if you had to feed formula or are currently using it, what would you choose?

[KayleeZoo]

i ff my first dd, but it's been 9+ years, and we just used similac that we started with in the hospital. now there are more choices- heck, they didn't have the dha supplements, etc. back then. it was similac, enfamil, soy and generics and that's it.

i've been pumping for occasional bottles to leave with grandma and daddy, but with my history of mastits brought on by pumping, i'm not going to take any more chances and am going to get some formula for those rare occasions (maybe 2x a month) i've got a plugged duct now and am not interested in another abscess or bad bout of plain old mastitis.

if you are in the know about formula- what's working for your baby? should i buy the good start kind? organic? or just similac like we used for dd?

[Julia24]

We use the good start in the green container (now has probiotics too!) Especially with a bf'ed baby - and a reflux baby - I'd be working on the assumption that any other kind of formula would cause constipation. jmho. (I mean, the lower priced orange container is probably fine too - especially since it's so infrequently...I'd probably even just buy those premade bottles since it's only 2x a month - otherwise you'll be thowing away a LOT of it since the cans are only good for one month once they're opened)

OH - and ikwym about the formula way back when. Poor Maddie had SOY formula and battled constipation for-EVER. If only I knew then what I know now, yk?

[2boyzmama]

If it's so infrequent, do you know anybody would could donate to you? I donate my extra milk to local friends who need it for nights out, and even gave a whole week's worth to a friend who was formula feeding whose baby had rotavirus and couldn't keep his formula down (he did keep breastmilk down, the mom even tried to relactate after seeing that, unfortunately he was almost a year old already, and she wasn't able to build a supply). If you lived near me, I'd gladly give you a bottle or two

Otherwise, I know nothing about formula! I had to watch a friend's 3 week old once when she had mastitis turn into an abscess that ruptured in the middle of the night. Her husband rushed the baby to my house with a can of formula and one bottle and then left for the ER with his wife who had emergency surgery a few hours later. I had to call the LC I was working with to ask about formula feeding!!! I had no idea how long it was good for, if I had to refrigerate it, how much to feed a 3 week old

[cristeen]

My MW put us on Earth's Best organic, although we'll be switching to homemade as soon as we can. For occasional use though, I'd be buying ready-made if I needed it, since buying powdered winds up being a huge waste.

[Julia24]

HOMEMADE - FORMULA???? Now this I've never heard of. Do you have time to share, Cristeen????

[Elizabeth P]

homemade formula

We had foster baby that spit up all the time no matter what type of formula we used-that is until we found a recipie on Dr Sears' website for homemade formula.It worked GREAT!No spit ups, cheaper and I felt so much better about giving it to her.