What do you do with free formula samples? - Page 3

[inkedmamajama]

I give to the womens shelter.

[NewDirections]

If it's sent in the mail, you can always write "Return to sender" on the package. That way you don't have to deal with finding the formula a new home and it's going to cost the formula company some $ to pay for the postage to send it back.

[annettemarie]

Originally Posted by TatianaTiger

If it's sent in the mail, you can always write "Return to sender" on the package. That way you don't have to deal with finding the formula a new home and it's going to cost the formula company some $ to pay for the postage to send it back.

I used to do that, but heard that it's not actually true and that it doesn't go back to the companies or cost them anything.

[KimberlyD0]

I'm not about to let a FF family suffer or their baby because they can't aford formula. Especially after being one of those families. Most FF families are doing so because they have to, not because they want to.

I donate it

[mamazee]

I donate it to a food pantry. WIC doesn't pay for all the formula that a baby needs if the baby is ff, and by that point the decision to bf or ff has been made. I see the point in throwing it out or whatever, but I hate waste so I donate it. To me, this is not a big issue as far as lactivism goes.

[Viola]

I've honestly never got any other than 1 small can of ready-to-feed in a hospital bag with my first and a small can of powder with my second. I ended up using an ounce of the ready-to-feed. I was going to donate the can I got during my second pregnancy, but my older daughter wanted to try it--she thought it would taste like milkshake. So I mixed some up for her, she tried it and thought it was terrible. Kind of like her dinner half the time. I've thrown away way more vegetables and poured out more spoiled milk than I care to recall. The can was opened, so I just tossed it.

If I'm being quite honest, I'm not going to sweat throwing out a 4 oz sample of formula. The post office does a food drive every year, as do neighborhood kids and the church always has a bin. So if I happened to have some around, I would donate it, but like I said, I never got any in the mail. I even shopped at Motherhood both in the mall and online, and I still didn't get any formula samples.

[birdword]

According to my 1958 copy of The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding one mother used formula samples to make "dandy pancakes for the family"

[KristaDJ]

Originally Posted by KimberlyD0

I'm not about to let a FF family suffer or their baby because they can't aford formula. Especially after being one of those families. Most FF families are doing so because they have to, not because they want to.

I donate it

I donate any that I get too but I have to thoroughly disagree with the bolded statement above. I have only seen a handful of breastfeeding women IRL. Yes, some people have to use formula when they want to breastfeed but, IME, MOST people who formula feed simply don't want to breastfeed at all or gave up because they didn't like it.

[unitysmomma]

Saved them for a while then decided that pitching them was the best decision for me. IMOHO if furmula was less available then more would be forced out of necessity to choose BF, because that would be the easiest free choice.

[AAK]

We have a "urgent drop off child care" place in our city. It is free and there mission is to be there in times of need for families and to prevent child abuse. It is a no questions asked kinda place and they ALWAYS need formula. Obviously, the mother isn't there with the child and I am pretty sure they frown upon volunteers nursing the babies. So, it became my fav place to donate the free samples. They also liked the coupons since they had to buy a lot of formula.

Amy

[SeekingSerenity]

I donated any samples I recieved, as well as the formula I got from WIC briefly (before I decided not to supplement). The food banks or women's shelters really need the expensive stuff like that.

[SeekingSerenity]

Originally Posted by unitysmomma

Saved them for a while then decided that pitching them was the best decision for me. IMOHO if furmula was less available then more would be forced out of necessity to choose BF, because that would be the easiest free choice.

This made me think of the time I spent in the women's shelter. I was BFing my then-8 month old DD and there was a poor lady there with a 4-month old boy. He was sick, throwing up at least half of every feeding, and crying all the time from gas. Obviously FF. The problem was this woman was having to use the formula the shelter had on hand - donations were low that month and they'd been forced to buy the cheapest crap formula they could just so moms with babies would have something. Problem was this was not the baby's usual formula, and there was no choice for the mom. Every couple of days she got another can - usually something different. All that formula change-up was wreaking havoc on that poor little boy.

She said to me in broken english, "I wish I had nursed him like you do."

But he was 4 months old and it just wasn't an option any more. Availability of better formula or at least enough choice to stick with one kind for more than a couple of days would have done worlds of help to this one person.

That's part of why I donated so much... and I hope it made a difference somewhere. I wouldn't have been comfortable throwing it away, but that's just me.

[Youngfrankenstein]

Originally Posted by SeekingSerenity

This made me think of the time I spent in the women's shelter. I was BFing my then-8 month old DD and there was a poor lady there with a 4-month old boy. He was sick, throwing up at least half of every feeding, and crying all the time from gas. Obviously FF. The problem was this woman was having to use the formula the shelter had on hand - donations were low that month and they'd been forced to buy the cheapest crap formula they could just so moms with babies would have something. Problem was this was not the baby's usual formula, and there was no choice for the mom. Every couple of days she got another can - usually something different. All that formula change-up was wreaking havoc on that poor little boy.

She said to me in broken english, "I wish I had nursed him like you do."

.

That is a really heartbreaking story! While most of us have a choice to bf or not, it's so hard to explain to a momma who's having trouble in the beginning it will be worth it in the long run...this is just another thing we don't think of.