This weekend I ran out of the Earth’s Best formula that I have been using for the past three weeks since my little guy has stopped nursing. In these past three weeks, he has gone through about 6 large cans of the Earth’s Best formula. While this may seem like a lot, he is only in the 10th percentile for weight, so I have to imagine that there are other little babies out there that are eating equally as fast through formula. My thought was to go online and find a place to buy it in bulk and save myself a few bucks. In doing so, I found an enormous amount of information about this formula and the fact that they changed the ingredients about a year ago. This is a quote that I found on a popular Go-Green Mommy Blog, www.thedailygreen.com:
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I just bought three of the 25 oz cans (I used to buy the 13 oz) and I noticed the first ingredients listed are no longer Organic Lactose, Organic Nonfat Milk. The ingredients are as follows: Organic Reduced Minerals Whey, Organic Vegetable Oils (palm or palm olein, high oleic (safflower or sunflower), coconut, soy,) Organic Nonfat Milk, Organic Lactose, etc. Does this mean that the formula is now predominately whey and oils rather than milk? I am a bit disturbed by the reformulation without any noticeable change in packaging. Could this be some attempt for Hain Celestial to save money while producing an inferior product?”
Read more: http://www.thedailygreen.com/living-green/blogs/organic-parenting/earths-best-formula-55081101#ixzz0erb24bkR
It turns out that they did reformulate the product and milk is no longer the primary ingredient. As a result, I went looking for reviews on alternatives. The most popular alternative was Baby’s Only:
“This company’s website says that their DHA and & ARA fatty acids are derived from egg phospholipids using an aqueous (water) process. They go on to say they have never used processes that involve hexane or sulfur dioxide in their formulas. ”
http://www.organic-baby-resource.com/organic-infant-formula.html
Apparently, Earth’s Best and Similac Organic both derive their DHA from Hexane. On the flip side, I did find that it uses brown rice sugar rather than cane sugar. This is apparently better for the baby, but really hard for them to digest, which is why they market it as a toddler formula.
Bottom line on my research–breast is best, but when that isn’t a viable option anymore, it is a judgement call between these two. Ultimately, we should all be talking to our pediatricians, however, I would love to hear the groups thoughts about why you went with one formula over another. Sound off in the comments–you don’t have to leave your name, just your good ideas:-)!
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Ya know I never thought about using organic formula. I breastfed both girls for over a year & waited about 8 months before supplementing w/ formula. I think I chose Enfamil Lipil just because that is what I used when i was a nanny, silly I guess. I homemade most of the baby-food using organic fruits, veggies & meats but it never crossed my mind to use organic formula. Interesting info on the ingredients.