Fomula

Sorry you've received some judgmental replies. Formula is not poison. These types of questions always bring out the Boobie Brigade! LOL
I used Similac Advance--always the premixed--never the powder. When I tried the powder, it resulted in a gassy, fussy baby. Good luck to you!

Ok So I am pro BFing, BUT I too had problems with BFing my son so I know how scary it can be not being able to feed my baby. I would suggest that you go to a lactation consultant and get help from them before you fully decided on formula. I would suggest going to this website.
http://www.mymammasmilk.com/default.html
I got help from (I can't remember her name and I feel SOOOO bad) a lady there and I live in Utah and she is in the New England area. I got a lot of great advice, love and support to try and get my milk to come back in. Unfortunatly my son was to old and stuck on his ways to try and eat from me. There is a lot of different supplement to help production. And A LOT of women have to take them in order to get any milk at all. I did both formula and breast milk, but mostly formula.
BUT if you are still pro formula, I would try Nestle Good Start Gentle Plus. It's super gentle. I didn't know a lot of babies had trouble with Similac. That's the only thing my son would keep down. I eventually had to switch him to the lactose free for awhile, but now he happily guzzles down milk. Hmm odd. Funny how each person is so different from another! Yay for diversity!

The newborn's tummy up to 3 weeks old is no larger than a MARBLE. Breastmilk is the best and healthiest for both you and baby. The milk as you imagine it takes 3-5 days to come in, but in the meantime you make a golden thick fluid called colostrum. This is what gives baby all your antibodies, coats the GI tract to seal it's sterility and helps the baby have it's first poop. A little bit of that liquid gold is enough to satiate a baby for awhile, and the more they suckle all that colostrum, the faster your milk comes in. That means allowing baby to use you as a pacifier for the first few days.

I really advocate for you to talk to an IBCLC BEFORE the birth of your child, and to have a supportive doula or CLC available for right after the delivery to get you started on a good beginning of breastfeeding. Please don't let your first bad experience (which seems mostly the hospital's fault and not your body's) ruin the chance for your 2nd to start off with the best you can give.

Relax..... :) I totally agree with you...I love the Enfamil line. I did not BF either because of medications I was taking after all three pregnancies. My kids had sensitive tummies and the milk base just caused to much spit up and gas!!! Oh my...I had them on the Enfamil Nutramigen as the hospital started them off on the Enfamil. We had to go to the ultra expensive Nutramigen...Worth the money because they slept better and I regained my sanity. That being said.....I bought it on Ebay being an aggressive shopper and saved anywhere from $5-$9 a can. Now fast foward...Once they got onto eating solid foods...I switched back to the original formula and yes the generic brand and they did fine. So the expense was not long term. I know your pain.....Ugh...I've been there done it three times...Best wishes.

I used enfamil at first. Then I switched to Walmart's organic formula. Cost so much less, even though it's organic. (I found out that the same manufacturer makes a lot of the different formulas.) My daughters are now 3 and 4 1/2 and are healthy and perfect. I could not make enough milk with my first daughter, either, and she wound up in the hospital because of it. Didn't make the same mistake with the 2nd. Sorry you got so many judgemental replies.

Just a word of advice. Once you have the formula selected, bring it to the hospital for the nursery to use, or have your baby room in and feed them what YOU want.
The hospital is given formula from reps or at a huge discount from companies who want to sway new parents to use their formula brand, but as many hospitals are going to a "baby friendly" or "mommy friendly" designation one of the criteria are to sever ties with formula companies and the variety might not be there. so just to ensure their little tummy gets used to what they will be eating, bring your own.
Congratulations on your impending addition:)

I despise how women judge others on such a personal choice as feeding their newborn. I did not nurse either of my children and I assure you, they are both healthy, happy, and very bright children. Bottom line--Happy Mom means Happy Baby.

Anyway, we used Nestle Goodstart with my son and he didn't have any problems with that. It was not very expensive. My daughter had to be put on Alimentum due to milk allergies and other digestive issues. That is very expensive so I hope your little one won't need that.

