way it's set up for infant formula is that the two major companies will bid. They will basically bid for the winning per state. And they will be the formula of choice in that state for any WIC participants. So what that does is it limits choice. Formula non-choice. Formula non-choice. Exactly. So imagine now you are a parent in a certain state. You have your child. You're not given a choice. You're on WIC.

52:21you are told here's the brand and here's the formula that your baby can be on it. We've just spoken about the evolution and the improvements and the quality that can happen with formula. And here we are with a formula that is not evolving, that they don't have any choice with, and this is what they're going to feed their baby. I mean, frankly, I think it's a sign that inequality starts day one. Day one. Now, are there initiatives and policymaking now that are going to address this? There is a lot of questions being raised. I mean, even going back to Operation Storic Speed, we can't evolve the system without considering half of the population.

52:58It's not like you're bidding on a fighter jet contract. This is like babies. This is babies. Yes. And again, we don't want to have any, we don't want to look at the program as a negative because the program is fantastic. But, you know, Bobby has come into the industry since this has been in. We should evolve the way the requirements are written so that other companies can also be able to meet the program. We should evolve the funding. But the program itself just hasn't evolved. And what about SNAP? That's the food stamp program. SNAP's slightly different. Again, another fundamental and very important program that a large percent of this population, millions.

53:3546 million Americans. 46 million Americans rely on. and to have them wake up one day and not be able to rely on the funding that was essentially purchasing their food to feed their families and their babies. And formula is a big item that is purchased through SNAP. So you're also adding safety concerns to that. What people then do is they look to ration the purchases that they're making and you're feeding an infant. They need to be able to get the caloric intake they need to be able to grow and develop. So these things are fundamental. There should be zero compromise to what it means, well, one, to fund them, and then also evolve the programs and reform them from the ground up.

54:18And how would we fix SNAP? Because WIC, it seems like if we had more choice and more availability, how would you fix SNAP around these? One, keep it funded. Keep it funded is the number one. But then also, there should be a pride and dignity in being able to go out and buy your food, right? And the fact that there's only limited choices for where you can go use those Snapdollars also says to someone, if you have Snapdollars, here's where you should go purchase your items or here's the brands that you can use. We have to make it wider. So you've been this person, you're this mother walking down the aisle.

54:55How do you give advice to mothers and women who are trying to figure out how to navigate this space and what to think about, what to look for? How do they make the right choice for themselves and for their baby? Your best is best is one of the most important things to consume. The real formula in life is everything else going on around you. Your support system, the medication you need to take, your own lineage, your own anatomical body's ability to do it, even your baby being able to latch or being, like, you name it. there's 101 factors that go into decisions that you're going to have to make when it comes to feeding your child.

55:42Did you get paid leave? Did you not get paid leave? Surrogacy, you name it. And what we are not fully embracing is that each person's journey is going to be different and your best is what's best. Your best is best. Not breast is best, but your best is best. Exactly. I think that's been the message. And I still think that breast milk would be the first thing the women should try to do. Because from a health perspective, there's nothing like it for a baby. Totally. And so even a few weeks or months can make a big difference. You get colostrum, you get a lot of things that help the baby's gut health, you know, get going healthily.

56:16But consider everything else. And if you're able to breastfeed a little bit longer because you've been able to introduce formula or your support system has changed, like that's amazing. And the babies don't get kind of messed up switching back and forth. It takes some work. We actually, we recently launched a service called The Feeding Room, which is like my second baby. Because it is the support system, right? And I remember with my first few kids, if I needed breastfeeding help, I had to call a lactation consultant. If I needed formula help, it was on Reddit at two in the morning going deep into the subreddits trying to figure out what to use.

56:55There was no holistic place to turn to. and that also leads to the stigma as well when you when you think it has this binary path of where to get help you don't know where to go you don't know where to go so being able to turn to something i mean we we provide hundreds of folks who've come to us where we're literally just providing lactation help and flange sizes pumping schedules and to be in a world where you are able to figure out what is your feeding plan what is your feeding goal versus how do i fit into this path or this ideology that has been put on me is what we need to evolve to. And that's empowering women and not feel shame or guilt or bad about what they're needing to do.

57:36And then actually providing choices that they can feel good about. Exactly. Like the formula you created, which I personally wouldn't feel good about feeding my grandkid or baby if I had a new one infant formula as it is now with the industrial processing that it has. I just would not. But that doesn't mean that there aren't good choices and alternatives. And I think that's kind of where we're hopefully leading. And hopefully you'll push the market because that's often what happens. Markets need to be pushed. Yeah, and you're a big disruptor and you're disrupting the formula market in a beautiful way.

58:07And I think we'd love some of you to maybe just think about projecting out, you know, five years, 10 years, where do you scale this going and what is going to be available? Because, you know, how do we create something as close to approximate as breast milk as possible without compromising? Yeah, more studies, more innovation. And like I said, I think the U.S. has an opportunity to be leading the path in this. We have incredible scientists and researchers out there that are going deep into the microbiome, to cognitive development, to the impact of certain ingredients, or the ability to make and mimic certain features that are in breast milk that are maybe non-synthetic.

