Formula - Austin,TX

There is no foumula that is even close to equally as good for babies as breast milk. Not to say you shouldn't suplement if needed, just a fact. At 7 months old, maybe the baby is ready for some cereal. If she has produced enough breast milk to this point, I can't imagine her body needs help now. It may be that the baby is just ready to add in some solids. Good luck.

I used enfimil with lipil. It's got lots of good stuff in it... and I think it's the closets to breast milk. I breast fed both of my kids.. and used formula. Worked great!!
Good luck!

I used Enfamil lacto-free while breastfeeding my two sons. The lacto-free doesn't cause their tummies to become as gassy. I used the small concentrated cans that you mix with water. The powder stuff always made my sons spit up! Hope this helps!!Blessings!

Good Start. My daughter was on breastmilk and enfamil at the begining, but stopped going #2. For a newborn, I didn't feel going once every 10 days was correct, so I switched her to Good Start after reading great reviews online. Its breaks down in their system much better than other formulas. And yes, breastmilk is great, but if mom isn't producing enough...baby NEEDS TO EAT...so getting it from formula is OK!! (Thats just me...I always said if I could breastfeed great, but if not...thats OK too!!) Hope this helps. (And, I agree with adding syrup for stools...somethings just work !!!)

We used Similac with one our twin boys, and it was the brand Texas Women's Hospital used with them in the NICU. However, no formula is as good as breast milk. There are qualities in breast milk that companies can't duplicate in formula and there are so many good reasons for mom and baby to nurse, if possible. If mom is not producing enough, she has some options. She can try fenugreek, which is over the counter or have her physician prescribe Dom Peridon, which will increase her milk supply. A compounding pharmacy has to mix it. I was only able to produce enough milk for one of my twin boys so I nursed one son to 12 months. My other son had a larger appetite and was willing to take a bottle, so I nursed him to about 4 1/2 months and used Similac. He is now a healthy, strong kindergartner. Also, you may want to ask is mom is eating enough calories. A nursing mom needs about 500 extra calories a day to nurse a baby.

Times change and so does the advice of pediatricians. When I was a baby, my dad would use rubbing alcohol in a bath for high fever. Now that's a big no-no. The best book on this subject is The Nursing Mother's Companion by Kathleen Huggins. It is very practical and gives practical solutions to nursing issues. Good luck!

Hi B.,

Most moms will tell you that it is about whichever formula agrees with you baby best as they are all required by the Federal Government to have the right/same nutritional content.

Having said that- the most expensive brands are charging you for the marketing they do- not because their quality is superior. My pediatrician was adamant that all formula is about the same and it's just figuring out which suits the individual child.

We experiemented with several and my son liked the HEB brand for several months until he started getting constipated. So we switched to Nestle Good Start with Natural Cultures. He has done wonderful on this. It's not cheap though and it's a shame we couldn't keep him on the HEB brand which was HALF the cost.

Maybe start out on a grocery store brand, Wal-Mart, HEB etc., and see if the baby does well. If this isn't the right fit, go for the name brands that might tailor to your wants...digestive help, DHA supplimentation, extra protein...bla bla bla.

It's really a trial and error thing, and you can usually tell by 1 can, 2 at the most as to whether or not your baby agrees with that particular formula.

Good luck!

Nestles Good Start.

Its easy on the tummy. I have had many friends whose Pedi's switched them to Good Start because of gas/spit-up/tummy issues.

I did both breastfeeding and formula.

Margaret :)

P.S. If you can, try to get together with someone who uses a different brand of formula so that ya'll can trade coupons. You know, "big brother" is always watching...hahaha...I'm sure other mothers can attest to the fact that if you use one brand, the OTHER brand will send you a load of coupons. I gave my husbands co-worker $110 dollars worth of Infamil Coupons. She sighned up for Nestles and (sadly) I got about $40 bucks...its better than nothing!!!

Forget formula. Use fresh goats milk. Find a local farmer who has good milk goats. I pick mine up 3 gallons at a time frozen in plastic bottles. I don't like the plastic part but you can't freeze safely in glass. I leave it in the frig to thaw. When completely thawed I shake it softly to mix the cream. It tastes great. Goat's milk has a smaller protein molecule than cow's milk and is easier for the human body to digest bc it is most similar to breast milk. I get mine raw, fresh, and organic. No antibiotics, no added hormones, no pasturization. I tried the store bought goat's milk but it tasted and smelled bad. The commercially used breed of goats that supply lots of milk don't have as good of a taste of milk as do another breed of goat that is used by some private farms. I am not aware of any milk allergies started by goat's milk. We have had no problems.
Good Luck

Hi B.-

I have 3 children and over the years I have used Enfamil, Similac and Carnation Good Start. I'm not really sure if one is considered closer to breast milk than another, I'm guessing that they're all pretty much the same. The one thing I did notice is that my children each tolerated the brands differently. My first was on Similac pretty much exclusively and did fine, but then my daughter would spit up a lot with it. Once we switched her to Enfamil she did better. My youngest is now on Carnation and seems to be doing well with it. I would just say try one and if the baby seems to spit up a lot or has gas, try another brand.