Good luck to you!
Lynsey

I use the Target brand as well- the partially broken down whey kind. We've had no problems with it and my baby girl. The good thing too is if you get a Target store card, you can charge the formula to that card, and get 5% off. Doesn't seem like much, but it does add up over time.
I also suggest that you start off with what you plan on feeding her. It's a real pain to switch formulas after one has been started. They should let you bring in your own formula to the hospital.
Best of luck to you, and just ignore those posts that go on and on about BF and LC. I don't see anywhere in your post that asks for advice on breastfeeding. They just need to get over it. You do what you feel is best for you and your baby!

Hi M.,

I just wanted to post a supportive reply. Some people will never understand that some moms simply DO NOT PRODUCE MILK. These ignorant and judgmental women would rather just tell you what a shitty mom you are and how stupid and ill your baby will be. Well ladies, here is a true story. I tried for over a week to bf my twins. I worked with an lc. I pumped between feedings. My milk NEVER came in. The LC told me finally that due to medical conditions (thyroid and pcos) it was possible my milk wouldn't ever come in. So we had to formula feed as the babies were losing too much weight. My girls are now close to 3 and never had an ear infection, one low grade fever each ONE time. Really never sick. Not only that but 99th percentile for height, extremely smart and bilingual. One twin has been identified as gifted already. Genetics plays a stronger role than anything else. I can also tell you about 10 stories of my friends kids who were exclusively breastfed being hospitalized as infants with infections among many other things. So please brush of the judgy nasty comments and do what is right for you and your family!!

I have used Similac (same thing, made my kids really gassy), Enfamil - both kids did very well on it, the infant is on it now, and Target's brand.

I'll be switching over to Target brand with the baby in another month or so.

Enfamil = $34/can. Target = $13/can. Hmmmm. :)

When I swtiched my son over to Target, he did great.
I started the baby (4mos) on it initially, and she had trouble pooping. I think it was the consistency. I put her on Enfamil and she did great. Now that her little digestive system is more mature, I'm going to try Target again once I work through our existing supply of Enfamil.

I just use the target brand. I use the lactose free kind because my daughter had issues with the regular one but i love it and it is half the price of name brand. Everyone will have thier own opinion on this but the pediatrician said there is nothing wrong with it. It is make at the same place as the name brand and has the exact same ingredients just a different lable. She has had no problems and is a very healthy baby!!

I love Nestle Good Start Gentle Plus. I breastfeed my 4 month old and supplement with Good Start and she is not gassy at all. I also used it with my first born and he had no problems with Good Start.

If you want to formula feed, that's perfectly fine, but I just wanted to tell you that it's absolutely normal for your baby to get almost no milk -- just tiny bit of colostrum, which is very rich -- for several days. Their stomachs are only the size of a marble, though, so they don't need much! Your milk doesn't come usually for 2-5 days, and it's absolutely normal for a baby to lose up to 10% of its birthweight before they start gaining it back. Of course, if a child has jaundice or hypoglycemia or some other issue that requires food right away, you may need to give formula, but I just didn't want you to think that there was a problem with your body. You very well could be able to breastfeed this next baby (for free!) if you wanted to. Some people have a hard time breastfeeding and some have an easy time, but if you're both healthy, there's no harm in giving it a shot. For me, my milk came in after about 3.5 days, and after a little over a week, breastfeeding was going great (it takes you and the baby a little while to get the hang of it, and the first couple of weeks are often hard). Since then, though, we've had perfectly smooth sailing. I'm not trying to push it on you, just letting you know in case you would like to try breastfeeding.

