My Formula Feeding Story

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Fed is Best and other fairy tales

Formula companies marketed themselves so successfully that women in the 60’s and 70’s considered formula feeding better for the baby. I myself am a formula-fed baby; My mother says it was the “thing” to do at the time, not unlike the Breast is Best movement of my generation.

I had gone into a depression, maybe I shouldn’t use that term as I’ve never been diagnosed but it seems apt, exclusively pumping for my daughter for 11 months. When I got pregnant a second time, I joked with my husband that I would buy the $1000 breast pump that was about to enter the market.

When the due date approached, I confessed I didn’t think I could do it again. My husband fully sympathized and supported my decision to formula feed.

When my son was born, a wonderful nurse showed me how to latch. I was beyond ecstatic to be breastfeeding. I nursed diligently every time he was awake and although it hurt, I was happy he was getting colostrum (first milk) aka “liquid gold”.

I was desolate to learn he too, had high levels of bilirubin and wasn’t surprised when the nurses recommended I feed him formula to help flush it out. This had happened with my daughter as well.

Although since the birth of my daughter I had read literature on the need to trust the natural process that could take care of this with breastmilk alone, I’m not the type to fight for this in a hospital setting. I refused to wage a one-woman war on normal hospital protocol.

There was also an error made with the birth weight of my son being transcribed improperly. With my whirlwind delivery, I had no proof or witness at the time of birth. My husband hadn’t made it back in time after dropping off my daughter at his mom’s to take a picture of the baby being weighed. This led to the care team and midwives confused if my boy had lost a dramatic amount of weight (he hadn’t) and all parties just agreed that we needed to stay longer just to be safe. Better safe than sorry, right?

He was nursing with effort to begin with (difficulty latching), but after that first bottle of formula, he outright refused to attempt nursing again. I don’t blame him, it’s much more difficult.

When we were finally discharged and got home, I tried again, but not to the point where we were both crying in a darkened room to lessen the distractions.

The only dilemma now was which formula to choose.

The reason I hadn’t prepared for all breastfeeding alternatives before any of my pregnancies was that I’d hoped breastfeeding would work. Preparing fully for a Plan B seemed like tempting fate.

The hospital gives ready-to-use liquid formula. We continued on with those for a week to give ourselves time to do some research.

These ready-mixes were the most expensive option and we knew we couldn’t sustain its costs. I learned there are concentrates that you mix with water. Then there are powders.

I was unsure about concentrate. It was expensive as well and to be honest, I just wasn’t familiar with it. What do you do with the left over? How do you seal it again? Powder seemed easier: Measure out the scoops and shake the bottle.

When we made the decision on powder, it was easy to decide on the Costco brand. We shop at Costco and buy many Kirkland branded foods. We trust the quality control of Costco. Oh, Costco, you have brainwashed me utterly.

I read about batch mixing (mixing a huge jug and keeping it in the fridge), pre-portioning powder and water (ready to mix when needed) and bottle warmers. My husband nixed the first so we went with the second.

We bought enough bottles for 1 round of daytime feeds, which were 4 bottles and washed them 1 or 2 times a day as needed. Portioning out formula for night feeds beforehand was the best hack I found.

We ultimately decided against a warmer when I read even trusted brands can sometimes create hot spots. I actually wanted to treat myself to a Baby Brezza, but then read a story of formula clogs and how improper cleaning could cause mold. I didn’t trust myself to suddenly become a different person who would diligently clean the thing every other day when I can’t remember the last time I deep-cleaned my coffeemaker.

There was a lot of wasted formula at the beginning as well as we had no idea how much he would want and it would keep increasing. I would like to say for the first month we were mixing way more and wasting about a third down the sink, but I can’t remember correctly.

This is another plus powder formula has going for it. You never feel too terrible about getting things wrong and having wastage.

Something that took me by surprise was the caution needed when mixing formula. I thought you just boiled tap water, cooled it and mixed it. No, no, North American tap water is fluoridated. How much flouride is in your tap water? Check with the water company. Who is my water company? We bought distilled water.

Also, measure that “unpacked level scoop” of formula with precision because improperly mixed formula can lead to serious neurological consequences (Check out the terrifying title of this article "Infant Formula: Mixing it Right is Crucial"). This was the one time it had me really questioning whether I’d made the right choice.

Update: I have found an old forum on a What To Expect community forum. Of course it would be a smart mother who works in a lab that goes and clarifies information. An unpacked level scoop is to scoop it up and immediately level with finger (or flat edge). Most, as I did, will scoop and tap against the container and shake off excess and this packs it in. Worth a read: An Unpacked Level Scoop... Solved!

There was a week of concern when he was spitting up a lot in comparison to my daughter and we feared we would need to try all kinds of formula to get one to agree with him. But seeing a happy, healthy baby otherwise, came to the conclusion that he was just a spitting up type of baby in comparison.

There was also that time I found dark red flakes in the formula. This grossed me out, but an online search informed us these are scorched formula particles. And once you get on the formula train, there’s no getting off, folks.

We always went by how he reacted. He ate well, played well, slept well and pooped well so we didn’t worry.

He drank much more than my breastmilk-fed daughter, so much so that we had to buy the tall bottles for him- we’d only ever used the squat bottles before. He was taller and heavier than she was as well. We figure it’s because he’s a boy, but I know the statistics of formula-fed babies being overweight so it’s something that weighs on the back of my mind (insert #momguilt right here).

I’d gone on vacation while pumping and I went on vacation with formula and have to say formula is much easier. It only takes a minute to pour out some bottled water (he was 10 months old by then: It’s not recommended to use bottled water for infants because it’s not sterile and contains sodium/sulphate) and pour formula out of the pre-portioned container; I was pumping 4 times a day when we went to the Caribbean with my daughter.

We recently weaned him, and threw out all the baby bottle paraphernalia with abandon. Haven’t looked back since. Hooray!