58:47And so I hope that in the next 10 years, we can just continue to creep closer and closer and closer to the dynamic nature of breast milk. And while we do that, my secondary goal is that we also reduce the guilt and the shame and we stop projecting our own opinions and our personal experiences. People get judgy. We've got to lower the judgment. Lower the judgment. Lower the bullying. Let's allow people to be their best and also treat them as smart individuals to make their own choices. So, yeah, culture needs to change along with the product. So in 10 years when we have this conversation again, the gut microbiome will be better and the conversation will have changed.

59:29I think that's a huge one. I think the microbiome is a big unlock if we can figure that out. And I wonder if there's part of what I often think, you know, for mothers, I've certainly come to take the probiotics. and you created a probiotic, and I want to talk about that. But also, you know, prebiotics. Maybe you can't put it directly in the formula. There's prebiotics in formula. Yeah, there are. Is there in Bobby's formula? We've natural prebiotics. So we test it, and it comes through in the lactose. Again, push 100 % lactose. Interesting. Because there's, you know, the oligosaccharides that come from milk are a little different than that, but it's, yeah, it's interesting.

1:00:05And I think, you know. The study of HMOs is a really, really fascinating space. And HMOs means human milk, oligosaccharides, not health maintenance organizations. Yeah, that's right. That is the other. HMOs, it's like Kaiser. This is a problem because, like I said earlier, even if you breastfeed, a lot of times the mother doesn't have the right bacteria that it passed on to its baby. And so the baby's already starting on a deficit. So there's ways to sort of correct that problem we've created because of our overuse of antibiotics and because of the increased C-section rates and because of the various kinds of other things that are going on that cause these sort of epidemic of chronic disease in children.

1:00:46I mean, that's sort of what was highlighted with the Make America Healthy when they make, you know, looking at the children. And this first commission report was really, let's focus on the children. And it was kind of shocking to see, you know, how our kids are at the effect of so much what we're doing. And that doesn't need to continue. and your work is just helping shift that. Tell us more about the vitamin D and the probiotics that you've also created and why. Many parents will go to the doctor. Everyone like has this flashback. They go to the doctor and the doctor says that your child needs more vitamin D drops.

1:01:16Actually, what's really interesting is you typically need more vitamin D if your baby is exclusively breastfed than you do if they are exclusively formula fed. And what we found is that 70 % of parents who use Bobby are actually combo feeding and they are being told by their doctor and by their pediatrician to introduce more vitamin D. So we put out vitamin D, but we also meet the European levels of vitamin D in the formula. But then the probiotics is, I'll bring you back to just more of my theory on this. You have some babies who need more probiotics and others who don't. So I think that the concept that there is a standard level for every baby is not true.

1:02:01It's not. Every baby is different. And whether it's you're seeing it through their digestive tract, struggling to be able to keep formula down through their, we say proof is in the poop and the poop will tell you what needs to happen. So we put out probiotic drops for those parents that are looking for moments in time during that first year of feeding where they feel like they need to add it. But maybe they don't want it exclusively. Wow, what an incredible story. Thank God you were in that aisle, even though it was painful and frustrating. It was, fever. It allowed you to kind of come on the other side of it and do something good with the suffering you had.

1:02:43And the realization that, you know, you were not alone and there are many, many other women who are out there confused and uncertain and afraid and don't know how to navigate this and are told conflicting messages and also know that the existing formula market is really a mess and that they're not getting quality that they want to feed their babies. And so thank you for taking a risk for leaving your job at Airbnb and for Google and just getting into a baby formula. There's no greater joy. Honestly, I mean, I have four kids of my own and the ability to wake up every day and know that I've been given the responsibility and duty to be able to feed babies.

1:03:22I mean, there's nothing that beats that. There's nothing. It's beautiful. Dr. Justin Marchegiani Beautiful. Thank you, Laura. Thanks for being on the podcast. Great conversation. I learned a lot. If you love this podcast, please share it with someone else you think would also enjoy it. You can find me on all social media channels at Dr. Mark Hyman. Please reach out. I'd love to hear your comments and questions. Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe to The Dr. Hyman Show wherever you get your podcasts. And don't forget to check out my YouTube channel at Dr. Mark Hyman for video versions of this podcast and more.

1:03:49Thank you so much again for tuning in. We'll see you next time on The Dr. Hyman Show. This podcast is separate from my clinical practice at the Ultra Wellness Center, my work at Cleveland Clinic, and Function Health, where I am Chief Medical Officer. This podcast represents my opinions and my guests' opinions. Neither myself nor the podcast endorses the views or statements of my guests. This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional care by a doctor or other qualified medical professional. This podcast is provided with the understanding that it does not constitute medical or other professional advice or services.

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1:04:50Thanks so much again for listening.