Moms and dads out there, Matt and I are looking for opinions on powder formula for our baby.
What formula should I use?
Now that Miranda is almost two months old, we can soon switch her to powder instead of the ready to drink stuff. We've thought about the concentrated liquid, but would rather go with powder if possible. It's a good option for her and financially it's much easier because the ready to drink formula is EXPENSIVE!
She's currently drinking Enfamil because that's what she started on in the hospital. She has no issues with itst all. No major spitting or integestion, so we could just transition over to the Enfamil powder. Once out of the hospital, our family doctor recommended that we stick with the ready to drink Enfamil for the first two months because Miranda had no issues with it.
But we've heard good things about Nestlé Good Start. It has a probiotic, is considered easy to digest and has Omega 3 and 6.
It looks like Enfamil A+ has DHA (Docosahexaenoic acid, basically Omega 3) but the packaging doesn't seem to make a big deal about it, nor does it say anything about Omega 6.
The Enfamil powder is available at Costco which is a plus in our opinion, but both are easily available at large retail chains like Wal-mart and our grocery stories; with both going on sale regularly (although I've noticed that the Enfamil powder seems to go on sale more frequently).
So what's a new mom to do? Any suggestions?
I'm planning on also asking a Pediatrician I know at work and also checking with our family doctor during Miranda's two-month appointment on Thursday.
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We started with Enfamil, too, but switched to Good Start due to digestive issues. Then we switched to the hypoallergenic Alimentum since Theo even had trouble with Good Start. We’re going to switch back to Good Start once our current supply of Alimentum is depleted, on the advice of our doctor, to see if he can handle it now.
If you’re not having any issues with Enfamil and it’s available at Costco (lucky! Only the Krikland formula is available at ours!), why not stick with it? I’d like to add that only the smaller cans of Good Start come with the probiotic (I think it’s 630g, vs. 720g of the Good Start with omega 3 and 6, but no probiotic) and they are usually the same price as the bigger cans without the probiotic. The concentrated and ready to feed versions of Good Start that I can find do not have the probiotic either. Both Good Start and Enfamil come in versions without the omega fatty acids, too, usually in the bigger cans at a lower price. It’s easy to tell with Enfamil, since they add “A+” to the name of the formula with omega fatty acids. With Good Start, you have to read the little circles on the front of the can. :)
Search online for coupons, and contact the company and ask for them (and see if they’ll put you on a mailing list for more in the future).
Good luck! *hugs*
P.S. sent Miranda’s gift yesterday! We need to decide on the opening day!
How about relactating? See a lactation consultant and give your baby breastmilk. Formula is nothing but powdered junk. I would never put it in my child’s body!!
Thanks for your comment Lauren. You make it sound so easy.
I did in fact work with the lactation consultants at our hospital for weeks (and even before leaving the hospital I started consulting with them). I had no milk production at all. None. I would breast feed my baby and literally get 2-4 ml when I pumped (and that’s in total between both breasts) If I just pumped, I was still only getting about 1.5 oz in total. I tracked this for a while and there was no increase and no hind milk at all.
I drank fenugreek tea, had a beer at night, and drank water until my urine was clear… But nothing helped. I was relaxed and calm. And my baby has an amazing latch, so that wasn’t the problem.
I cried my heart out for days and days because breast feeding wasn’t working for us. But at the end of the day, I don’t consider what my baby is consuming to be junk.
It’s too bad you’re so judgemental about it.
Also, my baby is now nine weeks old. There’s no milk at all.
Oh and when I was pumping, I rented the industrial pump just like the ones they have in th hospital. Even on the highest setting it didn’t help increase production.
Virginia tried really REALLY hard to breastfeed. You have NO right to judge.
So Lauren, if you had thyroid problems, or any other of the gazillion problems that could impede breast feeding, and you literally could not breast feed, not by choosing not to, but physically unable to, and you refuse to put formula “in your child’s body”, then what? The poor Darlin is left hungry?? Wow.