By the way, I just saw your update -- I don't understand. You're right taht some people don't produce enough milk. It definitely happens, although it's pretty rare. However, you couldn't know that in the hospital ... most people 's milk hasn't come in by the time they leave the hospital. If, after your milk comes in, the baby isn't gaining weight, then it's possible you're not producing enough milk. I'm not judging you, I'm just telling you the facts. Formula isn't poison (heck, I give my baby a little bit!), but breastfeeding is linked to lower rates of allergies, asthma, ear infections, and other illnesses; also, BF babies have slightly higher IQs. That DOESN'T mean that a FF baby will be sickly or have a low IQ, it just means that a BF baby has a somewhat better CHANCE at fighting off illness (makes sense, because they get mom's antibodies) and so forth.

As far as formulas go -- I think the three big ones are Similac, Enfamil and Good Start. A lot of pediatricians are hesitant about Good Start because apparently Nestle isn't forthcoming about all the ingredients in it (some people also boycott Nestle because of some really shady marketing practices where they've really taken advantage of poor, uneducated people). We give a few oz of formula at night and use Enfamil. But honestly, the thing to do is just to try one and see how it goes. I feel like most formula feeding moms have to switch once or more to find what works for their baby. I would also try either the Target or Walmart store brand, which is basically identical to the name brand. I don't think store brands have the equivalent of Alimentum, Nutramigen or the more specialized formulas, though. I might start with Target's hydrolized protein formula, which has partially broken down proteins, making it easier to digest.

We go back and forth between the store brands from Walmart, Sams and Kroger. Although, keep in mind that my son didn't start on formula until he was nearly 10 months old. He started on the Walmart brand for a few weeks and while I was at Sams I was curious so I looked at the manufacturer and it was the same as the Walmart brand, same goes for the Kroger brand. You may also want to look into WIC if you're concerned about affording formula, especially if (God forbid) baby needs to be on a special kind due to GI issues. Sometimes you don't have a choice as to what they will tolerate. Talk with your pediatrician and see what she has to say.

I also used the Target brand once I was done nursing my twins. My Pediatrician told me that all formula has to pass the same testing so I might as well save money with the store brand, my kids were happy and healthy with their formula!

I used Enfamil with both my children and had no problems. But you'll always find people who had problems with any brand you choose.

We use Enfamil, I asked ALL of my mommy friends what formula do/did they use and most used Enfamil. That also happens to be what my ped gave me to supplement with when my son needed to eat when I was trying to breastfeed him. He too was too hungry waiting for my milk to come in and HAD to eat!

We buy ours at BJ's or Costco they have the largest powder contains that other stores do not carry. You can also sign up on enfamil's website and they will send you some coupons.

I combo breast and formula feed. I have used Enfamil with all three of my kids. My two week old is currently on the Newborn formula to supplement my breast milk. We did not have any luck with Similac. I used Carnation Good Starts some also, especially with the first one, but we always come back to Enfamil. I have altered which formula we use based on their age or any particular need they have at the time, for example, if they are recovering from a stomach virus, I would switch them to soy for a short period of time.

M., I know you're looking for formula advice but I don't have any other than that all formulas must meet certain criteria for acceptable nutrition.
However, I will say that no one has a milk supply within 24 hours of birth. No formula will be better for your baby than your milk, and if you did not have the assistance of an IBCLC last time, that might have made a big difference. No babies get "milk" in that first day, they all get colostrum. All moms produce it. Your newborn may simply not have been nursing correctly to get the colostrum. Even if you had a production issue (which working in the childbirth field, I don't think you did), you can't tell within 24 hours whether you'll have low supply because you did not have milk yet, and that would not necessarily have any bearing on a future birth.
We are not extreme, and you certainly have the right to choose/prefer formula feeding (I did for my first baby), but it's important to have as much info as possible and not later learn something and say, "Well, I wish I'd known that." Most of the problems that stop/keep moms from breastfeeding can actually be remedied, if the mom receives proper help. "Lack of supply" is often caused by other issues, ones that can be fixed.
Good luck, and no formula will be "close" to breastmilk. It will just be formula. They are "acceptable" nutrition, but only the #4 choice in World Health Organization's recommendations.