Good Luck,
K.

Hi B.,
Please call La Leche League. They helped me when this happened to me and I was able to nurse for 7 more months! To my knowledge there is not a formula that is as good as breast milk (I may be outdated...I nursed my babies 22 and 12 years ago!)
Lots of luck!
D.

I used Enfamil Lipil, for both my boys and they loved it! We also did lots of research when switching my oldest son to formula. We found that Enfamil was better than any other, in our opinion. It is a little more expensive, but we thought it was definitely worth the extra pennies. And now we use it with our youngest. Hope it all goes well for yall.

I loved Emfamil Lipel b/c it has extra things in the formula that are also found in breast milk.

Sorry to say there is no man made formula "equally as good for the baby as breast milk." Only human milk has live cell antibodies. No formula has these great protections so that breastfed babies are much healthier than formula fed babies. Studies show that breast-feeding provides protection against these chronic health problems -- allergies, juvenile diabetes, celia disease, childhood cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, urinary tract infections, multiple sclerosis, dental caries, severe liver disease, and even acute appendicitis.
So, personally I recommend that your grand-daughter should simply do what's needed to increase her milk supply: Breastfeed more often and somewhat longer whenever the baby is hungry. It's completely normal that as babies get older, they need more milk. Mother's supply has to increase, and it is done by continuing to breastfeed, and definitely NOT by using formula. Whenever a baby is fed formula, it's as if the mother's body is told, "The baby doesn't need any more of your milk." So, the mother's supply decreases. Supply and demand is the key. She can do it, and your can urge her on!

There is no formula even close to as good as breast milk.There are 100s of components which milk formula cannot hope to emulate. Infact do not even bother buying formula. If your baby is 6 or 7 months old the breast milk is only a supplement for the baby. The baby is now starting solids. Mother is now introducing new foods once a week or once every 3 days. Baby's weight will probably start picking up rapidly.
Please don't urge mother to start formulas. There is absolutely no substitute for breast milk. Mom's milk keeps baby's healthier (mom's antibodies), teeth are better (natural antibacterial agents in mom's milk), digestion is better, weight gain is healthier (and long term there is less diabetes and obesity in breastfed babies). If mom's supply is decreasing it is likely due to the solids being introduced. If she wants to up the supply, pump at the times baby is not eating and when baby feeding attempt to ensure both sides at each feeding.

At 1 year old baby can start on cows milk, watered down juices. My 2 year old was breast fed until a few weeks short of her 2nd birthday. She's extremely healthy - her teeth are perfect despite being breastfed to sleep at naptimes and nighttimes. Somewhere on the web there is a list of 101 reasons to breastfeed I think at www.kellymoms.com I'll try to find it for you.

I fed my daughter the Pet milk formula-it was great! She decided one day to stop nursing and she refused "store bought" formula and out of desperation I asked a friend-who told me all about Pet milk. Of course my daughter is now 28-but still it worked great! Formula smells nasty and surely tastes nasty. Sometimes the "old way" works best!
Good luck!
D.

This question is best for your pedi. I use the kind with iron and lipids. We go to SAMS and buy the off brand because it is exactly like the name brand but much cheaper. Read the ingredients compaired with off brand and name brands. We called our pedi and asked him if this was alright to do. I have also been told there is a type of formula that has extra imune boosters. Sorry I dont know the name of it. Its suppose to be good for daycare babys...helping them fight off all the germs and sickness that goes with being at daycare. It is expensive more so that regular types of soy, iron, lactose free cans. Good luck hope you find it. I also never produced enough milk, tried my hardest for six weeks with only a few drops. Tell the mom she did a great job. I hope she handles this better than I did. You might even want to get her a little something special. Also at this age the baby shouldnt have gas issues...they can burp on there own by now. Dont know if the baby is also getting cereal at this time but its a good time to introduce baby foods too! If thats what she wants.

Hi B.....
Believe it or not, some of the best for my kiddos were Kirkland (Costcos' brand) or HEB baby formula. These seemed to not upset tummies the best. I have 4 boys and they were all formula babies as my milk never came in. They are all thriving healthy young people.
Good luck~!

C.