Hi Virginia; too bad some responders must have been fed “junk” as an infant so much so that their powers of reasoning and sensitivity have been turned to mush! My advise to new moms re breast feeding was always this” you have never done or will u ever do any job that is more physically or mentally draining than breast feeding. If you want to do this for various reasons , go for it, and if for some reasons it doesn’t work out , and u have tried everything possible, as u indicate u did, then don’t beat yourself up! Move on, enjoy this special time,bc trust me, it goes by far too quickly!
Hopefully this experience will help you never to sit in judgement on others! Breast fed or not Miss Miranda is a poster perfect little baby!
By the time kids are in kindergarten, you can’t tell who breastfed, who was formula-fed, who co-slept, who cried it out, and who potty-trained when. I think some people forget that motherhood isn’t a competition or something you can win at. What works for one family might not work for another, and if you can look at that sweet little face and say that she’s not healthy and loved, well, you need to get your eyes checked.
So Lauren–you would never feed your baby formula? Yay for you; obviously, you had no problems with breastfeeding. However, not everybody has the ability to breastfeed for whatever reason, and therefore need to look to other options in order to do what is best for their baby. And you know what they don’t need? Smug, self-important schmucks like you, giving them unsolicited and judgmental-as-all-heck “advice.”
Virginia is only doing what is best for her daughter, and your feeble attempt to shame her for doing so does you no favors in anybody’s eyes. Go wage the Mommy Wars somewhere else, please.
I breast fed both my children and wouldn’t change it for the world! I had struggles along the way but had support outside St. John’s or I never would have been successful. Even with all this at one point I had to give formula for a few weeks. The point of telling this is to demonstrate every experience is different and you have no right to judge a mother bases on something as silly as how they feed their child.
Virginia we did the Kirkland brand for a while as well as good start and enfamil and Jonathan didn’t really care as long as he was fed. I asked peds for advice and was told to use either but it would be best to stick with one instead of changing it up. I was also cautioned against the high iron formulas as they may cause constipation.
Congrats on your beautiful little girl (I love her name) and don’t pay any heed to those judgemental people. You will get used to your every decision being critiqued as you stroll through motherhood but you will also soon learn that you know what’s best for your baby and family.
SheriLee
Virginia, reading comments like that make me so angry. As a mother Breastfeeding is one of the hardest things you will ever do and not everyone can do it. I was lucky enough to be able to breastfeed my daughter but because she was born premature she had to also be sublimated with Formula because she was so small. She was born a month early and we were lucky enough not to have her put in the NICU but she was only 4lbs and my breast milk was not going to be enough for her. I was advised by many doctors, nurses, lactations consultants and even a nutritionist that she needed a high calorie formula, then once my milk came in I had to put formula in my breast milk to make it higher calories for her. I would really like to think that all those professional medical people would not tell me to do that if they though formula was “Junk” as Lauren thinks. My daughter had a mixture of breast milk and formula for the first year of her life and she is approaching her 2nd Birthday and is a very happy, healthy 2 year old that has reached all of her mile stones, exceeds my expatiations on a daily basis and has never been feed anything that I would consider “junk”. People like Lauren need to realize that not everyone is as perfect as she thinks she is and to keep their judging options to themselves. Virginia you are doing great and you are a wonderful mother and I have no doubt that Miranda will grow up to be a fantastic person just like her monther.
So I was not going to weight in on this post because it has been so long ago that I don’t even remember what formula we ultimately ended up using.
I did breastfeed for the first few months of my son’s life and I pumped like crazy to store a little extra up and then was told by the doctors that they could not in good conscience let me put my health in jeopardy just so I could continue to breast feed.
I needed medication that would not be healthy for my son and so had to switch him to formula. We played the formula game at first too, which one would work the best, and finally found something he could tolerate and we could afford.
Miranda is healthy and you can tell she is very happy, as parents you are already succeeding.
Go with what works for you. keep asking around because it is important to view all yours options (so many more now then when my son was a baby) and feed Miranda with the knowledge that you have done your homework and are giving her the best solution for her needs.
Oh and PS my son who was raised on mostly formula was a month and a half premature and he grow to be strong, intelligent, very healthy and very happy. Breastfeeding is NOT the only way to raise a child.