Formula - Store Brand vs Name Brand

I have always been a fan of carnation Good start. I feel it is the closes thing to breast milk that you can buy. When my children were on similac and enfmail they would spit up a lot and it would stink terrible. Once I switched to carnation there spit looked and smelled like breast milk they did not get upset stomach or constipation. My newphew was on similac and was severely constipated and I told my sister in law to switch and she did with in a day in has fine and never had anymore problems all three of my children were on it.. Plus it is much cheaper than the other brands but not as cheap as the store brands.

You're pretty much right. Check it out! I buy my sons formula at Target...I get the target brand (it's now called "up and up") and before I bought, I compared side by side this and the enfamil lipil. They hold exactly the same amount of nutrients. The best thing I could tell you, is compare containers side by side to see if it's a possibility buy the off brand. It'll save you a bunch in the long run!!

Hi Lola
I used Sams Club brand for my kids. They have the same nutritional value as the name brand ones. If you use Sams Club or Costco you will save a fortune, they also do their own wipes and diapers.
The reason they can sell them so cheap is not becaue they are sub-standard but because they do not advertise their formulas and do not give away millions of sample cans each year. Both mine had the store brand ones, once I had finished nursing, and they thrived on them. I had complaints at all.
You can go into Sams Club and Costco as a guest to check out their pricing or go to their websites and see how much you can save. It is well worth the membership fee, especially if you're saving on your diapers and wipes too! They do also sell the name brand formula so if you chose not to switch you could still save money buying the name brand formula there.

A lot of store brands are made at the same facility and same formula as the name brands. Read the lable and compare the ingredients. That should tell you.

Hello Lola, My oldest daughter is a chemical techniction, and said that yes the store brand is the same as the name brand. She used the Walmart brand, but it was not soy. Good luck and congrats!!

My oldest daughter was on a soy based formula. For both of our daughters we used either the Target or Walmart brand (depending on what store we were heading to). Although, personally, I liked the Walmart brand better. We weren't happy with the Meijer brand, although the reason escapes me now - I'm thinking they were gasier on it.

Formula is regulated by the federal government. It is all the same, just without the advertising.

As everyone said, it had the same active ingredents. For us, we tried the Target soy and it has more DHA compared to Similac. My daughter did not do well with it. That was the only difference we found. I wish she had liked it, it would have been SO MUCH cheaper. My doctor said it was fine if the baby was fine.

My husband researched this on the internet to see if there was a difference. He found that they are pretty much the same, except for the cost. We use Parent's Choice (Walmart Brand) soy formula and it works well for our 5 week old.

My son was on the enfamil prosobee and we swithched him to the target brand with no problems.

For my daughter we only bought name brand for the first 8 months or so...then switched to Sam's Club brand. I am expecting again and will put this baby right on the off brand. Much cheaper and they compare the name brand to their brand right on the container. My daughter was allergic to milk so we had her on soy and she did fine with the Sam's brand.

I know you have already "fixed" your issue. But I couldn't help but not to comment. This same thing happened to me with my first child then my second. Your baby doesn't spit up the formula b/c its allergic and you should switch from regular to soy, your baby spits up b/c she has acid-reflux. An allergic reaction would be blood in the stool, black looking. I didn't know this with my first until I switched ped's dr's with my second. You might think since you switched it's been fine, but actually she may have grew out of the reflux and it may reappear, so just be aware.

I can't speak specifically about baby formula. However, I bought a brand of hot dogs at Costco, only to see them discontinued. SO I contacted the hot dog company and asked them where could I find their product. They responded that they were carried by Trader Joes as a generic brand!

So, I guess the real question is how does one find out who made the product! Seems pretty important in light of the dog food problem we experienced a while back. We needed to know what brands to stay away from. If I had found the hot dogs at Trader Joes, without the producers label, I would have had no clue where they came from.

Sure would like to know how to be able to trace back to the producers not just the sellers.

I hope you found your soy!

Hi Lola,

I used Kozy Kids through Amway!! Same ingredients as Enfamil!