Hello B.,

I found that Enfamil Lipil was the best for my son. The Similac foamed up too much when I shook the powder with the water. Just FYI, you're not supposed to give an infant under 1 year old any honey or Karo syrup anymore - It has been noted that babies can get botulism that way b/c their little immune systems aren't up to the task yet.

Best of luck!
K.

Hi B.,
Similac Advance (blue container) is what our hospital supplied when I had to supplement my baby boy, since my milk was slow to come in. We continued to use that formula as a night time feeding so that I could pump and stock up for when I returned to work and had to put him in daycare. Once I stopped breastfeeding and he was a year old, we continue to use Similac's toddler formula called Go and Grow, as well as cow's milk. So, as you can see, Similac has been great for us and we've continued to use it the whole time (17 months, so far!).

I hope this helps!
D.

Hi B.: Noticed that my breastmilk production reduced dramatically at 5-6 months, and then little by little after that. So, I mixed formula and breastmilk together (Iwas pumping). That way she still got all the good antibodies from me and fat and calories from the formula. She self-weened nursing at 9-10 months... but perhaps she just found a bottle of formula was easier than sucking on a dry well-?!

I told this to a girlfriend of mine: If you plan on eventually using to the cheaper, generic brands (that claim to be similar to Enfamil, Carnation or Similac) then start out on those. Don't try to switch later or you might find that the baby refuses it... and then your stuck with a cannister of unwanted formula. I've read numerous articles that say all the brands are nutrionally the same (government requirement), however speaking from my experiences with my daughter refusing my attempts to switch, the generic brands might be a touch grittier.

Formula is still expensive, regardless of whether you use the generic or name brand stuff. A cannister of name brand runs about $18-20 each; generic is around $12. Gear her tastes for the cheap stuff... At her peak of formula consumption, my daughter consumed one cannister of powder every 4 days. When she insisted on the pre-made name brand formula, we were spending about $300 per month.

Of course, if you find that your grandbaby shows allergies to cows milk, then you might have to exclusively use the name brand types that more heavily process the milk proteins or which offer alternatives to cows milk.

I've also used the ready-to-go, pre-made formula (I used Enfamile). However, that is way more expensive than powder formula... And I assure you, the attempt to switch from pre-made to powder can be a rough path!

B.,
I bet you'll get so many different answers. Everyone swearse by the formula they chose for their precious one. After doing some research, we chose Enfamil. It's a little more costly than Nestle but it seems to have a better supply of all the necessary vitamins. Plus they have a few more varieties to choose from. For example, we needed Enfamil with Lipil for a while because of some reflux issues our son had for a few months. I've always been a believer of "you get what you pay for" so because the Enfamil was a bit more costly, I felt okay with it since it seemed like one of (if not THE) the best to use when not breastfeeding.

Hope this helped,
Jen

This may sound funny; however, I was devastated when I had to stop breast feeding dut to a very very bad case of thrush! I tasted the breast milk. Then I tasted about 4 different formulas that came highly recommended due to DHA's and ARA's. Cost was not an issue when it came to my little one. The one that I found to taste the most like breast milk and to not give my son stomach problems (gas and colic) turned out to be Enfamil Gentelease. He turned his nose up to everything else. His colic improved greatly on it in that the iron is already partially broken down for their little sensitive systems!

Nothing is equally as good. But, make sure to get something with DHA if she is no longer going to breastfeed. If it is just a supplement, I wouldn't worry about it too much.

As long as the formula is a suplement to the breast milk, you really don't have to worry about it being as good (their is no such thing). The formula is just going to give added calories as needed and the breast milk will continue to provide the immune support and brain development. Any of the major brands (simalac and infamil primarily) are fine.

nothing is like breatmilk but the there are many great options look for dha & rha in the formula Similac advanced, enfamil lipil or carnation good start are great options just find one that agrees with ur little ones belly mom can still breast feed & supplement after to fill him up. if she will drink more water nurse every 2 hours for 24 hours it will increase her milk supply also there is this stuf at HEB called mothers milk supplement or somthing like that it works great call the pharmacy & ask for recomendations for supplements!!

I can't produce enough for my little guy since I went back to work. He gets two bottles of breast milk and a bottle of Simalic (sp) during the day and then a breastfeed at night. We did regular formula until I noticed the diarrhea and now he is on soy.

Get small containers of ones you like (what is in them or the cost) and give your little guy one for 3 days. If he likes it and no problems you have a winner. As I am learning sometimes it is a guessing game with what works.

There are no formulas that are as good as breastmilk. Even the companies say "as close to breastmilk"....
I think most of the time the pediatrician who knows the child's history should suggest what formula will be best. I don't know anything about transitioning from breast to formula, but pedis have some experience there and should be able to make a good suggestion.

