Chosing an infant formula when you can’t breastfeed

When my son was born I tried to breastfeed, I didn’t try as hard as I could have, but regardless I was unsuccessful. He was an awful latcher and honestly I wasn’t comfortable with him sucking on me. So in an effort to still give him breastmilk I pumped for him. I pumped my heart out for 4 months; luckily I had no lack of milk. Then at 4 months my son had to have open-heart surgery and with the stress and him being in the hospital, I dried up.

So yes medical and scientific communities agree that breast milk is the best for babies and the American Academy of Pediatrics recognizes breastmilk as the gold standard in infant nutrition, but it is not always possible for mothers. There are moms who are just unable to breastfeed, on their own medication that they can’t breastfeed because it can contaminate breastmilk, moms who have to go back to work to pay the bills, and moms who have multiple births and not enough milk. Well since the FDA regulates formula to be nutritionally equivalent, really you can buy store brand formula or name brand formula.

Now store brand formula will be even more important to moms who participate in the Women, Infants and Children program (WIC). As of October 1st, 2009, a new WIC initiative is aimed at increasing breastfeeding rates among families and redistributing funding to currently provided foods, including infant formula, baby foods, juices, and fresh fruits and vegetables. This initiative will possibly reduce up to 20% in spending on infant-formula. So now parents who previously paid for formula with WIC may now have to purchase formula on their own.
So whatever you choose, you can now feel better if circumstances require you to formula feed and if you choose store-brand you can know too that it is just as healthy as name brand.