From what I understand, though, they're all pretty similar.

When I went through a similar situation with my son at 2 months, I had tried SEVERAL different formulas to see which one he would finally drink. Nestle Good Start was the only one he would even touch. The others weren't even "white" but a had a brownish tinge to them and all smelled terrible too. The Good Start fed him well and settled great in his stomach too.
With my daughter, I was producing fine, but later did start supplimenting with occassional formula and the HEB stuff worked just fine too.

There truly aren't any forumulas as good as breast milk. Once baby is 6 months old, mom can already be feeding him other foods - baby purees as well as breast milk. My little one is 5 months old, I nurse him, but he also eats sweet potatoes, carrots, and rice cereal mixed with a little breast milk. The experts say it's best to start with rice cereal, since it's so easily digested, then root vegetable or apples or pears next. You can sit him in his chair and give it to him with a little baby spoon. Buy a book or talk to his pediatrician about the best way to start. But I'd stay away from formula altogether since you haven't used it up to now. You can even ask the pediatrician about giving him regular milk now so he can have a bottle. Good luck!!

I am a great-grandmother, too. I only tried to breastfeed one of my 4 and nearly starved him to death. And like you, the Pet milk with a little Karo did the trick. However, I did sometimes use Carnation instead of Pet. It definitely is the cheaper route and all 4 of my kids were healthy and learned to eat almost every edible food available. Why all these fancy formulas when the above proved to be just as good in our days of having babies?

Does he need to supplement the formula or does he maybe need to add solids now and just keep the breast feeding the same? Most babies need to start on solids by 6 months and once he's taking solids, may not need extra formula. If, however, the doc and mom have determined that baby is just not getting enough "milk" that's different as the nutrients from the solids they eat are not much compared to the nutrients they get from their milk source. SOrry I'm not more help on the choice of formulas, just wanted to be sure you'd explored the possibility of solids along with continued breast only milk.

L.
Good Luck!

I used evaporated milk also with my baby who is now eight years old and VERY healthy. Forgot about the syrup you add. Is that Caro clear or brown? Can you remember the proportions for the evaporated milk recipe (how many parts water per cup, etc.)? Another mom was interested in the recipe and I forgot. Please post. Also, how much caro did you add? Thanks. I'm not a grandma, but I had my first in my late forties and my pediatrician recommended the evaported milk formula. Thanks.

Have your daughter call La Leche League. It's a breast feeding support group with a lactation consultant. So many moms go throuugh this and there are tons of ways to boost her milk production. For me, the best benefit to LLL is meeting other moms with kids the same age. All my daughter's best friends we met 2 years ago when we began going to LLL meetings. Good luck!

My daughter has galactosemia so she is unable to take breastmilk. Anyways her specialist at Texas Children's said the best choice was Good Start by Nestle. Closest too breastmilk in there opinion! Good luck!

B.,

Hi! I'm a breastfeeding mother of 3 and when I decided to convert my children over to formula I chose Infamil with Lipil. It is suppose to be the closest to breast milk. My pediatrician had recommended it also. My kids took right to the formula, and they never had any problems with it.

It's funny you mention the old school formula recipe with the Pet Milk and Karo syrup. I have a friend with a new baby, and when the baby wouldn't take store bought formula from the bottle her mother told her to start feeding him the other stuff. So she was always making the homemade formula for him that you mentioned. Long story short, the pediatrician made her stop feeding it to him because he said it didn't supply him with enough vitamins and nutrients.

Good luck to you on your search for the right formula!

N.

Hi B.,
No formula is as good as breastmilk. However, formulas have come a long way. They are more "like" breastmilk and a lot more healthy for babies than it was in the Pet milk days. You'll want to look for the formulas that have the highest amounts of DHA & ARA proteins. These are the proteins that are found in breastmilk that help with healthy brain & eye development. So it's really important to look for a formula with the highest amount of these. When I began switching my son to formula, the one I found with the most DHA & ARA was Enfamil LIPIL. However, I just went to the Good Start website & they have a line of formula that has as much DHA & ARA as Enfamil. Also, my best friend said that her baby's doctor said the Walmart brand formula was just as good as the others, and that saved her a lot of money! The Walmart brand is Parent's Choice. Just look for the one that has the same amount of AHA & DHA proteins as Enfamil. Anyway, as long as you stay away from the "make your own" formula, it will be ok. Also, your great grandchild may need something different over time. I had to put my son on soy formula eventually because he never did well with the regular milk based formulas. I know its a lot of information, but feel free to e-mail me & I'll be happy to help. I think it is SO wonderful that you are a very involved Great Grandmother. :) What a blessed child to be loved so much. Best wishes to you & your great grandchild!
Sincerely,
A.